This edition we look at technology in coaching, and delve into the importance of constructive advice when telling (teenage) athletes they’ve missed squad selection. We also highlight an interesting American volleyball programme that focuses on coaching youth athletes and their parents, consider sport and recreation sector workforce research, and catch up with basketball player turned [...]
More →When the hunt was on for regional nominations for the 2012 Sport Volunteer Awards, some quite remarkable characters suddenly found themselves under an unaccustomed spotlight. They were more used to dishing out pearls of wisdom to their sporting charges than experiencing a public gaze.
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When coaches set out to build a team of youngsters they try to inspire and teach techniques in the hope that they will get through to those who might one day be champions or, at the least, gain some life lessons. But it’s not just the message that the young minds absorb as the coaches [...]
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On any given weekend, heads bob in the surf at New Zealand’s beaches and look from afar like little more than anonymous dots in the briny. But there’s a select group of athletes who dote on them as a duck fusses over ducklings.
More →It may or may not be instructive to read on Wikipedia’s entry on New Zealand football that the page dedicated to women’s football is a scant four paragraphs. Men’s pages, other than just lists of players and results, proliferate. Things, though, are changing and Wikipedia, let’s not forget, is as accurate as the last person [...]
More →When spring arrives this year a long-time Hawke’s Bay gymnastics coach will qualify for a pensioner’s Gold card that will grant her free bus trips. That’s fine except that she spends so much time at the gymnasium, administering and coaching that she will almost never be out on the streets to catch a free bus [...]
More →Most coaches will be aware of the idea popularised by Malcolm Gladwell that, on top of some natural talent, it takes about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve mastery in any sport or other activity.
More →In this edition, we invite you to sit down with all-time coaching guru John Wooden for a fire-side chat without the fire. There’s also new thinking on mental strength from Andy Puddicombe, Dave Diggle and Dr Steve Peters. We’ve included thoughts on the coaching pathway from Sport Coach UK and the International Council for Coach Education, a [...]
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Drawing on his success at the West Point military academy, Dr Ralph Pim talks about how better sports results can be achieved by focusing on helping team members reach their full potential as people.
More →There’s no better way to understand the relationship between coach and athlete than by talking to those who have experienced ultimate success.
In our first video interview, London gold medal yachties Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie discuss their relationship with coach Nathan Handley. In the second video, we talk to Handley about getting the best [...]
More →Sport NZ has refreshed its coaching strategy, first produced in 2004, and has also produced its first ever Community Sport Coaching Plan. NZ Coach Magazine talks to the man behind the changes, Senior Coaching Advisor Andrew Eade, about how coaching in New Zealand has progressed over the last decade and what lies ahead.
More →On Brendon Cameron’s desk there’s a para-cycling rule book about an inch thick. He says it took him about three years to master the intricacies of para-cycling; knowledge he used to help Phillipa Gray and Laura Fairweather to a brace of gold, silver and bronze medals in tandem cycling at the recent London Paralympics.
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Every weekend in New Zealand thousands of sports games are played in great spirit, enjoyed as much by the spectators as the players. It’s not unusual though to witness some of the less admirable human traits being played out on the sideline.
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Swimming coach Simon Mayne says the relationship between athlete and coach is more important than anything else.
If there’s a common thread that links sports coaches of any code and at any level, it’s that they need to get on with their charges. It’s not a case of bellowing and being obeyed, it’s a relationship [...]
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This update: Usain Bolt says follow Jamaican example, Coaches wonder about good, bad of social media, Attributes that the best of the best coaches all seem to have in common, Sue Enquist – competitive greatness 24/7, Passion vs potential, and Teaching values through sport: a systems perspective from women coaches.
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In this update: Release of the new Sport NZ Coaching Strategy and Community Sport Coaching Plan, coach Steve McKean recognised (video), How to find undervalued talent, the Herdman influence, NRL Coaching, and Aimee Mullins story, and coaching 2030-style.
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It was arguably New Zealand’s greatest ever Olympic Games and the athletes are rightly receiving all the praise they are due. But a key part of performing at this elite level is having the right coaching support behind you. Most athletes will have their own personal coaches at home and while some of these coaches [...]
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Many coaches dream of one day being a leading performance coach and earning their living doing what they love most. But the life of a professional coach is not necessarily all beer and skittles. In this article learn about the challenges facing Paul Strang, the coach of the Auckland Aces cricket team, as he prepares [...]
More →The Regional Sports Trusts throughout New Zealand play an important role in supporting coach development. While each sporting code has responsibility for establishing its own coach development framework, by bringing coaches together in the right way a Regional Sport Trust can add real value. Read here about how Sport Wellington is working to assist the [...]
