What We Do

                                         The Otago Academy of Sport coordinates and delivers a range of athlete                                 services catering for individual athletes and teams across Otago

This support includes education for individual athletes and team academies through workshops and one on one consultations in sports science, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, and athlete performance life-style and wellbeing. We see this as crucial to the development of our regional athletes, ensuring they get the support they need to not only progress and achieve in their sport, but to remain in their region around their support networks and education/work opportunities. The goal is to have well balanced and supported athletes who have a healthy perspective on their sporting lives, with a focus on developing the athlete as a person not just an athlete.

Our Talent Development Programme (TDP) offers support for a minimum of two years, with the potential to stay involved for longer, with the addition of our Excel programme. We offer education including a series of workshops covering information about athlete life, mental skills training, sports nutrition, emotional intelligence, mental health and wellbeing and strength and conditioning training.  Year 1 of the Academy is the foundation year, and is followed by Year 2 which has more of a focus on leadership and self-responsibility. There is an option for ongoing support beyond year two in our Excel programme, where athletes are still committed to their sport and striving to achieve their goals. Many of our athletes go on to the High Performance pathway programme after the Academy. We also offer support to any of our athletes coaching teams or individuals and encourage them to help out and give back to their sport through officiating, coaching or supporting young aspiring athletes.

Our Strength and Conditioning Program is run by Matt Blair who has 30+ years experience in working with both team and individual athletes. He continues to provide our athletes with a great foundation in training to be an athlete, individual programs for specific needs and a focus around injury prevention and recovery strategies. The gym offers athletes a unique environment to be inspired by other athletes and exposes them to different sports, training methods and levels of success and achievement. Matt monitors their progress and oversees their technique and movement competency. He also liaises with the athletes’ coaches and medical team to ensure they have input into the programming and that they are all on the same page in helping the athlete to achieve their physical goals.

OAS are also involved in coordinating the annual Elite Motorsport Academy week-long camp in Dunedin and the Motor Sport graduate program that follows the camp, and provides services that have been identified through their individual performance plans. This is delivered in partnership with Motorsport NZ and the Motorsport NZ Scholarship Trust. This has been running for 20 years and since its inception in 2004,  over 166 motorsport athletes have been through the programme. We’ve seen many successful motorsport academy graduates achieve on the world stage including the van Gisbergens, Hayden Paddon, Scott McLaughlin and Brendon Hartley.

OAS is very grateful for the support of our major funder, the Otago Community Trust, as well as the Aotearoa Gaming Trust, Lion Foundation and Grassroots Trust Central, all who help to fund our numerous programmes and in turn enable us to support our future Otago sporting champions.

PERFORMANCE: EXPERTISE: VALUE: ENGAGEMENT: GROWTH: INVOLVEMENT