Panic Time- Ghosts of Seoul'88 lurking in London

[MI5]

http://www.punchng.com/london-2012-olym ... s-success/


August 3, 2012 by Pius Ayinor


Chukwumerije confident of Nigeria’s success

Team Nigeria captain Chika Chukwumerije spoke with assured confidence on Thursday when he responded to the address of the Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi.

As the race for medals look increasingly challenging for Nigeria, the leaders of the Nigerian delegation are scared of returning home empty-handed – a situation which has necessitated several meetings at different levels including the one held on Thursday with the Team Nigeria. Chukwumerije told the gathering that the athletes remained focused and would do their best to win medals.

In the meeting Abdullahi reminded Team Nigeria that no athlete can achieve success without discipline, good attitude and sacrifices.

The minister spoke to the contingent alongside President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Mr Sani Ndanusa, Chef de Mission, Dr Patrick Ekeji and NOC Secretary, Mr. Tunde Popoola.

He said, “Where there are difficult personal relationships, discipline is down and it is difficult to succeed. We don’t want you to lose but if you must lose, it must not be to other factors outside the pitch – like staying out late at night.

“No country can succeed with bad attitude. We are here because of Nigeria. If we take pride in our country, it comes first and we should learn to make sacrifices. I saw 15 year-olds, 19 year-olds defy impossibilities and make sacrifices as teenagers. People still remember Nojeem Maiyegun who won the first Olympic bronze medal for the country in 1964. We remember him but none of you can remember who the Minister of sports was in 1964.

“I was not born then but we remember Maiyegun because of what he achieved. If you win, you will always be remembered but nobody will remember the minister of sport.

“It is all about you. Nigeria has won medals since Barcelona Olympics and I pray that you will not be the generation of athletes who will break that order by not winning a medal. You stand on the threshold of history and we still have great chance to do well.”

Responding Chukwumerije thanked the minister and his team and said that his advice has been well received.

“We must believe in our heart what we want to achieve. By August 12, Team Nigeria will have a lot to cheer about,” the Beijing Olympics bronze medallist said.

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

It's prolly best that we dont win nattn.

[Oba]

Exactly, it's best we don't win. See how they're making excuses and putting it on the athletes' discipline. Puleeease! While discipline may contribute to make things worse, it's not the beginning and the end of the problem with sports. Nigeria's poor showing is a reflection of Nigeria as it is. A nation where competition goes to die.

[akamoke]

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

[Oba]

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

[pajimoh]

they're going to heap so much pressure on remaining athletes and ruin their chances too

[wanaj0]

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

If the examples of our footballers is anything to follow, YES we have irrational athletes.

That said, we new we are not GOOD enough to win medals so why make fuss now! We have 4years to prepare for another Olympics. But as usual, everyone (fans, admin, athletes) will go to sleep and start to moan come the next Olympics.

[MI5]

You are part of the problem.. Keeping the status quo alive is all that matters to you, nothing else... Now you are blaming the Athletes Wonders never end...

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

If the examples of our footballers is anything to follow, YES we have irrational athletes.

That said, we new we are not GOOD enough to win medals so why make fuss now! We have 4years to prepare for another Olympics. But as usual, everyone (fans, admin, athletes) will go to sleep and start to moan come the next Olympics.

[realtrouble]

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

In the 1980 Olympic in Moscow there was a sex scandal between some of the coaches and female athletes, guess what! we won no medals. That said our failure is based on our lack of organisation and operation.

[MI5]

In August 2011 the NOC said it had a budget of $220,000 with the goal of obtaining 11 gold medals at the 2012 Olympic Games. The NOC said that 11 athletes would each receive $4,000 every three months in the lead up to the games, and these payments had started the previous month. The athletes were not named, but were drawn from athletics, weightlifting, canoeing and taekwando.

[/size]

[soothsayer]

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

In the 1980 Olympic in Moscow there was a sex scandal between some of the coaches and female athletes, guess what! we won no medals. That said our failure is based on our lack of organisation and operation.

