Awards 2008 : Category Finalists
Arts, Culture and Communications • Business Entrepreneurs • Education • Health • Science & Technology • Social Welfare • Sport
Sport
Dr Bronwyn Bock-Jonathan is the first player of colour who has played netball for South Africa and then went on to captain the South African National Netball Team for a number of years. She has also excelled in the academic arena receiving a PhD in sport science from Stellenbosch University earlier this year.
Dr Bock-Jonathan was recognised for her excellence and commitment to the sporting community not only as a player but also as a coach, official, academic, researcher and mentor when she was named the South African flag-bearer for Team SA at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. She is also a recipient of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation in South Africa.
When she chose netball as her sport Dr Bock-Jonathan was playing for the fifth team at the University of Stellenbosch but worked her way up to the first team and soon made it to national level. She has played 51 tests, two Commonwealth Games and one World Cup Game.
Since her selection for the national netball team Dr Bock-Jonathan has always taken the responsibility of being a role model very seriously as she herself hails from a previously disadvantaged community. Both on the sporting field and in the classroom she has worked hard to make sport something accessible to young women from these communities.
Injury has hampered her career on the field but in the times when she could not participate Dr Bock-Jonathan applied her time to academics and to start a family. She gave birth to her son Jordan Jonathan in November 2005 and returned to competitive netball the very next year. A special area of interest became how children from disadvantaged communities did not participate in organised sport, firstly because of the financial constraints and secondly the responsibilities that they have at home, for instance, looking after younger siblings while their parents work day and night.
The subject of her doctoral thesis is the effects of participation in movement programs on the movement competence, self-esteem and resiliency of adolescent girls. She looked at how important it is for schoolgirls to exercise as it is vital for body, spirit and self-image, especially in disadvantaged communities where teenage pregnancies and other anti-social behaviour can ruin the dream of young women.
Dr Bock-Jonathan hopes that the research she has conducted for her doctorate will convince the departments of education in the various provinces to invest in helping these young girls to participate in organised sport or recreational physical activity, which will help them lead healthy active lifestyles. Her belief is also that sport/physical activity can be used as a vehicle to teach life skills and to bring about social change.
During her career she spent a lot of time coaching. One of the recent coaching projects she managed was in the Klapmuts community where final year sport science students coach a variety of sports. It has also always been her goal to assist talented netball players to achieve their dreams of playing in the international arena.
Her next challenge is taking up the position of full time coach and sport scientist at ACT Netball Academy in Canberra, Australia.
- A short profile on Dr Jonothan will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 22 July 2008.
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Prof Sherylle Calder is a visual performance skills coach and world authority on the subject who has the distinction of having received back-to-back World Cup winners’ medals after coaching skills to both the triumphant Springboks last year and the 2003 English World Cup winners.
As the only person in the world who has achieved this and with a PhD degree in visual performance training she is a pioneer in this field and has created an exciting new sport science that is sought-after by international sporting champions and coaches.
Dr Calder has worked with and coached some of the world’s top rugby, cricket, hockey, tennis, golf, shooting, badminton and sailing teams amongst many other sports helping them finding an extra edge and dimension in their game. It is these small percentage performance improvements that have kept them at the forefront.
The new science is based on the thinking that nothing happens in sport until the eye tells the body what to do. Dr Calder, herself a South African hockey player for fourteen years, developed this eye technique to improve her own game and called it Eyethink. This progarmme based on ultimately making beter decisions in the game has revolutionized the world of sport.
It helps sportsmen and women with visual strengths and weakness both on the field and behind a computer. Eyethink has nothing to do with eyesight but focus on developing various visual skills such as reaction, depth perception, eye movements and peripheral awareness as well as hand-eye co-ordination.
The thesis for her Sport Science PhD which she did under Prof Tim Noakes at the University of Cape Town grew out of her interests in understanding the training methods and game concepts used internationally in field hockey and, especially, the role that visual skills play in the improvement of sporting performance.
She developed a novel visual skills training programme to enhance the capacity of players to access performance-relevant visual information during play. Her studies established that the enhancement of visual skills measurably improved the on-field performance and the effect was substantially greater than any achieved by conventional coaching and training programmes. Prof Calder has published her work in various academic and sport related journals.
