What team/organization are you completing your internship with, your role and for how long?
During my 6 month internship with SAS, I worked with 3 different teams/campaigns.
- Paul Roos Gimnasium – I was the head S&C for the u15s rugby team where I had to design, implement and deliver both gym and pitch based sessions to the team across the school year
- SASRII Rugby Academy – I was the assistant S&C coach for the academy where I assisted the head S&C coach going through a professional rugby season
- South Africa U20s Rugby Team – I was one of the assistant S&C coaches during the international campaign where they faced Argentina, Georgia and Uruguay.
What has been your biggest learning so far (over the whole experience)?
A2. I would have to say my biggest learning is creating an environment where everyone involved is whole heartedly trying to get better each day. Whether it be the coaches, athletes backroom staff, every single person is looking to get better to help all involved and to be part of that is something that I will take away with me for life.
What has been the most important skill or knowledge you have brought from your Setanta College studies to the internship?
I would have to say the 3 things from Setanta that stand out to me that helped me through the internship are knowledge and experience in performance testing, LTAD design and finally coaching skills. We did a lot of performance testing and having gone through most tests throughout the module with Setanta really came in handy. For the entirety of the internship, I was dealing with young athletes at different stages of development and having gone through that module with Setanta, it allowed me to have knowledge in each age group as well as dealing with an individual.
From a coaching skill point of view, having knowledge in different cues, relationship building and having experience coaching big groups really helped going over here and would not have been able to do it without Setanta.
What area of S&C would you like to learn more about after this internship?
I love a lot of areas around S&C but I truly love the idea of developing young athletes through a systemised approach and giving them the best chance of making it to their highest level from a physical point of view. So i would say I want to dabble more into that. However I do just want to get experience wherever I can in a high performance facility. I could not get over how phenomenal it was to be part of something where everyone is striving for an extra 1% each day and would love to be in a place like that again.
What advice would you offer someone who is about to begin an internship?
I would just say embrace everything, be open to it all and soak everything in. You are going to be going into a place with people who have so much experience and you need to get as much from them as possible. It will be a fast paced, tough environment so just be ready to work hard and say yes to every opportunity you get even if you feel you may not be ready for it. You will learn from it and gain something out of it.
Finally, you more than likely may not agree with everything they do but you are an intern and like I was told, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Of course question everything but dont think youre going to change the world. Give them your time and energy and they’ll give you a wealth of knowledge, experience and lessons you wouldn’t get anywhere else. Leave the place a better place than what it was if possible even if you just spread good energy.
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