Sports bodies, athletes can now tap services of psychologist, physiotherapist

The National Sports Commission (NSC) will embark on bringing about a structured approach to providing physiotherapy and psychological services to athletes and federations.

This is according to Director of Sport, Steve Ninvalle.

In a  news release, Ninvalle said that in an effort to minimise injuries and bolster the psyche of local athletes, the expertise of Sports Psychologist, Noelle Smith and Physiotherapist, Eliecer Ducasse Ramiez  of Cuba will be made available to athletes and federations.

The duo have been employed at the NSC for the past three years, but according to Ninvalle, their knowledge and expertise have not been maximised  to its fullest potential.This he blamed on poor supervision, which he said is about to change.
“We have two young professionals who are eager to work and we will make sure that they now ply their trade accross the length and breadth of our 83,000 square miles. While they were employed by the NSC, there was not a structured approach with how they dealt with athletes and associations. As a matter of a fact, some of these associations were not even aware that these services were available,” Ninvalled is quoted in the release as saying.

Smith was recently dispatched to work with sportsmen and women in Region 10. “So in bringing structure to it, we will maximise their expertise and the athletes and the federations will benefit from that,” Ninvalle added.

Smith and Ramiez will start to work with the 12 Core Sport Disciplines: Athletics, Badminton,Basketball, Volleyball, Swimming,Squash,Hockey,Rugby, Tennis
Table Tennis, Cricket and Football.

They will also provide services to the other sport disciplines.

According to Ninvalle  psychology and physiotherapy are fundamentals for athletes around the world “so more or less Guyana is now playing catch up. We are making it known that we now have a structured approach open to each and every sports discipline in Guyana,” the national sports director asserted.