More →Coaches love to talk and one of the best ways to develop as a coach is to share ideas and experiences with each other. The opening of a new Coach Development Centre in Auckland offers some exciting possibilities for coaches at all levels across that region.
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Kids sport is a crucial part of Kiwi culture. Just drive around any part of New Zealand on a Saturday morning and you can’t help but feel good as you see all of the children out there having fun with their parents and family supporting them. But this would never happen without all those passionate [...]
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Squash has changed the way it develops coaches and it is producing some astounding results, particularly in the foundation coaching area where more volunteer coaches are leading the regeneration of the sport at a junior level. Read how the new system works and enjoy a great case study on Nirelle McDonald of Kaitaia.
More →In the update: What it means to be a coach in New Zealand, traps for young players, the science of motivation, young athletes and head injuries, Baby Boomers and Generation Y, and video conferencing.
More →In this update: managing change, everyday leadership, performance evaluation tests, Simon Walters on sport over winning and the Sportplan system.
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In this update: a coach’s legacy to a USOC archer, gut vs data, four principles for the open world, how to get your group to become a team and coaching women.
More →By Chris Bullen, HP Coaching Team, High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ)
Recently, the Board of High Performance Sport NZ signed off on an eight-year High Performance Coaching Plan.
More →Netball New Zealand CoachForce Manager Adrienne Morrin was awarded a 2011 Prime Minister’s Scholarship from SPARC. The scholarship allowed her to spend four days with Skill Acquisition Specialist Damian Farrow, in Australia.
Farrow has worked with a wide range of sub-elite and elite level Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) programs and National Sporting [...]
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New Zealand Cricket’s new Director of Cricket John Buchanan is making some formative changes to the way the sport is run in this country.
The former Australian National Coach, Buchanan took up the new role in May. Based in Christchurch, he reports to NZC’s Chief Executive and is the architect of their new high performance [...]
More →Malcom Gladwell, bestselling author of The Tipping Point, says top athletes succeed by listening to instinct rather than by consciously relying on technique.
Gladwell talks about his conversations with legendary tennis coach Vic Braden, and how Braden identified that top tennis players could not accurately say how they were so good at the game.
The players would [...]
More →Two years before New Zealand hosted the Rugby World Cup, SPARC invested $1.5 million in the Rugby New Zealand 2011 Volunteer Programme. The aim was to see 5500 volunteers trained, ready for the tournament and able to be the face of the event for visitors and New Zealand fans.
SPARC also wanted to see a [...]
More →Netball New Zealand’s Adrienne Morrin was awarded a 2011 Prime Ministers Scholarship from SPARC. The Scholarship allowed her to spend four days with Skill Acquisition Specialist Damian Farrow, in Australia.
Farrow has worked with a wide range of sub-elite and elite level Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) programs and National Sporting Organisations, including Cricket Australia, [...]
More →This video (which has been in the industry for some time but is new to the SPARC website) was produced by filming real New Zealand coaches in their own environment in real coaching situations. It shows a variety of coaching approaches being used with different types of athletes.
It includes comments from interviews with the [...]
More →The Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is an American national non-profit with the mission to provide all youth and high school athletes a positive, character-building youth sports experience. It specifically addresses the high youth sports drop rate. PCA says it has worked with more than a million youth athletes since its 1998 launch at Stanford University.
This video, [...]
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Andrej Lemanis is an Australian who Kiwis love. His six seasons coaching the SKYCITY New Zealand Breakers, culminating with their first Australian NBL championship title, have made him synonymous with New Zealand basketball.
As head coach Lemanis has steadily guided the Breakers up the Aussie NBL table from near the bottom to [...]
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You’ll have noticed that New Zealand is currently hosting one of the world’s biggest sporting events – Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011).
While most people are focusing on who’s likely to lift the Webb Ellis Cup, the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) is looking at how it can use this golden [...]
More →Every other month, Coach Mag will be looking to New Zealand and the rest of the world to bring you the stories, inspiration and tips relating to sports coaching. If you have any feature suggestions for our links publication, please be sure to send them to us.
More →Chief Executive Officer from Water Polo New Zealand, Eelco Uri, says people should not simply go out and coach. First, they should learn how to coach.
Uri outlines ELE (Electronic Learning Environment), a resource for potential coaches and current coaches which offers easy-to-follow development modules.
More →Welcome back to the updated New Zealand Coach. Thanks to everyone for the brilliant feedback we’ve been receiving on the new format. It’s been great to see a few of you posting comments and even sending in a few article suggestions. You will start to see a few of these suggestions appearing in the next update.
