The Neuromuscular Diamonds (The physical qualities Book 1)

Two years later, another FIDE had been added. By , there were still eleven EIDEs in existence one had been destroyed by a cyclone , with 11, students. Cuba, then, was well on its way toward its goal of having at least one EIDE in each of the fourteen provinces. The EIDEs have clearly evolved with time. Puente's account paints a picture of this particular EIDE at this particular time as, perhaps, a school he attended after finishing his regular day at a regular school. It is possible that they were simply not listed separately.

In any case, the EIDEs of the early s were far less elaborate and much smaller than those that exist today. Independently of receiving their general preparation and of accomplishing their sports training in order to achieve a better performance, the students successfully combine the principles of communist education by mixing cultural activities, recreational activities, productive work, and formal education as the right way to instill in our youth and children the communist morality.

We will not hold back efforts so that each day our students will be better students, outstanding athletes, and exemplary revolutionaries. Over 1, students are taught by a staff of 69 teachers for academic subjects and coaches and other sports specialists. The various facilities of the school include a massive gymnasium, three swimming pools including one of Olympic size , a diving tank, two baseball diamonds, track and field facilities, a handball court, and four tennis courts, and there is a velodrome planned for the future. Over two thousand students enjoy similar facilities at the Martires de Barbados in Havana Province: There are also baseball and soccer fields; track and field areas; and outdoor basketball, volleyball, and tennis courts.

The number of staff at this school is impressive: Although students do get a taste of general physical education, the basic formula is "one child, one sport, year round. Two years later, he was moved to Havana to play on the junior national team and was already attracting international attention. But students in EIDEs are not allowed to be more than one year behind in school; the previous year of studies must be successfully completed.

There is no information on how flexible these rules are. In addition, medical certification of age and health must be presented. Involvement in a mass organization almost all Cubans belong to a mass organization , as a voluntary sports activist, or as a sports monitor in a regular school, works in favor of a student who is applying for entry into an EIDE. In addition to outstanding talent and promising biotypes, students may also be chosen because they have unusually advantageous characteristics for a particular sport, such as height for basketball. This is similar in logic to the recruitment, direct from Africa, of 7'7" Manute Bol to play basketball in the United States, when he had no background in the sport.

The attempt is made to decide on a child's potential in a particular sport, in order to begin intensive training as early as possible. However, the Cubans are not so rigid as to ignore a good reason to change from one sport to another, if developing talent justifies it. Boxer Teofilo Stevenson used to play baseball; middle distance runner Alberto Juantorena was originally slated for basketball.

When it became clear how fast Juantorena could run in bulky basketball shoes, his prescient coaches began to speculate on what he could do on a track with the proper training and equipment. Once accepted, students must pass each year of regular schoolwork in order to hold their place. Students are expected to combine sports training, academic studies, and sometimes productive work. Theoretically, at least, failure in any of these areas could cost the student his place in a sports school. However, there is no information on whether any outstanding athletes have been expelled for failing to meet these other requirements.

Three hours of the school day and after hours training are devoted to sports, with the remainder of the school day left for academic studies. From fifteen to twenty five sports are practiced in the EIDEs, all Olympic sports, including baseball. These schools boast some of the best coaching and athletic facilities in the country. In , the EIDE in Santiago de Cuba had sports teachers for 1, students, as well as three pools, two baseball diamonds, an athletics track, a handball court, four tennis courts, a large gymnasium, and a cycling track was planned.

The approximately one thousand students attending the EIDE in Matanzas in had access to a gymnasium, two baseball fields, tennis courts, volleyball and basketball courts, an athletics track, a cycling track, a shooting range, and three pools. A similar list of facilities is available in other EIDEs. Apparently, it is not enough. In and , there was criticism of the poor maintenance and the underutilization of EIDE facilities. This in part might have motivated the investigation conducted by Alberto Juantorena and other sports officials. By there were complaints that the potential of EIDE students was growing more slowly than expected, given the level of development in Cuban sport.

In some cases, the Cubans have found it necessary to emphasize a particular sport, usually the ones that have been traditionally weak on the island. Cuba has developed one of the best water polo teams in the world, yet swimming remains its weakest sport. In , Castro spoke of strength in some events and weakness in others. We do not go anywhere with the javelin. It is a good thing that we do not have to live off hunting like primitive man because we would certainly starve to death. Despite the perquisites of life in the EIDEs individual attention from talented coaches, access to high quality facilities, and more and better food than is rationed for the general population and this is more true in the s than ever entrance to one of these schools does not spell a life of leisure.

Standards for these modern EIDEs are well defined. Students' progress is recorded meticulously, and they are continually evaluated not only for their athletic performance but also for the academic level they maintain and their degree of political commitment. Castro cautioned the athletes: You are not going to be professional athletes; you are not going to make a living at sports.

You will make it from your work. You will be able to go as far as you wish in sports, but you will also be able to go as far as you wish as citizens and as professionals and technicians. The outcome is a system very unlike the athletic scholarships given in the United States. Three young basketball players two were former EIDE students, all three were current ESPA students emphasized how important it was that they keep up in their academic studies. All three made cutting motions under their chins to show what would happen if they did not obtain the required grades.

Castro described the system during his dedication at the school Martires de Barbados: Of course, it is known that students come to these schools based on their merits, capability, and aptitude. However, a point where we can never fail, and we cannot condone failure in this area even to the champion of champions, is the fulfillment of obligations as students. We cannot permit that an athlete be a poor student.

Before violating this principle we would prefer to lose a champion. Therefore, as a golden rule, an athlete must be a good student and must pass his course. Secondly, an athlete must develop his sports and physical capabilities to the maximum. He must not neglect this. The fact that someone has entered in a specific grade.

