While sport is in­te­gral to Caribbean cul­ture, its sci­en­tif­ic study is nascent in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Recog­nis­ing the pro­found his­tor­i­cal and cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance of sport in the Caribbean, the UWI BSc in Sport Ki­net­ics pro­vides a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty to com­bine a pas­sion for sports with an un­der­stand­ing of hu­man anato­my and bio­me­chan­ics.

The cross-cam­pus on­line de­gree pro­gramme en­sures that stu­dents ben­e­fit from qual­i­fied lec­tur­ers from the St Au­gus­tine and Mona cam­pus­es. In­ter­act­ing with re­gion­al pro­fes­sion­als and col­leagues who all share sim­i­lar in­ter­ests, pro­vides stu­dents with an en­vi­ron­ment that pro­motes ed­u­ca­tion­al and per­son­al growth. This op­por­tu­ni­ty al­so en­cour­ages mean­ing­ful friend­ships and net­works with­in the re­gion­al sport­ing com­mu­ni­ty. Such con­nec­tions can be ad­van­ta­geous for ca­reer de­vel­op­ment, con­tribut­ing to per­son­al de­vel­op­ment and the broad­er pro­fes­sion­al land­scape with­in the Caribbean.

The BSc Sport Ki­net­ic pro­gramme pro­vides a cat­a­lyst for un­der­stand­ing the func­tion­ing of the hu­man body, which can re­sult in de­vel­op­ing train­ing mod­els, pro­grammes, sched­ules, and tech­niques with a Caribbean flavour. Such out­comes will re­dound to the sci­en­tif­ic and ath­let­ic com­mu­ni­ty through com­pre­hen­sive ap­pli­ca­tions and con­tribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the glob­al body of knowl­edge.

There­fore, pro­mot­ing the sci­en­tif­ic study of sports sig­ni­fies a par­a­digm shift that al­lows in­di­vid­u­als to view sports not mere­ly as a hob­by or form of en­ter­tain­ment but as a vi­able ca­reer op­tion. The growth of the sport­ing in­dus­try in both Trinidad and To­ba­go is un­de­ni­able, and the in­tro­duc­tion of pro­grammes such as Sport Ki­net­ics at a ter­tiary lev­el is es­sen­tial in fur­ther­ing the pro­fes­sion­al­i­sa­tion of the sec­tor.

Hav­ing been part of the in­au­gur­al co­hort of grad­u­ates from the BSc Sport Ki­net­ics pro­gramme at UWI St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus, I have wit­nessed the di­verse ca­reer paths to which this pro­gramme has ex­posed its grad­u­ates. Study­ing Sport Ki­net­ics as an un­der­grad­u­ate de­gree pro­vides a path­way to fur­ther one’s ed­u­ca­tion in a sport-re­lat­ed field such as Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py, Sport Coach­ing, Ex­er­cise Phys­i­ol­o­gy, and Clin­i­cal Bio­me­chan­ics. How­ev­er, the pro­gramme’s ver­sa­til­i­ty al­so al­lows stu­dents to con­sid­er ca­reers be­yond sports, such as an Er­gonom­ics Spe­cial­ist, As­sis­tive Tech­nol­o­gy Spe­cial­ist, Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­pist, Cer­ti­fied Pros­thetist, or uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor. The op­tions are end­less.

With the on­go­ing growth of the sport­ing in­dus­try in Trinidad and To­ba­go, it is nec­es­sary to pro­vide ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties that con­tin­ue to pro­mote and as­sist with en­hanc­ing ath­let­ic per­for­mance. The pro­gramme of­fers in­sights for ath­letes that can lead to per­son­al per­for­mance en­hance­ment and skill de­vel­op­ment. The knowl­edge gained spans var­i­ous as­pects, in­clud­ing agili­ty, psy­chol­o­gy, nu­tri­tion, and strength and con­di­tion­ing, pro­vid­ing a holis­tic un­der­stand­ing of ath­let­ic per­for­mance.

This pro­gramme is al­so an in­valu­able re­source to coach­es, as it equips them with the skills to de­sign sport-spe­cif­ic ex­er­cis­es tai­lored to de­vel­op­ing their ath­letes’ phys­i­cal and tac­ti­cal prowess. As a re­sult, more ath­letes with­in the coun­try can po­ten­tial­ly reach elite sta­tus, en­abling them to bet­ter serve as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Trinidad and To­ba­go on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage.

An­oth­er com­pelling rea­son to pur­sue a de­gree in sport ki­net­ics is its role in in­jury pre­ven­tion among ath­letes. The pro­gramme equips in­di­vid­u­als with the knowl­edge to iden­ti­fy risk fac­tors for in­juries, con­tribut­ing to the pre­ven­tion of is­sues such as lig­a­ment and ten­don tears. Dis­sem­i­nat­ing this in­for­ma­tion to peo­ple ac­tive­ly work­ing with recre­ation­al and elite ath­letes is cru­cial, as it will pro­mote suf­fi­cient re­cov­ery and safe, ben­e­fi­cial train­ing.

Over­all, the BSc Sport Ki­net­ics pro­gramme of­fered by the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine, emerges as a piv­otal ini­tia­tive in the Caribbean’s aca­d­e­m­ic land­scape. Its in­ter­dis­ci­pli­nary ap­proach, cou­pled with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of es­teemed lec­tur­ers, po­si­tions it as a cat­a­lyst for per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth.

Kirsten St Omer is the first grad­u­ate with First Class Ho­n­ours in the BSc. Sport Ki­net­ics De­gree Pro­gramme at the St Au­gus­tine Acad­e­my of Sport, Fac­ul­ty of Sport.