Mandela Day Report
In celebration of Mandela Day, Woodridge Preparatory School hosted a sports day for over one hundred kids, from their school, the surrounding communities of Thornhill Primary and Van Stadens Flower Reserve Primary and as well as kids from the New Brighton Rugby Academy. The idea of this sports day was to host coaching clinics and matches for a variety of sports codes while allowing the kids to interact and learn about other kids from possibly different backgrounds. In the words of the icon whose life we are celebrating:
“Sports has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where there was once only despair. It is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination. Sport is the game of lovers.” Nelson Mandela
We received a request from one of the parents to help organise and run the clinics for rugby and football, with Mr Mteteleli Biko overseeing to this. The clinics focused on ensuring the kids could comprehend and execute the basic skills of their specific sport, e.g. in rugby, there were drills on tackling technique and passing and in soccer we addressed skills like receiving a ball and marking. The kids were divided into integrated groups were they rotated to different stations where the focus was on certain skills. Some mini matches then took place after the completion of the skills coaching, were everyone appeared to have a great amount of fun as we even lost the concept of time. We were fortunate to have very willing and capable volunteers in the form of third and fourth year students from our department and as well as Biokinetics intern, Danielle Pike. For the rugby we managed to acquire some expertise from EP Elephants’ strength and conditioning coach Siphosethu Kenene and two players by the names; Siphumelele Msuthwana (Madibaz and EP Elephants) and Lubabalo “Giant” Mtyanda (Southern Kings).