There must be a renewal of students because if. Renewal of students is a principle that must be applied. There must never be a place occupied here when there is a student with better capabilities unable to join the school. After seeing the talent that was beginning to amass in these schools, in INDER officials found it necessary to change the system of competition for the School Games. After , the system was changed into two parallel structures, in which the regular schools compete among themselves and the EIDEs compete among themselves. With this change, the EIDEs and the regular schools never meet in competition.

They were, however, in or near cities, usually provincial capitals. These sports schools in rural areas were established so that students could also take part in agricultural labor, thereby receiving a more comprehensive education and developing a respect for manual as well as mental labor.

Students range in age from twelve to fifteen years old. In ESBECs, as in other sports schools, the physical condition and biotype of students is assessed, and only selected students are accepted. This school took from seventh- to ninth-grade students and gave preference to those from rural areas.

In , there were students aged from twelve to fifteen. Their days were long-fourteen hours of classes and work, including agricultural labor. There were forty-four teachers, twenty-four sports trainers, and fifteen apprentice sports trainers. Sixteen sports were practiced. There are at least twenty-eight specialized schools on the Isle of Youth, many with sports facilities especially for rowing, kayaking, canoeing, and water sports. It underwent a major reconstruction for use in the World Youth Festival that was held in Cuba in According to Hector Rodriguez Cordoso, who defected to the United States, ESPA is based in the old Cubanacan Country Club and provides athletes with special treatment such as extra food, clothing, and high-quality housing.

In a sense, the EIDEs and the other sports schools serve as a sort of Afarm system for this next level of training. It is the culmination of the movement from mass participation toward expertise in a sport. This scientific process of development or training cycle never takes less than six years or more than ten. And, as at all levels of development, there are more athletes than necessary chosen for this elite school. This prevents an attitude of complacency. A student is never allowed to take for granted a team position that he may hold at one time.

He must continue to work for it.

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After breakfast of better food than that served in the regular schools , they studied academic subjects from 8: The afternoon and early evening were reserved for practice and training in each individual sport. The content of the courses and the training provided have not been released. Later that year, more legislation required trainers at ESPA to be high-level graduates from a special sports area. There were 62 teachers and 40 sports trainers who taught students specializing in a choice of 19 sports.

In the s, four more provincial ESPAs were opened to cater to more top athletes. In , the new revolutionary government had faced a dearth of physical education teachers, and in , Manuel Fajardo was created to fill this need. At first, this school for training PE teachers was designed to train as many people as quickly as possible, and the first class numbered seven hundred students. By , Cuba had begun to construct similar institutions in the provinces.

Between and , there were sixteen hundred graduates from ESEF. After the initial short courses, regular courses of three and a half years' duration were organized and included studies in the theory and practice of sports and recreation. Entry requirements in included completion of basic secondary school, proof of age between fifteen and twenty-five , and a health certificate, as well as evidence of having been a sports monitor in a regular school. Further prerequisites included, of course, proof of athletic experience and ability and evidence of participation in a revolutionary organization, such as a CDR.

Within the next two years it began to offer correspondence courses and evening classes In , there were seven Filiales. In the s, postgraduate courses were also offered. The course at ISCF was extended to five years in and, by , 4, students had graduated from the tertiary level. Entry to ISCF is apparently not easy. Students need a 90 per. The domination of the ISCF team in national tertiary-level competitions suggests that the conditions on athletic ability are strictly enforced. Most new ISCF students have already spent four years in an EPEF, and therefore receive as many as nine years of specialized training in either sports, physical education, or recreation, and a sound general training in all three.

Students also receive a tertiary education in general studies. All students must take academic and physical culture courses or cycles as well as basic military training, and they have to present an investigative thesis. Students can specialize as a sports trainer hours of classes or in recreation and physical education hours of classes and practical teaching in the countryside.

The details of the 4,hour course for included over two thousand hours of physical culture courses. The ISCF, like other sports institutions, has many sports facilities as well as access to those in the nearby Ciudad Deportiva. ISCF produces highly trained physical culture specialists. It also provides vocational training for many of Cuba's top athletes, who may have already attended a sports school or other specialized training center for their particular sport.

National Training Centers Cuba also established numerous sports academies to provide training for talented athletes. Before , such academies had existed only for boxing and baseball, but similar academies for soccer, jai alai, swimming, volleyball, athletics, judo, basketball, fencing, wrestling, waterskiing, and kayaking were soon founded in By the end of , there were 2, students in these various institutions. The number of academies grew throughout the island, and by the mids, each province had its own baseball academy.

By , there were 11, students in eleven provincial academies; 1, students in three juvenile national centers; and students in four national centers. The end of the s saw the emergence of national schools for other sports as well, such as fencing, equestrian sports, aquatic sports, gymnastics, and sprinting. The School for Giants began in April and had students aged between 11 and 18; it offered training for very tall youngsters.

This center assessed the physical qualities of its students and analyzed diet, metabolism, and related functions. The course involved hours of classes, taught by 12 teachers, including hours of physical activities in a program that also included work, social work, and military training. These two centers are indicative of Cuba's growing emphasis on scientific approaches toward the detection of sports ability. Besides sports schools and academies, some of Cuba's vocational schools have excellent sports facilities.

