Pathways and development in sport

The key theme of this year’s Future Champions Forum is empowering the coaches who support our talented athletes across New South Wales.

It is about building the capability of our coaches to provide better opportunities and enhance the experience of athletes across the state.

It is important for coaches to come together because coaching can often be an isolated role. These events help them create connections, build a sense of belonging and explore opportunities to engage, learn and strengthen their awareness. This helps them perform better for themselves and their athletes.

Attending forums like this is important on many levels. It provides opportunities to network with people from other sports and hear what they are doing within their pathways. We can learn from their successes, identify ideas we can apply and share our own experiences with them.

Sport grows through forums like this because we can learn from each other and work together.

Listen to the conversations taking place. There is some excellent content being delivered and key messages being reinforced. People are taking plenty of notes, but those ideas are also being explored and expanded through the conversations happening outside the sessions. That is why coming together is so important.

From my session with my coach, Stoper, I hope people enjoy the story and realise that anything is possible. We are winter athletes from a summer nation, and we are performing very well on the world stage. If we can do it, anyone can.

Every opportunity to learn from other coaches, other sports and educational programs supports your development as a coach.

We have been working closely with Wenisha and her team, who are doing wonderful work at the Office of Sport. I wanted to hear from her and learn more about the work happening through the Future Champions initiative.

It is important to bring together people who work in the same area but may not regularly speak with one another. They often face similar challenges and can share their knowledge and experiences.

They can also learn new skills. That sense of connection is particularly valuable in a sector filled with committed people doing great work.

The opportunity to come together, share knowledge and learn is invaluable. Forums like this are extremely important.

New South Wales is one of Australia’s largest states and continues to make a significant contribution to the country’s gold medal success.

We must ensure that our coaches, talented athletes and pathway system continue to thrive. New South Wales must remain at the forefront of delivering results on the world stage.