HomeTeamNS to provide members with customised training from Aug 1

SINGAPORE — Home Team national servicemen who want to improve their fitness — and do not mind spending some cash to achieve that — will be able to do so from Aug 1, through customised training programmes under a two-year partnership launched today (June 22) between HomeTeamNS and S-League football club Home United FC.

Under the partnership, Home United will provide three key programmes: Optizone Fitness Assessment and Training, Functional Movement Screening, and Train and Pass.

Also open to 180,000 members of HomeTeamNS clubhouses, the programmes incorporate sports science technology and will have one trainer focusing on up to three NSmen. This is in contrast to the generalised Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) Preparatory Training (IPT) programme, which is free for all NSmen.

Optizone, which costs S$150 a session, will assess an individual’s cardiac and respiratory functions, with trainers then providing better-suited training programmes. Functional Movement Screening, which starts from S$100 per test, evaluates the quality of one’s movement pattern and recommends corrective exercises.

Train and Pass, which costs S$400 for 20 sessions, will provide one-on-one training over 10 weeks to Home Team NSmen who have trouble passing the IPPT.

HomeTeamNS is targeting 3,000 NSmen in the first year for the programmes, which will be available at its clubhouses in Sembawang, Balestier and Bukit Batok. But the programmes will not let participants who require IPT or remedial training off the hook, said a spokesperson.

Second Minister (Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs) and HomeTeamNS President Masagos Zulkifli said the programmes will address NSmen’s different training goals and needs. “Although the IPPT has been simplified, there is still a group of NSmen who requires assistance,” said Mr Masagos.

The programmes’ training philosophy and methods will be the same as for footballers, but “the nuts and bolts like repetitions, rest times, intensity and tempo are the things we adjusted to fit your common man”, said Home United chief executive Azrulnizam Sohaimi.

HomeTeamNS and Home United will develop more programmes and activities to sharpen teaching skills and hone NSmen’s fitness, such as the Train the Trainer programme. Both organisations will also share facilities as part of the collaboration.

Home Team NSman Nelson Chua, 26, one of six NSmen involved in a pilot phase of the Train and Pass programme, gave it the thumbs-up.

“As full-time National Servicemen, we were constantly being trained by our officers but after we passed out, we became lazy. With this programme, we get back our momentum by keeping fit and becoming stronger,” said the Nanyang Technological University undergraduate.

But another Home Team NSman, events manager Hairol Salim, 30, said he is unlikely to sign up as he already has a gym membership. More people could be persuaded to pay for the programmes if participants are spared from IPT or remedial training, Mr Hairol suggested.