Included among these was the Maximo Gomez Vocational School, with two gymnasia, an athletic track, and a baseball field, as well as basketball and volleyball courts. High priority was also placed on providing swimming pools in vocational schools. The most famous vocational school in Cuba, however, had perhaps the best sports facilities outside of the specialized sports schools. The Lenin School, established at the suggestion of Fidel Castro, is in an area of , square meters near the Lenin Park in Havana and had about 4, students in Facilities include saunas, two Olympic pools, a diving tank, ten basketball courts, ten volleyball courts, three baseball diamonds, two tennis courts, a fencing center, and a gymnastics hall.

The Lenin School is also mysteriously absent from public tours of Cuba's other showcase facilities, such as the Havana Psychiatric Hospital and Ciudad Deportiva. In addition to these centers and sports institutions, special training and medical supervision is also available through the sports unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. According to Cuban journalist Maria Elena Gil: It is not the only objective of the EPEFs to create teachers who impart sports knowledge to their students.

The professor of physical education that INDER proposes to forge, in conjunction with MINED, should be one who forms the youth of tomorrow, a complete guide who knows to include in his method of teaching the practice of sport, the assimilation of the habits of discipline, of conscience, will and perseverance that ought to unite all athletes and all revolutionary youth in general.

Graduates from ISCF, all of whom have mastered the three areas of sports, physical education, and recreation, number over a thousand per year. By , there were eight EPEFs. In the course, there were 6, students in the EPEFs, including 2, undertaking practical teaching experience. The students usually ranged in age from 13 to 18 years, but older, practicing PE teachers could also study at EPEF, while also receiving their full salary.

ESBEC graduates were given preference in these teacher-training schools, presumably with the intention that they would return to their rural districts to teach after graduating. In , entrance to primary-level teacher-training courses was opened to males who were from 13 to 14 years old and to females who were from 13 to 16 years old. Students must have completed the seventh grade, without any failures. For secondary school teacher training, students must be between 13 and 14 for males and between 13 and 18 for females.

They are required to have completed ninth grade, without any failures. In , prospective students also needed to have passed LPV tests and be good at sports. By , students also needed to pass a medical test and a personal interview, in addition to obtaining a point grade average presumably out of a maximum in seventh and eighth grades. The usual maximum age was also lowered to 16, although year-olds from rural areas were still considered. The four- or five-year course at EPEF includes practical teaching experience for half of each academic year from the second year onwards.

This experience is typically undertaken in an isolated school, thus providing PE teachers albeit inexperienced in regions where they might not choose to work permanently. Courses at the EPEFs include general academic subjects and pedagogy, as well as training in sports, popular physical culture, or recreation. The EPEF in Holguin, for example, teaches topics such as Spanish, English, mathematics, physics, chemistry, history of physical education, Marxism, morphology, physiology, psychology, theory and methods, pedagogy, and sports medicine, in addition to practical classes in at least seventeen different sports.

Upon graduating from such a program, students are full-fledged PE teachers, prepared to enter, if desired, studies at ISCF. Beginning in , EPEF graduates emerged with a specialization in two sports. In addition, work toward the diploma includes a work notebook, in which the student records his completion of up to ten different projects, six of which are obligatory.

Students must also complete an investigative work, addressing solutions to some fundamental problems that Cuba faces in physical education and sports. Even though students training to be PE teachers do not have to be world-class athletes, they are organized to continuously hone their own skills. Inter-EPEF games, held nationally, also underscore the emphasis on competition: The end result of this meeting is that the future professors can practically apply, for themselves, the theoretical-tactical knowledge that was given to them in the halls of [EPEF]. One cannot conceive, for example, of a swimming trainer who is not an acceptable swimmer Further, they constitute a valuable stimulus for the students to practice sport daily.

These provincial centers offered some of the services available in the main institutions in Havana. This includes one of the two tracks on the entire island with a Rekortan surface, imported from East Germany. But this is a relatively recent development. Prior to , these facilities served to provide the country with as many middle-level technicians as possible, just to ameliorate the tremendous lack of qualified teachers that existed in the cities and throughout the countryside.

He obtained his master's degree in East Germany. This problem is slowly being addressed. With the closing of opportunities to study in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, due to the massive changes in these nations, the necessity to develop an independent training capacity within Cuba has become paramount. By , there were fifty doctoral students. If instructors for the primary levels did not exist, then there would be no specialists in particular sports capable of training the best athletes.

And the Cubans were unwilling to wait the twenty years required to develop their own expertise in the various athletic fields. Help came in the form of coaches and trainers from other countries, especially from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. AThere are many cases of proletarian internationalism in sport. The Hungarian Karoly Laky worked with the Cuban water-polo team, which is now one of the best in the world. Alberto Juantorena received the able coaching of the late Zigmunt Zabierzowski, who returned to Poland after seeing his charge through two gold medals in Montreal. In , Soviet gymnastics coach Zinaida Podolskaya went to Cuba to help with the women's gymnastics movement there.

Evgenii Vov and Alberto Aznavurian also worked on the gymnastics program.

Evgenii Cheroposki worked with Eduardo John on the fencing foil. Nikolai Durnev went with the Cuban marksmen to the twentieth Olympics in Munich. Leonid Gusevski also worked with the marksmen. Yuri Zamiatin helped develop wrestling, and Stephen Boutatas coached the basketball team that won third place in Munich. Florian Stoenescu of Romania worked with the handball team. Cubans have also been sent abroad, at times, to sharpen their coaching or athletic skills. Until recently, the only sports official in Cuba with a doctorate in the field, Hernandez Corbo, obtained his degree in Bulgaria.

Often, the simple contact with other athletes serves as a training experience. As the Cubans advanced, the network of foreign assistance began to flow in the other direction. They were reportedly imprisoned by the junta after Allende's assassination in Chile in In , Yugoslavia announced it was going to follow the "Cuban recipe in training its boxers. As of , there were students from a number of other countries in Latin America and at least one student from the United States. It is more important, perhaps, that Cuban coaches abroad are now earning valuable hard currency, which is pumped back into the state.

