The North West Academy of Sport (NWAS) has been using the Institute of Sport Science and Development at the Centre of Health and Human Performance (CHHP) as a consultant for over two decades. The services provided include assessments, exercise programmes, workshops and various other specialist services. Sports codes currently included in these services are soccer, swimming, netball, rugby, cricket, hockey and athletics.
The CHHP provides these services across North West. Apart from making use of their own facilities in Potchefstroom, they can also go out with a mobile unit and assess athletes in their own district. The four regions they cover are Ngaka Modiri Molema, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Bojanala Platinum. In the past, only provincial sports groups were assessed with the view to talent development. Since 2017, the demand for sports development has grown so much that all the above-mentioned sports in the four districts now enjoy team assessments.
These assessments involve that each sports code’s test protocol is reviewed annually. Dr Yolandi Willemse, head of CHHP’s institutes of Biokinetics and Sport Science and Development, explains how it works: “After the preseason assessment, data is processed and entered into our database. Coaches then receive a group report with the relevant team’s specific training programmes set up on the basis of shortcomings identified during the assessment. Re-assessments of the same team take place later in the season to monitor progress and make recommendations on the existing training programme.”
Despite the challenges of 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic, the CHHP saw an opportunity to support the sports codes in an alternative way. “Weekly digital training sessions in the form of video recordings were sent to the teams of the various sports codes so that they could maintain their conditioning during the lockdown period,” Dr Willemse shares. “With the easing of lockdown regulations at the end of 2020, we were again able to physically assess the various sports codes with Covid-19 protocols in place. Smaller groups are now assessed, social distancing is practised and masks are mandatory, except during the time the athletes perform a high-intensity test. Equipment is sanitised before, during and after each assessment,” Dr Willemse concludes.
Regarding the CHHP’s future plans, Dr Willemse says that all programmes will be recorded in the form of a video and sent to coaches. They can then use it as an additional tool during conditioning sessions since contact time with the relevant athletes is limited.
