With a deep passion for sports from a young age, 39-year-old Ivan Ee took the leap into sport biomechanics after his national service. Now working at SportSG, Ivan shares how he combines cutting-edge technology with a problem-solving approach to optimise athletes’ performance. Through close collaboration with coaches and athletes, Ivan explains how sport biomechanics play a key role in helping Singaporean athletes achieve their best on the international stage.
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00:00A lot of times, people view bar mechanics as someone who runs around with a ruler to
00:06measure their body angles and stuff.
00:08Luckily, I don't do that.
00:09I see myself as a problem solver and I treat every athlete as a puzzle.
00:14Hi, my name is Ivan and I'm a sports bar mechanic with Sports SG.
00:23My love for sports started when I was in primary school doing track and field.
00:28I enjoyed going to training and that was the main highlight of the day.
00:31I always feel that the day would not be complete if I didn't go to the gym or the track and
00:36soak in the training environment.
00:38So after National Service, I came across a sports science education programme and I think
00:42it's a natural decision for me to enrol into it since I wanted to learn more about running
00:47mechanics and hopefully be good enough to help other athletes to achieve their sporting
00:51goal.
00:52So I took a leap of faith and signed up for it.
00:54After graduation, I began lecturing sports science related modules at ITU West Campus
00:59and SUSS.
01:00It was a rewarding experience for me because I get to share my passion with the students.
01:05But deep down in me, I felt that there was a need for me to apply whatever I learnt into
01:09practice.
01:10And that's when I joined the National Youth Sports Institute where I can work closely
01:14with national junior athletes.
01:16Soon later, I found myself back in sports as a sports manager in NUS, helping national
01:21athletes within the universities.
01:23And during my engagement with the athletes, I reconnected some of the athletes that I
01:27supported back when I was in NYSI.
01:29And that kind of re-ignited my passion back in high performance sports.
01:33And then I was presented with the opportunity to be a sports biomechanist with the Singapore
01:37Sports Institute where I get to continue to do what I love, supporting the athletes.
01:43So a lot of times, people view biomechanists as someone who runs around with a ruler to
01:48measure their body angles and stuff.
01:50Luckily, I don't do that.
01:51I have technologies that help us to measure all these variables.
01:55I see myself as a problem solver, and I treat every athlete as a puzzle.
02:00So by doing a baseline analysis on where they are right now, at which training phase, and
02:05then comparing it with other international athletes, and to determine what are the areas
02:11that they are lacking, and then provide the objective data that the coaches and athletes
02:14are looking at to improve the performance.
02:17So communication with the coaches is crucial.
02:19Communication requires a human touch.
02:21That's why I break it down into smaller, digestible details for them to understand.
02:25And then from there, helping the coaches to apply the theory to practice.
02:30So I'll be having a call with one of the swimmers, Mikael.
02:32Mikael is one of the national athletes that I worked with when I was with NYSI.
02:37So now currently he's overseas studying and training in the States.
02:40So I'm just going to call him and see how is he doing over there.
02:46Hey Mikael, how are you over there?
02:47Hey Ivan, I'm good.
02:49How have you been?
02:50Not too bad.
02:51Hey Ivan, basically swimming here, there's a lot of...
02:53Back in NYSI days, we had collected a lot of data about his swim performance.
02:58So when you translate to the senior athletes where I am in SSI right now, all this data
03:03are being transferred from the junior to the senior level.
03:06So in the recent SNAC competition, Mikael and myself worked together and reviewed his
03:11past race analysis.
03:13And with that, he managed to break his personal best in the 50m freestyle and came in first.
03:18So after seeing Mikael's achievement, it makes me realise that as a bar mechanist, I can
03:22make a significant difference in the athlete.
03:24And that is something I hold close to my heart.
03:29In every job, there's always going to be some form of challenges.
03:32So how I manage it is to have a growth mindset and thinking out of the box, thinking creatively
03:38to find solutions.
03:40So how I motivate myself is to imagine myself as an athlete in the domain of sports science
03:45where I'm competing with other sports scientists around the world, trying to come up with an
03:49effective solution for our athletes.
03:53There are times that if we feel a bit overwhelmed with a particular sport, we tend to request
03:58to maybe do analysis on the other sports just to have a change of flavour of the sports
04:03that you analyse.
04:04And that helps me to refresh myself before I go back to the main sports that I'm supporting.
04:10And to me, every day is a new challenge.
04:12The sports industry is always changing.
04:14There's always going to be new rules, new policy and implementation of new technologies.
04:19So I observed that the NSAs are now more invested in sports science and data analytics.
04:27And the coaches are better equipped with sports science knowledge and the athletes are better informed.
04:32So I think that is a good sign and it's important progression for sports performance in Singapore
04:36to move forward.
04:38In the past, when NSAs require support from the sports science discipline, they will approach
04:44the respective discipline individually.
04:48So right now, there's a better integration between different sporting ecosystems.
04:53It takes a village to support an athlete.
04:56I believe that there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
05:00Support for athletes has to be personalised and holistic.
05:03And that's why I think that collaboration with other sports science disciplines is important.
05:08All in all, all the sports science disciplines have to come in and work together because
05:11you can't work in silos.
05:13There are diverse paths to success in sports.
05:16For example, sports coaching, administrative and sports science.
05:21And to be honest, compared to the past, there are a lot more tertiary institutions that
05:26are offering sports-related programmes.
05:31And with the recent announcement from the National Day Rally, the government is going
05:34to invest more in sports science and medicine and infrastructure.
05:39So definitely there are a lot of opportunities to join us.
05:42I definitely feel that sports is a viable career.
05:46As a sports biomechanist, it's very important to take note of the current trend in the sports
05:51technology and also have an understanding of what other sports scientists in other countries
05:55are using to measure or assess their athletes.
05:59For example, in swimming, we have been collecting swim data for the past nine years.
06:04So there are definitely going to be certain automations to help us to analyse the results
06:08faster.
06:11You can see a lot more Asian athletes meddling at the Olympic podium level.
06:17For example, Asian breaking the sub-10 in 100m.
06:21So it's definitely inspiring.
06:23And if you think about it, in terms of physical aspect, we're not so far off from them.
06:29So probably it now comes back to how do we have the right training methods, the right
06:33assessments, the right environment to create all these potential athletes that we have.
06:39And I think we are getting there.
06:42I feel that the sports scene in Singapore is growing and I totally believe that the
06:45sports will play a vital role in nation building, uniting the people and inspiring nation pride.
06:51So I hope to see more athletes reaching the international platform and meddling at the
06:55Olympic podium level.
06:57And as a sports spa mechanist, I hope to be able to deliver robust sports science support
07:02to the athletes and that form a foundation to identify and nurture potential athletes.
07:09And that's my dream.