It seems that taekwondo guys took on a south korean coach and he has been training in uk for a bit, I think that in some sports our athletes train in isolation or with poor competition and are unable to continually push their limits, Chukwumerije complained once that their taekwondo team was not getting enough competition. I don't know if there are discipline attitudes in squad but I think that if there is it is the failure of the authorities to curb it. Any properly run sports authority would keep tabs on training progress, starting at worse a year from the beginning of Olympics but I am sure these officials only show up during qualifiers and major competitions. In the UK if they see an athlete not training regularly or messing up , they cut funding or threaten to withdraw them, I guess you can't threaten anyone in Nigeria if you treated poorly in the first place and you are not producing enough alternatives, do they even have head coaches that monitor all these athletes and report back, or is it too much work.

[Oba]

In August 2011 the NOC said it had a budget of $220,000 with the goal of obtaining 11 gold medals at the 2012 Olympic Games. The NOC said that 11 athletes would each receive $4,000 every three months in the lead up to the games, and these payments had started the previous month. The athletes were not named, but were drawn from athletics, weightlifting, canoeing and taekwando.

[/size]

Hang on a second, they started preparing for 11 gold medals in London 2012 in August 2011? Damn, I want some of that good stuff they're smoking!

[Oba]

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

If the examples of our footballers is anything to follow, YES we have irrational athletes.

That said, we new we are not GOOD enough to win medals so why make fuss now! We have 4years to prepare for another Olympics. But as usual, everyone (fans, admin, athletes) will go to sleep and start to moan come the next Olympics.

It is too late for Rio 2016. Maybe if we started to fix the foundations today, we'd get somewhere in the 2028 Olympics. It takes A LONG, with some interim dividends in 2020 and 2024. It takes a LONG time to build world class talent. These Chinese athletes picking up Gold medals all over the place, have been in developments for well over a decade, some since they were 5. There's no short cut, fire brigade (I believe in miracles) path to real, lasting success. The world beaters start young, only with a slight advantage, which is built on persistently over time, until they mature. It would be a disservice to the hard work of people, who put in 15,000 hours of training to reach an Olympic final, for an unprepared Nigerian with 1 year (or even 4 years) of training to win.

[Babafad]

Very well said, and very well directed, MI5!

You are part of the problem.. Keeping the status quo alive is all that matters to you, nothing else... Now you are blaming the Athletes Wonders never end...

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

If the examples of our footballers is anything to follow, YES we have irrational athletes.

That said, we new we are not GOOD enough to win medals so why make fuss now! We have 4years to prepare for another Olympics. But as usual, everyone (fans, admin, athletes) will go to sleep and start to moan come the next Olympics.

[soothsayer]

How do athletes measure progress? Nigerian athletes seem to be the best in Africa but its in world events that they struggle, so how do we make them competitive at world level. When a athlete is the best in Africa is it because Africa competition is so inferior that Nigerians can beat them with minimal training ? The Kenyans obviously continue to produce talent because they regularly compete and measure themselves against the best in the world who train beside them, its similar with Jamaica, it also naturally attracts more talent to learn their train with them, so the problem might actually be our lack of proper competition able to push our sportsmen to train harder and improve their training and technique before they compete against the world.

[Oba]

Soothsayer, in sports today, every applicable area of professional human endeavour is drawn upon to get just that little bit better, on the path to becoming world class.

Football clubs today no longer hire simple 'Statisticians' to support the team, they have some have professional phd-holding Financial engineers (the kind that investment banks hire to work with data miners to develop exotic financial product to make a billion dollars out of one million. Their databases include thousands of variables and data that they collect. It's no longer simple data that you find on opta sports like a player's distance covered, shots on target, acceleration, heading accuracy. They'd collect even stuff like the range of the directionality of passing, heart rate of player, and even in terms of runs, how often the player makes burst, duration of bursts, how often the player is open to an easy pass, etc.

