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Experienced strength and conditioning coach Geoffrey Kimani has advised sports federations to invest in legal scientific methods to enhance their performances on global sporting arena.
Kimani said even the best Kenyan coaches need to keep learning and updating themselves with new research coming out every so often hence the right strength and conditioning output.
“If Kenya is to keep competing with the world, all sports need to deliberately incorporate strength and conditioning in their training processes and tie them to program designs and competition cycles,’’ said Kimani.
Kimani was speaking at the Boulevard Hotel in Nairobi Tuesday upon being unveiled by the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) as the lead consultant of their strength and conditioning programme.
“Strength and conditioning is vital since its stops in juries before they get to happen among other benefits and it’s not something new since most high performance centres in developed nations have these programmes,” said Kimani.
Kimani noted that the strength and conditioning programme arises from the challenges within federations, most of whom have no structures in the field.
NOC-K acting secretary-general Francis Mutuku said during Kimani’s unveiling to the media on Tuesday that the strength and conditioning programme is part of the NOC-K strategic objective on Elite Athlete Development arising from its 2019-2024 Strategic Plan.
“This is the first step towards the overall plan of setting up a sports science facility that will serve all sports in Kenya,” said Mutuku adding that the Elite Development Committee constituted by NOC-K, comprising of top coaches in the country, has been assisting teams on volunteer basis.
The appointment of Kimani for a period of 10 months has now been formalised to officially lead the consultancy with federations. Kimani boasts a wealth of experience with Kenya Sevens rugby team Shujaa, football and athletics squads over the past decade.
Kimani begins his duties immediately with Team Kenya for Tokyo 2020 and will also lay the foundation for preparation of Team Kenya’s preparations for the 2021 Commonwealth Youth Games and the 2022 Youth Olympics in Dakar.
“The aim is for the team of the future to understand what constitutes elite athlete training and start early incorporating this in their training,” explained Mutuku.
On sustainability, Kimani’s elite team will strive to work with university students pursuing exercise and sports science besides the development of curriculum around this field.
Kimani will also work with specific national coaches interested in this field, under the guidance of national federations, to nurture upcoming coaches through workshops and trainings with an eye towards increasing the strength and conditioning talent pool in the country.
