"UNTRAINED coaches hurt their athletes."
United States Sports Academy (Ussa) president and chief executive officer Dr. Thomas Rosandich bared this to some 300 participants of the 2017 International Conference on Physical Education, Recreation, Fitness and Sports Science at The Royal Mandaya Hotel Thursday.
Rosandich said that sports, being an industry, requires confident and professional workforce to make it work properly.
Rosandich said, "Oftentimes, very good athletes at the end of their careers become coaches but they only know what they learned from their coaches, who only know how well academically prepared their coaches were. Eventually, there is a deterioration of competency of coaches."
The same thing, he said, in the case with sports administration.
"Very frequently, it has become a global phenomenon that a good coach then gets to head a sports association. The problem is, the guy coaching what does he know about running a business," Rosandich added.
He cited the Blythe-Mueller Report by two researchers from the University of North Carolina conducted in the early 1970s that porved the correlation between skill level of coach and severity of injury to their athletes. Thus, stating that is compounded by the lack of sports medicine to treat hurt athletes.
In many countries they have worked with, in capital cities where main sports organizations are located, Rosandich said there may be sports medicine available but it is lacking in the provincial areas.
"Athletes who have been injured don't get the proper treatment that they need, so there is a need for sports organizations to not only consider coaching and administration but the allied professions to sports as well - science, medicine and psychology, among others, making sure they are certified as well," the American expert said.
He, thus, underscored education as the solution to these issues. Continuing education of coaches, administrators and officials are vital in growing any sports organization.
The USSA offers 100 percent online educational programs with certification and licensing that would best address the lack of professionalism in sports in the country.
PSC chief Ramirez, who also listened to Rosandich's session, said: "We've learned alot from Dr. Rosandich. I'm thinking of creating a coaches' association and help educate our coaches."
He and Rosandich signed a Protocol for Cooperation Wednesday evening at the Marco Polo Hotel.
