VIS experience for young sportspeople

FIVE Ballarat schools experienced a taste of the Victorian Institute of Sport’s high-performance processes last week at Federation University.

In partnership with the FedUni WestVic Academy of Sport, the VIS ran four differing sessions for St Patrick’s College, Phoenix Community College, Mount Clear College, Ballarat Grammar and Ballarat High School.

A nutrition workshop in the Clinical Exercise Lab took students through fuelling the body for peak performance, hydration, recovery and ideal food and snack choices, while a practical pilates class had muscles engaged.

The physical prep session saw strength and conditioning coaching, the fundamentals of strength movements, how professional sportspeople prepare for performance and the basics of navigating a gym.

The fourth session looked at Talent ID Fitness Testing, like jump and grip tests, and the varying ways the VIS challenges people to identify whether they have outstanding athletic potential and talent.

Table tennis Olympian, Paralympian and Commonwealth Games athlete, Melissa Tapper was the day’s keynote presenter.

She said she pinches herself every day, having the opportunity to speak to the next generation of up and coming athletes.

“If I think back to when I was their age, I would have loved to have had someone come and speak to me. I’ve always loved sport, but there was never really anyone there that helped to spur it on,” Tapper said.

“I hope that we have something to try and inspire them, just one little thing that they learn to push themselves just a little bit more and have more of a high-performance type mindset. That would be really awesome.

“If they eventually end up making an Olympics or Commonwealth Games, or just in general, enjoy playing sport, then that’s a huge win.”