Wits University will be launching its inaugural Wits Sport Peak Performance Summit on 24 and 25 November.
The initiative is born of the high-performance culture that has been fostered at Wits Sport in the past three years, according to its head of sport, Adrian Carter.
“Up until three years ago, the high-performance component at Wits Sport had never been in play in all of its history. We’d always been a recreational or competitive environment,” he said.
“Through the initiation of the Wits Sport Peak Performance Summit, we’re [essentially] taking the next step in the high-performance mandate of the institution. It’s also about honing the partnerships that the institution has with national and provincial federations as well as schools.”
Carter added that students and parents were also an important part of this mandate. “We want parents, teachers, coaches and scholars to know that the institution is putting on a quality high-performance summit, which by and large, speaks to the systems that we now have in place.”
Michael Dick, senior manager for the high-performance centre at Wits Sport expanded on the individuals that have been selected to speak at the summit. These include former New Zealand, USA and Golden Lions rugby head coach, John Mitchell; Varsity Cup Dream Team strength and conditioning coach, Jacques Durandt; and South African professional MMA fighter, Chad Hanekom.
“The summit is intended to expose people to other high-performance practitioners and to learn from them – which is very important in the high-performance scene,” said Dick. “We had to look at who we have that people could learn from, and whom we’d like to learn from in terms of the way in which they do things.
“For one, John Mitchell has been the IRB [International Rugby Board] and the number one rugby coach in the world according to World Rugby. He’s gotten the [Golden Lions] from a terrible position. However, being in the USA, he wasn’t so accessible, but all of a sudden, you get a chance to get this guy in your system.”
Related stories:
High school coaching in the spotlight
Pirates Tennis Club appoint two new coaches