She has also recently developed an innovative program available to school children in South Africa for sporting and scholastic achievement. This programme looks to not only improve their sporting/learning skills but also change the lives of young kids by improving these much-needed abilities.
Between 1982 and 1996, she represented South Africa in hockey, gaining 50 international field hockey caps and 15 indoor caps. Recognition as one of the top players of her era came in 1995 when she was selected to the team comprising the top 11 players in the pre-Olympic Qualifying Hockey Tournament.
She has also coached hockey extensively and was involved with SA U21, head coach of Western Province and head coach at Stellenbosch University. At the Stellenbosch University she ran hockey camps and coaching programs for 13 year, coaching from grassroots to both the men’s and women’s teams.
Countries participating at this Tournament included Germany, Netherlands, Korea, China, Great Britain, Argentina and Canada. In 1996 she was selected to a World Invitation Select Team to help prepare the Australian Women’s hockey team for the Atlanta Olympic Games.
Dr Calder is well known abroad and has attended various International Symposiums and Scientific conventions all over the world as a keynote speaker. She brings a unique perspective to the field of visual motor performance, blending her knowledge of being an athlete, a coach and a clinician.
Serving on the Sydney Olympics Sports Science panel and delivering seminars in Spain, the United States, Pakistan, England, Ireland and Scotland is also part of her previous work. She is currently part of the International Vision Care Program, and serves on the advisory board of the International Sports Vision Magazine.
Her two offices at the Sport Science Institute of Sport and HPC in Pretoria are involved with working with many young sports people at every level. She was also awarded the University of the Free State Cum Laude Award for exceptional achievements and contributions in sport science in April 2008 and an Associate Professorship in May 2008 from North West University.
- A short profile on Prof Calder will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 25 July 2008.
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Ms Heather Clark won gold earlier this year at the International Surfing World Championships in the masters category crowning her as the best female surfer in the world in the over 35 category. She won this title after dominating the International World qualifying series for 14 consecutive years.
She also represented South Africa on the International World Surfing Tour which features the top 16 surfers in the World for a record seven years in a row achieving a highest ranking of third competing all over the world in Fiji, Australia, Hawaii,USA, Europe, Brazil and Tahiti.
In the 20 years she has participated in this male-dominated sport Heather won numerous national and international titles. Apart from representing her province, KwaZulu Natal 12 times she has been four-times South African Women’s Champion and won the South African Women's Professional title seven times.
One of her biggest achievements was winning the sought-after Vans Triple Crown title after an awesome performance in Hawaii becoming the first and only South African, male or female, to win this prestigious title. She was recognised for this win with a State Presidents Award in 2001.
Ms Clark began surfing in Port Shepstone at the age of 16 and worked her way to the top with sheer determination in a sport where sponsorship is hard to find unless one is right at the top competing in the lucrative International World Surfing Tour. As a teenager she literally walked from door to door to collect sponsorship to achieve her dream of surfing the world circuit.
Ten years ago she eventually got a proper sponsorship from Red Bull which allowed her to focus on winning the world titles she was hunting and become a champion surfer competing in this sought-after surfing circuit.
For almost two decades Ms Clark has brought glory to South African surfing and it is largely thanks to her achievements that South African women surfers are today recognised as amongst the best in the world.
Not only is Heather a champion surfer, she is also a qualified surfing coach and uses her skills and passion for the sport to run clinics for young surfers and swimmers at grassroots level in her community. She is always willing to get involved in the development of the sport at every level and is committed to Surfing South Africa's Transformation and Development ideals. Ms Clark is a true role model to countless girls who want to take up this demanding sport.
While she is a surfer first, Ms Clarke is also a top swimmer, competitive mountain biker, surfing coach and National Selector for the SA Junior Team and a part time sports journalist.
She aims to continue to surf competitively both on the National and International circuit and will defend her World Title at the 2009 ISA World Masters Championships. Ms Clark has also set her sights on winning the 2008 South African Championship Title for a fifth time and aims to maintain her number one spot on the SSA Pro Surf Tour for 2008.
Ms Clark is truly an inspirational athlete as the most successful female surfer ever to come out of South Africa and it is remarkable that at the age of 37 when most athletes have retired she can still dominate local surfing and win a World Championship title. She is a true inspiration to thousands of surfers in South Africa.
- A short profile on Ms Clark will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 27 July 2008.
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