Why Zimbabwean Sport Needs To Incorporate Sport Science

By Brian Chifamba

Sports science has become bedrock for the development of any sporting discipline, making it a key area that modern day administrators need to look into if Zimbabwean sport is to ever prosper. Established sporting nations have made use of sports science to identify talent based on the ability to measure the physicalities of various athletes before making informed decisions about whether an athlete meets the essential requirements for certain disciplines. For example on the football front central defenders would need to be of a certain height in order to play in that position making it vital for modern day sport administrators to incorporate sports science as part of the talent identification process.

Sports science has also increasingly become essential to modern day coaches who need every bit of information in order to create coaching programmes that help improve their athletes. For example in order for a coach to improve a strikers shot at goal one needs to be in a position to know the speed at which their striker strikes a shot at goal. This helps a coach make a critical decision of whether a striker needs more time in the gym to work on their calf muscles so as to enhance their shooting power.
The need to determine the work rate of a rugby or football player is another reason why sports science has become increasingly essential to the performance of sporting institutions. In order for a coach to be in a position to determine whether a defensive midfielder is performing their required role holistically, one has to be in possession of information about the work rate of that player. Kilometers run in a football match, passes completed as well as tackles made are all essential bits of information that a coach needs in order to determine whether a player is performing to the best of their ability.

Established clubs such as Bolton Wanderers in England possess state of the art stadiums which were built in a way that enables for every bit of information on the field of play to be captured. The Reebok stadium possesses 64 cameras which help capture all critical information that is handed over to the manager after every game. One might argue such a process may be too expensive for a country such as Zimbabwe yet critical information such as passes completed, tackles made, headers on goal etc. can be captured by statisticians employed to perform such roles.
Sports science has also become of essence when preparing athletes for elite competitions such as the Olympics. The ability to design training regimes which prevent athletes from being overloaded prior to competition is one fundamental aspect that coaches need to consider so as to guard against athletes suffering from fatigue when competitions start. Coaches thus need to carefully come up with a training regime which allows athletes to recover and peak when a competition starts. This is only made possible by designing scientifically proven training regimes that are considered as ideal for preparing athletes for competition.

Given the underperformance of Zimbabwean sport over the last decade one may argue inadequate attention towards the significance of sports science has to some extent had a negative impact towards the ability of Zimbabwean athletes to realise their potential.