Brunei Amateur Volleyball Association secretary general Zaini Hj Maidin (2nd R) attends to participants of the two-day crash course on volleyball which concluded at the Multipurpose Hall of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex in Berakas yesterday. BT/ Syarif Rasani
Physical education teachers from the Brunei-Muara district concluded their two-day crash course in volleyball by the Brunei Amateur Volleyball Association (BAVA) yesterday.
BAVA secretary general, Zaini Hj Maidin, took charge of the class and passed on knowledge of the basic skills, fundamental techniques, characteristics of the game and the principals of training to the participants.
"I concentrated (more) on the practical side of things because this is for beginners," Zaini said during their session at the Multipurpose Hall of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex in Berakas.
"Two days are not enough for beginners, they need at least five days to complete a course so today I only touched on the important things.
"It's better if I concentrate on the practical side, especially for secondary teachers because their students are (still young).
"Ages to begin training for volleyball is 10-12, ages to start with specialisation is 15-16 and high performance play is between 21-28.
"Many people can play but it's not the correct fundamental techniques," said Zaini.
The sessions for the teachers were organised by the Ministry of Education's (MoE) Curriculum Development Department (CDD), with the help of the Youth and Sports Department under the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.
"After this I will try to discuss with the MoE to try and organise a small inter-secondary tournament," said Zaini. "From that I can find good potential players and prepare them for tournaments."
"I hope we can work with MoE and maybe one day volleyball will be (popular) in Brunei," he added.
Prior to the volleyball course, CDD had put the teachers through a hurdles and tennis course.
They have also assigned the teachers to learn more about squash, tug of war, gasing (top spinning), lawn bowls and cricket.
Ak Muhd Yamin Jazli Pg Ahmad from Lambak Kiri Secondary School believes that to deliver quality education in sports skills, one has to be able to execute the skills themselves.
"The course gave us the opportunity to experience and gain cognitive aspects of the sports," Ak Muhd told The Brunei Times.
"So far it's been helpful because I can see that those of us who have never done this before are getting some ideas on what and how to do things in regards to the sport shown.
"Some of the things (learnt) could be applied to our students," he said.
