Much more work needed for Carifta medals

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The TASVG cannot be satisfied with the level of involvement of coaches in the GTIP
Additionally, some coaches have been working with athletes from the schools in which they are engaged because of the talent that they have seen among them.
Talent identification takes place at all ages although most people believe that emphasis should be placed on getting athletes in their early years in sport.

Training
The problem, however, rests with getting the athletes to commit to engaging in the appropriate type of training as early as one full year prior to the Games. Too often the athletes seem to stay in the comfort zone where they believe that they can do a sort of ‘fast-food’ approach to the preparatory exercise as they normally do with their own school sports.
It is often the case that the athletes do not spend enough time training. Without proper training the athletes may make the standards set but do little more that would allow them to compete on a level playing field with their opponents.
There can be no success without training. Pamenos Ballantyne has shown the distance running athletes of this country that they must train consistently if they wish to move forward at the local and regional levels.
Too many of our athletes seem fearful of arduous training. They wish to have an easy pathway to success. That is not possible.
Athletes must adhere to the training regimen provided by their coaches. They cannot afford to cheat on the programme. Experience here has shown that athletes often do not follow the programme in the absence of their coaches. It is also the case that when athletes arrive at the training venues they tend to simply hang around as if waiting on instructions from their coaches.
Athletes must undertake some measure of responsibility for their training. It is not all left to the coach.
Athletes must have a desire for success. They must want it badly enough to work hard at being successful.

Coaches
Even where some coaches attempt to work with the athletes they tend to stay away from adherence to the designated programme for their preparation. Here again we have major hurdles to overcome. Despite our best efforts to harmonise our coaches there is still much pulling and tugging. We still have coaches who do not wish to be supervised in any way. They hide their athletes. The governing body for the sport often experiences great difficulty in getting coaches to provide their respective training regimens for examination by its technical leadership.
There is also the case of petty jealousies that hinder the capacity of coaches to work better together.
Coaches must work together if we are to do well as a nation. Too many coaches behave as though we are at the same level as the USA or Jamaica where the athletes operate at an almost elite status and so have personal coaches who are in direct competition for bragging rights and opportunities to exploit the spoils.
Once a national team is selected it is critical that the coaching team travelling with the athletes have greater control over the athletes. This makes for better performances by the selected athletes.