Rising young athletes given sporting and career advice

Gymnastics Aerobics athlete Ruby Reed, 15, of Whangarei is chased by spear fisher Alex Edwards, 15, of Kerikeri during the GPS tracking session at the ASB Performance Pathway. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A selection of Northland's most promising secondary school athletes were given sound advice from Black Stick Charlotte Harrison and high performance athlete Ady McKenzie at this year's ASB Performance Pathway.

In its second year, the ASB Performance Pathway, held at the ASB Leisure Centre in Whangarei, is offered to more than 35 of this year's Sport Northland ASB Secondary School Sports Awards finalists.

The event provides budding professional athletes an opportunity to seek advice on what it takes to become a world-class athlete.

The students went through four different sessions focusing on nutrition, high-performance athletic life (both hosted by McKenzie), leadership (Harrison), and a practical demonstration run by NorthTec's High Performance Lab.

Students were given sound financial advice and learnt about the importance of good nutrition with McKenzie, making healthy smoothies. McKenzie was a top marathon runner and triathlete.

Harrison came in for a session answering questions about her sporting life and the different facets of it, handing the students some sage advice.

"I remember when I was 13, my dad said 'If you practice, you'll go to the Olympics,'" she told the students.

"So me and Sam [her sister] practised for hours, we put holes in the walls. When you train, you need to focus and work on your weakness, despite how fun it is to work on your strengths."

"You also need to have fun with it and want to train."

Harrison, who has played more than 200 games for the Black Sticks, said the Performance Pathway was a great thing for the students.

"It is really important for them and it's great that it is offered to them," she said.

"When I was coming through, I was in the Black Sticks when I was 16 so I didn't have a pathway like this. There wasn't really one like it around at all."

"But it definitely would have helped, even just having nutritional help would have been fantastic."

The students selected were part of this year's Sport Northland ASB Secondary School Sports Awards finalists.