As promised, here is my thread on 3 reasons why I believe junior sports in Barbados does not translate well at the senior level.

1. Parents - 2 types in this category. The education over everything parent who punishes their child by keeping them away from sports for poor grades.

Instead of teaching the child better time management they will pull them from all sports activities when exams are coming up hence teaching the child from early on that sports is essentially “not that important.”

Parent #2 on the other hand is too involved. Too hands on. They think they know better than the coach so they overdo. They work the child like a horse because they are living vicariously through them.

Burnout is inevitable.

2. Coaches - we have so many qualified coaches. They’re knowledgeable and they’re great at what they do. I will always give them that. However, they’re some coaches who don’t know how to let go.

Sometimes athletes outgrow their coaching and need to progress for development but some coaches guilt trip them into staying and it stunts their progress.

Some coaches also need to learn to work with others. It will only help the athlete in the long run.

3. Sports Politics - a lot of team selections are based on a who like who or who is who friend and truth is it kills the sport. Why hold trials if a committee of people who have never observed a a training session will choose the team?

Make it make sense.

Many of our sports teams would do a lot better if they were chosen on merit and hard work and not because this person has a “name.”

Which brings me to a bonus point.

I find our coaches and admin place athletes in a pedestal from early. Once they’re dominating we excuse poor training habits only for them to go overseas and realise that’s not how the world outside works.

It’s a dog eat dog world. Everyone is fighting for the few top positions. It won’t be handed to them the way it is here. Poor training won’t be excused. You won’t get chosen on past performances despite not having produced quality performances recently.

We have had many athletes come to this realisation too late. I’m not saying don’t give the athlete their accolades but there needs to be balance. We will celebrate your achievements but we will also keep it 100 and get back to work because there is always improvements to be made.

In summary, we can receive all the funding, have all the infrastructure but if these things aren’t addressed we will continue the cycle of sports mediocrity for forever and a day.