Minky Tshabalala combines her love for sports and science for a high-performance sports career

AUCKLAND PARK – Sports scientist Minky Tshabalala (29), has combined her love for sport and science having worked with the South African U17 girls’ soccer team.

“Working in this field it has always been my ambition to one day work with a national team,” she said.

“When I got the call-up letter I was in disbelief and happy that I would finally be working with the U17 national team at the World Cup. It only hit me once we were flying over to Uruguay that this was happening.”

The tournament took place from 13 November 13 to 1 December last year. Unfortunately, South Africa did not make the top eight play-offs. “I am sure that for any sports personnel, to serve your country is one of the biggest honours, it was a major learning curve for the squad.”

She grew up in Polokwane and studied sports science at the University of Pretoria and did her practical training at the university’s High Performance Centre.

Currently, Tshabalala is the sports science unit manager at UJ Sport. This unit provides services to the institution’s seven high performance and recreational sports codes. She is involved in overseeing the effective functioning of the sports science division by defining the scope of the sports science and performance excellence needs within each high-performance sporting code, in collaboration with the club manager and coaches.

She said her passion for sport had drawn her to the profession, “I got into sports science because I loved sports and did everything I could, eventually playing at the national U19 girls’ cricket week.” Unfortunately, due to injury, she shifted her focus to studying and said sports science had given her the best of both worlds from a sporting and an academic point of view.

Her main role with the U17 soccer team is to monitor the strength and conditioning of the players to ensure they are operating at their optimum level.

Tshabalala concluded that said she had learnt that preparation was always key and that a person should never stay in their comfort zone.