Planning is everything for this Bantwana coach
SUNDOWNER – Coach plans well for his team's success in the upcoming winter league.
It is just a few weeks before the Rand Central Local Football Association’s ladies winter league and local coach Theo Buttress is ready for action.
The coach and his Bantwana College Football Club will be hoping to compete in hard and exciting matches so their players can develop further. They will play a few friendly matches against teams from Ruimsig and Diepsloot ahead of the 20 April league start.
“Our preparation has been going very well and we are looking forward to kick-off in our first match,” said Buttress. “We started in the Easterns summer league towards the end of last year and that gave us a lot of exposure, plus the girls had a chance to get their fitness levels up.”
To prepare his team for the upcoming league, Buttress introduced periodisation which is the systematic planning of physical training. The aim is to reach the best possible performance in the most important competition of the year.
“We started off with aerobic endurance a month or two ago and now we’re at the strength endurance phase. The endurance phase gets the players match ready and then we will move on to speed endurance.
“All this hard work is so we can beat all the teams in the league and to also improve as a team.”
Buttress and his team’s hard work do not end there as they also look at the psychological and physical preparation beyond the periodisation programme.
“Before each fixture, you research your opposition thoroughly from their history to style of play as well as their players.
“Fortunately I have coached at district and regional levels so a lot of the players in the opposition team are players I have worked with. It is also important to try and get my players to believe in me and the direction that I want to lead them.
“I normally get my players to warm up at the playing field 45 minutes before the game and 30 minutes is allotted to warming up. This is so that when its kick-off, they are physically and psychologically prepared.”
Before each game, Buttress has a ritual that stems from his days as a professional player. He prepares four to six hours in advance and when he gets dressed, he always puts on his left sock and left shoe first.
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