NETBALL South Africa deputy president Blanche de la Guerre believes the relationship that was established by their sponsors, Spar and internationally renowned sports physician Dr Sherylle Calder, will assist the Proteas to move on to the third spot in the world rankings.

The Proteas are currently fifth in the world rankings behind leaders Australia, second-placed New Zealand, third-placed England and Jamaica who are fourth.

De la Guerre says Calder’s experience with various national teams speak volume.

Calder, a former Protea hockey player, has worked with sports teams around the world and she is the only person to have won back-to-back Rugby World Cup medals, having worked extensively with the victorious England rugby team in 2003 and the Springboks in 2005.

“Our players have shown a lot of improvement tactically, but our challenge has always been in the visual and perceptual skills, which are Calder’ s competency.

“We believe that Calder’s presence will assist in this regard. She will assist us to move on to the third spot on the world rankings,” De la Guerre says.

Calder says she is excited at the prospect of working with the netball team.

“The science of EyeGym will play a major role in enhancing the players’ ability and add an edge to their performance.

This will carry over into helping them to make quicker and more effective decisions under pressure, and this will fast-track the players’ performance to new levels,” Calder says.

Source: http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sport/2012/02/06/expert-to-help-netballers-to-see-and-move-ball-faster

Calder, a former Protea hockey player, has worked with numerous sports teams around the world, and is the only person to have won back to back Rugby World Cup medals, having worked with the victorious England team in 2003 and the Springboks in 2007.

It was while she was playing hockey at provincial and international level that Calder first realised the value of enhanced visual and perceptual skills to performance on the field.

She developed a unique visual skills development programme called EyeGym to enhance the capacity of players to access performance-relevant information during play.

Former Springbok captain John Smit – the man at the helm when South Africa won the William Webb-Ellis Trophy in Paris in 2007 – had no doubts about the impact of Calder’s programme.

He said that while Calder was working with the Springboks, his lineout throw-ins were 100% accurate.

Other teams Calder has worked with include the South African, Pakistani and Australian cricket teams (she worked with the Australian team when they won their second consecutive World Cup in 2003), the South African women’s hockey team, various soccer and rugby teams around the world, and two leading South African golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen.

Calder said she was excited at the prospect of working with the netball team.

“The science of EyeGym will play a major role in enhancing the players’ ability and add an edge to their performance,” she said.

“This will carry over into helping them to make quicker and more effective decisions under pressure, and this will fast-track the players’ performance to a new level.”

Proteas’ coach Elize Kotze welcomed the news, saying it was a move that would put the Proteas on a more professional footing.

“Vision is a huge factor in the game, and it will be fantastic to work with one of the world’s best in this field,” she said.

“If we want to move into the top four in the world, instead of being content to remain number five, we need to progress and we need to be more specific about what we are trying to do.

“With the kind of training Dr Calder will provide, we can move onto another level.

“We have fantastic players, and with scientific help, I have no doubt that we can achieve our goal of challenging the top four teams in the world.”

SAPA

Source: http://m.news24.com/sport24/OtherSport/Former-Bok-guru-helps-netball-20120202

Els, who ranked No. 181 in putting last year on the PGA Tour, has consulted with Sherylle Calder, an eye specialist who also works with the Springboks, All Blacks and England rugby teams to help with hand-eye coordination, concentration and other visual performance aids.

“We’ve been working on some good stuff to do with my eyes, and I can see a lot of positives for me at the moment,” Els wrote on his website. “To use a cliche, she has literally opened my eyes about putting again, and it has helped bring back good memories of what I used to do when I was one of the best putters in the world in the 1990s and early 2000s.

“If my putting properly comes around, I can start winning golf tournaments again.”

Els is at No. 59 in the world and has to crack the top 50 after Bay Hill toward the end of March to secure a spot in the Masters. The first step is to stay among the top 65 for two more weeks and get into the Match Play Championship.

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Source : http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_19861640

The former world number one, who has slipped to 57th in the rankings after struggling for form for much of last year, says his putting has improved significantly since he began working with two vision specialists last week.

