The unit liaises closely with the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
Athletes in the Northern Cape can henceforth expect an enhanced bouquet of sports science-related services with the recent emphasis on marketing this capacity to sports federations and related stakeholders in the Province.
Sports science practitioner Thabiso Mohulatsi (39) who is resident at the Mayibuye Multisports Centre in Galeshewe, serves the Province as part of the Northern Cape Academy of Sports. This is an entity linked to the national Department of Sport and Recreation.
The unit liaises closely with the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
Mohulatsi (pictured) explains that as Athletics Services Development Coordinator his duty is looking into an athlete’s needs and devising ways of assisting them to perform at their best to reach their peak.
Recommended
Mohulatsi strictly takes in athletes recommended by the various sports federations.
“I assess the active athlete for the correct intervention,” he told the DFA. “It is like the federation gives us an athlete who is a top performer. We do a fitness assessment and check for latent ailments such as asthma and so forth. We screen for these ailments to make sure none of them are active in the individual.”
“We then devise a plan to get (the athlete) up to a certain level of fitness. This is done at least through four quarterly assessments in the year. Also if you get injured we make sure you get the relevant medical interventions. We also have a biokineticist as part of our services. It’s a whole lot of scientific interventions that we afford athletes,” he added.
“These services are offered in every province and are cascaded from the national office. We do not take walk-in participants from the community. You have to be referred by your federation to access our services,” Mohulatsi cautioned.
“We already have a healthy relationship with some of the federations in the Northern Cape. These include Athletics Griqualand West, Northern Cape Cricket, The local boxing fraternity and many others. The services are also available to women and disabled sports.”