In the s, there were forty-two foreign coaches in Cuba. In , there was only one for the Olympics, in archery. There are Cuban coaches working throughout the world. Nine countries at Barcelona had Cuban boxing coaches, while others have hired Cubans in volleyball, weightlifting, track and field, and other sports. Cuba established sports exchange programs with countries outside of Eastern Europe. Above all, for purposes of mental and physical health, recreation, and general well-being, sports should play a part in the life of every Cuban.

The most effective way to instill this desire for physical activity is through the PE program. Castro described how the more talented athletes will emerge from the resulting mass movement in sports: One day we shall have thousands of young people studying physical education, excellent sports facilities in all schools, and interschool competitions as a means of selection. However, there is more to it than selection, for sport should be pursued not just to win competitions.

Competitions are important; but there is something more important-sport as a cultural and recreational activity for the people. Of course, if everybody practices a sport, if all children pursue a sport, we shall have champions. In fact, each goal merely serves to feed the other. The more people who participate in sports, the greater the chance for true talent to develop and be discovered. The subsequent success that such talent achieves serves as a strong stimulus to encourage even more people to become actively involved in sports.

This point was made clearly by Jose Ramon Fernandez Alvarez, former vice-president of the Council of Ministers, minister of Culture, Sports, and Education, and member of the Politburo until the congress, when he greeted the Cuban athletes returning from Moscow: These successes [in the Olympics] should be a stimulus for people so that in the future the base of the pyramid is broadened, with each Cuban being able to demonstrate his or her true abilities, and among all the people-among those hundreds of thousands of young people, students and workers from the cities and the countryside-we can choose those with the best qualifications to go to the Olympics.

With a national population smaller than that of New York, London, or Tokyo, Cuba can hardly afford not to consider all possibilities for development, in its search for talent. The Cubans claim to know a child's best sport by the time that child is nine years old. Yet, it is in their best interests to be open-minded about the selection process. The well-organized system of evaluation they have-in both the physical efficiency tests and the different levels of competition-serves as a fine-mesh net, ready to catch any late developers who exhibit their talent later in life, and in some cases, athletes who may have been funneled into the wrong sport.

The recent change in the organization of the School Games to keep the regular schools and the EIDEs separate was certainly a calculated move. More time and attention are thus given to young athletes who are not students at an EIDE. Experience has already taught the Cubans that there is a wealth of talent hidden in these students.

In , 6, people participated in the Family Games, which are handicapped according to age. There were almost , participants in the Workers' Games, , of which were women. By the mids, more than one-quarter of the population engaged in INDER-sponsored competition in more than twenty sports. These contests provide a tremendous source of recreation, both passive and active, for the Cuban people.

Selection and Training It is instructive to look more closely at the selection process by which national athletes are chosen and the methods by which they are trained. The process by which the more talented athletes are selected out for more intensive training has evolved, with time and experience, into a scientific procedure. All children are evaluated when they are quite young, and at frequent intervals as they grow and develop. In addition, the network of competition, within school and outside of it, helps INDER officials to catch potential talent that they may have missed in the individual evaluations.

These officials are trained for several purposes. One group serves as talent scouts out in the field, while the other group works on the more scientific, research side of selection. These research people report to the talent scouts out in the field which scientific measures they should be looking for; if biotype A or biotype B correlates higher with this or that sport, for example; or which type of muscle fiber makes a better sprinter or a better distance athlete, and which athlete has which type. If, after a number of years and frequent evaluations, the athlete still exhibits potential talent, he will be sent to ESPA for training, in order to represent his country in international competition.

The older competitors remain students at ESEF while they continue their training. When asked about his specific training regimen, Alberto Juantorena has said more than once that it is a Astate secret. And one begins to believe it, from the amount of information available on the subject. In direct imitation of the former East German and Soviet systems, the Cubans are attempting to give athletic training a scientific base.

There is also a strong effort to draw on as many scientific fields that could have any bearing on athletic activity as possible. For each sport, there is a scientific team, headed by a physician who is responsible for the care of the athletes in the sport, for the development of the sport, and presumably for breakthroughs in the selection process. The physician in charge of this group is one of the Atechnical members of the Agoverning body of the particular sport. Then each national team has a Coaching Committee, described by Ron Pickering: Every national coach has direct contact with the Institute [of Sports Medicine and the Coaching Committees which arrange the annual training program of each athlete or event group.

Neuromuscular junction

The Coaching Committee consists of the national coach, a sports physician, a sports psychologist and a member of the technical committee of the governing body who knows the dates and venues of all fixtures. The psychologist spends more time working with the coaches than with the athletes. In addition, he serves to motivate and inspire, as well as to give relaxing exercises and the like.

The increasingly scientific bent of INDER can be seen in the development of several of its newer departments. The function of the center has been described only very superficially in the Cuban press. CEMA keeps cards on all the athletes who make up the different levels of national teams. Records are kept of their various performances, and projections are made as to their progress in their different events. CEMA also keeps complete records of the performances of all the athletes who participate in the control. A control is a regularly scheduled contest of the upper level athletes, conducted under Ameet conditions.

It serves as an evaluative measure for team and individual progress. It can also be useful in the selection of athletes for an international event, based on their performance in the control. This is especially true for sports in which progress is measured by time.