Beyond just training on the football pitch, apps are designed to test and work on range of vision, reflexes, anticipation of both your teammate's and your opponent's next move.

In physical conditioning, they know the state of every muscle in your body. They know the tissue type that you have (Type I, or IIa etc), how that muscle is likely to perform in physical activity and what exercise is ideal for a particular player's Satorius and Gracilis muscles. They have your full training records.

On the tactical front, it's the same thing, the England player watch videos and technical analysis of every penalty ever taken by all the Italian players and his penalty training was tailored specifically to the players he was likely to face (ok, in this case, it didn't work for England, but I'd bet top dollar Italy also had a similar technical level of training and prep for penalties against England).

Even science goes into the sports kit to eke out that extra advantage (we just accept whatever adidas gives us). For some events, or matches, even the air that players breathe, is controlled in the build up to the event), not just things like their food and water intake, sleep patterns, the mattress they sleep on, their REM cycles, etc. It's all this that goes into making someone WORLD CLASS. And as new frontiers open in possibilities, people look for ways to deploy them to get even better. Watch how with improvements in augmented reality technology, holographic imaging, etc, these get deployed in player development.

But they don't stop at what they know already, their constantly evaluating their techniques and doing research, experimenting and finding room for improvement. Because technology has even accelerated things in the recent past, expect the gap to expand further until we wake up and smell the coffee and adopt the fundamental principles and ideology that would allow for such a level of innovation and development of athletes and people in general. Don't be surprised if 5 years down the you see an image of Arsenal players putting on spectacles similar to google's Project Glass (google it and watch the video), running up and down a field, making insane one-touch pass/run/collect/shoot moves, seemingly avoiding obstacles no one else can see but the player. Gold medal no be beans... literally.

[MI5]

Babafad,

As you can see, spokesmen like Wanajo only speak during key moments... From his defence of the oil subsidy fiasco, defending Amodu, making excuses here and there, now he blames the Athletes for the mess and woes they are dealing with in London at the moment... Status quo is all that matters... More to come...

Very well said, and very well directed, MI5!

You are part of the problem.. Keeping the status quo alive is all that matters to you, nothing else... Now you are blaming the Athletes Wonders never end...

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

If the examples of our footballers is anything to follow, YES we have irrational athletes.

That said, we new we are not GOOD enough to win medals so why make fuss now! We have 4years to prepare for another Olympics. But as usual, everyone (fans, admin, athletes) will go to sleep and start to moan come the next Olympics.

[wanaj0]

Of course, you don't believe in a holistic approach to solving problems. Same way people like you claimed that Amodu was the problem and was sacked you will win the world cup. Now we know better. Knee jerk reaction will not solve problems. All participants and stakeholders need a change and that include the fans

Babafad,

As you can see, spokesmen like Wanajo only speak during key moments... From his defence of the oil subsidy fiasco, defending Amodu, making excuses here and there, now he blames the Athletes for the mess and woes they are dealing with in London at the moment... Status quo is all that matters... More to come...

Very well said, and very well directed, MI5!

You are part of the problem.. Keeping the status quo alive is all that matters to you, nothing else... Now you are blaming the Athletes Wonders never end...

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

If the examples of our footballers is anything to follow, YES we have irrational athletes.

That said, we new we are not GOOD enough to win medals so why make fuss now! We have 4years to prepare for another Olympics. But as usual, everyone (fans, admin, athletes) will go to sleep and start to moan come the next Olympics.

[cchinukw]

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

If the examples of our footballers is anything to follow, YES we have irrational athletes.

That said, we new we are not GOOD enough to win medals so why make fuss now! We have 4years to prepare for another Olympics. But as usual, everyone (fans, admin, athletes) will go to sleep and start to moan come the next Olympics.

Good luck preparing for the next Olympics

[wanaj0]

Another article shifting blame..

