The North-West University (NWU) Eagles football players have had a hectic programme preparing for the 2022 Varsity Football tournament. To keep the players physically fit and mentally ready to maximally compete in this year’s tournament, the NWU counts on its physical trainer and fitness coach, Dino Rangaka.
Dino, who has been with the NWU’s Soccer Institute on the Mahikeng Campus for seven years, holds an introductory certificate on coaching from the Netherlands, and an advanced periodisation certificate from the World Football Coaching Academy.
He says with all the major tournaments the team has played thus far the trick is to have everyone on board.
“I work very closely with the team doctor and physio-therapist Thabiso Ramakgolo, who also has been in the game for a long time. He fully understands players’ workload and fatigue levels, so it’s easy for me to have all the players refreshed and ready for each game. We have a well-executed programme every week and a good periodisation plan,” says Dino.
As a strength and conditioning coach, Dino trains the players to improve their overall fitness.
He says most players' goals revolve around improving or developing a particular skill or improving sports performance. The expertise that a strength and conditioning coach provides can help improve mental skills, improve performance, and reduce injury.
“I also develop programmes that can be a combination of strength training, speed and agility training, power training, skill-related drills, flexibility training, and balance training. Although performance training is a huge component of my knowledge base, my duty as a strength and conditioning coach is to have an extensive understanding of how the body adapts to stress and recovers to be able to implement appropriate periodisation,” adds Dino.
“My pride comes from knowing that the coach always has a pool of players that are injury-free, which makes his job easier as he can select any player he deems fit and ready to start. I plan to learn more and keep implementing quality workloads for the team so we can keep raising the NWU flag high.”
NWU Eagles captain Tshepiso Mahlangu says coach Dino helps them a lot, not only with the team’s fitness and physical conditioning, but also by being someone that the players feel close to.
“His pre-match talks are vital to how we start our matches. He really is the one who sets the tone for us, and provides a good pep talk and warm-up that leave us feeling confident. We are one of the fittest teams in our ranks and it showed in the ABC Motsepe national playoffs. His ability as a fitness and conditioning coach is essential to our counter-pressing style of play,” adds Tshepiso.
NWU Eagles fitness coach Dino Rangaka.
