We need to up our game

G’day On introduction

Guys, I’ve decided to invite someone who will explain to you why it is important for players to learn speed from a young age and what speed training can do for you. It is important for me to invite experts from different sporting aspects to explain and educate us on the modern trends. I will look to do this more often, so as to freshen things up in this column and ensure that you get your money’s worth. The first guest to feature in this column is Syd Rappaport and I will tell you more about him towards the end of the column. Over to you, Syd…

Doc’s guest

Thanks, Doc. I really appreciate the opportunity and my greetings to Soccer Laduma readers. Mine is to talk to you about a company, that we run, called Origin Fitness, which operates under Speed – Power Sports. I’m the owner and director and I have been manufacturing functional fitness equipment since 2005. Not only do we manufacture the equipment, we also provide coach-training for the body. There are very few people in South Africa that actually do what we do. We believe that the most important part of sport, and I mean any sporting code - speed - is not just the ability to run fast. We say speed is forward, backward, up and down. Speed of eyes, speed of ears and speed of brains. So, everything has to be in a fast way in milliseconds. Basically, this is what we train and we’ve taken the science part of speed and broken it down into everyday English that people can understand. A language that a normal coach, be it at a school or a club, can understand.

Basically, we do coach-training and that means we equip coaches to use the methodology to train a person to run better and faster. We’ve found that 90% of our population has never, ever, been taught how to run properly, using the correct musculoskeletal part of the body. That’s what my company is all about and we call it a “Movement Specialist” and we offer these courses from three- yearolds to international players. In a nutshell, that’s what we do and if people want to get in contact with us to get more information or even get the taste of what we are about, they must please feel free to contact me on syd@speedpower.co.za and we are based in Edenvale, Johannesburg. All our equipment is made in South Africa and we are Proudly South African! Our programme is called Speed Kenitix and it is on four levels. We have Kiddie Kenitix, from three-six years old, Junior Kenitix, from seven-10 years, TeenT Kenitix, from 11-15 years and Speed Kenitix from 16 to international level. Basically,B it is the same type of methodology, but for the young children it is vitally important to start training them the correct musculoskeletal attributes of the body and how to run properly from an early age. When they get to the higher levels of sport, the coach does not need to re-introduce the basic elements of running and skill development because that’s the pre-requisite of being able to play a sport. If I see it, Bafana Bafana do not have a speed coach nor does the Springboks or the Proteas and even the Proteas netball team. Speed is very important and needs to be trained properly, from a young age. Our vision is to coach the coaches on everyday speed coaching so that it filters through to the young people and thereafter to our international teams. We have been training our sports people too late to their careers to be as good as they could possibly be. We need to change that and start them young, especially on speed training. Thanks for your time and I will hand you over to Doc.

Doc’s closing remarks

Thanks, Syd, and I hope our readers have learned something from your writing. I knew about Syd’s products when we were doing the SAFA Level Three Coaching Course together with Manqoba Mngqithi, Steve Komphela, Neil Tovey, the late Thomas Madigage, Ace Khuse, Pitso Mosimane and a long list of other guys. Syd introduced a programme called “Accelerator” and he’s now changed to “Speed Kenitix” and we’ve always been in contact since and I’m very familiar with his programmes. When we talk speed, it is one of the conditions that coaches introduce to each and every aspect of the game, which is why I felt it was important to give him the platform to share this information with you. The New Zealanders and Brazilians use this programme and the same thing happens in England.

They start training kids from the age of three whereas the rest of

South Africa starts training kids in speed at the age of 17. There are certain dynamics that expose us when it comes to international standards and this is one of them. Once again, that’s why I thought it would be great for our readers to get first-hand information from the master instead of me telling you what these guys offer. Before we can even think of results, it is important for us to take care of what looks to be little and simple things in the game. Imagine when we have this programme here in the country and then we go on to play against an English opposition that uses it and it enhances their game. They beat us using the very same programme that we have access to but didn’t make use of.

We really need to up our game if we are to compete against the rest of the world. For us to produce top athletes, we need to get the basics right so that they can stand their own against the best in the world. This isn’t just about football but all the other sporting codes. I just want to thank Syd for availing himself to help our people and I plan to do this more often. Like I said, we need to up our game and it starts with sharing the information and operating differently.