CEDOC is concerned with information of a broader nature. Its purpose is to provide trainers and coaches with up-to-date information about progress in the various sports and, in particular, the achievements recorded by other countries in athletic endeavors and in training methods. The statistics compiled and stored in CEMA enable sports officials to study the necessary data needed to train athletes more efficiently.

By calling up on the computer the information stored on an athlete, a trainer can see the progression in the athlete's performance and training methods in relation to a specific block of time in order to predict the athlete's level of achievement by a certain date. In the case of a runner, for example, a trainer can consider how he should conduct his training for the next four years if he wants to peak for the Olympics and perform well at the various international contests between now and then.

This is already done albeit at an unknown level of sophistication and with an unknown degree of success at INDER-Havana. The plan is that each EIDE in the country will have this capability in the future. But one wonders how far this scientific method can filter down. However, this concerted effort to make the sports program as scientific as possible clearly mimics the system the East Germans have used for years, and with tremendous international success. For purposes of evaluating the Cuban system, there is never enough specific information given to assess the methods used, the success rate achieved, or even the level of sophistication reached.

A somewhat reliable indicator, at least of the level of sophistication, might be to evaluate the hardware used. Five years later, only the latter was mentioned in the press. This level of computer is very small, very slow, and very unsophisticated. Software is made in Cuba. The collapse of socialism in Europe has not had a major negative impact on this aspect of Cuban sports.

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A clear and frequently used test measures the maximum oxygen-consumption capacity. Yet this experiment is difficult to conduct without expensive laboratory equipment. The Cubans discovered a close correlation between the rate of oxygen utilization and physical-work capacity. Both are standard measures of physical efficiency as applied to athletes. The pulse rate of beats per minute approaches the maximum physical-work capacity. However, to monitor an athlete's pulse at such a high rate over any period of time would also require relatively sophisticated equipment.

But the Cubans found a way to circumvent this problem: This means that they could measure pulse rates for two fixed submaximal work rates, plot the linear relationship between the two points on a graph, and then extrapolate to determine the work rate needed to achieve a pulse of For example, a runner's pulse could be taken after he has run a mile in eight minutes.

Next, his pulse would be taken after a six-minute mile. After plotting these two points, the line between them could be extended to find at which speed his pulse would reach , in this case, perhaps at the four- or five-minute mile. For a non-runner, a twelve-minute mile and a ten-minute mile might show that an eight-minute mile for this person gives the required Using the step test, the Cubans have devised a chart, for both athletes and non-athletes according to age, showing how many steps per minute are required to produce beats per minute.

In the s, four provincial information centers were formed, extending this specialized information service to areas outside Havana. They provided limited services to the majority of Cubans. In a similar manner, the Sports Medicine Institute was primarily concerned with top athletes, and like sports science, was extended to include provincial centers.

Sports Medicine One of the most advanced areas of the Cuban sports system is that of sports medicine. Its growth is proof of the scientific bent of present-day Cuban sports and of the revolutionary government's dedication to the sports system. Rene Iglesias y Rodriguez Mena has been a witness to the field both before and after He graduated from medical school in In , in his spare time, he began to specialize in sports medicine. This specialization was academically sound but suffered from lack of government support.

In those days, specialists were able to offer little more than medical assistance; because there was no budget, they could attend only to boxers and baseball players. Even then, a clinical exam consisted of nothing more than a test to determine whether an athlete was in condition to compete, or to help them when they were sick, and even in these cases, the doctors were dependent on specialists in other areas. Their equipment consisted of a simple X-ray machine and basic laboratory equipment. In , the Institute of Sports Medicine was established. It began with the international exchange of specialists in different fields: This is the point at which sports medicine ceased to be merely medical assistance and became a scientific and technical area.

In , it was headed by Dr. Arnaldo Pallares, a former national champion in the javelin, and the staff consisted of at least workers and technicians, 42 physicians, 17 psychologists, 6 dentists, 3 biologists, 17 physiotherapists, 2 dieticians, and 4 statisticians. In , there were 80 sports medicine specialists. The Cubans have found it helpful if most of the staff are themselves athletes.

The physicians and the psychologists have had two years of study in their specialty beyond the normal degree. In addition, the Institute includes other departments: Management and Administration, Research, Teaching, Medical Assistance working in combination with a local hospital and with the Department of Traumatology for surgery and other more complex cases , and Physical Development. Every athlete of national caliber has a current medical dossier. Twice a year, this folder is updated with a thorough medical exam and a comprehensive program of tests encompassing recordings of agility, coordination, concentration, reaction time, equilibrium, IQ, memory, and motivation, which brings in the psychological state of the athlete.

At the research institute, the staff also study the possibilities and the reserves of the athlete through anthropomorphic and neuromuscular studies. They experiment with a controlled diet containing the necessary amount of calories and protein. Dentists advise on possible therapeutic and preventative measures.

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Armed with this information, the doctors work as part of the Coaching Committees. The goal is to make world-class athletes by eliminating their deficits, shortcomings, and hangups and by enhancing their natural skills and talents. The Institute also functions as an instructional facility, teaching courses in conjunction with ESEF.

There are two other centers besides the main institute in Havana. Initial departments included cardiology, a respiratory and laboratory clinic, as well as nursing and stomatology. Aramis Mazorra headed a staff of three doctors who were specialists in sports medicine, a stomatologist, midlevel technicians, and other qualified personnel.

The major goal of the Center is to improve the quality of sport in the province. The staff aims for Astrict control of the sport in terms of the amount of training to apply to each athlete, which requires medical supervision on the fields and in the laboratories. Medical assistance is developed from the general point of view, and from the point of view of injury suffered with the athletes in training and in competition, through a counseling program.

