Online ReporterLovemore Dube, Zimpapers Sports Hub
MAJOR Sports Consultancy boss Nyasha Charandura believes local sportspersons can invest whatever little they earn to prepare for life after the final whistle.
From early in their careers, he says, players and coaches should be exposed to entrepreneurship in sport, not as an afterthought but as part of their development while they are still active.
“So many big names both players and coaches have nothing to show for their careers,” said Charandura, who insists both players and coaches should get a dosage of entrepreneurship in sport training.
Now based in Tanzania, where he does consultancy work for institutions including Tanzania Football Federation and topflight side Azam, Charandura said it is painful to see so many athletes slipping into abject poverty after retirement.
For him, the shift must be deliberate and immediate. Players, he said, need to move away from a mindset that ends with the contract and start identifying areas they can build into sustainable ventures.
“One of the key challenges we have now is not coaches getting jobs to coach, players clubs to play for, the majority of these are being paid well, it’s a seed. Players are not owed anything by clubs,” said Charandura.
He said once that seed is planted and nurtured, it can become the foundation for a secure life after sport.
Charandura noted that in the past, athletes were trained to be champions on the field, with little attention paid to essential life skills beyond competition.
“We are moving into the entrepreneurship side and we are saying which areas can they venture into?” said Charandura.
He pointed to the daily routines of professional athletes as a missed opportunity saying most players train for only a few hours a day and remain idle for long stretches.
“They spend two to three hours training each day and what happens to the remaining hours?” said Charandura.
Alongside his work in athlete development, Charandura is deeply involved in coach education, specialising in sports science and data analysis and interpretation.
From one of his recent interviews, he said he was encouraged to hear players and coaches already thinking beyond football.
“It is good to hear one young coach saying she is into farming, players and coaches must try to redirect into areas like farming, they can also venture into areas like buying and selling. They must look into areas where they can harness their strengths,” said Charandura.
He said it has become common for former players to return and trouble the clubs they once represented, even though they are not owed anything.
Charandura is attached to the Azam High Performance Centre as a consultant, having arrived there six years ago to work with the technical team.
“I oversee the whole structure at the club. Tanzania long embraced sports science and have benefited from the European coaches who have coached there who have brought about data, sports nutrition and sports science. Their teams have done well in Africa because of that. For instance in that Afcon qualifiers, they started when the Tanzania League was coming from off season, we embraced data management and worked on the players drawing first with Ethiopia 0-0, beating Guinea away 2-1, a power house, losing to the Democratic Republic of Congo, beating both Ethiopia and Guinea at home to qualify for Morocco,” said Charandura, who has been involved in running the Confederation of African Football Caf A, B and C licence courses.
He has also helped a number of Zimbabwean coaches obtain their badges in Tanzania during a period when coach training at home had been frozen.
Charandura said Zimbabwe initially lagged behind, with physical education often mistaken for sports science.
“I am glad over the years we have embraced new methods with fitness coaches now playing a major role.
They are coaches and not just individuals putting cones and as such you can see them on their gadgets during warm up monitoring what the boys are doing,” said Charandura.
He expressed disappointment that some local coaches still carry unnecessary baggage, including assistant coaches and technical staff whose value is unclear.
“My problem is what value will the assistant coaches add? Are they technically adept to infuse scientific and data driven approaches. We have worked hard as Major Sports back home to take scientific approach to another level. That is why we are registered as a company and also with the Sports and Recreation Commission,” said Charandura, who has trained the majority of fitness coaches in the Premiership and Division One leagues.
Charandura was in Bulawayo on Tuesday and yesterday and took time to donate a football kit and 30 balls to the National University of Science and Technology.
He studied sports science at the institution.
