One of New Zealand’s biggest football clubs is benefiting from a strength and conditioning programme set up by an MIT lecturer. Senior Lecturer, School of Sport, Joza Fleming started working with the Eastern Suburbs men’s first team early last year and has now established a club-wide programme.
Joza’s input is getting great results already says the men’s first team coach Michael Built.
“I believe we are now the fittest team in the country. Also, we’ve only had one soft tissue injury in the men’s first team all year and I have no doubt that is because of the work Joey is doing with them,”
Eastern Suburbs men’s first team plays in the highest domestic level of football in New Zealand – National League Regional Competition. Mr Fleming’s experience includes playing football at a high level in Argentina and working for FIFA in Fiji.
Joza Fleming at MIT’s Ōtara Campus.
In his early twenties, Mr Fleming was studying and playing club football in Auckland when he got an opportunity to play for a club in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“It was really cool. The level over there is unmatched here. You realise how it’s more the desperation that they have that we don’t have here because our life doesn’t depend on football. I was competing for a spot in the team with a guy who’s trying to bring his whole family out of the slums.”
“For us, if we don’t make it, no problem, we go back to just live life. But over there, it’s desperate and so you’re very conscious of that. The football culture was amazing. There might be a 20,000-seat stadium and you’re living right next door to it in a suburban area. Then when it’s game time, the people, the fans, the music, and the colours. It’s crazy.”
During this time, Mr Fleming sustained a football injury, so he returned to New Zealand and a role with MIT.
“Growing up, my Dad had an export business working in the islands so I always wanted to live in Fiji. I took some unpaid leave and ended up getting a job in Fiji for one of the district teams and with the national team when they were in training camps.”
“Last year, back in New Zealand, I was asked to help out with Eastern Suburbs. Their first team plays in the top league in the country. I put in place the strength and conditioning programme for the men’s first team and then the whole club.”
Mr Fleming started at Eastern Suburbs by working with the men’s first team.
“It’s a very a professional set-up for an amateur sport in New Zealand. So the top men and women’s teams trains four mornings a week and in addition we have two gym sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We also do a priming session on Friday before the game in the weekend.”
“We’ve now started to introduce a long-term athlete development programme for kids aged 7 to 14 or 15. We give them the foundation to be able to grow physiologically as their bodies change.”
“With strength and conditioning, you have the stuff that you do on the pitch or the stuff that you do on the gym, but your recovery has to match it, otherwise your body is not going to respond to it.”
“It’s making sure that they understand what proper recovery looks like. Sleep is obviously a big one and doing the right stretching before and after games.”
“I’m using the learnings from my work in the real world to inform my teaching in the classroom at MIT. It’s cool that I can then relay the learnings as it’s constantly changing in the real world. That goes for coaching philosophy as well.”
“Only 10 or 15 years ago a coach would be screaming and yelling at you. But now there’s a lot more like a collaborative approach where coaches are talking to the players and bringing them into the thought processes. Psychology has become a big part of it.”
Michael Built says he had heard about Mr Fleming in footballing circle for years before they first met.
“I heard so many positive things from people who had worked with him; players and coaching staff. I met with him and Joey the person, great person and talking to him about football and strength and conditioning you could tell he had huge amount of knowledge and could help us maximise our physical potential. He lives and breathes football.”
“He’s so great at dealing with the players and coaches. They all love him. He has been my best signing. Joey started with the men’s first team and ended up being the strength and conditioning coach throughout the whole club.”
“The plan that he’s developed is putting in programme to educate our coaches on how to train the players. That includes how to warm-up, stretching, gym-work, recovery.”
“He does that throughout the club and it’s going to be different for a youth player or someone in the first team. We have a lot of faith that he knows what he’s doing.”
“He programmes specific gym work for all the senior players and he works closely with the physio on any player that has an injury. He is constantly having conversations with me about the training that each player is doing. The training of every player is micro-managed with their load to prevent injury and so that they are at their fittest.”
MIT School of Sport is now in discussion on how students could gain practical experience through Mr Fleming’s work with the club’s academy.
Mr Fleming’s input now spans the whole club.
