'We cannot fix everything that is broken'

Hailing from Mafikeng, North West, meet Christen Mogomotsi Rangaka, better known as Coach Dino who is the conditioning coach for NWU Soccer Institute.

He studied Occupational Health and Safety and also did an independent qualification in advanced periodization (Periodization is the systematic planning of athletic or physical training where aim is to help any player reach the best possible performance in all the games they play).

As mentioned above, he is the conditioning coach for NWU and responsible for keeping the players conditioned (physically fit) for every game that the boys play, "I started off as a high school soccer coach at a school called Saint conrads now known as Curro, then went on to open an academy in Klerksdorp called Relay soccer academy which was fully funded by the Malakoane Family. I later came back to Mafikeng after I got my certification to practice my skill from Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbal Bond (KNVB - a Dutch meaning For Royal Netherlands Football Association)" he said.

Dino started working at International School of South Africa (ISSA) as the head of soccer for both primary and high school while working with NWU Soccer Institute. On the other hand, he decided to leave ISSA to give his full attention to NWU for his personal growth and in order to reach other goals that he has set for himself. When asked if being a conditioning coach has always been part of his plans he replied, “It has been part of the plan, because growing up I have always enjoyed the fitness side of the game;moreover, I was given a chance by two gentlemen named Amos Axabanisa & Vuyolwethu Sambo after I completed my advanced studies in periodization under the guidance of Ruud krool."

His role in the team shows up during game preparation, he studies how their opponents play which enables him to best condition the players both physically and mentally for the game. He went on to say, "we are blessed to have different types of grounds for preparation which makes it easy for us to prepare especially for the leagues. During training we can play on a good leveled ground to a bumpy/rocky one, to try and help the players to adapt to the different conditions they will be faced with in different games at different locations.”

He explained the link between the coach's instructions to the team and his work to say, “we have meetings before every game and the coach will maybe request that we approach a certain game at a very high intensity then I will condition the players for that. I can do that for a good four days of training, also avoiding to give the coach a team full of injured players, and so during our conditioning sessions I always make sure that the team is always injury free for the coach to be able to freely select his starting eleven.”

Rangaka says the biggest misconception that people have about conditioning coaches is that they think any conditioning coach can easily fix what is broken, he added on to the list of misconceptions and said, “people think we are just in the background whereas we are involved in the everyday life of players and lastly people think we are expensive, so a team doesn't really need us.”

When asked if his field of expertise is growing his response was: "it is growing but at a very slow pace because people still have their own perception about us. The pattern of how it grows especially to get to serve in the PSL teams, it takes one conditioning coach to move from his position to have another to replace him.”

Irregardless of how slow it takes to get to serve in a professional team or how congested the market is, we believe that Dino will soar and would like to wish him all the best there is.

Editor

Nomvula Kgoale

IG: @NomvulaK_Words