New Zealand's Top Sporting Brains Get Together
Some of New Zealand's top brains in elite sport will get together tomorrow when the New Zealand Academy of Sport
(SPARC's high performance network) hosts the performance sports seminar in Auckland.
60 of New Zealand's top coaches and high performance staff will attend the two-day meeting. The aim is to use the
expertise and experiences of our leading coaches and providers to broaden the thinking on how best to deliver a
world-class support programme.
New Zealand Academy of Sport General Manager Katie Sadleir said "this is an excellent opportunity for the sports to get
together and share ideas. One of the great advantages New Zealand has is its size. We can actually get our top sporting
brains together, talk and share ideas."
Sadleir says "when you are working with athletes that are performing at their peak it can be difficult to find ways of
continually improving their performance. The right combination of support services - sports medicine, sports science,
technology and personnel can make an impact on performance. Seeing how other sports apply these ideas and the support
systems they have in place can help sports refine their own support services."
"There are a number of innovations across different sports. Learning from each other and sharing ideas is what we need
to do to be world-class."
Speakers include Debbie Strange, athletics (coach of Beatrice Faumuina), Ruth Aitken, Silver Ferns coach and Peter
Lester, who will discuss some of the lessons learnt from the Americas Cup.
One highlight will be a session from the UK Sports Institute's Darlene Harrison who will discuss the latest innovations
in IT support for coaches and athletes. Darlene is an ex-pat Kiwi who spent several years at the Australian Institute of
Sport and Fitness Australia before moving to the UK. She has been involved in the development of a virtual sports
institute
Katie Sadleir says "it is important that sports take time out to listen to each other. It's New Zealand against the rest
of the world."