POWER PROPONENTS
UWC’s investment in biokinetics is optimising the performance of its elite athletes By Lynne Rippenaar-Moses
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ncreased investments by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to improve sports performance amongst its elite athletes over the last few years has allowed the Biokinetics Practice and newly established High Performance Centre (HPC) to provide these athletes with niche training. This training improves their performance, helps minimise injuries and tracks habits, such as good nutrition and sleep, all of which impact on performance. Both the Biokinetics Clinic and the HPC are based in UWC’s Department of Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science (SRES) at the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences. “These investments are giving our athletes a cutting edge and provide them with access to high-performance support, training, equipment and software. Our athlete online monitoring system, for example, has become really important during the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown as it allows us to monitor and facilitate athletes training remotely. With this tool, we can assess what they are doing during training, their sleeping and eating patterns, and other information through wellness questionnaires,” explains Angelo Nelson, a qualified biokineticist from the HPC. Biokineticists offer specialised exercise rehabilitation for people with orthopaedic and sports injuries as well as chronic illness.
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Nelson, along with fellow biokineticist Kirsten Huckle, forms part of a multidisciplinary team at the HPC comprising physiotherapists, medical doctors, a nutritionist, and strength and conditioning coaches that focus on developing and offering specialised training programmes to the Varsity Sports sporting codes. High-performance training is very different from the “minimum exercise individuals do to help maintain a healthy lifestyle”, says Nelson. “There are certain performance parameters that an elite athlete needs to meet in terms of strength,
power, agility, speed and explosiveness. A biokineticist in a high-performance setting takes a structured approach and creates a periodised plan to take the athlete through the entire sports season – from off-season to pre-season training as well as during the playing season. This plan ensures the athlete trains in a safe environment, that the training programme is structured to allow the athlete to peak at the right time, and protects the athlete from getting injured in the process.” When athletes are injured, biokineticists also facilitate the process to get the athlete back
