Academy workshops offer athletes life skills

Athletes have to be in tip-top condition in order to perform at their best.

But it’s not just spending time at the gym or putting in the hard yards at training that prepares sports men and women for success on the sports field.

They also need to make sure they are fuelling their bodies correctly.

With this in mind, the South West Academy of Sport recently gave its athletes the opportunity to attend a Developing Champions workshop that focused on nutrition.

A partnership between the WA Institute of Sport and the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, the workshop series is designed to give participants the chance to gain personal development skills.

A focus is on encouraging young athletes to engage in healthy behaviours and make positive decisions which enable them to successfully enter and then progress along the high performance pathway.

Participants at the workshop in Bunbury not only heard information valuable to pursuing a career in sport, they were given advice by Olympian Trent Mitton and Paralympian Sean Pollard.

SWAS chief executive officer Bernice Butlion said the workshops aimed to equip participants with valuable life skills.

“At SWAS, we take a holistic approach to nurturing athletes with the view to assisting them to have long and rewarding careers on and off the sports field,” she said.