United partners with UJ sports department to advance its battle for promotion

Alex United have taken their battle for promotion to the National First Division to another level.

After losing promotion last season to Highlands Park by a whisker, United have teamed up with the Sport Science Department of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) which could see them up their game.

UJ’s senior lecturer in sport and movement studies, Rian Lombard said he bumped into one of the directors of United, Nick Nicolaou at a conference and they got chatting about United’s struggle to gain promotion. Lombard identified a need for the team to embrace sport science and make it part of their game.

“I then advised him [Nicolaou] to partner with us so we could assess the strength and weaknesses of their players, both mentally and physically, including checking their heart conditions and the ability to recover from the start-stop athletic movements which comprise the game of football,” said Lombard.

“I said with this in mind, we can assist with the testing and conditioning of players to take their battle for promotion to another level, and this is how this relationship between us and Alex United came about.”

Lombard said success in today’s sports came with infusing sport science into the game which helped improve certain physical qualities of the sport while at the same time looking into the lifestyle and dietary elements for the players. It also includes the players’ psychological attributes which determines their mental toughness and ability to compete at the highest level

“We are not saying this is the panacea for all their problems, but it is one of the elements of the game that needs to be looked into and embraced in order to take their game to the next level, both on and off the field.

“We will not be able to perform miracles, but over a period of time they will begin to reap the benefits of embracing sport science as part of their game plan,” Lombard concluded.