Firstly, I’d like to thank the SportsEdTV team for allowing me the opportunity to share my thoughts, perspectives and opinion on this fantastic platform. Hopefully, I can give all of you some insight into what’s happening on the African continent and more specifically South Africa. Soccer is very dear to my heart and it’s always interesting to hear and share our different ways of approaching the beautiful game. Let’s dive right in.
The Covid Effect
Contrary to some belief around the world South Africa has some amazing health care facilities and some of the best medical doctors/personnel there is. When we first got wind of this disease that was emulating from somewhere in the far east we really didn’t know what to expect. I remember sitting with one of our coaches and we’d just gotten the news that the English Premier League was to be postponed. For me personally this was devastating cause I’ve been waiting for Liverpool to win the league for the past 30 years. Anyway, the thought was there’s no chance it would get all the way down to us but like everywhere else in the world, it did.
Now to give you an idea first of what the South African culture look forward to on weekends. It’s being around your friends, lighting a braai “barbeque”, having something to drink and watching SPORT. When the first few cases of Covid were reported from a flight coming in from Italy, no one could see what was just about to hit us.
South Africa, on the 26th of March were put into a National lockdown, one which currently continues as I’m writing this. Our President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that with almost immediate affect everyone besides essential workers have to stay at home. We were in what was called lockdown level 5. We were only allowed to send one person from home to shop for food items only. The sale of everything else was banned from kitchen pans, clothing, cigarettes and alcohol. Businesses shut down and you were not allowed to visit or see friends and family.
ALL SPORTS TO BE POSTPONED/CANCELLED INDEFINITELY!!!
No soccer, rugby or cricket (all of our biggest past times) for us to watch anymore. I think this depressed people more than seeing a few loved ones to be honest. South Africa has a great sporting culture and it’s something that has always brought us together as a nation. We are very passionate about our National teams and love a bit of banter amongst our local teams.
Our biggest challenge for the kids in our programs was how to still keep them active whilst they have to stay at home. At the best of times, we have to really push them during normal on-field training sessions so to find a solution for them at home was testing. For the first few weeks, we did Zoom sessions where the focus was more on core strength and flexibility but it was inevitable that they would get bored, which they did. That’s where platforms like SportsEdTV and our Coerver sessions have and still are coming to the rescue. I quite literally now send the boys the link for the session which they can do at home and they send me a vid to show me there progress. It’s giving them an opportunity to be a bit more responsible for themselves and show whether they want to improve in their own capacity or not. The proof will be evident at our first session back for sure.
