UJ are hoping that all the hard work with their strength and conditioning coach will pay off as they look to challenge defending Varsity Beach Volleyball champions UWC in Camps Bay this weekend.
The Johannesburg team finished second to the unbeaten Cape outfit in the inaugural tournament last year, and they have certainly put in the hard work off the court this year to ensure that they bridge the gap.
Star player Fatima West is joined this year by Thumo Neluvhalani, with Nkhensani Makhuyane and Nicola Howell as back-up, and they are feeling confident that they can give UWC a run for their money on their ‘home turf’.
“We started in about July focusing on Beach Volleyball with gym and training. We have been working hard with our strength and conditioning coach so that helps a lot.
“With my new teammate [Neluvhalani] we talk alot and communicate all the time and I am very positive that this year we can do much better than we did last year,” West told varsitysportssa.com.
Their specialist strength and conditioning coach Kate-lyn Boshoff said that the UJ ladies have certainly put in the ‘hard yards’ in preparation for the big showdown in Camps Bay this weekend.
“We started working in about July this year in the gym twice a week and then some days we would do sessions in the sand. They have been working on a vertimax which is resistance training so they have got to do their jumps with elastic bands attached to their hips and do spikes with that on.
“Their strength has improved as well as their fitness, they are a lot more explosive which is great.
“We had to put in a lot more time with conditioning because we don’t have these conditions at home so we make them train hard and hopefully it pays off,” she said.
West was part of the team that lost to UWC in the final last year, and she admitted that they are desperate to show that they can compete with the best.
“There is this thing about UWC since last year, we need to beat them. They train here [Camps Bay] all the time so they have that advantage and UWC’s sports generally do well so we need to show them that we can come onto their turf and beat them as well,” she said.
