Young Triathlon Talent Impresses At Youth Academy

Young Triathlon Talent Impresses At Youth Academy

Auckland this week hosted one of a number of Regional Youth Academies being rolled out by Tri NZ as part of the National Talent Programme, with 15 young triathletes from 12 to 17 years of age gathering daily under the guidance of Tony O’Hagan and invited Tri NZ accredited development coaches.

Tri NZ Talent Development Coach Tim Brazier is delighted at the continued roll out of the Regional Youth Academies as part of the National Talent Programme (NTP), with Auckland just one of a number to be delivered around New Zealand in a busy few weeks coming up before Christmas.

“The Regional Youth Academies are just such an exciting part of our Talent Programme, when all the RYA’s get going we can actively engage with up to 100 kids New Zealand wide and with coaches in the regions through their hands on delivery of the RYA’s, as well as network with all of the athletes’ coaches around the country. All of which seeds into the National Talent Squad which in turn is creating a pathway for athletes to feed through to High Performance and get the appropriate level of guidance from coaches, doing the work that is appropriate for that age,” said Brazier.

Amongst those at the RYA this week was Fraser Hamilton from St Kentigern College. Fraser has come to the sport of triathlon from a running background but is now well and truly into swim, bike, run under the coaching of Nathan Richmond and has enjoyed the week.

“This has been good fun, I have learned a lot and it has been good to see everyone here enjoying it and having fun. The competitiveness combined with the friendship always works, pushing each other along but enjoying it at the same time. Getting different points of view from the different coaches is great too with swimming, cycling and the running, it has helped me a lot.”

Rachel Edge from Kamo High School is a 16 year old triathlete and has been competing since she was just 7 years old.

“I first started with the Allens kids triathlon, then the Weetbix Kids and then the Contact and Panasonic Series. At my first year in intermediate school I went to the secondary schools champs and that really is how it all started. I have been coached by Sam Warriner, Murray Healey and am now working with Tony (O’Hagan).

“Working with the other kids has been a lot better because in Whangarei we really don’t have many kids my age doing triathlon and the amount of kids here in a selected age range, it is just motivational having people and coaches around. I love having Tony as a coach because he doesn’t just tell us to do something, he provides some motivation and gets involved in what we are doing.

“When you are training against others you look at who are the strong one who are the weak ones - what are their strengths and weaknesses and find out who your competition is and who to stick by in that particular area, you are learning off the athletes as well as the coaches.”

O’Hagan has been working with the assistance of a number of coaches through the week, with Rob Dallimore and Jana Korbasova alongside while other development coaches have been invited in to share their experiences and knowledge with each other and the athletes.

“This is a very good bunch of kids, very positive and well behaved and they have been supportive of each other and absorbed everything that has been thrown at them, it is fantastic to see,” said O’Hagan.

“There is a competitive edge as well and they are beginning to realize they have to beat the world but they don’t have to beat each other up but if they work together they can conquer the world and that is part of what we are aiming to achieve.

“They are trying to be helpful and help each other out, that is what we want so that everyone’s strengths are maximized and weaknesses are minimized and realizing that they can learn from other peoples skills as well so if someone is particularly good in one area, everyone else wants to raise the bar to that level in that area as well.

“There is a fun aspect of being able to train with your mates – in many cases they are making new friendships that will last beyond this RYA and see smaller groups that will come together more regularly on their own and develop their own little training groups as well. Meeting like-minded individuals will create other synergies in other areas as well.”

While the RYA has been underway in Auckland, Brazier has been working with the 2014 National Talent Squad in Cambridge. The NTS is a group of young triathletes chosen to receive further attention across all aspects of their triathlon lives.

“There is a continued focus with the NTS on trying to undertake critical analysis of ourselves and ITU racing and exploring how they work together and with their coaches to close the gaps. There is a strong element of teaching them to take ownership of their performance and taking care of their day to day lives in areas such as nutrition, stretching, recovery and learning to manage their time effectively, both structured and unstructured.”

Brazier says the opportunity with the NTS athletes in camp is not one based around actual training.

“Most of the focus in these camps is much broader than the training – their coaches are delivering that, we are trying to work with them on the other areas, some of which are very technical. As an example the last two days have been on the track in the velodrome working on the specifics of pedaling, lapping out, how to apply power to the bike and use the bike to create power – all of which is very different on a fixed wheel bike.”

The NTS athletes then travelled to Auckland for biomechanical testing at AUT Millennium, under the watchful eye of HPSNZ staff. This testing enables coaches and athletes to improve techniques which in turn leads to fewer injuries and better training and racing outcomes.

ENDS

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