Yap trains sights on teaching youth

Former Malaysian national bowler Sarah Yap returned to Saipan earlier this month and immediately assumed her new responsibilities as coach of both the Commonwealth’s junior and senior national teams.

Not even a week went by when the 32-year-old right-hander held her first official session with the islands’ youth bowlers on Feb. 11 at the Saipan Bowling Center in San Jose.

Yap observed between 15-20 kids’ bowling techniques and then one by one asked their names, ages, contact numbers, and availability for bowling tutorials.

She said rather than a shotgun approach to teaching children on how to properly bowl, she prefers one-on-one sessions with them since this would give the kids better chances at absorbing what she is imparting as well as gives her an opportunity to know them better.

Yap said one thing she noticed right away with the older youth bowlers is that most of them play bowling six days a week. She said this is bad in terms of development because evenings spent playing in tournaments are evenings spent away from improving technique.

She said if it were up to her, she would like youth bowlers to cut their competition schedule from six days a week to at the most three days a week. Yap said this would give them three or four additional days for practice sessions.

“Youth bowlers need time to practice. Like students needing to do their homework after school, youth bowlers need to practice to prepare themselves for competition. Practice is like homework and leagues are like school,” she said.

As far as her plans in joining international tournaments go, Yap said she will be off-island this coming June and July when she enters a tournament in Las Vegas. While there competing, she will also pursue a Level I coaching certification as well.

Yap also wants to defend her championship in the 2006 Vietnamese Open, but her plans are contingent with the tournament’s date not conflicting with the staging of the 20th Asian Intercity Tenpin Bowling Championships set in Guam.

Born in Perak, Malaysia, Yap’s bowling career is highlighted by wins in the 1997 Asian Bowling Tour Grand Slam (champion), 1998 AMF Bowling World Cup Las Vegas (third place), 2000 Asian Championship in Qatar (silver medal), 2001 Southeast Asian Games (team gold), 2002 Asian Championships in Hong Kong (team gold), 2002 Busan Asian Games (doubles gold), 2004 Philippines Open Masters Champion, 2005 Vietnamese Open, and the recent 2005 Guam International Open, where she beat Hong Kong’s Vanessa Fung for the gold.

Interested bowlers who want to learn or enhance their knowledge in the sport through Yap, can contact coordinators Ross and Gigi Zapanta at 322-5627.