Sports Foundation Leadership Day

...twelve of our senior student athletes attended the Sport Foundation Leadership day at the Christchurch Town Hall. Within the 800 attendees from all across the South Island were the well known guest speakers Dame Valerie Adams, Dame Sophie Pascoe, Richie McCaw and Dan Carter. With the theme being ’Leading With Character,’ these speakers shed light onto their personal experiences, hardships, trials as well as accolades. Dame Valerie Adams gave us insightful information about her upbringing and personal experience that inspired and enlightened all rangatahi in the crowd. Her useful analogy given about a hypothetical bus explains how the people we let onto our ‘bus’is an important aspect for our journey. In her personal experience there were people doubting her ability and questioning her goals, Valerie then needed to hypothetically ‘kick them off her bus’ in order for her to maintain self-belief and focus on her goals. Richie McCaw spoke about the respect and humility in action. This looked like being gracious in defeat as well as success, although always giving 100%.

As the day concluded, there were opportunities for questions to be asked by the audience for the panel of guest speakers to answer. These questions looked at aspects such as dealing with mental health whilst aiming to perform at a high level and how pressure could affect performance. Dan Carter responded to this by speaking about the relationships with his teammates and how important it was for them to share personal hardships with each other. Richie McCaw added to this by explaining that ‘being comfortable, being uncomfortable’ will help in the development of performing well under pressure. Sophie Pascoe was asked about any challenges she had faced in her career. She was able to identify times where her sense of purpose was lost and her identity became distorted. This was through out an era where she was unable to train due to the lockdown. She explained how she only viewed herself as a swimmer and when that aspect of her life came to a standstill, she questioned her sense of purpose. This developed her idea of knowing that she was her own person and that swimming was something she did rather than who she was.

There were many valuable lessons to be taught at the Sport Foundation Leadership day event and the opportunity for several Middleton Grange students to attend has been very much appreciated.