Banyana Banyana, under the watchful eyes of national coach Augustine Makalakalane and high performance team manager, Fran Hilton-Smith, are being put through rigorous strength and conditioning training in preparation for the African Women’s Soccer Championships in Nigeria next month.
The national women’s soccer team has been at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria since September 17, and Makalakalane was visibly happy with the team’s progress.
They’re so willing to learn, and they are starting to realise that it’s not all about ball skills, but about their physique, speed, and strength,” said Makalakalane.
“The teams they are going to face in Nigeria are going to be strong and aggressive and we have to match that.”
Hilton-Smith agreed with the coach, commenting that strength and conditioning had to become a top priority for the team, if Banyana Banyana were to beat the likes of DR Congo and Nigeria.
“Being on the technical study group at the FIFA under-20 Women’s World Cup in Russia, I was able to bring back lots of DVDs of matches like Nigeria against DR Congo, so I can show them the kind of physical opponents they are likely to come up against.
“Compared to the rest of Africa, our girls are petite, so we have to make them work hard in the gym to become stronger, something that’s been lacking in the last few years.”
With that in mind, Hilton-Smith enlisted the services of the High Performance Centre’s top strength and conditioning coach, Steven Ball.
“We need good upper-body strength, we might have all the technical skills in the world, but the teams we’ll be facing are bigger, taller and stronger.
“To take the game away from them, we’re going to have to be able to hold on to our possession, and to be able to take the ball away from them too,” said Hilton-Smith.
Asked about the team’s tournament goal, Hilton-Smith was curt: “To qualify [.. for the Women’s Soccer World Cup].”
Bearing in mind that only the top two African teams in the African Women’s Soccer Championships will gain passage to the World Cup, this ambition tells a tale of the coaching squad.
The team will face the Super Falcons Women’s Team from Rabie Ridge tomorrow as they wrap up their stay at the High Performance Centre, which ends on Friday.
The squad leaves for Nigeria on October 24.
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