the Meddalistsport, science,a knowledgelist December 2008 Feature Sports Law 6 High performance centres, Institutes, 40 Match-fixing in sport Academies…. are they actually effective…. Is there an alternative? TuksSport Combined School 42 Smart, Resilient, Competitive People 10 Hellebaut: An unlikely champion TuksSport 12 Kanter takes gold in Olympics discus throw 44 TuksSport News14 14 Just Chillin 16 Legend: Professor Ernst Kruger 46 Inside News 20 Retiring with gold 54 On The Sideline High Performance Services 22 Psychology: Self awareness: An interview with your body 26 Visual Skills: Training the eyes that are on the prize 30 Nutrition: Fat as fuel for physical performance 32 G4 National Selections 36 Physiotherapy: Get your cylinder to fire 38 Sport Science and Coaching: Golden thoughts... from Wayne Goldsmith Cover Image: Susan du Toit December 2008 3 Publisher: hpc, PO Box 14622, Hatfield, 0028 The Medalist is published by the hpc. Opinions Tel: +27 12 362 9800, Fax: +27 12 362 9890 expressed in this publication are not neces- Executive Editor: sary those of the hpc and the University of Toby Sutcliffe, [email protected] Pretoria and are believed to be correct at the Managing Editor: time of going to print. No responsibility can be accepted for errors and omissions. Copyright Leonore Jordaan, [email protected] 2005 hpc. All rights reserved. No articles or Layout: photographs may be reproduced, in whole or Maunée Meiring, [email protected] in part, without specific written permission from Printing: the editor. Business Print Centre, Building 29, CSIR TuksSport (Pty) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Pretoria and is trading as hpc University of Pretoria 4 December 2008 from the CEO’S OFFICE ow that the euphoria of what was arguably that the 2012 Games will not only be a home games the best ever Olympic Games has died for Team Great Britain, but also for all the European down it is time to ask where to from now. countries close to the UK. For them there will not be NWhat of London 2012? It would be an major time differences, no major climatic changes understatement to say that we as South Africans were and they will all be able to pop across in less that an disappointed with the performance of Team South hour or two should they decide to base themselves Africa at the able bodied Olympics and extremely in their home countries and then only move in a day satisfi ed with the Paralympians at the Paralympics, while or so before they compete. So in essence this could at the same time acknowledging the performances of a also be their “home Olympics”. Therefore I sincerely number of our Olympians. believe that we should have a top-down and bottom-up preparation for not only 2012, but also 2016 wherever I sincerely believe that we should learn from the past, it will be. but not dwell on it as the other countries around the world have already been training for London for two The top down approach must be to concentrate months while we are still trying to decide on what on where we honestly believe we can medal and should be done. I am never one to copy any country then ensure that those athletes and teams receive and the manner in which they prepare their athletes, all the support they need not only for their training, but maybe it is time to have a look at what they do. accommodation and fi nancial support, but also for For example the Australian swimming Strategic plan their International participation. Then with all the other is written for a period of four years, but commencing major focus codes we should concentrate on 2016 a year after the Olympics with their current strategy and put together a comprehensive long term athlete taking them up to completion of the Olympic year and development plan and then throw all our weight and the year thereafter. This then allows them to continue effort behind this plan and ensure that by the time immediately with their training regime and not have 2016 comes around, we know, and are confi dent that to wait for the debrief, the discussions around the we have the best prepared and well trained Team South performances and then only put a plan together for Africa ever to leave these shores. To waist money now the next four years. In fact by the time this is all done at on 2012 on sports that are currently not even training least six months to a year has been lost in the training and are only looking at getting going next year some time of the swimmers, something that cannot happen. time will be foolhardy and a waste of money that can During the next year there is then an adjustment to the be better spent on 2016. plan in action based on their performances which is far better than non activity. Therefore their plans are Only time will tell which way SASCOC and Sport and written for 2009 to 2013 which makes a lot of sense Recreation decide to go, but I sincerely hope that it is as no time is lost in the long term athlete development not merely the London route. Little has happened since programme which is integral to the performance of the Olympics, time is marching on and meetings and their swimmers in the years ahead. We unfortunately Indabas are being held and no Federation has any do not follow this route and in fact we do exactly the idea on where they are going at present as they are opposite and have already lost a number of weeks dependent on the approval of SASCOC and Sport and preparation for London. Recreation of their plans and then only will the funding follow The London Olympics will be far more diffi cult to medal at as not only will the Chinese still be up there, but Russia, Australia and America will be on the comeback trail as they were all disappointed with their performances at the Games. Add to this the fact December 2008 5 Feature / High performance centres, Institutes, Academies…. Text: Rocco Meiring, hpc port, more specifi cally performance in sport, is regulated. To make matters worse, the functions of a very complex environment. The background, these initiatives often overlap. training and environment from which world Sclass athletes are produced differ vastly. In Athletes and coaches that “go at it alone” usually one extreme, individual athletes from very poor do so because they are failed by their offi cial sport countries produce world class results with no sport system or because they do not have access to a sport scientifi c support, compared to those athletes that system. It is seldom that the “alpine/solo approach” is perform by completely relying on state-of-the-art sport followed by choice or leaves a pathway for others to scientifi c intervention. Countries fortunate enough to follow. Although our Olympic level athletes have lately have generous budgets to invest in sport implement enjoyed adequate support, it is the emerging talent comprehensive sports development infrastructure that suffers within the South African context because benefi t from a steady fl ow of young talent, drawn from our system is still fragmented towards facilitating talent identifi cation programmes. The poorer countries talent identifi cation and talent development. The desperately try to emulate their richer rivals. incubator of our future elite coaches, sport scientists and athletes lie within controlled environments such as It is interesting to note that neither the rich, nor the the TuksSport academies and hpc. This environment poor countries are always satisfi ed with their situations. forces all stakeholders to communicate, collectively Olympic committees of countries like Germany recently plan and problem solve in the real world of ruthless commissioned a comprehensive review to ascertain athletic performance. No one has the security of being why their Olympic successes have gradually decreased at arms length away from athletic results. This type of despite the fact that their sport science support, talent environment cannot be replicated in any way except in development infrastructure (like sport schools) and the confi ned integrated space of an academy and sport youth team results all improved considerably. school structure. South Africa’s scenario is no different, with sport It is in this controlled environment that experience performances generally on the decline. The indaba’s, is gained through knowledge sharing, mistakes, debriefs and post Beijing Olympics meetings bear experiments and research. Coaches and scientists testimony to this current phenomenon. What is the are the long term assets of SA sport, not only the future for South African sport, especially against our athletes – therefore environments should be created unique backdrop of transformation, limited funding where coaches and sport scientists are fast tracked to and relative immaturity in terms of being competitive international level. These coaches and scientists must internationally and keeping the “supply chain” going in then share their knowledge and skills to others around terms of producing future elite athletes? South Africa so that in the foreseeable future athletes Sadly South Africa’s efforts are disjointed, our can be developed all across South Africa. This can leadership divided and our direction expected unfortunately not happen unless a sound knowledge from sport science instead of experienced coaches. and skill base has been developed through experience South African sport is fl ooded with “academies”, in a controlled environment. More often than not, our “schools of excellence”, “high performance centres” stars appear as a result of sheer talent or are developed and “sportscience institutes”.