More →Every other month, Coach Mag will be looking to New Zealand and the rest of the world to bring you the stories, inspiration and tips relating to sports coaching. If you have any feature suggestions for our links publication, please send them to us.
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Barry Maister, former Secretary General of the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) and current International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, knows a lot about Olympic-level sporting events, how to achieve at such high levels and the vital role a coach has in international sporting success. Here, he shares his thoughts with us.
More →When six Kiwi swimmers return home from an Olympic Games having won eight gold medals between them, it’s something special.
Even more so when you consider the challenges they and their support teams have overcome to reach that pinnacle. Those challenges are something Dave Burrowes, the head coach of the Special Olympics New Zealand swim [...]
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Winners of the 2010 Volunteer Coach of the Year awards were captivated by Darryl Suasua’s presentation at a recent professional development weekend in Auckland.
To give you a taste of the session, the former New Zealand Black Fern’s World Cup winning rugby coach and current Rugby Development Manager for the New Zealand Rugby Union gave [...]
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When six Kiwi swimmers return home from an Olympic Games having won eight gold medals between them, it’s something special.
Even more so when you consider the challenges they and their support teams have overcome to reach that pinnacle. Those challenges are something Dave Burrowes, the head coach of the Special Olympics [...]
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This month we feature three new items in the ‘best of the web’ including the YouTube sensation that is Ray Winston and the Football Association getting proactive about promoting good sideline behaviour. If you come across anything you think worthy of sharing with your fellow coaches, be sure to let us know about it.
Welcome to the May 2011 edition of New Zealand Coach which, as you’ll have noticed, has its own website. The re-launch of the magazine comes at a sad time for SPARC and for the coaching community with the recent passing of Olympian, hockey coach and much respected SPARC colleague, Paul Ackerley. See our tribute [...]
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Coaching in New Zealand has lost a great friend and servant with the death earlier this month of Paul Ackerley.
Paul died on May 3 after a short illness. He was 61.
Many people in the coaching fraternity will have known him as SPARC’s coaching guru. However, such was the humility of the man, many who [...]
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Since starting tennis at the age of seven, Dutch born Marcel Vos has been passionate about the game.
Vos represented Holland in the Junior Davis Cup, then played in the US college system, before graduating to the professional circuit. However, a long-term injury curtailed his plan to play as a professional, and he instead [...]
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When the Canterbury Magicians women’s cricket team took out the Action Twenty20 Cup recently, it was just reward for three years of dedication by their coach Steve Cunis.
“It’s been a great result, and really reflects the hard work the girls have put in this season,” Cunis says.
Cunis has a strong [...]
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Simply put, netball runs through Leigh Gibbs’ veins.
She was an influential figure as a player – a member of the national team for nine years and captain of the side which won the world title in Glasgow in 1987.
She’s now proving equally prolific in her coaching career. Gibbs has coached across the netball [...]
More →Volunteer Coach Awards
The SPARC Volunteer Coach Awards are how SPARC recognises and pays tribute to the thousands of volunteer coaches around the country, who collectively contribute so much to New Zealand sport.
Clubs, parents, athletes or other sideline supporters nominate volunteer coaches they believe have made a special contribution to grassroots sports by completing [...]
More →Coaches often struggle to find activities that provide both enjoyable and meaningful learning experiences for their athletes. A good potential source for ideas is simple children’s games. The following two examples show how ‘follow the leader’ and a simple slalom course activity can be used to raise the athlete’s awareness about basic skills in their sport. These two [...]
More →Coaches from six sports have been selected for the third intake of a programme aimed at producing more coaches capable of developing World, Olympic or Paralympic champions.
SPARC, the New Zealand Academy of Sport and national sports organisations have been working together to increase New Zealand’s pool of world-class coaches. Coach Accelerator is a three-year [...]
More →By Mike Dudson
The New Zealand Academy of Sport advocates an athlete-centred approach to supporting our elite sports people, with a philosophy of empowering individuals in all training and performance decision-making. To do this, elite athletes must firstly maintain high levels of motivation for a long time, often years. Secondly, the search for incremental gains [...]
More →Effective coaching with teams: when less is more – 16 Feb 2011 An American sports psychologist discusses an unconventional approach to getting the best performance out of a soccer team. (Podium Sports Journal)
Stretching before a run does not prevent injury – 17 Feb 2011 Stretching before a run neither prevents [...]
More →The Sports Coaching Brain describes itself as ‘your ultimate source of ideas, innovations and inspiration for all sports, coaching, sports science and performance issues.’ The man behind it, Australian coach Wayne Goldsmith, offers advice about coaching at all levels, from the grass roots to high performance.
