SPARC announces High Performance Strategy

by SPARC and Sail-World on 15 Aug 2006 Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) today released the findings and recommendations of its High Performance Strategy 2006-2012, a blueprint for its approach to investing in high performance sport in New Zealand in the coming years.

The strategy, developed during the past eight months, is based on a comprehensive analysis of New Zealand's high performance structures and systems. The review analysed the delivery structure and support programmes at a national and regional level.

SPARC's goal is to create a world-class high performance system that provides the leadership, resources and support services that enable athletes and teams to win in events that matter to New Zealand.

SPARC has identified eight strategies aimed at streamlining and improving the efficiency of New Zealand's high performance system.

Strategy 1: Leadership: SPARC will assume a stronger leadership position in New Zealand’s high performance system.

Strategy 2: Targeted Investment: Up to 70% of SPARC’s high performance investment and support will be targeted at results capable sports competing in the events that matter to New Zealand. Based on these criteria the high performance programmes of athletics, cycling, rowing, sailing, swimming and triathlon will be supported through to 2012. These sports will be eligible to receive high performance programme investment; athlete and coach support via the regional operations; technical development support and performance enhancement grants (athlete awards).

Strategy 3: Athlete Development: SPARC will promote a five stage athlete development model Athlete with an integrated pathway from ‘early childhood’ through to Development ‘sporting excellence’. The five stages are:

1. Explore - enjoyment focussed movement and play;
2. Learn - deliberate play and the development of fundamental movement skills;
3. Participate - deliberate practice leading to the development of game sense and sport-specific skills;
4. Perform - use of talent identification, specialisation and competition to turn talented athletes into world class athletes; and
5. Excel - world class athletes winning internationally.

Strategy 4: Coach Development: Coaching has long been recognised as an area of weakness in New Zealand. SPARC will continue to implement the New Zealand Coaching Strategy and introduce new initiatives as a way of addressing this issue.

From a coaching perspective our primary aims will be to:
• .ensure sports recruit and retain world class coaches with the ability to develop and grow their athletes;
• .ensure system support is targeted at those coaches responsible for developing and supporting results capable athletes;
• .ensure the coach support services provided by the system add value to coaches; and
• .ensure sports identify and develop New Zealand coaches capable of succeeding the current national coach.

Strategy 5: Capability Development: A key attribute of successful organisations is their ability to recruit and retain quality personnel across all levels of their organisation

Strategy 6: Knowledge Transfer: SPARC sees collaboration and the sharing of information across sports as a method of providing critique and challenge, driving innovation and minimising duplication.

Strategy 7: Refined delivery system: SPARC will refine the current delivery model by moving to a two region (North Island, South Island) delivery structure from July 2007. Generic services (e.g. reactive medical services and strength and conditioning) will continue to be provided where athletes live and train. Specialist services (e.g. sport science and sport medicine) will be concentrated around five major centres (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin). Key service providers will be contracted by the regional operations in order to allow them to deliver services in New Zealand and overseas.

The regional operations will lead the development of ‘centres of excellence’ where clusters of sports will train at multi-sport venues in order to promote regular sharing of knowledge and expertise. Daily interaction between sports will promote the cross-fertilisation of ideas and allow the system to be partly responsible for its own professional development.

A ‘centre of excellence’ blueprint will be completed by June 2007 with the aim of having at least two centres of excellence (one in each of the North and South Islands) operational by the end of 2008. The regional operations will be based at the centres of excellence and athlete and coach support services will be available on site.

Centres of excellence will operate in tandem with ‘satellite centres’ where sports have a requirement to centralise their programmes around specific facilities (e.g. rowing, sailing, winter sports) that are not available in multi-sport venues.

Strategy 8: World Class Facilities : The high performance staff based at centres of excellence will continue to be employed by, and accountable to their national sport organisation which in turn will be accountable to SPARC for high performance outcomes.

New Zealand has a lack of world class training facilities to which our athletes have priority access. SPARC will work with targeted sports to negotiate priority access to existing facilities or to develop world class training facilities.

SPARC is aware of the financial implications of developing and maintaining world class sporting facilities and will look to engage the owners and developers of major sporting facilities (e.g. territorial authorities) to ensure they consider high performance requirements when developing these facilities.

An evaluation of New Zealand’s high performance training facilities will be completed by June 2007 with the aim of identifying a national facility development blueprint by December 2007.

SPARC Chief Executive Nick Hill comments:
'The overall goal of these strategies is to increase the international competitiveness of New Zealand's athletes and teams; to foster a 'performance-focussed' culture in high performance sport; and to ensure SPARC invests for the long term in results capable sports in order to develop their depth of talent to ensure they can win in events that matter to New Zealand,'.
'At the end of the day, in the realm of high performance sport, it's all about winning. As the leader of New Zealand's high performance system, SPARC is focussing its resources on the sports that are capable of achieving that goal,' Hill added.

Sail-World comment: The major change in this strategy is the recognition of the need to create and develop specific high performance training facilities and to do this on a national and also sports specific basis where this is required (eg rowing and sailing where access to water is a pre-requisite).

The other significant change is the cross-sharing of information and facilities and training across the identified high performance sports.

For the full document see: www.sparc.org.nz/filedownload?id=84486d60-f7b7-4ae9-850f-7bc3240ca003&getfile=true