Medical counseling is developed from the general point of view, and from the specific point of view of injury suffered by the athletes in training or in competition. Another provincial center for sports medicine was opened in Matanzas in , with Armando Pancorbo serving as director, and Marcos Acebo and Oscar Ramirez as his assistants.

This center included departments of physical development, physiotherapy, cardiovascular study, respiration, nursing, and stomatology. Rowing, baseball, boxing, weightlifting, and kayaking received special attention, although the center attends to all sports. The staff also worked closely with the EPEF to train future physical education instructors. This emphasis upon highly scientific sports medicine is in direct imitation of the training methods used in East Germany and the Soviet Union, which in the more developed socialist countries have resulted in the marriage of an early and meticulous selection process to an individual training system based on intensive medical and physiological research.

Nothing is left to chance. Muscles are monitored to show precisely which ones are to be warmed up prior to training and how this is to be done. Athletes strive for the Aperfect style in their sport, which has been determined through scientific analysis of the body's musculature and its movement through air or water. During training, blood tests are taken to determine the amount of lactic acid buildup that allows a trainer to know the athlete's precise level of exertion. Armed with this information, trainers know exactly how hard an athlete can push before he enters the gray area of overtraining, which leaves him susceptible to injury.

This is the technological level to which the Cubans aspire, but the available evidence suggests that this goal has not yet been reached. Evaluation Once the Cubans achieve a high level of proficiency in a sport, they will work hard to maintain it. Athletes are evaluated constantly, through means such as the control referred to earlier. No one is ever allowed to think that he or she is irreplaceable, since there is always someone else further down the line being primed for the same position. At the EIDE Martires de Barbados, according to Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post, Aeach child is also measured, graphed, studied, coached against arbitrary performance standards that he is expected to meet.

These evaluations are not just limited to the area of sports. Athletes are expected to maintain high academic and political standards also. In Cuba, if one does not work or study, one cannot be an athlete. Some 95 percent of national athletes are students, and the simple rule is that they have to study. Pablo Velez gives the example of Richard Spencer, a national champion in the high jump and a medalist in the Central American Games who was prohibited from leaving Cuba to compete because he had not achieved the required grades.

On the other hand, officials have said that to prevent an athlete such as Juantorena from competing because of grades would be counterproductive. Instead, upon returning from the contest, he would have to work harder to catch up. Motivation and Incentives There are also more practical motivating factors. Although it is true that Cuban athletes do not receive disproportionate wages that set them apart from the rest of society, they are given special consideration in many ways. A worker who is an athlete will be given time off from his job to train and to compete.

His coworkers will take up the slack caused by his absence. The case of Armando Capiro, former "outstanding athlete and one of our National Team's home run hitters," was described at length in the Cuban press. When the baseball season started, he was granted a "sports leave of absence" an accepted procedure in Cuba from his job as a technician at the Havana Psychiatric Hospital. He continued to receive his full salary. According to Silvio Borges: This demands, however, that Capiro be a good worker because if not, there are problems.

If he does not enjoy the respect and admiration of his co-workers and have a good work attitude, each time he asks for a sports leave the hospital director can say to us, "It seems that Capiro has not earned the privilege of participating in the national competition because his work attitude is very bad and his co-workers do not approve of his participation. Any worker can object to an athlete's sports leave, "because we aren't willing to do what he isn't here to do.

The opinion of the workers has enormous influence on an athlete, and this is positive because it helps shape an athlete in a well-rounded way and avoids sports professionalism. We want athletes to be involved in their jobs and improve their skills. Extensive research, however, has not revealed any examples of fellow workers successfully vetoing the sports leave of absence of a major Cuban athlete.

With the current closure or winding down of Cuban work centers now occurring, sports licenses may be even less likely to be revoked. A student athlete, working toward a future profession, is paid during training and competition the salary that he will make when he begins a job in his chosen field. He is given the extra time necessary to complete his degree, such as six years instead of the usual four because of the required time off.

In addition, whereas food is rationed throughout Cuban society and ration lists are growing rapidly today , athletes from the EIDEs on up receive more and better quality food to adequately sustain them. Medal winners from the major international contests are routinely flown home on special flights to be met personally at Jose Marti Airport by Fidel Castro, in much the same way that U.

In addition, there are certain perquisites that come with international travel, such as the opportunity to buy goods that are unavailable to the rest of Cuban society. At the school level, the athlete's every, need is cared for, free, from toothbrushes to clothing. To hear the Cubans tell it, however, the greatest motivation is political. According to Zulema Bregado Gutierrez, a Cuban gymnast who defected, "at least 30 minutes of political indoctrination is mandatory before every training session. It is certainly true that political courses are required study in the schools, whether the school is a regular one, an EIDE or perhaps one for musicians or dancers.

Judging from the comments made in public by athletes like juantorena or Stevenson, it is clear they have been well coached; they respond to questions with apparently stock, revolutionary slogans. But it is also true that life in Cuba is, in every way, much more political than life in the United States, Peru, or Australia, for example. Their critics state that Cuban athletes express no thoughts of their own. Such a charge, however, is hard to prove.

Perhaps Stevenson really does believe his now-famous statement, "What is one million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans? Essentially, all of Cuba's national athletes are products of the revolution, as they were quite young or not even born when it occurred. Several top-ranked athletes described their feelings: Without the Revolution, I wouldn't have been able to be what I am.

