10c investment will not pay off

16 September 2014 - 02:00 By Ross Tucker
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Doctor Know: Ross Tucker
Doctor Know: Ross Tucker
Image: Times Media Group

A colleague of mine, Dr Helen Bayne from the University of Pretoria, recently travelled to the world's sprinting hotbed, Jamaica.

Dr Bayne, who completed part of her training in Cape Town, has a PhD from Australia and is an accomplished biomechanist, was invited to Jamaica to contribute to that nation's scientific investment in sport and medicine.

Such a trip to Jamaica, which includes time spent meeting with Glenn Mills, coach of the legendary Usain Bolt, is a tremendous investment for Bayne, and potentially, South African sport, because the knowledge she gains can be reinvested into further supporting our own sprinting renaissance.

At least that is the hope.

The reason it does not happen nearly often enough emerged from presentations and discussions that I attended this past week at the Life Through Movement symposium in Stellenbosch.

I presented on high performance and the role of science, along with a few other speakers who have been involved in elite sport over the past decade.

What has been clear to me for a long time, and is always reinforced when the "soldiers" meet to discuss our high performance systems, is that we lack strategic intent and not operational capacity. In other words, our shortcomings are a failure of purpose and leadership rather than a dearth of talent on the ground.

Certainly, the bottom can be improved - every coach in this country can invest in their own capabilities, some more than others. So too our support staff - doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists, scientists like myself, and strength and conditioning coaches - should be looking for opportunities to become world leaders, just like Jamaica have done by inviting Dr Bayne to consult.

But the real problem lies above them. Great teams, whether in a single sport (the Springboks under Kitch Christie and Francois Pienaar) or multi-sport (Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics) share a purpose and leadership that enables the intellectual capital to be invested and leveraged for greatest effect at the bottom. We have too many willing people waiting for opportunities, but who are asked to volunteer for "battle" without resources to do so effectively.

Speaking as a scientist, the consequence of this is a broken marriage where communication is ineffective and expectations are too high.

We are asked to improve performance but are given insufficient time and scope to make even the smallest dent. This creates disillusionment. It's a lose-lose situation.

The continued desire of South African sport to advance itself by asking individuals to work without support is akin to getting down on your hands and knees and searching for 10c coins while on the table above you there is a R100 note waiting to be picked up.

That R100 note is a management issue, and it concerns investment into people who can, afforded the luxury of security and resources, develop their wisdom of their sport. The reason Gary Kirsten, Jake White, Paul Treu and Stuart Baxter are recognised as accomplished coaches is because they are immersed in their sport to the extent that they understand every aspect of it - technical, emotional, tactical and mental.

As a result, they can assess any situation or challenge and know which string to pull or lever to move to produce a desired result.

The hope is that our current coaches - Russell Domingo, Heynecke Meyer, Neil Powell and Shakes Mashaba - have a similar desire. The role of science is to challenge this process, driving it by constantly asking questions. It is not to provide answers, but rather to drive progress by seeking to understand more. It must be immersed into every decision.

The same is true for our Olympic sports. We talk of lofty goals like 16 medals in Rio 2016. But that is mere political grandstanding if our athletics, swimming, kayaking, boxing and rowing coaches do not also receive the same support.

Leadership is the only source of this support. It provides the funding, but, more importantly, the strategic intent from which funding flows. Until that happens, we all - coaches, scientists and athletes - will continue to scrap for 10c pieces.

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