NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 10 – Experienced Geoffrey Kimani has been unveiled as the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) Strength and Conditioning lead consultant for Team Kenya, with the main assignment being the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Kimani, who has vast knowledge in the sector having worked with the Kenya Sevens team for a long period, will also be tasked to training national team coaches who have their teams already qualified for Olympics.
The development is part of the strategic objective of NOC-K under Elite Athlete Development programme that will see Kimani render his services for ten months.
“National Olympic Committee of Kenya’s main projects this year are Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Capacity Building. Through this program we will address both. We will work with qualified Olympic teams to enhance their training as well as national coaches to train them on Strengh and Conditioning,” NOC-K acting Secretary General Francis Mutuku announced.
The Elite Development Committee constituted by NOC-K, comprising of top coaches in the country has been assisting teams on volunteer basis and this has now been formalized by appointing Kimani to officially lead the consultancy with Federations.
“The Strength and Conditioning program arise from the challenges within Federations, most of whom have no structured Programs. Through groundwork done by Elite Development Committee, it has been noted that most disciplines will have the coach incorporating Strength training or rehab and prehab into their training,” Kimani said.
He added; “Even the best of our coaches need to keep learning and updating themselves with new research coming out every so often. If Kenya is to keep competing with the World, all sports need to deliberately incorporate Strength and Conditioning in their training processes and tie them to program designs and competition cycles.’’
On sustainability he noted that the Elite team will strive to work with university students pursuing Exercise and Sports Science.
Kimani will assist in the development of curriculum development around this field. He will also work with specific national coaches interested in this field, under the National Federations, to nurture upcoming coaches through workshops and trainings with an eye towards increasing the Strength and Conditioning talent pool in the country.
He will also lay the foundation for preparation of Team Kenya’s squads to the 2021 Commonwealth Youth Games and the 2022 Youth Olympics in Dakar, the aim is for the team of the future to understand what constitutes elite athlete training and start early incorporating this in their training.
