Nelson Javier, medalist at Toronto 2015 (bronze in MD) and participant in Lima 2019, has been paving a path as a coach, a path that has led him to train and seek options to continue contributing to badminton in the Dominican Republic.
“I decided to be a coach almost 4 years ago. I was still competing, but I was already focusing on what was next. When I saw that I could contribute more to my teammates but I wanted to know how to do it, then I thought about being a coach.”
Many may ask what to do after they stop being an athlete and there are big differences between being a coach and being an athlete, but this is shown as a pleasant alternative for sports continuity for players. Nelson has gone through both aspects and the road has not been easy.
“The transition from player to coach is a process in which everyone must assimilate how to teach everything you know. Many times, when you are an athlete, you receive a lot of information on how to act, but when you become a coach you have to assimilate and know when to indicate, and what indications to give in a timely manner. It is a very complex transition, in which you always need to continue learning.”
“The objectives are quite broad. I would like to take a team to have good results, but also help other coaches how to face different situations, how to lead athletes to be better people, not only at the sporting level, but in the different circumstances that come their way.”
Constant training is the weapon of any coach. This leads them to continue improving, not only for their own benefit, but for the best contribution they can make with their athletes. Therefore, Nelson took the opportunity to participate in the recent pilot course for coaches level 3, where he has been challenged to see the training in a different way.
“In this course we have been able to train a little more, learn from different theories and models that we can include and apply with our players and coaches. Usually our training is focused on how to lead the player in a match, but now we see that there are more situations that the coach can handle to contribute to the development of an athlete.”
Dreams motivate, help trace paths and move to reach them. As a player, Nelson was able to fulfill some of his dreams, now, as a coach he has drawn others and is willing to fulfill them.”
“As a coach, my dream is to have an Olympic medalist, but on top of that, I dream that badminton will fully develop in my country. It’s a fairly broad dream, but I would be satisfied that the badminton has a good development in my country.”