New Zealand 7s coach Gordon Tietjens, or ‘Titch’ as he is commonly known, really needs no introduction. Regarded as the top 7s coach in the world, Titch is renowned for his ability to spot talent and lead the New Zealand 7s team (often made up of fresh players) to victory on the 7s [...]
More →Chris Bullen (better known in the sporting fraternity as ‘Bully’) has a new role as SPARC’s Performance Consultant, High Performance Coaching, running the high performance Coaching Strategy.
“I’m here to ensure that athletes have the right coaches working with them to help them win,” says Bully. “And to do that, we’ll be working hard to [...]
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The 2010 Commonwealth Games were a real coup for three coaches on SPARC’s Coach Accelerator programme. Justin Grace (cycling), Scott Talbot-Cameron (swimming) and Dayle Cheatley (cycling) helped bring home an impressive nine medals – that’s nearly a third of New Zealand’s tally!
“Yeah, it’s not bad [...]
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In May 2010 we told you about New Zealand Football’s ambitious initiative to attract and train 3,500 new coaches for the Small Whites programme. At that stage, they had reached 45 percent of their goal. We spoke to Dwayne Woolliams, Coach Development Project Manager at New [...]
More →SPARC’s High Performance Consultant Don Tricker has recently returned from Delhi. Alongside New Zealand Academy of Sport North Island’s Performance Services Manager, Martin Dowson, he was supporting New Zealand coaches at the Games.
Don’s main role was to deal with any logistical issues that might impact on athletes’ performance.
Don and Martin arrived at the [...]
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New Zealand brought home a total of 36 medals from the Commonwealth Games. We spoke to some of the coaches who brought home the medals: Tim Carswell (track cycling), Raylene Bates (athletics), Anthony Ricketts (squash), Didier Poppe (shot put) and Ruth Aitken (netball).
Tim Carswell, Track Cycling – one gold medal, five silver and three [...]
More →Articles Inclusion as a basic coaching skill – 2010 (PDF, 60KB) Sports Coach, Australian Sports Commission Making your team work: How coaches can transform groups into teams Association for Applied Sport Psychology, October 2010 Websites Volunteernet: If you’re looking for volunteers to help at an event you’re organising, visit [...]
More →Mark Hager was one of Australia’s greatest hockey players, with 179 goals under his belt from more than 230 test matches. He is also the proud owner of a bronze medal he won competing at the Atlanta Olympics in August 1996, playing for the Australian Men’s Team.
“I’ve been coaching since I reached senior playing level [...]
More →Brett Reid, Coaching Director for Triathlon New Zealand
Brett’s role sees him working closely with triathlon coaches around the country, providing development opportunities and helping them identify what they need to do to meet the needs of their athletes and the sport. A key part of his role is establishing a meaningful and challenging coach [...]
More →“I was 19 when I started coaching the kids at Taradale High School,” says Dave. “That led me to St Peter’s in Cambridge, where I’ve lived for the past nine years, then on to Sacred Heart and Hamilton Boys.”
Dave’s coaching career has seen him working at an international level, with his athletes competing at [...]
More →“It’s hard for parents who have never been involved in competitive sports to know what is expected of them,” says Belinda Galley, Regional Learn to Swim Development Manager at Swimming New Zealand.
“This handbook will give them the confidence and knowledge they need to give their child the best experience possible in the sport of [...]
More →Without the tireless efforts of these volunteers, it is hard to imagine how community support would survive in our country. And it’ll come as no surprise to hear that every single one of New Zealand’s high profile sports people have experienced the benefits of a volunteer coach at some point in their career.
Coaches are [...]
More →Richard Skelly, Coach Development and Rugby Development Officer Support Manager at NZRU teamed up with Hugh Galvan, Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury, after identifying the need for coaches to gain a better understanding of how teenagers tick.
The main aims of the module are to:
Better understand factors coaches need to consider when [...]
More →John Herdman, Director of Football Development, New Zealand Football
It’s been an exciting year for New Zealand Football, culminating in the gripping All Whites win against Bahrain last month, which saw them qualify for the Football World Cup Finals in South Africa next year. You’d have to have been living under a rock for the [...]
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Tim Carswell is no stranger to competing at the Olympics, representing New Zealand at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. However, his role in Beijing will be very different as he takes on the position of Track Cycling Coach to a team of nine athletes.
Even before he retired from competitive cycling in 2000, [...]
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New Zealand Golf’s ‘Swing Skills 1 and Play the Game 1’ module aims to provide all the information coaches need on technical golf swing components and game skills required for developing players. It encourages a game-based approach to athlete learning.
More →Tom Willmott is the Head Coach of the New Zealand Snowboard Team and also a lucky member of the first intake of coaches on SPARC’s Coach Accelerator programme.
