Sri Lankan Athletics; time to be unconventional

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As the competition to run faster times, take off to longer jumps or greater heights, gets stronger, almost every Athlete and Coach makes an immense effort to find the edge to gain an advantage and outshine the rest of the competitors.

Training day-in and day-out does help performance improvements but the question is up to what extent? When it comes to improving performances, different training techniques, exercises, power drills, supplement intakes, rest, recovery and even psychological strengths matter to a great extent. The question is, how far are all these factors taken into account in the Sri Lankan context? How much more can you dig into the capacity of an Athlete and bring the best out in him or her? What more can the Coaches or Athletes do?

If Sri Lankan Athletics are to be taken to the next level, I believe that we will have to look at all the following areas for a complete revamp.

Firstly, sufficient and quality of coaching facilities should be considered as a primary concern since the Coaches, Physiotherapists and Training Staff are the individuals who bring out the best in an Athlete.

Secondly, to have the necessary sporting equipment to practice with, training facilities such as good tracks and superior grounds to facilitate the Athletes from rural areas of Sri Lanka and of course maintenance of such facilities are equally important.  

Thirdly, to provide quality education to Athletes, increase the level of an Athlete’s commitment and mental toughness. Moreover, emphasize the important education of proper resting and correct injury recovery mechanisms, Nutrition and even going up to the extent of taking care of an Athlete’s well-being.

Sri Lanka produces talented Athletes. Why can’t Sri Lanka make real use of geographical resources we have been blessed with as a Country? If training facilities can be developed in high altitude locations of Sri Lanka, look at the levels of positive training output which can be obtained for Athletes as a whole.

Finally, the most important aspect is adopting Sports Science. Understanding each and every Athlete’s energy levels, their muscle movements, physical strengths and weaknesses, injury recovery techniques, anatomy, biomechanics and even psychology is a must if we are to compete in Track and Field against developed countries such as the U.S.A, Jamaica, and the top nations even in Asia, who have dominated the Sport for decades. These Countries go into every detail of an Athlete’s body to understand and maximize the performance levels whilst having the infrastructure in place for development of the Sport from the junior / School levels to International levels.

Although we are looking at the root cause of these issues, the actual depth links down to the economy of Sri Lanka and as funding the Sport plays a major role to sustain results consistently. Even though it is very challenging at the very moment, there is some effort that can be made to bring some level of energy to the growth of the Sport and Athletes.