Steven Adams helps young Kiwi athletes

Steven Adams

Basketball star Steven Adams has taken a break from his off-season training with his NBA side the Oklahoma City Thunder to help mentor some of New Zealand's top young athletes.

Adams joined a group of All Blacks and their strength and conditioning trainer Nic Gill in Auckland today to share his wisdom with 10 promising young athletes selected to be part of the Powerade Breakthrough Academy.

The 10 come from around the country and have already shown potential in their given sport.

The academy has been created to foster that potential and encourage them to achieve great things in the sporting world.

Adams, as well as All Blacks Liam Messam, Aaron Smith and Julian Savea, will run through a day of intensive physical training and classroom sessions that include goal setting, training techniques and nutrition, led by Gill.

The academy had more than 250 applications, which signalled the high standard of young Kiwi athletes, said Tracey Evans, marketing manager, Stills at Coca-Cola Oceania.

"We had a huge response and the majority of applicants were regional or national representatives in their respective sport ? so to have such a large number of young athletes competing at that level signals our sporting culture is alive and well."

Adams is clearly a drawcard, with 71 young basketball players applying, and the next most popular sport is unsurprisingly rugby, with 54 applications.

Other represented sports ranged from athletics to swimming, but there were also some unique entries with young people competing at a high level in archery, synchronised swimming, rodeo and even arm-wrestling.