The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
THE country’s sporting fraternity have been urged to adopt a more scientific approach as a means to boost performance and results.
Speaking at a Sports Leadership Institute of Zimbabwe-organized symposium – held in partnership with the West Virginia University last week – Laurie Wagner, a health educationist, emphasised the importance of such programmes.
She said the link between an individual‘s performance, their diet and wellness all contribute to help attain the desired results on the field of play.
“There is a lot that makes up an individual‘s ability to perform and it would be important that every sporting discipline have at least an expert who deals on that aspect.
“An athlete should be viewed as an entire person putting into consideration how they perform, a contribution of what they eat, their wellness, emotional well-being, spiritual well-being and several other factors,” she said.
Professor Kimberly Peer and Dr Ellen Glickman – both from the Ohio-based tertiary institution – were also in attendance and emphasised the fundamentals of sports science and its impact on the individual performance of a player.
The annual programme, running for the third year, is meant to usher in a turnaround of Zimbabwean sport.
“The science of nutrition is key for any sport that seeks to produce good results. What players consume increases or decreases their ability to perform, their movements should be monitored,” said Dr Natalie Caine-Bish.
She added that players should be taken as a very complicated system that has various facets building into one component.
Dr Caine Bish urged clubs to engage the services of dieticians and coaches to also take up such courses.
“It is key that every club engage a dietician. Coaches and team managers should also be well versed with diet and wellness issues because they work more closely with the players.
“They (coaches and the dieticians) need to get all the information they need to create a complete player,” she said.
