NAAZ to conduct training for teachers

 Lovemore Kadzura Sports Correspondent —
PRIMARY and secondary school teachers are critical personnel in the development of competent ath­letes, hence they require to be con­stantly trained and examined so that they are up-to-date with the latest methods and techniques, a respected coach has said.

National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe’s national athletes direc­tor of youths, Braid Nhubu, believes that once teachers are equipped with requisite knowledge, it will become easy for national team coaches to select only the best who would have passed through capable hands.

Nhubu who was in charge of the junior athletes at last year’s COSSASA and Region Five games in Namibia and Angola where Zimbabwe came first and second respectively will this weekend conduct a three-day train­ing course for primary and second­ary school teachers from Mutare District. The course will be held at Mutare Girls’ High from today (Fri­day) till Sunday.

“Teachers are very important people in developing a full athlete because it is them who spend most time with them compared to clubs and national teams. The major chal­lenge we have is that most teachers are not trained sports personnel. After taking that into consideration, NAAZ found it imperative and pru­dent that we equip teachers in schools with proper and relevant knowledge so that they are well versed with all the techniques that develop an ath­lete.

“National teams draw most of their athletes from schools espe­cially junior teams and if their train­ers in schools are not up to date with the latest trends in developing and moulding competitive athletes this will spell doom for the whole nation. If a school kid receives wrong train­ing and orientation it will be very dif­ficult to extract the best out of him/ her at a later stage. We are working closely with NAPH and NASH in these training that has to do mainly with coaching and officiating.

“The training we will have at Mutare Girls’ High will focus mainly on aspects such as proper coaching skills using scientific knowledge, phi­losophy, psychology of sport, anat­omy, biomechanics, nutrition, drugs in sport among many other impor­tant aspects.

“The course will be both practical and theoretical and successful candi­dates will graduate with a Level One coaching certificate,” said Nhubu