Strength and conditioning key, HPSPNG says

Raising the standards and level of fitness of sporting teams in community competitions helps with the performance of athletes.
That is the goal of High Performance Sport PNG, who conducted a three-day course on strength and condition training for community sports coaches.
A group of 12 participants from a variety of sporting backgrounds received their certificates on Wednesday after completing the course which introduced the community coaches to the concepts and methods of strength and conditioning training.
Kristy-Maxine Akino, a strength and conditioning coach with HPS PNG, told The National that the first few hours of the course was spent explaining exactly what strength and conditioning was to the participants.
“Half of the time we were explaining to them what it is that we do exactly,” Akino said.
“Everyone thought that we were just people that stand in the gym all day and lift weights, it was really interesting to get an outside view of what people think we do and actually explaining to them.”
Akino explained that the job of an S&C coach was to assist athletes improve performance using specific exercises. Injury prevention with the use of correct training techniques is also a major part of an S&C coach’s work.
“Most sports people don’t take S&C seriously, but when a team actually comes and trains with us they can feel it the difference,” she said.
“It shows in their performance, this is what happened with the Team PNG athletes in the 2015 Pacific Games. HPS PNG played a big part in PNG’s performance.”