How sportmen and women are gearing up for action after lockdown

When the final whistle is blown on the lockdown and sport is permitted again, athletes across the sporting spectrum will face post-shutdown struggles. Though the fans will delight at having their stars back on the field, the players will have to confront and overcome a hurdle - they will not be purring in tip-top match fitness. We have canvassed the views of several sports scientists and physiotherapists to pick their brains on how long it takes for players to regain match fitness after having not played for over a month

SOCCER

Shona Hendricks, head of sports science at the Sport Exercise, Medicine and Lifestyle Institute at the University of Pretoria, says the key for athletes who have been unable to train is coming back slowly.

Whether they're endurance runners or team players, they will need time to regain full fitness. "We will end up with a lot of injured athletes if they come back too soon.

"This is such an unprecedented time and health takes precedence," she said, adding that should include future time frames of restarting leagues and events down the line.

NEURO-MUSCULAR SKILLS

Hendricks said much depended on how fit an athlete had been heading into lockdown, but believed it could take 3-4 weeks to get back to full fitness.

Soccer players, for example, could work on what she called neuro-muscular skills during lockdown, but they would still need time to regain their endurance.

"The effects of de-training are not as drastic as people think," said Hendricks. "It could be about 2%-4%."

Sports physician at Mamelodi Sundowns Paul Maphoto said there will be injuries if players don't get half-a-dozen weeks to get purring into tip-top condition.

"It's probably three to six weeks. You need to do the football conditioning and try to get the match fitness back. There will be injuries if players are not given time to have their normal training on the field. Every team will be having the same challenges and I hope the authorities will look at that when we have to go back and play.

"I don't think everybody expected this and we had not much time to use the training equipment. Some of our players have treadmills, bikes and weightlifting equipment, but some don't have all those things. We have to do with whatever we have. The match fitness goes away when you do this type of training. Even the foot-eye coordination of the infield players is lost and the hand-eye coordination for goalkeepers is also lost. Those are things that we worry about. I'm not sure about the fitness. We have to work on that as soon as we start playing.

INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMMES

"The players were given individual programmes to follow by training indoors . The problem is the space where they need to train but we're able to get strength, stability and power on the specific muscles that we need to concentrate on.

"It's better if you're staying on the ground floor where you have a bit of space. Some of our players don't have that and they have to use a lounge."

Maphoto added that a lack of training equipment at home is a big challenge.

Sports physician and former Bafana Bafana doctor Mogoru Ntlopi expects a very difficult situation where players will come (from lockdown) extremely unfit.

"Some of them would have gained weight. Going back, it's to be a minimum of six weeks because they still need to go and do programming.

"They will go through the normal process of training like during pre-season conditioning. You need to develop a level of fitness before they go to the field.

Some of them would have gained weight. Going back, it's to be a minimum of six weeks because they still need to go and do programming.

—  Sports physician and former Bafana Bafana doctor Mogoru Ntlopi

"That on its own will take 3-4 weeks. With this social distancing even if you were to go back and play behind closed doors, you can't have the full team playing at once.

"If I were the president or chairman of football I would actually say whichever teams was leading before the lockdown must be given the trophy and we focus on preparing for the next season.

"The PSL can say we'll start the new season in August or September and that would be reasonable. The PSL must also forget about relegation but must promote two teams from the National First Division [to increase PSL teams to 18]. That will be a fair way of doing things."

RUGBY

Super Rugby players, according to former Springbok conditioning coach professor Derik Coetzee, will need three weeks to get up to speed for the rigours of their bone-rattling, lung-busting competition.

"Most players are trying to maintain the level of fitness they currently have.

"They will still need three weeks, or ideally three games to get match fit and sharp enough to play Super Rugby.

"The only way to get match sharp is to actually play. We talk about 'specific adaptation to imposed demands'. In other words your adaptation will be specific to what you intend doing."

Coetzee says the optimal monitoring of players' workload will determine the success of teams when they return.

"Clever coaches will not overtrain their players. You will notice very quickly which coaches get that right. The problem is, if you haven't been doing well, you'll be more inclined to cram in as much as you can.

"The most number of injuries occur when you have two or three intense matches.

"This is why your recovery period is critically important.

"The challenge is now to avoid doing too much as it can increase your risk of injury. Your management of the players' workload will have to be managed superbly. There is a fine balance that needs to be achieved between their practice load and their match load."

Coetzee said coaches, especially those of struggling teams, must resist trying to do too much in the period before the competition resumes. "Time is the commodity you never have. That period will not be dissimilar to what the Springboks had in the build-up to last year's World Cup.

"It's when you have a combination of drilling in your structure and finding match- day sharpness."

However, apart from how players will be managed rugby has a bigger hurdle to overcome.

Given the strict social distancing protocols that are in place the sport will have a tough time convincing authorities it can be practiced and played without increasing the risk of infection.

By its very nature rugby is a contact and collision sport and it, along with soccer, may be the last ones considered fit enough for a restart.

ATHLETICS

Hendricks has already been advising endurance runners to focus on other elements of training during lockdown.

"We're suggesting they do strength work, like working on core, glutes, quads and calves - the things that runners tell us they don't normally have time to do."

The lockdown, in a way, is a chance for them to actually get better.

ROWING AND SWIMMING

That approach is shared by head coach of the national rowing squad, Roger Barrow.

His rowers have been maintaining fitness levels by training on ergo machines at their homes, but he also wants them to improve.

"We are tweaking as to aim for some gains. We are able to concentrate on better base work and make it more specific to each individual."

It's something they used to do, but lockdown has given them more time to focus on some details. "How do we come out of this period faster, learning something about the training we are doing and carrying it forward?

"The area where we are losing on is water time," he added. "However, that is not such an issue given when the Games are."

The biggest challenge of being off the water was the mental element, he added. "It's tough for athletes not being on water."

SA squad swimming coach Graham Hill believes swimmers won't have lost much if they can get back into the water fairly soon.

"If we had to get back into the water in the next 10 days, it's not too bad," he said.

SA's swimmers had planned to spend a few weeks of April resting anyway, so they wouldn't have lost too much ground.

"It also depends on what events they swim and how much they've been able to do. In Durban the water is still warm enough for those with pools at home to swim.

"Some guys are still swimming at home in 10-metre, eight-metre pools. It's not ideal, but it's something."

Pretoria-based Tatjana Schoenmaker has increased her land-based training because it's been too cold to swim.

But Hill warned that if swimmers couldn't get back soon, it would probably take about eight to 12 weeks to get back to their best.

CRICKET

The country's cricketers are in their off-season and with the Proteas' autumn and winter activities on ice the need to be ready is less pressing.

"There are specific protocols in place for the international players, especially ones that guard against them being overloaded in the off-season," said Lions lead physiotherapist Brett Edwards.

"Given that we are in lockdown the players' training would be modified slightly because they will have to make do with what they have at home or what they have access to. Skills-specific training depending if they are a batsman or bowler will probably be lacking. Few will have nets at home. I suppose for most it will be like the early stages of a pre-season," said Edwards.