The impact of science and the fall of the Caribbean athlete

THE FACULTY of Sport at The University of the West Indies (UWI) is pleased to partner with The Sunday Gleaner in two fortnightly columns which will highlight advances in sport nationally, regionally and internationally. We have been publishing a fortnightly column called Sport Matters for three years in another regional newspaper and have the pleasure of having that column printed in The Sunday Gleaner as well going forward. For the other weeks this fortnightly column, Sport Pulse, will focus on Sport and Jamaica.

The Faculty of Sport was set up in 2017 as the only cross-campus faculty at The UWI. This allows a coordinated approach to sport across all campuses, where the faculty is represented by an Academy of Sport. The responsibilities are for advancement of academic programmes, sporting activities, and social outreach. Programmes have been commenced from bachelor’s to master’s, and PhD levels. The Combined Campuses and Colleges cricket team won the regional competition a few years ago and the campus teams compete in many national competitions across the region. There have also been many outreach programmes exposing the virtues and values of sport to young, impressionable, inner-city children across the region. Here they are taught about fair play and opportunities in sport apart from being an elite athlete, while having fun spending time with the greatest sporting icons across the countries.

Sport has been a defining attribute to the region and, along with the music industry, has brought the greatest focus, respect, and admiration to this region. It is part of the social fabric whereby communities become the family of our athletes, offering advice from coaching, tactics, and even investment opportunities. The success of Jamaican athletes, in particular, at the national and regional levels, continues to be overwhelming.

However, international sport has progressed more in the last two decades than ever before. The infusion of science, data analytics, video analysis, biomechanics, and other technology-driven inputs have carried elite sport to a different realm. The fall of the West Indies cricket team can be majorly attributed to the lack of attention to science and technology, when we believed that natural talent was enough to rule the world. This has been reflected with the Jamaica football team slipping from being present at the World Cup finals to being relative non-contenders at this point, and the netball team being one point away from potentially winning a world championship to fighting for fourth place.

Coaching has a large part to play as the intuitive tactics are heavily being supplemented by technological input. This is being infused at a younger age with data-driven programmes. The Faculty of Sport conducted original survey of coaches in partnership with CREPS of Guadeloupe among English- and French-speaking coaches of the region. Whereas very few were qualified in coaching, and most were desirous of continuing education programmes, it was interesting to hear many expressing satisfaction at the results their athletes. “Mi nuh deal wid paper, just results,” was the comment of a track coach. Yet, in track and field, for example, many coaches excel at a school level, fewer at a national and regional level, but only two or three have consistently produced champions on the world stage. This is reflected in other sports as well, where standards of coaching and, therefore, performance have dropped when compared to the rest of the world.

The feats that continue to be performed by Racers and MVP track clubs are not consistently replicated by sporting clubs or organisations in Jamaica. Sport now requires a lot of injection of capital into science and technology as it does a change in mindset if we are to compete on the international scene.

Whereas details of this survey will be highlighted in a future article, it is important to note that early talent identification and input from properly trained and qualified coaches has been one of the formulas that has maintained success in powerful sporting nations. An elite cricket academy in India has drills for fast bowlers which include hanging a helmet and asking the bowlers to bounce a ball and hit it, and setting up a corridor outside of off stump and asking bowlers to swing the ball through it. The bowlers involved are in the 8–9-year age group. Likewise, athletes with early potential are now fast-tracked through various sport academies worldwide, which ensure a mix of high-level coaching, scientific analysis, and a rounded education. For Jamaica to continue to succeed, we too need to establish similar approaches.

Whereas phenomenal results are achieved at our school championships, very few of the elite Olympic champions were initially produced from the traditional winning high schools. That has changed somewhat with active recruiting. What is interesting, however, is that these high school athletes, some of whom could be competing on the world stage in their tender years, do not get exposed to coaches beyond their school fence. Those elite coaches that run the highly acclaimed track clubs, which have produced multiple champions, have little or no input in these athletes during their sojourn through high school. Yet, this is the time for them to have nutritional analysis and support, biomechanical analysis and support, and specialised sports medicine assessment.

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Sport Pulse and Sport Matters are fortnightly columns highlighting advances that impact sport. We look forward to your continued readership.

Dr Akshai Mansingh is Dean, Faculty of Sport, UWI. He can be reached at akshai.mansingh@uwi.edu