“To use a cliché, they have literally opened up my eyes about putting again, and have brought back good memories of what I used to do,” Els, 42, told Reuters before teeing off in Thursday’s opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open.

“I am starting to focus on my putting, my concentration on different things, and it certainly helped last week.”

In his first tournament of the year, Els lost out in a three-way playoff on Sunday for the European Tour’s Volvo World Champions event at the Fancourt Links near George in his native South Africa.

“I was one of the best putters in the world in the nineties and the early 2000s,” said Els, a three-times major winner. “If my putting comes around, I can really win some good tournaments again because I feel healthy and I feel good about my game.”

Els, who was winless on the U.S. PGA Tour last season, recently switched to a belly putter after mainly struggling on the greens in recent years.

However, he is delighted he decided to consult with Dr Sherylle Calder, an eye specialist who helped the Springbok, All Black and England ruby union teams enhance their eye-hand co-ordination, concentration and other visual performance skills.

“I have been working on good stuff with my eyes and there are a lot of good positives for me at the moment,” said Els, an 18-times winner on the PGA Tour.

“It all comes down to a bit of confidence. I feel more confident than I was last year and I can’t be worrying about top 50s and the Masters. I’ve just got to play, let it go and I’ll be fine.”

EYE THINK

Calder, who played hockey for South Africa, used her Eye Think programme to help England win the 2003 rugby World Cup. She then switched her allegiance back to her homeland and helped South Africa beat England to land the 2007 rugby World Cup.

Els, whose last tournament victory came at the four-man PGA Grand Slam of Golf in 2010, accepts that his window of opportunity at golf’s highest level is beginning to close as he approaches his mid-40s.

“You can’t beat time,” he smiled. “For any professional sportsman, the older you get, your time gets shorter. I know that.”

Els needs to be back in the world’s top 50 when the rankings are issued the week before the Apr. 5-8 Masters to gain a spot in the year’s opening major at Augusta National.

“It’s weird (to be outside the top 50) but I put myself in this position by not playing great,” the smooth-swinging South African said. “It’s a nice challenge for me.

“I feel good about my game, I feel good about my year and, at the end of the day, only I can change that. If I do qualify (for the Masters), it would obviously be great. It means I am going to play good golf.

“If I don’t, I will just keep plugging away. That’s the only thing I can do.”

Source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26012012/2/golf-els-eyes-gain-vision-gurus.html

GEORGE, SOUTH AFRICA. Ernie Els is clearly feeling that he is in good shape to chase Tiger Woods in this week’s tournament in Abu Dhabi.  “It’s a good start to my year” he said at the end of his fourth round 67, the low score of the day, that vaulted him into a play off with Retief Goosen and eventual winner Brandon Grace. “I kept the ball in play and if I holed a few more putts, it would have been something special.” For putting purposes Els is working with Dr Sherylle Calder. The latter is a vision skills and performance specialist who helped England’s winning Rugby World Cup side in 2003 and the winning Springbok side of 2007.

Source: http://digital.globalgolfpost.com/globalgolfpostad/sample#pg19

With a host of rugby personalities in attendance (from former to current players to the visiting Saracens squad to Saru and franchise officials) the impressive Stellenbosch Academy of Sports was officially opened. Sports Science Institute of South Africa co-founder Morne du Plessis introduced the triple-story base to guests, which boasts two top-class gyms, a pool, a specialised culinary team, medical and physiotherapy departments and offices for Eye Gym specialist Dr Sherylle Calder (who was part of the management of the 2007 World Cup-winning Springbok team), the Springbok Sevens squad and the Western Province Rugby Institute. There are also hostel rooms available for players.

After a short walk over the Eerste River to the Paul Roos Markotter rugby fields, there is a new indoor training arena with an Astroturf grounding – which can be used in hot or wet weather. Saracens, who are in Cape Town for the week for preparation ahead of their European Cup fixture against Biarritz on Sunday, practised at the indoor arena on Wednesday morning and the squad was highly impressed.

‘It’s amazing. I think I would’ve been a much better player if I could’ve gone to an institution like this,’ hooker Schalk Brits told keo.co.za. ‘It’s great to see Paul Roos, Stellenbosch, WP and the Springbok Sevens all on board in making this work. I can only see more great players being produced in this system. And hopefully more Currie Cups for WP!’

