Football Associations and PSL clubs urged to prioritise Sports Science

This is one area football in Southern Africa, and Africa in general, still lags behind the rest of the world, but Smith recently presented on the topic during a COSAFA Technical Study Group Symposium in Johannesburg. 

With many continental clubs and FA’s known for cutting corners, he highlights the importance of prioritising sports science in the game.

"At the pro level, I certainly think it varies based on the league and the country, but it's incredibility important for a national team," said Smith.

"Modern football is all moving towards that trend of adopting sports science, which is incredibly impactful when applied correctly, and you can just hope that more and more associations and federations within the COSAFA region start to take it onboard on a serious level."

Smith, who was the conditioning coach at Kaizer Chiefs during their victorious league title campaigns under Stuart Baxter, points to Stellenbosch FC’s tangible results of effectively utilising sports science as well as their High-Performance Centre.

"You can definitely see they're doing an incredible job from a performance centre perspective, and Ruan [Rust], the head of their performance, is doing a fantastic job," he added.

"You can know just on the basis of the conversations you have with him that he knows what he's doing, and he's implemented a very strong model there."

With North African teams being more dominant in the CAF inter-club space, Smith also stresses that more clubs, particularly in the PSL, ought to start taking areas of specialisation such as sports science and analysis seriously. 

"I think that comes down to different types of structures in place – there are very few PSL teams that have a high-performance manage, like myself.

"So are we recognising the various vacancies required? Are we pouring money into analysis, sports science? What facilities are we training out of? What equipment do we have at those facilities?

"you'll see like Sundowns, Chiefs, Pirates have fantastic facilities that they train out of, with good staff contingency – I think you saw Rulani Mokwena's staff, I think it was maybe like 24-26 staff [members].

"So, I'm not saying you need to go that far, but you certainly need to embrace the idea of specialisation within your staff, and embrace the idea of top quality facilities.

"So, as much as you might have top level knowledge as a coach, you're applying it in a place that allows for players to grow and develop optimally."

READ: Injury-ravaged season a learning curve for Peter Shalulile