Hey Minister, Its the structure stupid...how do you know the athlete's attitude boils down to staying out late at night..I can assure you Bolt and co spend times at night also, there are other factors that the minister must address instead of panicking by using words like "national pride"

It's funny, I wonder who they're fooling. Do you honestly think a player with real prospect of gold and desire will jeopardise it with a late night? Are our athletes that irrational? If they're in London to complete the numbers, and they know they've got no chance, they might as well have fun.

If the examples of our footballers is anything to follow, YES we have irrational athletes.

That said, we new we are not GOOD enough to win medals so why make fuss now! We have 4years to prepare for another Olympics. But as usual, everyone (fans, admin, athletes) will go to sleep and start to moan come the next Olympics.

Good luck preparing for the next Olympics

Of course we will not prepare. Everyone goes to sleep. Come 2016 we will start the rant again of not winning any medal. We keep repeating the same thing everytime but expect different results. Even those who labour to make a difference we ridicule all in the hope of one messiah coming to conjure wins for us.

[mastermind]

yeye minister, he's blaming the players for no medal not the preparation...lol. Other countries spent 4 years training their atheletes, they got them the best coaches, best facilities, best gear and techniques, but they expect our boyz to turn to supermen...lol.

The same athelete that they're dissing now would win medal for another serious country. Obikweli and Igali did it !

[LEFTIE]

With God all things are possible, let us all agree to carry out a night vigil, fast and pray and the collective prayers of a nation of over 120 million people will surely bring us success.

[mastermind]

Soothsayer, in sports today, every applicable area of professional human endeavour is drawn upon to get just that little bit better, on the path to becoming world class.

Football clubs today no longer hire simple 'Statisticians' to support the team, they have some have professional phd-holding Financial engineers (the kind that investment banks hire to work with data miners to develop exotic financial product to make a billion dollars out of one million. Their databases include thousands of variables and data that they collect. It's no longer simple data that you find on opta sports like a player's distance covered, shots on target, acceleration, heading accuracy. They'd collect even stuff like the range of the directionality of passing, heart rate of player, and even in terms of runs, how often the player makes burst, duration of bursts, how often the player is open to an easy pass, etc.

Beyond just training on the football pitch, apps are designed to test and work on range of vision, reflexes, anticipation of both your teammate's and your opponent's next move.

In physical conditioning, they know the state of every muscle in your body. They know the tissue type that you have (Type I, or IIa etc), how that muscle is likely to perform in physical activity and what exercise is ideal for a particular player's Satorius and Gracilis muscles. They have your full training records.

On the tactical front, it's the same thing, the England player watch videos and technical analysis of every penalty ever taken by all the Italian players and his penalty training was tailored specifically to the players he was likely to face (ok, in this case, it didn't work for England, but I'd bet top dollar Italy also had a similar technical level of training and prep for penalties against England).

Even science goes into the sports kit to eke out that extra advantage (we just accept whatever adidas gives us). For some events, or matches, even the air that players breathe, is controlled in the build up to the event), not just things like their food and water intake, sleep patterns, the mattress they sleep on, their REM cycles, etc. It's all this that goes into making someone WORLD CLASS. And as new frontiers open in possibilities, people look for ways to deploy them to get even better. Watch how with improvements in augmented reality technology, holographic imaging, etc, these get deployed in player development.

But they don't stop at what they know already, their constantly evaluating their techniques and doing research, experimenting and finding room for improvement. Because technology has even accelerated things in the recent past, expect the gap to expand further until we wake up and smell the coffee and adopt the fundamental principles and ideology that would allow for such a level of innovation and development of athletes and people in general. Don't be surprised if 5 years down the you see an image of Arsenal players putting on spectacles similar to google's Project Glass (google it and watch the video), running up and down a field, making insane one-touch pass/run/collect/shoot moves, seemingly avoiding obstacles no one else can see but the player. Gold medal no be beans... literally.

PHD holders can't even keep up anymore, they're now using BI, predictive analysis and forecasting tools of different kind to analyze sport.