One of the outcomes of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been the proliferation of sports seminars via video conferencing platforms such as ZOOM, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. This occurrence has allowed for larger diversified audience participation that may not have happened under 'normal' circumstances.
The seminars have addressed several important issues such as the mental health of athletes especially in a period of lockdown; race and racism in sport and women in sport.
These seminars which have drawn heavily on local and regional anecdotal evidence have demonstrated that sport goes 'beyond a boundary.
They have shown that a holistic understanding of sport must address social, economic, political, administrative, and psychological factors that affect sporting stakeholders- such as athletes, coaches, officials, technical support teams, administrators, fans, and sponsors- directly and indirectly.
It is contended that there is a need to move beyond anecdotal evidence. There is a need for robust research to ascertain a deeper understanding of the important stories and cues that have been emanating from the many seminars. Such research if done quantitatively and qualitatively will allow for large scale numerical data on opinions, attitudes and beliefs as well as the first-hand experiences and meanings of different sporting stakeholders.
There is a lack of data-driven sports research in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.
What exists is a preponderance of historical narratives, biographies and autobiographies on cricket, athletics and football. Even a review of the reading material for CAPE Sport and Physical Education which was introduced in 2014 will show that most of the readings are drawn from external regional sport scholars.
Data-driven sports research will be beneficial for not only a deeper understanding of complex situations, but also for informing decisions for projects to be undertaken. For instance, data on the number of participants in any particular sport- cricket, football, swimming, hockey, golf, netball, basketball, tennis etc.- concerning demographic data such as age, gender, social class, religion, ethnicity, and geographical location can provide important insight to National Governing Bodies (NGBs) and the Ministry of Sport and Community Development (MSCD).
Such insight can lend itself to the assessment of existing policies and practices in order to find ways to be inclusive especially when sporting organisations are supposed to a representative on the country.
Inherently, data-driven sports research allows for asking the questions of 'why' 'how' and 'what' is happening in the sport. It provides a cogent foundation for accountability and transparency of those who are charged with the responsibilities of governing.
There is no logical room for feelings and guesstimates with the use of robustly derived research data. Data-driven research provides all stakeholders with an opportunity to have informed discussions about any aspect of the sport.
Doing data-driven research necessitates being thick-skinned as it requires asking questions especially in a multi-ethnic society that may be easily be interpreted as controversial by those who are thin-skinned for one reason or the other.
However, these questions must be asked and addressed if any attempt is to move forward with a better understanding of practices and policies at all levels of the sporting organisation.
Therefore, if data-driven sports research is undertaken in TT and the wider Caribbean, the understanding, discussions and practices of sport will be predicated upon similar too and unique to the region thick-skinned themes such as:
*Coakley, Jay, and Anita White. 1999. Making Decisions: How young people become involved and stay in sports.
*Coalter, Fred. 2010. Sport for Development impact study: A research initiative funded by Comic Relief and UK Sport and managed by
International Development through Sport.
*Cote, J. 2008. Coaching children: Five elements of expertise for coaches.
*Cresswell, Scott L. 2009. Possible early signs of athlete burnout.
*Dagkas, Symeon, Tansin Benn and Haifaa Jawad. 2011. Multiple voices: Improving participation of Muslim girls in physical education and sport.
*Carrington, Ben. 2013. The critical sociology of race and sport: the first 50 years.
*Carter, Akilah and Algerian Hart. 2010. Perspectives in mentoring: The Black female student-athlete.
*Hartmann, Douglas and Brooks Depro. 2006. Rethinking sports-based community crime prevention: A preliminary analysis of the relationship between midnight basketball and urban crime rates.
*Holt, Nicholas. Et al. 2011. Benefits and challenges associated with sport participation by children and parents from low-income families.
*Wheeler, Sharon. 2012. The significance of family culture for sports participation.