JOA seeks to improve member associations

In keeping with its mandate of facilitating dreams and actualising goals of Jamaican athletes, the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) has been hosting a series of workshops dubbed 'Stamina' to improve the capabilities of its 41 members associations.

The first of the series took place at JOA offices last week , and coaches and administrators who were present were taught lessons on managing finances and the psychology of sports in their various associations.

"It (the first workshop) was about financial, emotional and physical stamina to achieve optimum performance. It targeted coaches and athletes' presentations on the mentioned topics were delivered by professionals in the respective areas. We had a financial adviser who delivered a presentation on managing your money, the best way to invest money to ensure that it works for you after you are finished with athletics, and a psychologist who spoke about the emotional well being of athletes," Novelette Harris, member relations manager of the JOA said.

Harris says the next workshop is scheduled for mid-November. "For the one in November, we are specifically targeting the coaches because we believe that if we improve the skill sets of our coaches, then it can improve our athletes," she explained.

Development support

"Anything we can do to support the development of our member associations, it will help us to get to our goal of improving sports in Jamaica," Harris said.

CEO of the JOA Ryan Foster said the move to improve the abilities of the member associations is all geared to towards qualifying more athletes to the Olympic Games from a wide variety of sports.