Ziyaad Parker
Chief Operation Officer
Ziyaad is a 29 year old health professional and active cricket player, who is passionate about development in sport and helping people achieve sport excellence. He has been involved in club cricket for more than 20 years, in which he eventually completed his level 2 coaching certificate and has spent time coaching at a private academy and volunteered at various academies and clubs around Cape Town.
Through his love of sport, Ziyaad decided to pursue a career in the industry by completing an Undergraduate Degree in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of the Western Cape. Thereafter, Ziyaad completed both his Honors and Masters in Biokinetics – Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Cape Town. During his time at UCT, Ziyaad focused his research on talent identification and development in sport. Furthermore, he completed the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist qualification through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. During his career, Ziyaad has had the opportunity to work with several young athletes gaining experience in delivering strength and conditioning programmes in a high performance environment to individuals, groups and teams.
Once graduated, Ziyaad completed an internship at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa in both High Performance and Wellness departments. Thereafter, he was kept on by the High Performance Centre as a consultant. Having spent several years at the institute, he moved into education and training and has since lectured at a private tertiary institution in the field of Coaching Science as well as at the Cape University of Technology in the Sports Management programme.
Ziyaad is currently the Chief Operation Officer at the African Sport Training Academy and is responsible for the day to day operations. In addition, he is also a strength and conditioning coach at the academy. The academy services athletes as well as the general public with Ziyaad being actively involved in delivering his services through taking strength and conditioning sessions as well as prescribing periodized programmes. Ziyaad has aspirations of pursuing a PhD in the future.