THERE are no limits when it comes to what you can achieve

with peak performance on the sports field and Powerade understands what it

takes to power through.  Together with former New Zealand All Black, and

international rugby coach, John Mitchell, high school rugby teams will move

to another level through the Powerade Schools Programme, a five month

campaign tackling all aspects of rugby training as well as a competition to

build camaraderie amongst all school athletes no matter what sporting code

they participate.

The Powerade Schools Programme aims to help born sportsmen power through the

challenges that face them at every level of excellence in their sport by

motivating, inspiring as well as providing useful information on training

regimes, and how Powerade intrinsically fits into all of these elements.

“School boys and girls make up a large proportion of sports drink consumers

and our Powerade brand optimises excellence,” said Craig van Niekerk,

Marketing Assets Manager, Coca-Cola.  “And we are aware of the South African

youth’s insatiable thirst to be the best and achieve on the sporting field.

We are also fully aware that coaches play a vital role in the formation of

players and we have therefore devised our programme around coaches and

players.”

Mitchell, together with Powerade, has devised a programme to help both

schools coaches and players excel in the sport of rugby. There are many

facets to achieving this, and this programme is based around two events

where John Mitchell will get to impart his wealth of rugby knowledge and

experience. They are the Powerade Performance Academy Sessions with the

coaches of the top schools in the country, and the Powerade Performance

Sessions whereby John will travel to 40 schools around the country.

The one day Powerade Performance Academy Sessions coincided with the hugely

popular Easter rugby festivals played in the north and south of the country.

On the 29th of March all the first team coaches present at the KES, St

Stithians and St Johns festivals in Gauteng gathered at St Johns, with all

the first team coaches at the Oakdale festival in the Western Cape doing the

same on the 1st of March.

The content delivered during these sessions was of a technical nature, and

provided the first team coaches access to information normally only

accessible to Super Rugby coaches. Content covered by John Mitchell on the

day ranged from the latest technological and physiological trends, latest

training and skills theory and game analytics to really pin point and

discuss the elements needed to power through as a team. With all this to

inspire the coaches to take performance to new levels, John also went into

the importance of nutrition and proper hydration for players, the key

element for overcoming performance limiting factors.

“I am passionate about coaching coaches,” said Mitchell.  “coaches are the

key to generating higher performance in schools, and by focusing on

developing the inner strength and abilities within the kids to overcome

barriers, they will all be able to become the best they can be.  Through my

association with Super Rugby I am aware of any rule changes and how these

can affect the interpretation of the game.”

Post the session, the coaches will be able to stay up to date with peak

performance through newsletters sent to all coaches twice a month. These

will include skills training content, pictures and links to video

demonstrations from the Powerade Performance Sessions, Powerade Performance

update videos as well as great competitions to participate in.

The Powerade Schools programme then moves from coaches to the players

through Powerade Performance Sessions. 100 identified schools in South

Africa will be given a giant Powerade bottle that they will need to fill

with Powerade bottle caps. During the time period of the 15th of March to

the 19th of April, schools will have the chance to make this happen with the

40 top participating schools winning a Powerade Performance Session with

John Mitchell.