THE TTOC (TT Olympic Committee) and CANOC (Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committee) are jointly staging an Online Caribbean Coaching Certificate Programme (CCCP), which began on Monday and runs until Friday.
Conducting the course is Anthony Marcano, an International Hockey Federation (FIH) Level III coach.
Commenting on the course, Marcano said on Tuesday, “It’s a basic coaching course, touching on all aspects of coaching, not necessarily going into depth. (On Tuesday) we went into science with the body, the energy systems.”
Marcano, who is also the national women’s team coach, added, “The course will entail other things like how to prepare training sessions, what to look at, how a coach should behave, safety, drugs in sports.”
Dr (Terry) Ali will be giving an input on the dangers of drugs in sport, Gina Ragbir of UTT (University of TT) will be speaking on nutrition while Keon Williams who will be doing a session on the long-term athlete development.
“The course is generalised for any sport, it’s not for any specific (one),” Marcano said. “It gives any coach in any field the opportunity to tap into the information that we share.”
The course was due to begin last Wednesday, but it was delayed due to late registration and the need to have everything in order.
There are 33 participants in the week-long course. Marcano said, “We have some international coaches, we even have athletes who are (abroad) coaching, assistant coaches are also online, we have some in the United States who are logging in.”
The participants are involved in various sporting fields, including cycling, football, netball, basketball and equestrian.
Marcano said, “I have done online courses already. I’m a Pan American hockey coach. Just before this, I would have done a webinar for Pan Am. I also a FIH educator so I would have done webinars already.”
He also lauded the foresight of TTOC and CANOC president Brian Lewis in getting this initiative under way.
“It’s a vision of Brian and the (TTOC) education committee, about #10Golds2024 (ten gold medals by the 2024 Olympic Games). All these things are what (are) necessary stepping-stones towards that goal. I always raise my hat to them, in actually having that vision to trying to always stay in contact with what is happening. This situation invites innovation and we just have to keep up with the times.”
With regards to the goals which are set out for this course, Marcano mentioned, “It’s all about education. It’s a building block to give this information to coaches (who can) see coaching maybe in a different way, to assist them so when they go back to their athletes, as to how we might have to change the way we do things.
“There are many projects online with the TTOC that will have to be a transforming in coaching that’s headed by (Annette) Knott, which I’m also the head (instructor) in that programme – using the technology and utilising science in sport, and getting people to understand talent ID,” Marcano continued. “It’s all about getting these groups of people into this phase of thinking, perhaps a sign that maybe we have to change and hopefully implement some sort of change.
“Whether it’s one out of the 33 participants that we have, that’s an addition for the people that they contact with and therefore the spread will happen. That’s the intention, that by 2024, if we have an athlete over the period of time and we try to continue going in this vein, hopefully we’ll have success.”