My victory in Montreal would never have been imagined; nor would there have been so numerous a Cuban delegation there. The people make it possible for athletes to go to the Olympics with their own work, with their dedication. And, we, in turn, dedicate the medals to the people. One thing is the result of the other. The Revolution is the same for both. Aldo Allen Montalvo, specialist in the five and ten thousand meter events and the marathon upon winning a 30K race in Managua, Nicaragua: I am aware of [the degree of training involved in the longer distances], and because of that, every day I practice with a passion, not only to please myself, but also to do my duty for Fidel, for the Party, for the Revolutionary Government, for my comrades and for my people I dedicate this victory to the people of Nicaragua and Cuba and to all of the countries of Latin America.

I am proud for having participated in this marathon, for its significance celebrating the first anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution. Nancy Aldama Rulloba, gymnast: Everything I obtained in my sports career I owe to the Revolution which gave me all that was necessary to prove myself. Joaquin Carlos Diaz, chess grand master: All that I am, I owe to the Revolution; I belong to the people and in another time I would have had to devote myself to searching for the means to guarantee subsistence for my family.

Third baseman Omar Linares, a member of the Poder Popular, has said that "we are not going to be overrun by the United States. We prefer to die in our country before we submit it. It doesn't matter if we eat eggs alone, we will be able to resist. One of these is the type of athlete INDER officials seek to develop; another is the kind of athlete that has actually emerged. According to Raudol Ruiz: We do not aspire to have athletes like robots, or athletes who represent our country at the cost of their own alienation.

We want men and women who represent this nation who can relate to other people educated in the revolutionary process, who are capable of feeling the Revolution as a natural feeling, not as something imposed and who are capable of defining the Revolution as a result of their own feelings. Moreover, they must acquire a cultural level which allows them to understand and evaluate what goes on in the world and be able to identify clearly its ideological framework.

Further, they must have sufficient sophistication to recognize their own efforts and to value them. They should be able to converse with the trainers, doctors, psychologists, and not be just on the receiving end of orders. Only in this manner can we really obtain the kind of athlete who is revolutionary. On top of this order, the Cubans absolutely insist that there are no stars or heroes. An individual athlete is singled out only when his performance has been extraordinary. In addition, the publishing of the technical aspects, such as rules and tips for playing, helps to demystify sports.

This prevents sport from being the sole preserve of naturally talented individuals. Such a philosophy serves to greatly reinforce the Cuban government's commitment to mass participation. Ostensibly, this doses the gap between ordinary people playing for fun and health and Olympic gold medal winners. There are seven principles that might comprise the Cuban philosophy of sport. According to Ron Pickering, they are also important indicators of the type of person the system produces: The best have to work with the less able at all times. The territory should be more important than the institution or the individual.

The system works against the concentration of athletic power and in favor of mass participation, albeit in competition. Since everyone participates and sporting progress is linked to educational or work progress, it obviates excessive elitism since the best workers become the best athletes-not the worst workers becoming the best athletes. If you do not advance in studies and in work, you cannot participate in sport. No good athletes or teams are lost in the system. Constant motivation and search are encouraged.

As soon as teams are selected on merit rather than whim there is immediate integration of factory, university, military unit, etc. The system avoids recruitment by any one team or unit since no athlete is allowed to move from his home or job without priority being given to his vocational needs. So how do the Cubans rate on the type of individual they have developed? As evidenced by some of the athletes quoted above, Cuba has produced an amazing blend of athlete and revolutionary.

Indeed, a chance meeting with Alberto Juantorena in four years after his successes in Montreal provided a glimpse of this famous Cuban sports hero out of the limelight. He and his family were staying at the same hotel as one of the authors in his hometown of Santiago de Cuba. Repeated, random meetings consistently showed a self-assured but modest young man, who appeared to have a healthy perspective on his accomplishments. At no point was he ever mobbed by adoring fans, as certainly Michael Jordan would have been, in the United States.

Each subunit of this receptor has a characteristic "cys-loop", which is composed of a cysteine residue followed by 13 amino acid residues and another cysteine residue. The two cysteine residues form a disulfide linkage which results in the "cys-loop" receptor that is capable of binding acetylcholine and other ligands. These cys-loop receptors are found only in eukaryotes , but prokaryotes possess ACh receptors with similar properties.

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AChRs therefore exhibit a sigmoidal dissociation curve due to this cooperative binding. The persistence of these ACh ligands in the synapse can cause a prolonged post-synaptic response. The development of the neuromuscular junction requires signaling from both the motor neuron's terminal and the muscle cell's central region. During development, muscle cells produce acetylcholine receptors AChRs and express them in the central regions in a process called prepatterning.

Agrin , a heparin proteoglycan , and MuSK kinase are thought to help stabilize the accumulation of AChR in the central regions of the myocyte. MuSK is a receptor tyrosine kinase —meaning that it induces cellular signaling by binding phosphate molecules to self regions like tyrosines , and to other targets in the cytoplasm. These findings were demonstrated in part by mouse " knockout " studies. In mice which are deficient for either agrin or MuSK, the neuromuscular junction does not form.

Further, mice deficient in Dok-7 did not form either acetylcholine receptor clusters or neuromuscular synapses. The development of neuromuscular junctions is mostly studied in model organisms, such as rodents. In addition, in an all-human neuromuscular junction has been created in vitro using human embryonic stem cells and somatic muscle stem cells. With this technique, a microelectrode was placed inside the motor endplate of the muscle fiber, and a micropipette filled with acetylcholine ACh is placed directly in front of the endplate in the synaptic cleft.

A positive voltage was applied to the tip of the micropipette, which caused a burst of positively charged ACh molecules to be released from the pipette. These ligands flowed into the space representing the synaptic cleft and bound to AChRs. The intracellular microelectrode monitored the amplitude of the depolarization of the motor endplate in response to ACh binding to nicotinic ionotropic receptors.

