Latest news with #AhMaFlippaBall
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
In Singapore, Grandmothers Dive Into Aging With a Splash
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. Last year, I came across an article in Rice Media, a news outlet based in Singapore, with the headline ''I'll Play Till I Die': The Rowdy Ah Mas Confronting Mortality Through Water Polo.' In the article, Michele Pek wrote that her grandmother was one of the first members of the Ah Ma Flippa Ball team, a group of women mostly in their 60s, 70s and 80s who started playing flippa ball — a version of water polo that does not require treading water — in Singapore in 2016. 'Ah ma' means grandmother in several Chinese dialects. It was 'the first time I've seen an 80-year-old lady dive headfirst for a ball,' Ms. Pek wrote. I was born and raised in Singapore, one of the world's most rapidly aging countries. For years, I kept track of the government's various initiatives to engage older residents. The National Silver Academy, for example, offered courses teaching them how to use TikTok. This month, two 'silver generation ambassadors' — volunteers who help Singapore's government connect with seniors — visited my 83-year-old mother to ask about her chronic diseases and if she had friends. They encouraged her to exercise and told her that she could play Rummy-O with other seniors. And recently, the city-state hosted the World Aging Festival, which featured a cheerleading squad made up of seniors. I have always been interested in how seniors live. I previously covered demographics in China, where I was based for a decade. There, I wrote about people in their 70s and 80s who went to parks to find love. When I started covering Southeast Asia in late 2021, I was keen to continue that focus. I am always searching for new ways to tell the story of demographic shifts in the region. I knew that the story of the Ah Ma Flippa Ball team presented an opportunity to highlight Singapore's dynamic, aging population. So I contacted the coach, Ting Kum Luen, and asked if I could watch the team play at the Yio Chu Kang Swimming Complex. Mr. Ting told me how skeptical he was when an official from Sport Singapore, a government agency, asked him in 2016 to try to teach flippa ball to seniors. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
13-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
‘They Come at You': The Grandmothers Playing Rough at a Kids' Sport
Tussling for the ball on a recent Tuesday, two players attempted to wrestle it from Lee Fong Nam. As she gripped it to her chest, she demanded intervention from the coach. 'Are you still not going to blow the whistle?' He chuckled and said: 'You all are playing rugby!' Actually this is Singapore's Ah Ma Flippa Ball team — Ah Ma is grandmother in several Chinese dialects. They are a group of women mostly in their 60s, 70s and 80s who play a modified version of water polo designed for children. It is also a microcosm of how this wealthy city state is changing. As Singapore has prospered, life expectancy here has soared to 84 and now nearly a fifth of the population is over 65. In recent decades, the government has raised not only the retirement age but also what it calls the re-employment age, or how long employers are required to extend jobs for people after they reach retirement age. It is also giving more benefits, like cash payouts, to some older citizens, as well as those in their 50s and 60s, whom it calls 'young seniors.' It has dispatched 'Silver Generation Ambassadors' to conduct door-to-door visits with seniors who live alone to encourage them to exercise, play games like Rummy-O, and learn robotics and other languages. Older residents are now part of a cheerleading squad, an e-sports team and the flippa ball outfit. It's all in a bid to help people age well. The flippa ball team started in 2016 when a sports official at a swimming complex saw Ting Kum Luen coaching a children's flippa ball class and asked him if he could do the same for a group of older men and women. He was skeptical. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
