POC to use Sports Science to boost athletes? performance
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 24 May 2013
MANILA(PNA) -- Unknown to many, the Philippine Olympic Committee been embarking on an ambitious scheme using sports science in the hope of revolutionizing the Filipino athletes training program.
Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Jose ?Peping? Cojuangco announced that his agency has created a five-man sports science group that, since January, has been overseeing the training program of a selected group of athletes based on the formula that has proved successful even in such sports power countries as the United States and Great Britain.
The group is headed by conditioning expert Jimbo Saret, a sports science graduate of Brigham Young University in the United States, Dr. Rey Canlas, sports psychologist, Dr. Charlie Ho, sports vision consultant, Dr. Ferdie Brawner, sports medicine practitioner, and Dr. Martin Camara, injury rehabilitation expert.
?If you will notice, members of the team are experts in their respective areas of responsibilities kung saan ang isang atleta ay puedeng magkaroon ng problema,? Cojuangco said during yesterday?s SCOOP session at the kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura. ?Kung ang problema ay conditioning, si Jimbo ang bahala dyan. Kung sa psychological and mental aspect, si Dr,. Rey, kung sa mata, si Dr. Charlie, etc.
?Ang ibig sabihin, all problems under the sun that our athletes may encounter, there is somebody to address it,? the POC top honcho explained. ?Unlike what is happening now na pa-training lamang tayo ng pa-training eh hindi natin alam me problema palang iba ang atleta.?
A full-time nutritionist has also been hired to address the athletes? dietary problem., Cojaungco said, adding that a sports science consultant, Rick Martin, will be arriving sometime next week to assist the team in promulgating the program.
Saret, who trained the Gilas-Pilipinas 1 that created stir in several Asian level tournaments two years ago, said the focal point of the program is nutrition.
?Kailangan tama ang pagkain ng bawat atleta sa bawat sports. Iba kasi ang, say, nutritional requirement ng bopxers kaysa wreslers. Ng track and field athlete kaysa swimmer, etc. This is the ares where we could concentrate on. Magastos ito at depende dito ang magiging success ng project,? Saret said.? Adding that Cojuangco himself vowed to fund the nutritional need.
Some 300 athletes, all members of the national training pool in different sports, have been screened to decide who should be included in the program.
Dr. Canlas said that a significant highlight of the first quarter assessment resulted in the finding that 60 percent of those tested did not pass in all aspects of the program ? physical/and mental conditioning.
Dr. Ho, for his part revealed that majority of those tested have poor eyesight ?Not only that,? Saret butted in. Forty percent of those previously injured have not completely healed but had resumed training. Imagine, nagpe-prepare na yung mga atleta natin na may injury pa pala.?
Cojuangco said that he is giving the program one year and ?hopefully the days of the Filipino athletes? being the favorite whipping boys of our Asian neighbors will finally end.?
?The Filipino athletes, are, I have no doubt about it, strong by nature. They are agile, talented and very competitive. We?ve been sending national delegations to international competitions for years, and they have been winning medals,? Cojuangco said. ?But a close look at our participation in say, Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games and Olympic Games and in continental and world championships, only one-half came home with medals, ?he observed. ?At kulang sa gold medal. In the last SEA Games, for instance, we were no. 1 in terms of silver medals won, but we landed sixth place in the gold medal standing.?
?There is only one explanation to that. Kinakapos ang ating mga atleta. There is lacking somewhere in their preparations,? the 79-year-old former Tarlac Congressman and younger brother of the late former President Cory Aquino concluded. ?I just hope sports science is the answer.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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