NAM, Must drill netball clubs in sports science

Netball Association of Malawi (NAM), in partnership with the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must), on Friday drilled technical officials of the country’s elite netball clubs in sports science at Blantyre Sports Arena. NAM vice-president Tadala Billie said they took advantage of the teams’ availability ahead of today’s conclusion of the inaugural FDH Premier Netball League at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KuHes) Sports Complex in Blantyre to keep clubs in sync with the importance of sports science in netball. “Sports science is key to ensuring high performance among athletes and we would like to see our clubs, starting with the elite teams, embracing this.

Things such as players’ diet, physical abilities and health conditions have to be prioritised,” she says. One of the capacity building facilitators Oscar Kanjala, a sports scientist and lecturer at Must, said Malawi sport can greatly improve in terms of performance if sports science is taken seriously. He said it is important for technical officials to understand the appropriateness of every individual player before they make a team.

“Sports science helps to uncover the strength and weaknesses of athletes. Where we find strength we ensure that the coaches enforce them. Where we find weaknesses, we recommend interventions,” said Kanjala.

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“In science, we try to also correct things that have gone wrong. For example, if one is injured, they get treatment in hospital. However, we also have some recovery procedure that are non-medical but scientific in nature through enhancement such as strength and conditioning techniques that can be implemented to improve performance.” Kukoma Diamonds coach Noel Mussa described the training as an eye opener, saying it will help to up their game.

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