Equipping coaches with tools to develop sports in Samoa

By Nefertiti Matatia 20 January 2018, 12:00AM

The Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (S.A.S.N.O.C.) is on a mission.

It wants to empower local coaches with the tools so they can nurture and develop local athletes to be the best they can be.

A part of this effort was a one-week workshop to upskill local coaches held last week.

Tuala Matthew Vaea, S.A.S.N.O.C’s General Team Manager, said the training targeted the areas of sports science, sports medicine and game planning.

“There are 26 national sports here in Samoa,” he said.

 “After seeing the Mini Games and the outcome of the recent Olympic Games, seeing where they are and capacity building and trying to fill the gaps, so we’re getting them to understand and work together with real athletes on where deficiencies are and maybe the instability of the muscles.”

Tuala said the goal is to continue the training, leading up to the 2019 Pacific Games in Samoa. 

Nynette Sass, the S.A.S.N.O.C’s Chef de Mission, said this is a good opportunity for other coaches to join and learn.

“As you are aware, there are times where a lot of our coaches have gone into the coaching role just up from being a player, it is like a natural progression,” she said. 

“But the advancement of coaching styles and so many other things in coaching athletes has really skyrocketed.”

“This is really good for our local coaches in building their own knowledge and in the long run they could pursue it into further studies. We need to develop sports and we need to have the coaches up there.”

There were more than 10 coaches from different sports who turned up to participate in the training.

Speaking to the Sunday Samoan was athletics coach Tupa’i Sebastian Solofa who was a participant.

Mr. Solofa stated that he has learnt a lot from this workshop in terms of upskilling course in athletics.

“I think the training will help coaches because a lot don’t plan ahead; we have to do daily and weekly. This program is set out to build pathways for athletes to do something within their own sports.”

By Nefertiti Matatia 20 January 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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