Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) Men’s Senior Head-coach Junior Hercules, has lauded the quality and overall importance of the recently staged Sports Psychology Course, which was hosted by the regional entity the Panam Sports Organization.
This sentiment was shared during an exclusive interview yesterday with Stabroek Sport. According to the Hercules, the forum which was sponsored by the Guyana Olympic Association, offered the ideal platform to assess the mental aspects that are related to the performances of athletes.
He added, “This program allowed me to examine the inner working for the reason behind an athlete’s mentality and performance. Most of the content targeted high-performance athletes with professional aspirations. Guyana needs to consider providing sports psychology to their national sports program.” The course which lasted for the duration of four days and was also conducted in Spanish, was staged on July 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th.
According to Hercules, the course highlighted the limitations of what a coach can achieve by himself in the attempt to improve the overall quality of the country’s ability. He further stated that insight was also provided in understanding the importance subjects of stress and motivation and their direct correlation to quality performance.
Hercules divulged that awareness was also provided into the subject matter of mental optimization and how this process relates to and affects and influences other factors that have a direct impact on performance.
He further revealed, “(1) the course suggests a coach cannot do everything and will need help to deal with the players especially if one country is serious about performing at the Olympic level. (2) The course helps me to understand the usefulness of stress and motivation and its connection to high performance. (3) Mental optimization is a process and this process with connected objectives, objectives have Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.”
According to Hercules, an altered or reinvented approach has to be employed by the respective national player selection committee of the GABF, disclosing that emphasis and overall selection should also factor in the topic of mental fortitude of the prospective players. He added, “Guyana Basketball recruitment not only has to look at the physical talent we have to reexamine selection to include players with a strong mentality.”
