Mokwena on Importance of Preseason
2 July, 2018
The new season is almost upon us. The joys of watching the 2018 FIFA World Cup will soon come to an end as all PSL teams begin to fine-tune their preparations ahead of the start of the 2018/19 season.
As of Monday, all of the available players will be taken through their preseason training.
This season, Orlando Pirates will play two more competitions than they did in the last campaign. By finishing second on the log table last season, Pirates have qualified for the MTN 8 as well as the CAF Champions League.
The inclusion of these two additional competitions will garner much needed attention by the technical team as they will have to devise a plan that will ensure that the players can endure what may potentially be a 60-game season.
Assistant Coach Rhulani Mokwena spoke to Orlandopiratesfc.com about the importance of pre-season.
“You cannot just wake up one day and run the Comrades Marathon. You start with 5km, then 10km, 20km all the way up until the body can handle the longer distances. That is effectively what preseason is for. The body needs to be fully prepared for the physical demands of a tough season.”
“We know that a season is not a sprint, it is a marathon, and we know that for any team that wants to win this marathon, the planning needs to be right.”
Mokwena who joined the club in 2017, also highlighted the importance on using the pre-season period to work on the technical and tactical aspects of the team.
“This is a big season for the Club. We have more games to play than last year therefore we need to make sure that our periodisation is done properly.”
“We also welcome a couple of new faces who have not yet been exposed to our game model. We will use the time in camp to familiarise the players with a new style of play and this will obviously entail both theoretical and practical applications.”
“The challenge however, is that we have players coming in from different teams and with that comes different ideas and understandings of how to play. Our job in pre-season is to deconstruct what they know and formulate a new blueprint for the upcoming season.”
