The Baró Strategy

Four steps for Peru to walk on to sports excellence.

By Nelson Peñaherrera. Photos by Estany Tineo.

About three decades ago, Peru’s Olympic Committee began to have Cuba’s spors specialists for increasing our achievement in diverse events.

As part of that tradition, René Baró, 56, master for Havana University’s Manuel Fajardo National Sports Institute, arrived into our contry five years ago, being initially assigned to Tacnna, but we have him in Piura a year ago.

One of his challenges is discovering and training table tennis new talents in La Unión (Lower Piura) , where there is already a significant group of boys and girls preparing on. “The Municipality is giving me all its availability,” he clears.

Baró is trying to introduce the Cuban model that became successful in every sports competition or the majority of them, at least, including Olympics. “If you compare the amount of medals Cuba has got per inhabitant versus the amount of medals United States has got per inhabitant, you’ll see Cuba has got many more gathered,” he explains me.

However, a first element of resistance is Peruvian idiosyncracy that judges everything, that seems to accomplish what the worst enemy of a Peruvian is another Peruvian, that has a huge skill to cheat. And all this affects the sport achievement.

Is there a solution to the problem? Mr Baró thinks yes, and he has a strategy that can work even provided we truly apply it.

1. Building a pyramid

The most extended Sports policy in Peru continues to be promoting soccer and volley, ignoring there are most sports and disciplines fit to our biotype (the general configuration  of our bodies), which highlights our small height. Curiously,this could be our strength if we focus on successful results.

“Piura can be a good place to promote the fighting sports like judo, karate or olympic wrestling,” Baró suggests. “Also gymnastics, athletism, or table tennis.”

Talent detection has be to base on worldwide standarized tests, those leave out lobbies, social status or buddies network.

“Then, once you detect them, enter them in a County’s High Achievement Center, where they live intern for receiving academic instruction and controlled sports training,” he explains. “It got to be one center in every Peru’s county.”

The best county talents can be promoted to a State’s High Achievement Center, and who highlight in that level, reaching to a National High Achievement Center.

“There you have the three levels of the pyramid, and if you apply them, you’ll see that sports in Peru improve a lot,” Baró assures.

2. The art of sport is based on its science

The thesis that René Baró wrote in Cuba for graduating begins explaining the bio-psycho-social reality of the sport, what means it obbeys to anatomic and physiologic processes, it much involves the mental state of who practices it, and it is an integrative element to our community.

How many Physical Education teachers, trainers know it? “In Piura, there’s much empiricism,” Baró Observes. “It’s necessary to have seminars with the people, make them to understand that sports obbey to a system and a methology,” he points out.

“The two strongest problems here are few motor skills and laterality,” the specialist states, to have the right positions that reflects when we don’t know for practicing every sport… and  we often confuse right and left.

“That’s why it’s important education on physical culture since they’re littles, not for holding a weight but for get familiar to moves and spaces,” he comments.

The another aspect to remember is the minimum and maximum ideal age for start up in any sport or discipline.

3. The best sportspersons have a high instruction level

For René Baró, good sportsperson is the opposite to brain weakness. The person must manage all the information related to what practices for the performance to be good and better.

The specialist reminds that in Cuba, the academic instruction levels are high –like studies of international organisms prove- focusing not only on Maths and Language but all sciences and arts, so the person has a wide culture and a pretty accurate criteria. If that one practices sports, that reflects inmediatly as excellent results – high competitivity.

“The two basic elements of every sportsperson are instruction and communication – knows how to act, knows how to express,” he underlines.

Inclusive, Baró suggests the public TV turns into  a tele-school combining in-room and out-room criteria allowing to every person to obtain better scores when upgrading.

Thus, if violence continues to be exploited, we’ll still have a violent country.

He also recommends to prefer Internet as source of investigation before amusement. If not, we’ll still have a society only consuming but not evolving.

4. No negative attitude

The fable tells that Peruvian crabs were put inside a cube and Japanese crabs in another one. They were requested to look for a leader. Peruvian crabs fought to lead the rest while the others pull them down, so all the crowd finished moving in circles inside the cube. In Japanese case, one led and the rest began to follow it in line.

The lack of discipline, courage and self-steeme are, from Baro’s perspective, the factors those unallow the Peruvian sport to be a world potence despite having much talent.

“The Peruvians see a stronger challenger and they inmediatly have a negative vision of them-selves, when a sportsperson must go out to fight,” Baro criticizes.

When negative vision is not self-suggested, there will be ever another compatriot who reminds it. From discouragement to another discouragement, it’s not able to reach anywhere, like the crabs inside the cube.

Post-produced by Sheyla Benavente.

Read also the stories of swimmer Fran Checa and muay thai fighter Daniel Garro.