Billy Doctrove urged year-round training, saying short preparation leaves national teams unprepared for international competition.
Dominica: The President of the Dominica Olympic Committee, Billy Doctrove, has emphasised the need for stronger preparation for national teams representing the country on regional and international competitions, advocating for ongoing training programmes to ensure readiness of the participants.
Speaking ahead of the Dominican Olympic Committee’s Olympic Values Education Programme Train-the-Trainer workshop, President Billy Doctrove raised concerns that sporting associations begin training athletes after the competition has been announced, a move that compromises the athletes’ performances.
Too many times we have seen our national teams fallout across the board because when we have a competition to go overseas, we then quickly, in a haphazard manner, select a team to train for a month and six weeks. And too many of our national associations, this is the time frame that we use to prepare our national teams, stated President Billy Doctrove.
Billy went on to explain that the timeframe is insufficient to achieve optimal performance for international competitions, noting that the teams require higher level of consistent training when competing beyond the local tournament level.
“Those days where we train for six weeks and a month is insufficient preparation for national teams. We cannot expect professional and efficient results based on a month and six weeks training,” declared Billy, further emphasising, “Every time you go on the outside, you always meet a higher level of competition than you are used to locally and we have to prepare in a much more professional and timely fashion.”
He added that if athletes are to make an impact regionally and internationally then longer training periods are a necessity, noting that medals are won during the months of vigorous training that take place before the competition, not on the day of the tournament.
“We have to go beyond that and have our teams training. If we want them to go out there and have any significant impact in the tournaments, we need our sportsmen and women to train for longer periods,” added the President.