HOME AWAY FROM HOME

By Naveen Kanagalingam in Vientiane

Picture by TS Photo Team

For Team Singapore athletes currently competing in the 25th SEA Games in Laos, Vientiane, the Team Singapore Recovery Centre (pictured) serves as their "home away from home."

Peak Performance

The Recovery Centre is basically a location that is dedicated to cater to the needs of our athletes. Setting up such a centre is a norm for Olympic teams from countries such as China, Australia and Britain. For Team Singapore, this practice was first introduced at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. The centre in Laos is set up in an estate located about 500m away from the Games Village. Services rendered include medical treatment and hydrotherapy, a method in which athletes alternate between sitting in freezing cold baths and warm water baths to help accelerate their recovery. The purpose is of course to enable athletes to perform at their peak.

Pre-Game Cooling

These services are generally used after a particularly hard training or match. However, the use of the centre is not only limited to the period after matches. Certain pre-game strategies are also used to improve athletes' performance. One example would be pre-game cooling. Before a match or fixture, athletes are fitted with an ice-cold jacket which reduces their core body temperature. This keeps them cool before events and increases the length of time it takes for their body to heat up.

Recovery Time

According to performance physiologist Mohamed Faizul, techniques used at the recovery centre can help increase an athlete's performance and recovery time by anywhere between five to 10 percent. While these techniques may sound foreign and highly classified, John Limna, Director of Performance Services, said that they have been around for between 20 and 40 years. Summing up the centre's main goal, he said, "If an athlete comes in and says that the place feels like home, then we know we’ve done our job."