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Katz and del Castillo showed that the amplitude of the depolarization excitatory postsynaptic potential depended on the proximity of the micropipette releasing the ACh ions to the endplate. The farther the micropipette was from the motor endplate, the smaller the depolarization was in the muscle fiber. This allowed the researchers to determine that the nicotinic receptors were localized to the motor endplate in high density. Toxins are also used to determine the location of acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction. Botulinum toxin aka botulinum neurotoxin, BoNT, and sold under the trade name Botox inhibits the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction by interfering with SNARE proteins.

By doing so, it induces a transient flaccid paralysis and chemical denervation localized to the striated muscle that it has affected. The inhibition of the ACh release does not set in until approximately two weeks after the injection is made. Three months after the inhibition occurs, neuronal activity begins to regain partial function, and six months, complete neuronal function is regained.

Tetanus toxin, also known as tetanospasmin is a potent neurotoxin produced by Clostridium tetani and causes the disease state, tetanus. It functions very similarly to botunlinum neurotoxin BoNT by attaching and endocytosing into the presynaptic nerve terminal and interfering with SNARE protein complexes. Either mechanism causes increased calcium in presynaptic cell, which then leads to release of synaptic vesicles of acetylcholine.

Latrotoxin causes pain, muscle contraction and if untreated potentially paralysis and death. Snake venoms act as toxins at the neuromuscular junction and can induce weakness and paralysis. Venoms can act as both presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxins. The majority of these neurotoxins act by inhibiting the release of neurotransmitters, such as acetylcholine, into the synapse between neurons.

However, some of these toxins have also been known to enhance neurotransmitter release. Those that inhibit neurotransmitter release create a neuromuscular blockade that prevents signaling molecules from reaching their postsynaptic target receptors. In doing so, the victim of these snake bite suffer from profound weakness. Such neurotoxins do not respond well to anti-venoms. After one hour of inoculation of these toxins, including notexin and taipoxin , many of the affected nerve terminals show signs of irreversible physical damage, leaving them devoid of any synaptic vesicles.

This prevents interaction between the acetylcholine released by the presynaptic terminal and the receptors on the postsynaptic cell. In effect, the opening of sodium channels associated with these acetylcholine receptors is prohibited, resulting in a neuromuscular blockade, similar to the effects seen due to presynaptic neurotoxins.

This causes paralysis in the muscles involved in the affected junctions. Unlike presynaptic neurotoxins, postsynaptic toxins are more easily affected by anti-venoms, which accelerate the dissociation of the toxin from the receptors, ultimately causing a reversal of paralysis.

These neurotoxins experimentally and qualitatively aid in the study of acetylcholine receptor density and turnover , as well as in studies observing the direction of antibodies toward the affected acetylcholine receptors in patients diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. Any disorder that compromises the synaptic transmission between a motor neuron and a muscle cell is categorized under the umbrella term of neuromuscular diseases. These disorders can be inherited or acquired and can vary in their severity and mortality. In general, most of these disorders tend to be caused by mutations or autoimmune disorders.

Autoimmune disorders, in the case of neuromuscular diseases, tend to be humoral mediated, B cell mediated, and result in an antibody improperly created against a motor neuron or muscle fiber protein that interferes with synaptic transmission or signaling. In seronegative myasthenia gravis low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 4 is targeted by IgG1 , which acts as a competitive inhibitor of its ligand, preventing the ligand from binding its receptor.

It is not known if seronegative myasthenia gravis will respond to standard therapies. Neonatal MG is an autoimmune disorder that affects 1 in 8 children born to mothers who have been diagnosed with myasthenia gravis MG. MG can be transferred from the mother to the fetus by the movement of AChR antibodies through the placenta. Signs of this disease at birth include weakness, which responds to anticholinesterase medications, as well as fetal akinesia, or the lack of fetal movement. This form of the disease is transient, lasting for about three months.

However, in some cases, neonatal MG can lead to other health effects, such as arthrogryposis and even fetal death. Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome LEMS is an autoimmune disorder that affects the presynaptic portion of the neuromuscular junction. This rare disease can be marked by a unique triad of symptoms: Examples of autonomic dysfunction caused by LEMS include erectile dysfunction in men, constipation , and, most commonly, dry mouth. Less common dysfunctions include dry eyes and altered perspiration.

Areflexia is a condition in which tendon reflexes are reduced and it may subside temporarily after a period of exercise. This type of tumor also expresses voltage-gated calcium channels. Treatment for LEMS consists of using 3,4-diaminopyridine as a first measure, which serves to increase the compound muscle action potential as well as muscle strength by lengthening the time that voltage-gated calcium channels remain open after blocking voltage-gated potassium channels.

In the US, treatment with 3,4-diaminopyridine for eligible LEMS patients is available at no cost under an expanded access program. Rather than causing muscle weakness, NMT leads to the hyperexcitation of motor nerves. NMT causes this hyperexcitation by producing longer depolarizations by down-regulating voltage-gated potassium channels , which causes greater neurotransmitter release and repetitive firing.

This increase in rate of firing leads to more active transmission and as a result, greater muscular activity in the affected individual. NMT is also believed to be of autoimmune origin due to its associations with autoimmune symptoms in the individual affected. Specifically, these syndromes are diseases incurred due to mutations, typically recessive , in 1 of at least 10 genes that affect presynaptic, synaptic, and postsynaptic proteins in the neuromuscular junction.

Single nucleotide substitutions or deletions may cause loss of function in the subunit. Other mutations , such as those affecting acetylcholinesterase and acetyltransferase , can also cause the expression of CMS, with the latter being associated specifically with episodic apnea.