Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Work Stamina

For many of our members, extra stamina was needed to work through a traumatic worldwide event, and they rose to the occasion

By André van Heerden, Communications Director

I have been a very active soccer coach for a number of years. Currently I’m coaching two rep teams and I had been eagerly awaiting the day when we could get to play games against other teams.

It’s been nice to practice, even with restrictions, but it’s tough to keep everyone motivated without doing what everyone really wants to do: play a game.

But as much as I have been eagerly anticipating our first matches, something has been worrying me: game fitness.

When I was younger, I was a strong long-distance runner. At track and field, I did well at the 3000-metre steeple chase and always placed high in cross country races. With that solid base of stamina, you’d assume that running during a soccer game would be easy. It wasn’t. There’s a big difference between running fitness and match fitness. One involves constant, consistent motion, and the other involves frequent and abrupt bursts of energy, speed, concentration, and strength.

So, despite many of my players staying active during the pandemic lockdown, there was no way to prepare them for the sudden demands that an actual game would put on them. And as predicted, they were tired. Twenty minutes in and you could see the ability to sprint, or to get back on defense, faltering. Hands went on knees and substitutions were requested. Thankfully other teams were also dealing with the same issue and so everyone got to be tired together.

A similar concern faced workers at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. For me, this meant going from working in the office full time to working from home. No more commute, face-to-face meetings, and interactions with coworkers. But now as I face returning to the office as I used to do, I’m worried about my work stamina. Getting back to that daily routine—and the stamina I need for it—will take some time and effort.

But for many of our members, extra stamina was needed to work through a traumatic worldwide event, and they rose to the occasion. Overworked healthcare workers were called on to work extra shifts. Many service workers were called on to do the same. And it wasn’t just usual work. Everything became more difficult as everyone had to wear special PPE, everything had to be constantly cleaned and sanitized, customers and visitors had to be screened or kept away. Most were worried about the unknown and getting sick. Work stamina built around one type of work day now wasn’t enough. New strength and endurance had to be found.

As I head back to the office soon and adjust my work day, I’ll remember to be thankful to all those who had to push their work stamina much further to keep everyone else safe.

Work Stamina

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