Blitzboks coach Paul Treu, who started his team’s World Series preparation last week, is also very happy with the establishment.

‘This is a world-class facility, one many teams around the world don’t have the privilege of using. This will be a big boost for South African rugby as a whole and for sevens moving towards the 2016 Olympics,’ Treu also told this site. ‘We’ve only been here for a week, but already we are noticing the difference. The players are highly motivated and I believe great success will follow.’

The day started with a trial game between Maties and the Saracens Storm (the English champions’ second team). No Saracens first team players featured in the tourists’ line-up while Maties’ more senior players like scrumhalf Donald Stevens, front rower Schalk Ferreira and flyhalf Andre Kemp received the opportunity to play alongside the club’s fringe players. The home team fielded their Varsity Cup side, with No 8 Tertius Daniller, wing Tythan Adams and new signings scrumhalf Boela Abrahams (EP Kings) and Andre Smith (UJ) all on show.

Despite the scorching heat, the two teams delivered an entertaining match in front of a packed crowd at the Markotter fields, which Maties won 28-26. The hosts trailed 21-14 at half-time as the Saracens Storm had a stronger start to the first half. But the English players struggled in the heat after the break and Maties rallied in two converted tries for victory.

Source: http://www.keo.co.za/2012/01/12/stellenbosch-booming-with-new-academy/

By Jeremy Guscott
Ex-England and Lions star Wilkinson landed the drop-goal which won the 2003 World Cup for England

Jonny Wilkinson will go down as one of the greatest rugby players ever, not just for England but in the world.

His defining moment will always be the 2003 World Cup final, when he landed the winning kick deep into extra-time.

He dropped that goal under so much pressure and showed such composure. It was struck so sweetly and was never going to miss.

The measure of a man in a situation as pressured as that it is whether he delivers. And he did. There’s no better way of proving you are a great player.

Wilkinson one of the greats – Woodward

The guy was world class, the best in his position at that time. When he dropped that goal to win the World Cup for England, he became a rugby immortal.

His performances were never less than the best he could produce and England were fortunate to have him.

Fly-half is such a high-pressure position but you always felt Jonny would deliver.

He retires with 91 England caps, a total that would have been so much more if it hadn’t been for the injuries that ruined the middle part of his career.

Jonny was the second youngest player to make his England debut and I remember when he first appeared in the England camp as a shy 18-year-old.

We all had a bit of a giggle as he arrived with his mum and dad, who helped carry his bags up to his room.

When a real youngster turns up, you always wonder what the story is. It’s a major step up from being a prospect with potential to being an international player but you could tell as soon as Jonny started training that he was definitely the real deal.

I’ll always remember playing against Newcastle early on in his career. I got tackled and thought I’d been hit by two men because it was so hard. When I looked up, it was just Jonny stood there on his own.

I thought ‘wow, what great defence this kid has got’. He was to go on and prove that time and time again. He’s definitely the best defensive number 10 the game has ever seen.

He was obviously so much more than that, though.

He was incredibly consistent in the standard of his performances – and that is a tribute to his application and mental strength.

Wilkinson will always be remembered for his part in England’s World Cup win

If you take away the recent rugby World Cup, when he was well below his usual standards from the kicking tee, he is one of the best goal kickers ever.

He could also kick out of hand with both his left and right foot, while his distribution was first class as well.

He was never the greatest runner but he had his moments. That fantastic individual try he scored when he chipped and regathered against New Zealand in 2002 showed what he could do when he backed himself.

Every side that played against England knew that if they conceded a penalty they were looking at conceding three points. That gave England an edge.

His intense focus is well documented. I felt he sometimes put so many demands on himself that he would become over-conscious, which could restrict his footballing ability, but it was that drive that helped him become the player he was.

What you saw is what you got with Jonny. I can’t imagine anyone would have anything unfavourable to say about him.

Jeremy Guscott was talking to BBC Sport’s James Standley.

Read article here: http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/stellenbosch-University/matielandsummer2011_engfinal2/2011120901/#10