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| Rugga Warriors' Andrew Howitt (far left), Liam Peterson (far right), Ryan Lok (send from right) with Eddie Andrew (second from the left) |
I recently spoke to some gents on a mission; they are passionate about development and sports growth. In an era where sport has turned professional and where majority of kids are more interested in playing video games than playing outside, Rugga Warriors and LIMA High Performance training are in a bid to not only unearth future stars, but to build the social, physical and mental side of young athletes.
Who are you guys?
Rugga Warriors and Lima High Performance Training is a highly qualified team made of Ryan Lok, Liam Peterson and Andrew Howitt.
Why the focus on Sport?
Sport is a essential part of life, so many aspects of life can be taught through playing sport. The qualities and disciplines that can be taught on the sports field can be applied in the lives we live everyday. It's also a language open to everyone. No matter what background we have, no matter where we come from, we can all be equal on a sports field. It's a great way to stay fit and most importantly, Sport is a great unifying tool for individuals and society. We all at Rugga Warriors have a love and a passion for Sport and in particular, we all love rugby. We want to pass on our knowledge to the sporting heroes of tomorrow. This is something that we are striving to achieve.
What is your purpose?
When athletes leave our training facilities they are better equipped to handle themselves on the sports field. Rugga Warriors strives to improve and hone the skills needed by the individual for his or her sport.
How was your first clinic?
Our first clinic which was held at False Bay Rugby Club and was a huge success. The week long program was extremely well attended by a variety of boys from different rugby schools throughout the
Western Cape. The poor weather experienced didn't hamper the enthusiasm of the coaches nor the boys who were in attendance, instead everyone was making the best of the situation where wet weather skills
could be worked on. The parents of boys were extremely excited about what we did and what we have to offer, many of whom are already enquiring about the next clinic and when it is being held.
Do you operate over the school holidays only?
At the current time, yes, however future plans do have us operating all year round.
What are your short and long-term goals?
Our short term goals are simple, we would like to steadily grow and at the same time host holidays clinics where we are educating youngsters about the beautiful game of rugby. The skills and lessons learnt in our holiday clinics we hope will stand the boys in good stead for their rugby season back at their schools.
Our long term goals are to hopefully one day become an academy, where we work with young and aspiring athletes from all sporting codes, not just rugby. We want to become a well known athletic academy. By being associated with us, it will mean that your sporting attributes for your specific sport will improve helping you make the leap to the next step in competition and hopefully earn national colours in your sport.
Who are the partners involved in this venture?
We are currently in talks and although we were sponsored merchandise wise for the first clinic, we don't yet have an agreement with the respected parties for us to mention them.
What is your target age? Do you cater for females?
We cater at the moment for all rugby players from 6 - 16 years of age. In the future we will be catering for females and various codes of sport through our LIMA High Performance section of Rugga Warriors. This is where we train the athlete to be exactly that, an athlete. Working on things like, speed, agility, flexibility, strength, conditioning etc. These are all aspects of sport needed by any athlete
in any type of sporting activity.
At the current time we are only providing rugby specific training, however we are providing training
for the pure athlete and anyone who would like to maintain a healthy life style. We believe in a healthy and active life style and sport is a great way to achieve this while having fun and making friends, male
or female.
What do you incorporate in the course, and also what makes your
Institute the best?
We incorporate skills training as well as athlete conditioning. What makes Rugga Warriors the best and what makes us different is that we targeting and training specific sporting skills that need to be learnt but most of all we have the High performance training being run alongside the skills training. The overall conditioning of the human body is essential to being able to execute the necessary skills on the
field and this is what we train our athletes to be able to do. Speed, agility, core stability, endurance, flexibility and strength are just some of the examples of what can be looked forward to in the High Performance Training.
When the athletes graduate what qualities do you hope will be embedded on them?
When athletes leave our facilities we hope to have installed in them qualities that will enable them to succeed not only on the sports field but in every faced of everyday life. we believe in "hard work
beats talent, unless talent works", which means that with hard work, we can achieve anything. Hard work, respect, discipline and integrity are all vital to succeeding in life and on the sports field and this is
what we hope to embed in our athletes.
