COVID-19 no excuse for fitness slump – Whitmore
National senior men’s team head coach Theodore Whitmore said while players have not been given individual training programmes during the COVID-19 outbreak they have a responsibility to themselves.
“Most of [the clubs], especially Portmore and Harbour View, have a programme where the players do a video and send it in a group chat,”
Whitmore said.
“Basically, it’s their clubs that are really responsible for them and we can only monitor. We cannot tell a club what to do because regardless, they are the ones paying the players. I just hope they understand what needs to be done. Also, it comes down to the commitment of the players and knowing what they want.”
Whitmore said that the physical trainers are monitoring the Reggae Boyz, and that the pandemic is no excuse for them to return below usual fitness level ahead of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. He said that the fitness levels exhibited during their recent international friendly against Bermuda on March 11 will be used as a benchmark. “We had [global positioning vests] that we put on them for the first time and based on the results from that, we
take it from there,” he said.
MUST SEE IMPROVEMENT
These vests track players’ heart rate and performance based on their movement throughout the game.
“The next time we call back a camp, we must see improvement from what we saw in the Bermuda game,” he said. “They can’t drop the standard or else they don’t belong in the national programme. We can find all the excuses about coronavirus and all that, but at the end of the day, they have a responsibility as professionals. When this ‘Corona’ thing is
over, we are going to have a test that will show who is cheating.
“The physical trainers are the ones keeping in touch and monitoring the players. I’m just focusing on the planning side of it because it’s a setback, yes, but we have to look at the positive. It gives us more time to really plan for the World Cup qualifiers.”