Coaches key to sporting excellence and participation
Speech at Connecting Coaches Conference, TSB Bank Arena, Wellington
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It is a privilege to be here today to officially open Sport and Recreation New Zealand's (SPARC) Connecting Coaches Convention.
This promises to be an incredibly significant event with over four hundred coaches from schools, clubs, regions and elite national teams all coming together to share their expertise, and to celebrate the role of coaches.
I would like to personally welcome our international guests, both speakers and participants, here to Wellington and to thank you all for taking the time to come to share your experiences.
I am impressed with the high calibre of speakers that SPARC has attracted to this conference. I believe that the quality of coaches assembled together this weekend would be unparalleled by any previous gathering.
New Zealand has a proud history of sporting excellence, and excellence in sport requires excellence in coaching.
One of the advantages of being a small country is that it is relatively easy for us to come together. This conference provides the opportunity for grassroots and up and coming coaches to rub shoulders with the best - and we are fortunate to have many world-class coaches in New Zealand. This sharing of knowledge will help improve the quality of coaching at all levels and will ultimately enable us to get more Kiwis active, as well as winning on the world stage.
Coaches play a pivotal role in the development of athletes, especially during their formative years. As coaches you have an enormous degree of influence over our young people. You can encourage and inspire budding young New Zealanders to not only achieve their potential on the sports field, but also to pursue a lifetime of sporting participation. Or equally, you can discourage and cause a young athlete to be put off sport in such a way that they play no further part.
This is a heavy responsibility, but also a wonderful opportunity to make a positive difference in people's lives.
I particularly want to express my thanks to all of the volunteer coaches present today, who week after week donate their time to ensure that others, especially our young people, have the opportunity to participate and to achieve their potential. These coaches are our unsung sporting heroes.
Without hundreds of thousands of coaches, officials, administrators, fundraisers, uniform washers and the Saturday-morning- taxi-drivers who carry out their tasks so well so that others may benefit, sport and recreation in this country would be very different. I thank you all for your efforts.
The government, through SPARC, will continue to support coaches of all levels through the numerous programmes that are in place such as Prime Minister's High Performance Coach Scholarships and CoachCorp which involves companies allowing for flexi time for their employees to coach, manage or officiate school or club sport. Many coaches here today are part of those programmes and will testify to the strong partnership which exists between SPARC and the coaching community.
Many of those coaches, and their teams, have provided us with some magical sporting moments and made us feel proud to be New Zealanders.
Bringing together coaches from different sporting codes and from different levels, to share their experiences presents a fantastic learning opportunity for everyone involved, and I trust you will all make the most of it.
I congratulate SPARC on putting together this conference and I wish you all of the best for what promises to be a very stimulating three days ahead. I'm sure you will be challenged and inspired to continue to develop your coaching skills and knowledge, and may New Zealand's future sporting triumphs reflect the commitment you bring to your tasks.
Thank you.
---------------------------------
It is a privilege to be here today to officially open Sport and Recreation New Zealand's (SPARC) Connecting Coaches Convention.
This promises to be an incredibly significant event with over four hundred coaches from schools, clubs, regions and elite national teams all coming together to share their expertise, and to celebrate the role of coaches.
I would like to personally welcome our international guests, both speakers and participants, here to Wellington and to thank you all for taking the time to come to share your experiences.
I am impressed with the high calibre of speakers that SPARC has attracted to this conference. I believe that the quality of coaches assembled together this weekend would be unparalleled by any previous gathering.
New Zealand has a proud history of sporting excellence, and excellence in sport requires excellence in coaching.
One of the advantages of being a small country is that it is relatively easy for us to come together. This conference provides the opportunity for grassroots and up and coming coaches to rub shoulders with the best - and we are fortunate to have many world-class coaches in New Zealand. This sharing of knowledge will help improve the quality of coaching at all levels and will ultimately enable us to get more Kiwis active, as well as winning on the world stage.
Coaches play a pivotal role in the development of athletes, especially during their formative years. As coaches you have an enormous degree of influence over our young people. You can encourage and inspire budding young New Zealanders to not only achieve their potential on the sports field, but also to pursue a lifetime of sporting participation. Or equally, you can discourage and cause a young athlete to be put off sport in such a way that they play no further part.
This is a heavy responsibility, but also a wonderful opportunity to make a positive difference in people's lives.
I particularly want to express my thanks to all of the volunteer coaches present today, who week after week donate their time to ensure that others, especially our young people, have the opportunity to participate and to achieve their potential. These coaches are our unsung sporting heroes.
Without hundreds of thousands of coaches, officials, administrators, fundraisers, uniform washers and the Saturday-morning- taxi-drivers who carry out their tasks so well so that others may benefit, sport and recreation in this country would be very different. I thank you all for your efforts.
The government, through SPARC, will continue to support coaches of all levels through the numerous programmes that are in place such as Prime Minister's High Performance Coach Scholarships and CoachCorp which involves companies allowing for flexi time for their employees to coach, manage or officiate school or club sport. Many coaches here today are part of those programmes and will testify to the strong partnership which exists between SPARC and the coaching community.
Many of those coaches, and their teams, have provided us with some magical sporting moments and made us feel proud to be New Zealanders.
Bringing together coaches from different sporting codes and from different levels, to share their experiences presents a fantastic learning opportunity for everyone involved, and I trust you will all make the most of it.
I congratulate SPARC on putting together this conference and I wish you all of the best for what promises to be a very stimulating three days ahead. I'm sure you will be challenged and inspired to continue to develop your coaching skills and knowledge, and may New Zealand's future sporting triumphs reflect the commitment you bring to your tasks.
Thank you.