… as first step to implementing National Sports Policy
AFTER having drawn up the framework for the new National Sports Policy with the aid of Dr Colin Higgs, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport is now in the implementation phase of a complete over-haul of the sport system in Guyana with the first strike being a workshop to spread the awareness of the Long Term Athlete Development Plan which is one of the pillars upon which the sports policy is grounded. The workshop, which commenced yesterday and is scheduled to run through July 16, is being held at the Carifesta Sports Complex, Carifesta Avenue from 08:30 h to 16:00 h each day and will be conducted by Dr Higgs who is an expert in the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) strategy.
Dr Higgs related that the aim of maximising success in sports will be accomplished by implementing this technique which allows coaches to deal with athletes in the appropriate ways throughout the different developmental stages of their life cycle.
The targets of the workshop are the lead agencies for sport in Guyana as they will best carry across the goal of the sports policy, Higgs said.
He disclosed that the immediate goal is the holistic development of the sporting system which he estimates will come about over a projected five-year period after which work will be done to target the various organisations to further enhance the individual disciplines.
According to Higgs, performance indicators will be used to assess the progress made at the end of those five years.
He also divulged a bit about how the National Sports Policy seeks to use investment in sports to enhance the lives of all Guyanese, some of the benefits being savings in other areas.
Getting people involved in physical activity will increase health and therefore decrease the need and simultaneously decrease the cost of healthcare, and keeping citizens positively occupied and away from criminal activities will decrease the need for expenditure in the correctional system, he explained.
In an interview with Chronicle Sport prior to yesterday’s proceedings, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony had indicated that such workshops would be hosted to train staff so as to give them an understanding of the concept of the LTAD to foster its national integration.
He also disclosed that determining the basic needs of different target groups such as schools and the sporting organisations is another aim of the sports policy so as to expand and include more participants with the aim of lifting the quality of sport nationwide.
But as Higgins reiterated yesterday Anthony made it clear that the trust of the whole plan is to look at how a larger group can benefit from the sports policy.