Tembo reveals SuperSport’s lockdown training methods
Kaitano Tembo says the excitement was almost tangible at Megawatt Park in the past two days after SuperSport United became the first side to return to training since the government gave teams the green light to resume.
Kaitano Tembo, the coach of SuperSport United pleased with his side’s 1-1 result against Orlando Pirates: Philip Maeta/Gallo Images.
The Matsatsantsa A Pitori head coach said he had to take his players through their drills in groups of five as that was the limit of players allowed on the pitch simultaneously.
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“The main thing for us was just to get back and see each other again after a long time. Three months were very long for us because we are like family and we are used to each other. We spent a lot of time together but after being apart for so long the excitement was there. They have been training in isolation at home and it is not the same as compared to training in the proper environment,” he told Phakaaathi.
“You just cannot have too many players on the pitch. When we start going into group training, probably next week, then we can have 10 players on the pitch. It is something that we have to adapt to, try and work towards that and make sure that we improve the players’ fitness levels,” he added.
Tembo said he had to train his players for about four hours on Sunday and Monday, and he explained how it was structured.
“For now we are still doing individual training which means there is no contact, only five players are allowed to be on the pitch at any given time so it goes down to about four hours of training,” he explained.
Tembo continued: “We break it into different parts of our training sessions whereby we start with activation then we do strength work then we go to the technical part, which is more with the ball. Then we have got to break it more in terms of their endurance and physical conditioning. It is a challenge because it is something new but we have been coping. Players enjoyed training and you could see the excitement of doing what they love and being around each other.”
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