Profile:

Name: Sihle Ntuli
Date of birth: 29 January 1989
Favorite food: Nandos takeaways
Goals/Ambition: To play at the 2012/2016 Olympics for the Senior National Team.
Sports heroes: Rodger Federer and Mike Cullen
Hobbies: Supporting the Sharks Rugby Team (black and white, nothing else.

Biography:

Sihle Ntuli is a believer in the pursuit of perfection. His two current mottos come from the philosopher Aristotle ("We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit") and former American president Dwight Eisenhower ("No one can defeat us, unless we first defeat ourselves").

Sihle started playing hockey at the age of seven. He believes that there is no such thing as an off-season ... rather that is the time when base fitness preparation work for the following competition needs to be done. This ensures that by the time your season starts, you are well conditioned. So he works more on his fitness off-season, focusing more on his mental and tactical skills early on once the playing season has begun.

Sihle has three sessions of training a day during the week, running on the Astro-Turf in the mornings, hitting the gym in the middle of the day, and working with the team in the evenings.

Saturdays he takes a break from training to watch his younger siblings play their sports and on Sundays he plays league games.

Sihle is coached by Grant James (a former national player) and Brendon Carolan (one of the most qualified coaches in world hockey). When he is not competing, he spends time with family and friends. In fact, it was his family and most importantly his mother that truly inspired him in sports. She was a top netball player in her day, so he thinks it has rubbed off on his siblings and him.

His brother Bili, who is at Kearsney College, is a provincial hockey and cricket player while his sister Amanda, who is at Thomas More College, is also a provincial hockey player.

Sihle said he definitely wants to play hockey for as long as he can, or as long as age allows him. He is aiming to be an elite athlete and after that just play the game socially.