MEET THE HPC TEAM

BY FATIMA AHMED

UWC RECENTLY OPENED the doors to its first High-Performance Centre (HPC). The team appointed to deliver the multidisciplinary project has a wealth of experience in sports and health sciences. The project is headed by Dr Barry Andrews. Brent Hess, the current physiotherapist at the HPC, has been involved with the project since it began and took on the role of overseeing all the logistical issues, including space allocation and the high-quality equipment required for the gym. Prevention and management of sporting injuries are key services offered by an HPC. Now that the HPC is up and running, Hess, who has a Master’s in Physiotherapy and is busy with his PhD at UWC, will focus on physiotherapy and treating patients as needed. Robyn Phillips has joined the team as a second physiotherapist to help with the workload and adds a great deal of experience with women’s netball among other codes. Hess also brings considerable experience of working with teams at high performance levels.

KEENAN WATSON, who has just completed his undergraduate degree at UWC in Sport Science, was also one of the team’s early members. Having run a successful gym of his own, Watson understands exactly what a high-performance gym requires. Watson is the current strength and conditioning specialist, which means he focuses on different performance traits such as speed, agility, endurance, power, strength and flexibility. Watson is involved in the planning, monitoring and management of these performance traits to help the athletes improve while ensuring they avoid injury as far as possible.

ANGELO NELSON contributes a lot of experience from private practice in the field of biokinetics. The biokineticist’s role is to apply clinical exercise therapies to improve the athletes’ physical condition for both preventative and rehabilitation purposes. Because a high workload in this discipline is expected, Kirsten Muller joined as a second biokineticist. Muller has already “come in and done some good things”, says Dr Andrews.

Nutrition is of vital importance in sport, so UWC brought in dietician Carrine Adams, who is pursuing her Master’s at UWC. Good nutrition has been shown to enhance an athlete’s performance and Adams will ensure that all the athletes that she attends to will receive advice on how to follow meal plans that meet their unique needs and provide the vitamins, minerals and protein required to keep them fi t and healthy.

PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT OF SPORTING INJURIES ARE KEY SERVICES OFFERED BY AN HPC.

COMPLETING THE TEAM is sports medical doctor Dr Janesh Ganda who is available on contract when needed by the team. He has extensive experience with sports-related injuries having served as team physician to several prominent teams, including the Women Springboks, Boland Cavaliers and junior Springboks, and as a consultant to Varsity Sports, Goliath Gaming (e-sports) and Western Cape Tornado’s (netball).

MOST OF THE STAFF APPOINTED were inhouse personnel and it was a pleasing reflection of the depth of skills across the relevant disciplines at UWC that augers well for the HPC.