The impact of a number of Oceania Sport Education Program’s (OSEP) courses are being assessed through a survey of a sample group of graduates, that are  participating in the 2019 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.

“In the build up to these games we conducted training courses in eleven countries for Team Managers, Coaches and also a Strength and Conditioning Course for Coaches with the intention that it would help them with their preparations towards the games here in Apia,” said OSEP Coordinator, Sainimili Saukuru.

“The tablet survey, which was approved by the Pacific Games Council, is being conducted by a team of six OSEP trainers using a survey monkey tool targeting the countries where we delivered the courses and to do this we move between competition venues and the games village,” she added.

Saukuru said The OSEP Team Manager Course is delivered across for 3 models depending on country preference and covers 4 modules which include the (a) Foundations of an affected Team Manager (b) Team Preparation (c) Management of Teams at major competitions and (c) Reporting and Dissolution.

“The OSEP Development Coach is delivered in a 3-day face to face session followed by work place assessment and covers 7 modules which include (a) Coaching Styles, (b) Coaching Process (c) Planning and Delivery (d) Safety in Coaching (e) Functional Roles, Key Factors  and Selection and Laws (h) Coaching using principals and (i) Long Term athlete development.

“The OSEP Development Strength and Condition Coach Course is delivered in 3-day face to face session followed by 6 week work place assessment and a final line review in their teams.  The 8 modules include (a) Coaching to perform (b) Periodization (c) Functional screening and corrective exercises (d) Speed Training (e) Strength Training (f) Sports specific conditioning (g) Recovery methods and (h) Performance testing,” Saukuru added.

“We have a sample size of 207 and we then reduced it as Fiji is running their own survey – so our final sample size on ground in Apia now is 150. 

Setting up the survey wasn’t as simple as the team had envisioned it to be. “We spent the first three days organizing the logistics and reconfirming our sample size and names with the 11 countries we are surveying.

“We noticed that there were some changes between the closing list of athlete’s names we received from the Organising Committee and the final list when the teams got on the ground here in Apia.

“We also had to work around the two waves of teams coming into Apia; those in competition in week one and then those in competition in week two,” Saukuru said.

She said the team managed to roll out the survey in the middle of week one of competition with a validation process also in place.

“In between the interviews we are also verifying the impact of the application of the courses with the athletes themselves, the Pacific Games Council, Pacific Games Associations and the Organising Committee.

When asked about the challenges in conducting the survey Saukuru said that it’s a lot of long hours. “We’ve had to try and catch coaches and athletes around their schedule and also be sensitive in our timing so that we are not disrupting them,” she commented.

Eight days on and with a good number now surveyed the preliminary findings have indicated that while the courses have been useful, the learnings need to be continuously reinforced in conducive and progressive sporting environments.

“Our preliminary findings are that there are those who have attended the course and applied the learning outcomes straight away and there are those who haven’t been able to and this has been verified from the sample athletes we have spoken with,” Saukuru commented.

“We can say for sure that the courses are highly recommended however we have also realized that some participants are still yet to internalize the learnings and to apply them daily and this I know will have to happen overtime. 

“We will also need to find ways to ensure that there is consistency as well on the ground to allow the participants to continue practicing and applying the learnings.

The team aims to complete the survey by Friday and will spend another two weeks analyzing the results after which it will be submitted to the ONOC Education Commission for sign-off and thereafter for distribution to the surveyed countries.

 “The final findings will help us with our feedback to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) on how to build a support structure for team managers and coaches.

Saukuru said that the findings will also help in the review of the course and for stronger alignment to the Pacific Games Council charter in terms of participation, eligibility and deadlines.

OSEP is a partnership between the Australian Sport Commission (ASC), Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) and the Organisations of Sport Federations in Oceania (OSFO).   OSEP conducts sport education training and accreditation courses available for ONOC member country’s sport organisations and training providers.  The program currently offers sport administration and generic coaching training materials and is expected to expand to other sport education areas like sport science and medicine, community social sport coaching, team manager and sport management and governance. (End/s)