Who is the coach?

We have a problem in this country. Our standard of coaching is not acceptable. Why, is the question we should all be asking. When this amazing country became free and fair we opened up the opportunities by another 45 million people at the time, I think we have failed SA sport by not doing more.

We love the words “development”, “academy” and “institute” — these are smokescreens for two words, “financial gain”. Do we actually know the coach? Not the coaches of national teams, they are known mostly by default through the press and not so much for their successes or ability. I am breaking this down further.

What about the guy or girl that is coaching U10 Ter Horst Cricket team or the lady coaching U8 netball to complete beginners. Do you actually know these coaches? Are we comfortable with their credentials to develop people’s skills and confidence?

What type of national monitoring and assessment takes place for these imperative roles? The answer is nothing to speak of.

The sports ministry is making the first type of effort in a long time and talking the right language but this is about the player not the coach. There are rumours that SA sports science is starting to look in the direction of creating a framework where they can interact with school coaches to ensure that coaching is correct in all forms. I have heard the corporates in the health and wellness industries are also looking at schools. Let’s see the action, if any.

I have not heard of the South African Sports Council and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) initiating a plan for schools, I have not heard anything from Sascoc on the enrichment of and empowerment of a coaching body for this nation.

Imagine this, a national coaching framework where ALL coaches entering the school and club system are of a certain standard. These standards include the skills and techniques of coaching but also skills in building confidence, self-esteem and the ability to build a person upward. Then comes the ability to spot immense talent and filter that talent through to the very well-developed high performance system in South Africa. Imagine that as a parent you were made to feel absolutely comfortable that your child is playing sport in a learning and safe environment where talent and character are built on. Pipe dream? I absolutely do not think so! I think we are lazy, I think we are scared to allocate time, energy and funds to this.

Nobody must tell me there is not the will or capacity to execute this — I know 10 people right now that are capable and able to begin such a process immediately. I am working in an environment right now where we are doing this daily, excellence.

This country has immense resources and sport can be a vehicle for social upliftment, why should most of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) coaches be from other countries? Why was the CEO of PSL a foreigner ? Why is the head of coaching at the South African Football Association a German? These are all answered simply by the statement that as a country we have not invested appropriately in our people. We have not identified candidates through smaller programmes for greatness. Another very essential part of the coach enrichment process is the logic that comes with managing a team of any sport, for this you need business skills — the prospective coaches could be put through further education and training or sector education and training authority driven programmes to skill them in operational and management skills to create a sustainable option for South Africa.

No coach should be coaching a sport in this country without a national coaching certificate, no school or club should be allowed to employ a coach without this same certificate. There should be continuing professional development programmes where coaches are rewarded for remaining enriched and up-to-date with trends in the international sporting landscape.

I am game, are you? You might think I am being idealistic, I think I am being realistic. I think this model is 10 years to late already and I do hold the ministry of sport, recreation and culture along with Sascoc accountable for not activating something like this.

However I am very ready to be the solution and lead this into the future.

I am game to create the most successful sporting nation through a collective effort of government, NGOs, high-performance institutions and corporate South Africa — the ultimate academy (I hate this word but nothing else to use) that looks for immense excellence but also builds an ethic of decency and results in all. This will have the most sensational social ripple effect that this country has ever seen BUT we will also create administrators that will look after the heritage of SA sport along with its future.

Then SA becomes a holistic nation of WINNERS and we love WINNERS … don’t we?