Pymble launches new high performance program for athletes

Wednesday 18 October, 2017

Cross Country

For the past 10 years, the Pymble Elite Sportswomen’s Program (PESP) has been supporting elite athletes at the College to strive for their highest in academic and sporting pursuits. The College recently identified a need to provide additional support to those students on the cusp, who currently do not meet the PESP criteria but are still participating in sport at a high level – in a Firsts team for their age group or as an Independent Girls’ Schools Sporting Association (IGSSA) representative.

The new Pymble Athlete Education Program (PAEP), which launched in 2017, aims to help students learn the skills required to achieve their highest level of physical, intellectual and personal growth in their chosen sports. Each school term, participants are required to complete three online Sport Education lessons including:

Individual skills analysis;
Setting personalised sporting goals;
Understanding how each student’s character strengths can help their sporting performance;
Strategies for developing resilience;
Managing the mental side of injury recovery;
Being a better teammate; and
A wide range of sports psychology topics.

“At the conclusion of each 12-month period, athletes should be better equipped with the skills and knowledge to successfully navigate their own sporting pathway and make decisions that positively influence their performance in sport and life,” says Director of Sport and Activities, Mr Cameron Anderson.

The PAEP is a bespoke program created for Pymble by Coaching Director – Rowing, Mr Simon Pennington who combined his expertise in sports coaching, teaching, pastoral care and online learning with research from his Master of Education degree.

The PAEP Co-ordinators are Miss Skye Halliday and Mr Simon Pennington.

Applications for the PAEP open in Week 1 of each term and close at the end of Week 4.

Find out more about Sport and Activities at Pymble here.