NAN-S-12
Certification
By Millicent Ifeanyichukwu
Lagos, Feb. 16, 2017 (NAN) A Coach in Ogun State Athletics Association, Ibrahim Showunmi, has identified the use of incompetent coaches as the cause of the poor development of sports at the grassroots.
Showunmi, who made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos, urged government at all levels to ensure that only certified coaches were posted to schools.
He said it was a way to ensure good standard activities and competence of coaches who were responsible for the training of upcoming athletes.
“Sports bodies must guarantee the quality and skills of coaches that are training upcoming athletes because their foundation goes a long way to determine the success of their sports career.
“They should have standard to fall in line with global sports trend, which coaches under their employment need to meet before being assigned to schools to train budding athletes.
“The objective is to follow appropriate measures to develop the talents of the upcoming athletes so as to bring their skills to limelight,’’ he said.
Showunmi added that the system should also motivate half-baked coaches to identify with the various sports bodies to get qualification and be upgraded to coaches.
He also appealed to the sports authorities to ensure prompt payment of coaches under their employment to get quality coaching for the general development of sports.
“Everybody claims to be a coach but one can stand out if he/she is certified by the sports authorities which recognise them as an arm in the bodies.
“The sports bodies need to maintain their coaches to get them committed and avoid distraction by side offer outside their state of jurisdiction or abroad,’’ he added.
The coach said that upcoming athletes, who went through such thorough mentoring under their sports authorities would in return seek to bring tribute to the bodies when competing.
NAN reports that a coach is someone whose job is to teach and prepare people or team to improve on their skills in a sport to accomplish a goal or task. (NAN)
MIL/PDE
=======
(Editing by Peter Ejiofor)