ZOC, NAAZ in partnership

of Zimbabwe, are trying to build the capacities of local coaches and will host a Level One technical coaching course expected to start in Harare today in Harare.
The 10-day course is set to run until April 17 at the Olympic Centre based at Prince Edward School.
International expert, Christettah Mulinga Mwale from Zambia and the NAAZ national director responsible for talent identification and coaching Tendai Tagara will conduct the course.
The course is targeting 24 coaches from the country’s 10 provinces who deal with primary schools.
ZOC development officer Primrose Mhunduru said the course was a follow-up to the one they held last year, which was conducted by an IAAF lecturer, Joel Severe.
“This is a basic course and we are targeting coaches who did the Level Two last year and we are working with the national association.
“We want to create a critical mass for our associations especially coaches and building capacity targeting our long term strategy,” said Mhunduru.
NAAZ president, Joseph Mungwari said their objective is to start their development programmes at junior level and to ensure the athletes are handled by qualified coaches.
“We want to involve Primary schools at national level.
“The syllabus covers up to Level Two and we want to cater for cadets and the seniors as well. We are excited about it because it is another window for development.
“Basically they will be looking at dealing with kids as well as seniors. We are going to have 24 coaches from all provinces with each province providing at least two coaches,” said Mungwari.
However, the NAAZ president said out of the 24 coaches that are expected to attend the course the other four were selected from remote areas as part of their efforts to ensure there is sport development throughout the country.
“The remotest areas will provide three coaches.
“We looked at areas like Matabeleland North, Kariba and Matabeleland South.
“This course is going to be very helpful because we are spreading our wings into primary schools and it is a big development because we are catching them young,” said Mungwari.