Barnes picks ONE Jamaican for training

[Mosiah]

Are we talking about U20 players? The Red Stripe Cup was not U20.

Lazie, one must be able to take the players out of their settings and judge them for talent. Many of them look ordinary playing for their NPL clubs but when placed in the national set up we wonder where have these players been. Rudolph Austin and Demar Phillips come readily to mind.

And again, because John Barnes chose only one player from Jamaica that is proof that there is no more??!! Tell me that is not what you have concluded, please!

[Mosiah]

Lionpaw, John Barnes was already looking at some players who were chosen by some schoolboy coaches. Seba was only invited to play against these candidates for the Sunderland camp. I guess only if someone really stood out from Seba could he have gone ahead of the 20 or so players that had already spent two days working with Barnes.

But I agree with you. If the Digicel group needed a team to play against, why not choose one of the better U20 teams?

[OJ]

is the player picked from Seba or Medhaven? If its the latter how is the premise of your argument sound?

[Lazie]

Are we talking about U20 players? The Red Stripe Cup was not U20.

Lazie, one must be able to take the players out of their settings and judge them for talent. Many of them look ordinary playing for their NPL clubs but when placed in the national set up we wonder where have these players been. Rudolph Austin and Demar Phillips come readily to mind.

And again, because John Barnes chose only one player from Jamaica that is proof that there is no more??!! Tell me that is not what you have concluded, please!

Mosiah ... don't misunderstand. I'll admit there are talented players in Jamaica. Chances are him (JB) could find one or 2 more. I'm basically calling out the gladis who love talk bout abundance of talent.

[Karl]

Mosiah ... don't misunderstand. I'll admit there are talented players in Jamaica. Chances are him (JB) could find one or 2 more. I'm basically calling out the gladis who love talk bout abundance of talent.

There is abundance in every single area you can think of. How the talent is developed is an entirely different matter...as Mexxx is want to say "we need good teachers"!

[Muadib]

Yuh tink is Track and Field dis ?

[Karl]

Yuh tink is Track and Field dis ?

T&F is the sport that best represents our ability to develop talent. It is really simple. It was the first of the sports that had teachers and lecturers devoting 'serious time' to learning how to teach the various disciplines to student teachers and to the coaching of pupils and students - elementary through to college. In our teachers colleges T&F is the sport that is most emphasized. In colleges the Phy Education departments always have had lecturers well trained to teach the track part of T&F.

The student teachers out of those colleges were then sent out into the highways and byways of the island - Some followed the lecturers and went outside of the island to do University graduate courses and other specialist courses.

It was the sport where there was usually little investment in 'gear'. In primary school and the earlier elementary schools it was 'bare foot races'...with the kids dressed in their school uniforms. We have been at learning the ropes on developing the track athlete from 'cradle' to adulthood for eons. We have become experts at that development process. There is a reason why we are considered by some as the "Sprint captial of the World".

Our teachers of the sport can and do step out of their high school and primary school coaching jobs and into coaching jobs in High Schools, Junior Colleges and Universities in the US. Our athletes and our coaches are in demand in the US.

Football, for example, has still not penetrated our primary schools. Most primary schools do not enter competitive organised football tournaments...and as a consequence there is no formal coaching.

On the other hand track meets are serious business and just about all our primary schools have formal preparation of the young athletes and do have intra-school (house & class competitions) and inter-school meets.

It is not that there is not an abundance of talent that could be channelled to and in football. There is lack of a formal process through which the talent is channeled. For football there is a lack of good football teachers. That is slowly changing..but unfortunately most of the competent coaches of football are not teachers. It is coaching talent brought in to interact with the high schools and prep schools school teams. It means the vast majority of pupils at the age when the 'kids are sponges'...where absorption of learning skills is at its highest...are just not being introduced to any teaching/coaching of football...or any good teaching/coaching of football.

[Muadib]

What is the basis or evidence of the abundance of Talent ?

[Rockman]

With you on that Mr. President.
I believe had John Barnes been appointed TD for our Boyz, more of our players would've been invited.
It is all good though.




Blessed





Blessed

[Karl]

What is the basis or evidence of the abundance of Talent ?

The question is where we have shown we do not have the talent?

...from badness to goodness talent abounds!

...from being at the highest levels of the corporate world...to academia...

...from cricket, track, football, our jockeys, you name it once we have been exposed to 'good teachers' our talent shines through.

You really would not expect us to show talent at track if our young talent had never run track...or been exposed to the teachings/coaching that produces top track athletes? ...would you?

Why do you expect our young players to display top quality performances at football...full development of potential...representation of talent...when we have hardly any good fields....or any very good teams...or any reasonable good local coaches...or any good programs to develop the talent? Doe sit mean that because all those things are missing...the innate abundance of talent is missing?

I say the talent is there...and when any of our kids get a chance to join in fair world contests...they all show the talent that could have been allowed to shine if only a chance at development was presented.

Three only of our youngsters have had a chance to develop at a very young age...Lindy, John Barnes and Keith Kelly. One has disappointed, Kelly.

It is important to note that Kelly is the only one that had a chance to have local bad habits cemented in his game.

Lindy left just out of school in an era when training/coaching was for an extremely short period of the year. Lindy went into a situation where coaching was of the highest quality...certainly far above anything Jamaica offered.

Barnes left even earlier and developed in a football 'culture'.

Kelly played on poor teams for a very long time. His was not the Lindy playing when you returned to school for the "Christmas term"....or the stepping into a land where football was a religion....and the coaching as TOP OF THE WORLD class. He spent his time playing almost continuously - minor league, schoolboy, national team...and certainly at the minor league and schoolboy level under coaches who were themselves novices....playing under conditions where bad habits where being taught as 'best practises'.

...hell that is still happening at most of our teams/schools/clubs! The coaches neither understand nor appreciate TEAM...in many cases they do not even know how to kick a ball or teach the kicking of a ball...most have problems with off-side and either ignore playing within the ambit of the "rules" or pass on the nonsense they think correct.

[Muadib]

Are Jamaicans more predisposed to the sport of Football than other geographic locations on the planet ?

Trying to understand the basis of your theory.

[Mosiah]

Are Jamaicans more predisposed to the sport of T&F than other geographic locations on the planet ?

Trying to understand the basis of your theory.

[Peter R]

Yes, but two from St Kitts?!? But is true, dem don have nutten else fi do a St Kitts but play ballgame.

pr

[Karl]

Are Jamaicans more predisposed to the sport of Football than other geographic locations on the planet ?

Trying to understand the basis of your theory.

I have no evidence to suggest so!

...but just to get you back on track - My argument is/"the basis of your theory" as you put it - once exposed to good teaching we perform at highest levels! That suggests "talent abounds"...there is an "abundance of talent"!

[Muadib]

There is certain data that begs the question.

Yuh sure yuh up to di task ?