Maties Sport High Performance Unit (HPU) this year have started out a Coaches Forum in order to empower our coaches in different areas of sporting expertise.
The first Coaches Forum session for 2022 was held in April, with the next three being presented by Desiree Ellis (Banyana Banyana Head Coach), Kimara Singh (Maties Sport Manager: Media and Communications) and most recently Ilhaam Groenewald (Maties Sport: Chief Director). Coaching Development is an area the Maties Sport HPU feel needs to be worked on in South African sport, hence the unit trying to do their part in improving coaches within their immediate environment.
During the course of this year, the unit is providing opportunities for the head coaches of our various teams to interact with elite level coaches outside of the tertiary education sport environment where the guest coaches/speakers can share their coaching journeys, coaching philosophies, and any pearls of wisdom they may have picked up over the years of coaching.
“We have an exciting list of guest speakers lined up for 2022 that include a national football coach [Desiree Ellis], an IPL cricket coach, and a business leader in sport. When we pair these excellent guest speakers with a number of additional facilitated sessions with the performance psychologist who works with our head coaches, we believe that have an excellent coaching development programme in place for 2022,” said Manager: Sport Technology and Training Innovations Grant van Velden.
The Coaches have been equipped with learning material in the form of a booklet that allows them to read, learn, interact and engage with the guest speakers/performance psychologist and each other. Maties Sport therefore have invested in their coaches and hope that this will benefit them in the long run as they nurture our future Maroon Machine stars.
“The Coaches Forums have been very informative, educational and have been focusing on area’s that increase or capacitate us as Coaches in being better leaders. I believe that this also gives us a platform to engage with other Coaches from different sporting codes, thus allows us as coaches to be spontaneous in dealing with challenges as one would’ve heard how others dealt with similar situations/challenges, therefore helping ignite our creative thinking,” said Head Coach for Maties women’s football Jabulile Baloyi.
The Coaches Forum has closed off for this semester but our coaches have more to look forward to as we venture into the second half of 2022!