We spoke to Tom about his experiences in Vancouver and how he is finding the Coach Accelerator programme.
Tom returned from Vancouver, his second Winter Olympics, saying [...]
More →Pat Barwick from Sport Canterbury has a wealth of experience in administration and coaching, having coached various hockey teams at different levels, including the New Zealand women’s team at the Barcelona Olympics.
Recently, Pat kept hearing the word ‘mentor’ being used around the coach development scene and found that people didn’t quite understand what [...]
More →Pero Cameron has recently taken on the role of Coach of the Wellington Saints basketball team for the next three seasons and we spoke to him about how he is finding his transition from player to coach.
“As a player you have the luxury of just preparing yourself for the game,” says Pero, “whereas when [...]
More →When Siobhan Lapthorne visited New Zealand from Australia on holiday back in 2005, she fell in love with the place. So when an opportunity came up to apply for a position with Equestrian Sports New Zealand (ESNZ), she jumped at the chance.
“I saw this job was open so I thought I’d have a look [...]
More →“As a Cantabrian, it’s my duty to accept nothing but the best and that’s to go for the top job,” says Todd Blackadder about his role as Head Coach of the Crusaders.
Todd puts his passion for coaching down to the fact that he’s had some fantastic coaches throughout his playing career.
“I feel like [...]
More →In February this year, New Zealand Football (NZF) undertook an ambitious initiative to attract and train 3,500 new coaches for their Small Whites programme, prompting a huge response so far.
“We have reached about 45 percent of our goal,” explains Dwayne Woolliams, Project Manager of the coaching drive at NZF. “And [...]
More →Research and resources Teaching optimal on-field hydration levels in rugby union players (PDF) by Felila Ward. Ward is a Royal Society Fellow on scholarship in New Zealand for six months working with a sports scientist at Lincoln University. She has recently released her findings on water loss in Rugby Union players. UK [...]
More →In our first edition of the New Zealand Coach magazine, we spoke to the five coaches of the newly formed ANZ Championships trans-Tasman netball league to get their thoughts on the new league and how it might impact on their teams and New Zealand netball as a whole. With the league now into its third [...]
More →In April 2009, six top New Zealand coaches commenced the Coach Accelerator Programme. The Coach Accelerator is an innovative programme funded by SPARC aimed at providing our top coaches with the skills to produce World, Olympic or Paralymic champions within five years. Already there is an impressive line up of coaches ready to apply for [...]
More →When Ken Ravizza, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, California State University, was asked to speak at SPARC’s Winning on the World Stage Conference in February 2009, he jumped at the chance.
More →John Reid, General Manager, Community Sport and Recreation at SPARC, has a passion for sport and participation at the community level and with his experience as an international cricketer and sports administrator for over 20 years, he certainly knows what he’s talking about.
We recently spoke to John about his views on community sport, [...]
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Ben Valentine was born in Nelson to parents who both played basketball, so it’s no surprise that he’s ended up living and breathing the sport.
“I grew up in Nelson, the basketball mecca of New Zealand,” says Ben. “It was a natural choice to play since my parents were already involved and it [...]
More →Peter Russell never planned to become a rugby coach at such an early age, but didn’t squelch at the idea either.
“I’d been coaching the club rugby colts teams for a couple of years after the premier season had finished when, during the pre-season, one of the head coaches suggested I had the skills [...]
More →SPARC has recently launched the NZ CoachApproach DVD and supporting resources to promote the NZ CoachApproach and show examples of quality New Zealand coaches in their coaching environment.
The supporting resources can be used in interactive workshops or as handouts to compliment the DVD.
The project, led by Paul Ackerley, Senior Advisor – Coach [...]
More →Andrew Clouston is the National Programmes Manager at Yachting New Zealand, a role that sees him looking after yachting participation and development, as well as providing support to 126 clubs throughout New Zealand, with the support of four Regional Support Officers.
As part of his role, Andrew manages Yachting New Zealand’s school programmes, one of [...]
More →Brad Jensen has been the Development Manager at Hockey New Zealand for two years, working on participation initiatives and coach development. He has recently taken advantage of SPARC’s new online coaching tool, tailoring it to his sport, and has been impressed with the results.
“It’s been a great way to inform our members about [...]
More →Arjun Haszard, Coaching Development Manager at Swimming New Zealand, is responsible for training and developing beginner to junior level swimming coaches throughout New Zealand.
To assist Arjun in his role, Swimming New Zealand have taken advantage of SPARC’s online coaching tool, Coaching Starter Pack. You may recall reading about the Safety net module of this [...]
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