Work together as a Namibian team
If we are going to be successful at anything, we need to learn to work together.
I’m saying this after hearing about Athletics Namibia's (AN) decision to rope in four South African coaches for the Diamond Training Camp slated for 22 to 26 May.
I understand the frustration of local coaches and why they would feel underappreciated and not picked to be part of the training camp.
I have looked at the achievements of the four invited coaches: Khotso Mokoena, Shaun Bownes, Jacques van Rensburg and Paul Gorries.
The Namibian coaches can hold their own in terms of what they have accomplished over the years. They are just as good, if not better, than their foreign counterparts. But the problem we have in Namibia is that we don’t like empowering one another.
I think AN owes local track and field coaches an apology. There is no way that South Africa will invite Namibian coaches to facilitate a training camp and ignore their own capable people.
It would have been better if there were at least two Namibians in the line-up. What happened to empowering our own?
What kind of message are we sending to local athletes and the community at large?
Also, each athlete is taught differently by the respective coaches, so I don’t understand how a training camp is held without local coaches.
Yes, learning from the invited coaches will be beneficial to the Namibian athletes, but how will they implement what they have been taught if, when they return to their local coaches, they have been taught something else?
Perhaps there is a rational explanation. But let’s not put foreign coaches on a pedestal and instead show more appreciation and give chances to local coaches to also be part of camps like this.
The likes of Henk Botha and Robert Kaxuxwena have contributed immensely to Namibian track and field progress and achievements. So too, Letu Hamhola.
We need to rope them in to assist where they can. I think it’s also time that Namibian coaches form a Coaches Committee – if they haven’t already – to address difficulties and challenges they face and also to help, empower and assist one another to become better.
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I’m saying this after hearing about Athletics Namibia's (AN) decision to rope in four South African coaches for the Diamond Training Camp slated for 22 to 26 May.
I understand the frustration of local coaches and why they would feel underappreciated and not picked to be part of the training camp.
I have looked at the achievements of the four invited coaches: Khotso Mokoena, Shaun Bownes, Jacques van Rensburg and Paul Gorries.
The Namibian coaches can hold their own in terms of what they have accomplished over the years. They are just as good, if not better, than their foreign counterparts. But the problem we have in Namibia is that we don’t like empowering one another.
I think AN owes local track and field coaches an apology. There is no way that South Africa will invite Namibian coaches to facilitate a training camp and ignore their own capable people.
It would have been better if there were at least two Namibians in the line-up. What happened to empowering our own?
What kind of message are we sending to local athletes and the community at large?
Also, each athlete is taught differently by the respective coaches, so I don’t understand how a training camp is held without local coaches.
Yes, learning from the invited coaches will be beneficial to the Namibian athletes, but how will they implement what they have been taught if, when they return to their local coaches, they have been taught something else?
Perhaps there is a rational explanation. But let’s not put foreign coaches on a pedestal and instead show more appreciation and give chances to local coaches to also be part of camps like this.
The likes of Henk Botha and Robert Kaxuxwena have contributed immensely to Namibian track and field progress and achievements. So too, Letu Hamhola.
We need to rope them in to assist where they can. I think it’s also time that Namibian coaches form a Coaches Committee – if they haven’t already – to address difficulties and challenges they face and also to help, empower and assist one another to become better.
[email protected]
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