Simply put, South African development coaches are getting it wrong. SuperSport United head coach Gavin Hunt is of the view that mentors at grassroot level are feeding budding talent mal-nutrients.
Hunt has observed that there is more emphasis on keeping possession rather than focusing on the quintessential part of the game – scoring and defending.
The Matsatsantsa A Pitori mentor has never been shy to throw youngsters in the deep end but he does not hide his displeasure about the condition these youngsters are in when they get elevated into senior teams.
“There is no strength and conditioning in South Africa. If you look at the South African population, they are getting smaller and smaller. Why? I think they eat crap food, the diets are wrong.
“I don’t think we live a lifestyle that’s conducive. We start too late here. We start at 21 or 22 and say he is a young player – no he’s not. A 16-year-old should be playing in the PSL,” Hunt said on The All Rounders SA.
"We don't find the big ones anymore. The players are not strong enough."
“At 17 you should be like a man in terms of physicality. Look at our Diski league – weak, weak, weak. There’s no aerial power, no one-v-one strength. Half a tackle they roll around the ground, holding their ankles. Come on, it’s a problem,” Hunt added.
The playing field is – according to Hunt – level at the infant stages across the board, but when it comes to taking players to the next stages of their development and fine tuning them, that’s where the recipe falls short of essential ingredients.
“You take a 10-year-old from England, Brazil, Germany, Spain and a South African 10-year-old – we are just as good as all of them if not better. Then what happens? There are two ends of the game – scoring goals and defending. That’s the most important part of the game.
“We don’t coach properly. We don’t coach scoring, we don’t coach defending. We coach playing, possession, so we are coaching the wrong things… I don’t care what everybody says, I’ll argue with anybody [about this]. They make 35 passes but they haven’t crossed the ball, they have not had a shot at goals,” Hunt explained.
