Compliments of Shawn Belluigi 
06 August 2013. John Mitchell, ex All Blacks player and coach who is famous for guiding the Lions to Currie Cup Victory, will teach approximately 2 400 rugby players from 40 schools around South Africa about what it takes to ‘Power Through’ from school boy rugby to Super Rugby and beyond. He will be demonstrating new techniques, drills and give guidance on other performance related aspects of training, like hydration, before, during and after matches. Powerade, the official hydration sponsor of the Vodacom Super Rugby, commissioned John Mitchell to devise a programme to help both school coaches and players to excel in the competitive – and exciting – game of rugby. He will impart his wealth of rugby knowledge and experience on coaches and players via the Powerade Performance Sessions.
The 40 Schools, from a total of 100, won a Powerade Performance Session with Mitchell after collecting the most Powerade caps in the ‘Powerade Collect a Cap’ competition that ran in March and April 2013.
Mitchell’s program is designed with Powerade’s ‘Power Through’ philosophy in mind giving coaches the necessary tools to develop their athletes. The philosophy focuses on finding strength, conviction and belief in those moments of low performance, self-doubt or discouragement. It is the role of a coach to motivate, inspire as well as providing useful information on training regimes to assist their athletes when facing challenges, which they will do at every level in their sport.
“We want to inspire and motivate young individuals to make sure they maintain their forward momentum and achieve their goals. We know that coaches also play the role of mentor and guidance counselor and we want to empower coaches who will in turn inspire the players,” said Trivern Chetty, Brand Manager- Sports and Energy at The Coca-Cola Company.
Coaches that come into contact with Mitchell during these campaigns will also be able to stay up to date with peak performance by means of signing up for the communications, developed by the ex-All Blacks and Lions coach himself. A select group of coaches will receive a training tips newsletter twice a month from John. This communication will take the form of skills training content, pictures and links to video demonstrations from the Powerade Performance Sessions as well as great competitions to participate in.
Western Cape Schedule
15 August : Paarl Gimnasium
20 August : SACS
21 August : Fish Hoek HS
22 August : HS Tygerberg
23 August : HS Monument Park
27 August : Klein Nederburg Secondary School
Fantastic initiative. This is the type of exposure the kids need . Hope the program is not based on senior rugby and rather the development of individual skills. There is to much emphases on pattern play and not letting the kids just play the game and try things by trial and error. Way to much emphases on winning. This dampens the initiative of kids , because they are afraid to make mistakes that could cost them the game.