Meaningful or meaningless?

Once again, St Vincent and the Grenadines was the beneficiary of technical support for its sports programme.

The latest trough came from a pilot project, in which eight national sporting disciplines – athletics, basketball, cycling, football, paralympics, swimming, table tennis and taekwondo, were filled with development pathways and programmes to better their prospects of producing top quality charges.

Essentially, the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) maps out a course towards structured training and ultimately, success.

In theory, one cannot fault having such documents at hand; in fact, they are critical paperwork, as many of our sporting disciplines lack documented guidelines.

Such framework is not new, as there have been blue prints, manuals and strategic outlines done in the past, albeit in single units.

Hopefully, we can see some identifiable changes and progress in the manner in which coaching and development are done among the eight disciplines which now have sports specifics literature.

But, no matter how well intents are, there is always that apprehension as to the accrued success of such undertakings, as history has not been so kind to us.

St Vincent and the Grenadines is not short on procuring technical courses, which come with some regularity.

Therefore, many national associations continue to train personnel in all facets of their respective disciplines. However, there is always that bug-bear of moving from the hype of workshops, the information tools and materials procured and the certification.

Football, in this case in recent times, is miles ahead of the others, as they seem to host courses almost at will.

As is the case with most, if not all disciplines, the continuum gets stuck in transition from certification to implementation.

Before that though, comes to the hues, the pleas and cries for the course attendees to utilize their knowledge, go back to their schools, clubs and communities and evangelize those whom they come into contact with.

Hence, they are expected to be agents of change.

Sadly, the wheel is then re-invented and the processes are taken again through all their stages, only to be started again from scratch.

Whilst there is no exact solution to change in the attrition of persons, as their involvement in sports in the main is voluntary, something has to give.

If one is to point to what must give way, readily, the conscience of those persons who avail themselves to attend such courses would be the best route.

The time may be right for persons to search themselves and come to the point of honesty and stop buffing their resumés with their attendance and ultimately certification.

It may be good for the records that St Vincent and the Grenadines has many trained personnel, but what is exposed on the regional and international scenes does not match the training and the monies expended on them.

Having the proliferation of courses, seminars, workshops, webinars and the other mediums of the imparting of technical sporting expertise, is only measured successful when there is change in the way things are done, change of appreciation for sports and physical activities.

And, ultimately, positive results in tournaments whenever nationals of St Vincent and the Grenadines compete, either as individual competitors or as a team.

It is time for those with the invested knowledge to make their participation meaningful and not meaningless.