SuperSport ‘keeper polishing his footwork during lockdown
Goalkeepers are popular mostly for what they do with their hands more than the skill on their feet.
Ronwen Williams of Supersport United Pic: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
However, there has been growing admiration for that sticks-man who are able to pull a trick or two and string a couple of passes.
Post the nationwide lockdown, don’t be surprised if you see SuperSport United and Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Ronwen Williams doing a show me your number or a shibobo here and there. Williams told Phakaaathi that his dribbling skills have improved during the lockdown and this is thanks to the daily challenges that he and his Matsatsantsa A Pitori teammates take on to keep fit.
“We get challenges from Monday to Friday and we have challenges like how many push-ups you can do in a minute, and there is jumping over a rope and the rope must be above your knees and you jump for one minute. Other challenges include dribbling the ball around cones, we also have sprinting competition to see how many times you can sprint and touch the cones in a minute. That is just besides the program that our technical team has given us,” he said.
“My dribbling skills have obviously become much better now because in the last few weeks I have not dived, the only time I dive is when I dive into the swimming pool. But this is probably the most running I have ever done in my life because the only way to keep fit. My complex is lenient with me to run just in front of the yard in the street, they allow me to do my exercises there. If you are weak you are going to suffer because you don’t want to let the team down and slack behind when we eventually return to training,” Williams added before he went on to say there is no room to cheat these challenges because of coach Kaitano Tembo
“This says a lot about a player and the coaches will know who they can rely on going forward because we can see by the challenges where we have rankings and the coach can see who is taking it seriously and who is not. If he sees that someone is slacking he can just give them a call. It is not easy and it really challenging because some of us don’t have big yards to do anything, we have limited space but it is tough times for everyone, not only in South Africa, we just have to stay mentally strong and continue staying healthy and fit.”
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
