Tech-savvy Malkia Strikers plotting to become Tokyo Olympics surprise package

KURUME City, Japan, Jul 13 – The national women’s volleyball team is leaving nothing to chance as they prepare to make a return to the Olympic Games for the first time since 2004, with technology taking center stage.

The Malkia Strikers have made great strides thanks to the watchful eyes of top Brazilian coaches, Luizomar de Moura, Jefferson Arosti, Strength & Conditioning Trainer Marcelo Vitorino de Souza and Manager Roberto Opice Neto, who have been seconded by the world governing volleyball body FIVB.

The tacticians, who came on board as technical advisors to head coach Paul Bitok, have introduced the African Queens to sports technology that involves using of the catapult, which is a sports performance analytics GPS device that helps measure the work rate of an athlete.

The catapult is famously used by high profiled football clubs especially in top European league and now, Malkia Strikers will be the first in the world of volleyball to use it in a major competition like in the Olympics.

“Technology comes to help sports and even in volleyball it’s not going to be different,” Roberto said.

He added, “The catapult helps measure the performance during training so you can evaluate the work rate of the player. We assist the strength and conditioning coach with that data which will help them prepare for every training session and how to avoid injury.”

The nine-time African Champions have been using the equipment since the beginning of the Tokyo Olympic Games preparations in Nairobi.

“It has been helpful, in a way that coaches can prepare for a specific training session for each individual player. Volleyball is a team sport but each player needs training that suits her playing position,” Roberto explained.

“It helps measure heartbeat and recommend the right type of exercises to avoid injuries. It also gives a recommendations of how many jumps an athlete can make in a session and how high they can jump and then the live date is given to coaches for analysis,” he further adds.

The team hopes that those finer details engraved in the hand of technology will come in with a difference when they finally head to Tokyo to battle with the world’s best.

The squad of 12 players were the first batch to check in at the Kurume City Pre-Olympics Camp and have been training daily twice as they prepare to tackle hosts Japan, Serbia, Brazil, Korea and Dominican Republic in Group A at the Olympics.

“We have been in Kurume for the Pre-Olympics camp and the players are committed since we started. For now it’s the crucial stage and we need to focus and work on what we will face during competition,” the Brazilian tactician underscored.

“We will play Japan in our first match and our coaches are going to use a different strategy. Playing Brazil will be strange for us because the coach attached to Kenya knows each of the players very well and it will be interesting to see how we will share our knowledge and expertise to the Kenyan players. We think Kenya will do well. With this volleyball project we want Kenya to break the Olympics ceiling,” the coach further added.

The Kenyan girls are excited ahead of the experience as none in the current team has ever graced the Olympic Games.

Skipper Mercy Moim and setter Jane Wacu have tried since 2008 to no success, but finally earned the prize of their sweat with the ticket to Tokyo.