Molefhe has been with the athletics team since DOHA 2019 World Athletics Championships but was left out at the last minute. Reacting to the decision to leave him out, Molefhe said it was unfortunate as he had developed a bond with the team and there was a programme for the athletes until the end of the Olympics. “I understand all athletes in the athletics team. There are factors that contribute to the performance of an athlete, rest, physiological aspect and trust. When there are some changes, they start wondering if they would click with the new person. I would say our athletes were not happy about the decision to drop me because we had built a relationship and they understood me,” he said. He added, it was unfortunate there was an abrupt ending and he is worried the athletes' performance could decline. Some athletes like Ditiro Nzamani, Boitumelo Masilo and Karabo Sibanda are still nursing injuries. “I talk to the athletes every day since they left. They are unhappy. The way I had knitted the programme was continuous and I was not waiting for an athlete to be injured,” Molefhe said. He told Mmegi Sport that his job differs from a regular massage therapist at a beauty spa. He explained that it is important to find out why an athlete is vulnerable to injuries and what could be done. “There should be preventative measures for the future. A programme should be incorporated with that of the coach. People confuse sport massage with that of spa. In a sport massage therapy course, you are taught the anatomy of the human body. An athlete's muscle is different from a normal person's. I do not just massage all muscles,” he said. Molefhe said when he meets an athlete for the first time, it is important to understand where to massage a muscle. He explained that there is a need to understand the mechanism of the injury and then grade an injury.
“After an event, you should be able to understand the impact on the muscles. There are two types of skeletal muscle fibres, fast-twitch and slow-twitch, and they each have different functions that are important to understand when it comes to movement and exercise programming. Slow-twitch muscle fibres are fatigue-resistant, and focussed on sustained, smaller movements and postural control,” he said. Molefhe gave an example of Isaac Makwala who has fast-twitch muscles. He said as a massage therapist, he has to understand that for Makwala to perform better, he should be conditioned in a certain way. Molefhe said it is unfortunate that in Botswana things are approached in the wrong way. He said most athletes do not understand their bodies. “I have also trained in strength and conditioning whereby I prepare an athlete for the coach. That programme should come before an athlete is forced to run say seven 400ms at the stadium. There is a gap in between. People regard us as masseuses and they are not taking us seriously. We are sport massage therapists,” he said. Molefhe said when someone has been trained, the job becomes easy and injuries would be prevented. He explained that his first assignment with the team was a trip to Doha. “During that trip, I realised that most of our athletes have chronic injuries and have never rehabilitated in a proper way. Had they been attended to according to injuries protocols we would not be having injuries. Athletes who had such injuries were Galefele Moroko, Loungo Matlhaku, Leungo Scotch and Sibanda. Scotch still has that injury. The time I had to work on them was not enough because the minimum rehabilitation period is six months,” Molefhe said. Meanwhile, Molefhe has been working with Onkabetse Nkobolo who suffered bad injuries from a car accident in 2020. “When Nkobolo was released from the hospital, he did not have any function. I agreed on a programme with his parent and Botswana Athletics Association (BAA). After a month of building strength, my superiors agreed that I could assist him at SSKB,” he said. However, Molefhe said when the athlete was about to recover, the programme was stopped for two months because of some issues that cropped up along the way. He said Nkobolo was not even able to hold a cellphone or even turn in bed. “He did not have sensation on the lower limp. But when the programme was stopped he was able to feel. I was always telling him that I want to see him standing up from the wheelchair. Despite all that, I volunteered to rehabilitate Nkobolo. He was able to paddle after we lifted him from the wheelchair. He was able to use a resistance band, which is an elastic band used for strength training,” he said. Molefhe said all the way, they were informed that the rehabilitation was stopped because he had to attend diamond-sorting training. Molefhe said he did not mince his words and told Nkobolo that his training would affect his focus on rehabilitation. Molefhe said he had expected the physiotherapists who took over the team to ask for an update from him before they left.
FACT FILE
Full names: Kabo Kabelo Molefhe
Date of birth: January 10, 1982
