Fitness and diet are key in ensuring optimum perfo...

Fitness and diet are key in ensuring optimum performance in football

Edmore Zvinonzwa

Football, and indeed several other physical sporting disciplines, dwell on the fitness of the body in order to produce optimum performance from a sportsperson.

Back then, football was not taken as a fulltime sport and, as such, no one really cared about the fitness bit, especially because players would only come to training after knocking off from work.

However, as professionalism crept in, the need to focus on the state of the sportsperson’s body gradually became very crucial and with that, came the need for the fitness trainer in the game.

Eswatini-based Zimbabwean footballer and fitness trainer, Promise Mandidzidze, says a fitness trainer is an expert in designing exrcise programmes and nutrition plans to meet specific athletics goals.

“They don’t just provide guidance regarding the workout. They not only assist in setting up achievable goals but also in building accountability and building essential life skills in the players,” said the former CAPS United, Underhill, Highway and Motor Action Player, who also had time at Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services sides Flame Lilly and Tenax.

A former footballer himself, Mandidzidze, said he knows the importance of fitness training to any sportsperson and the impact it has on focus and overall performance.

“Football is an extremely athletic sport that requires players to have strength, speed, stamina and toughness. So, conditioning helps develop these attributes through exercise focused on building cardiovascular endurance, muscle endurance, flexibility, power among other things that will make the footballer whole,” Mandidzidze told Zim Now.

While most footballers turn to trying their luck at coaching, with the majority not succeeding, Mandidzidze tried something unique, and took up fitness training and is currently with Eswatini topflight side, Nsingizini Hotspurs.

He said it is important for Zimbabwe to have a high performance centre where players are exposed to the finer aspects of sport.

“I believe the football mother body in the country must prioritise the building of a sports high performance centre where we expose our players to the importance of being fit. There, they will get enough time to build physic. There should be no limitations on who can go there, including the national teams and every other football club player and members of their technical teams,” he told Zim Now from his Eswatini base.

Mandidzidze added that it is important that players have good bodies that are being well taken care of so that they stay fit and stay in shape.

“As fitness trainers, our role is to teach players to take care of their bodies, especially on diet, to eat clean and to stay away from drugs for them to stay fit and also for them to produce optimum performance,” Mandidzidze said.

The fifth born in a family of eight, Mandidzidze was born at Harare Central Hospital on November 14, 1986 and grew up in Chitungwiza.

He started his primary education at Mhakwe Primary School in Chimanimani, Manicaland Province before moving to Zengeza Main Primary School in St Mary’s, Chitungwiza.

He then moved to Pfumo Primary School where he started playing soccer. “At that time, I was taken by the late Gishon Ntini, former Head Coach at CAPS United, who drafted me into the Green Machine’s Juniors where I played in the Under 10, Under 13, Under 15, Under 17 up to the reserve side.

“I did my secondary education at Zengeza 2 High in Chitungwiza, where I honed my soccer playing skills. I captained the first team at the school and grew into a role model there,” Mandidzidze said.

Mandidzidze said Gizha would at times make them substitutes in the first team.

“That was when I was spotted by Beitbridge-based Premiership side Underhill, who took me on loan from CAPS United. I played for one season at Underhill before being taken by Lloyd Mutasa to join Highway. Kalisto Pasuwa is the one who knew me from his days at Chitungwiza United. However, CAPS United had refused to release me to join Chitungwiza United. I played at Highway for a single season alongside former Warriors captain Willard Katsande, Tofirei Sambo, Hebron Makukutu, Dhana Makukutu and Romeo Kabesha among others,” said Mandzidzidze.

The Nsingizini Hotspurs fitness trainer was to play for the trail-blazing Eric Rosen side, Motor Action, then coached by Joey Antipas, after being taken there by the late David George.

Mandidzidze won the league championship with the Rosen-owned side in 2010.

After a stint with Naison Muchekela’s FC La Liga in Division One, which he joined for the lure of the dollar, Mandidzidze was to join Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services-owned Flame Lilly. He eventually got employed as an officer with ZPCS and is still an employee of ZPCS.

“We got relegated after a single season and then the management decided to merge the two ZPCS teams into Tenax. We were promoted again into the PSL. That is when I decided to look at my life after football,” he said.

“I did not want to move into the usual where players end up in technical teams as coaches but decided to exploit my passion in fitness training, joining Nyasha Charandura’s of Major Sports Africa where I was taught a lot of things. Later joined International Soccer Science and Performance Federation, Alison Major Sports Institute, leading me to reach Level 1 and 2 Strength and Conditioning as well as a Diploma in Physical Fitness.

Mandidzidze says he got help from a number of coaches such as Gibson Mutemera. “I actually salute him for helping me through,” Mandidzidze said.

“Representatives of Eswatini side Nsingizini Hotspurs came to Zimbabwe looking for a fitness trainer and current Simba Bhora gaffer Tonderai Ndiraya called me to notify me. He is the one who connected me to Nsingizini Hotspurs.

Mandidzidze had started fitness training at Tenax and the team was promoted into the PSL in 2019. Like every other football team, Tenax was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic that ravaged the world between 2019 and 2021.

He moved to Nsingizini Hotspurs in Eswatini in 2022.

Mandidzidze said, as an officer with ZPCS, he owed everything to ZPCS Commissioner-General, Moses Chihobvu

“I would like to thank my employers at ZPCS, especially ZPCS Commissioner-General Chihobvu for allowing me to be the correctional services ambassador outside the country. It is through the ZPCS that I am here, learning skills that I will return with to assist ZPCS teams as well as the country as a whole,” Mandidzidze said.

Mandzidzidze said he is also looking at the future with a keen eye.

“My ultimate objective is that I do not want to end in Eswatini. I have been having attachments with outside teams, especially in South Africa. There are teams like South African Premiership side Amazulu, where I have had stints, observing their methodology in fitness training, meeting coaches from major European leagues such as Spain. This should make my career better because I am meeting different coaches with different styles of play and also learning modern trends in football.

“If I am given the opportunity with the national team, I will take it up. I believe I have learnt a lot of things here in Eswatini and South Africa. In Zimbabwe, there is a lot more that should be learnt in fitness training. Back home we do not use GPS trackers in fitness, things that I have learnt from my attachments with South African clubs,” Mandidzidze told Zim Now.

“In a nutshell, I have passion with football and should be prepared to work with the national team if the call comes. Zimbabwe is my country and I have so much pride in being Zimbabwean. Nothing will gratify me beyond implementing what I have learnt to help the national team,” he said.

Mandidzidze is currently studying Performance Analysis and has already acquired a lot on Sports Science essentials such as Performance and Recovery, First Aid as well as Introduction to Sports Medicine.

Mandidzidze is married to Benardette Huni and the two have a son, Kayden, who is now seven.