Our Developing Young Leaders Program has always been an important fixture on the Swimming Victoria calendar and this year was no exception. With the unpredictable seasons our swimmers have had in recent years, there has never been a better time for them to reflect and focus on their personal and professional development.
The Program supports athletes, who already have a solid grounding through sport, to become true leaders within their club and the community and to achieve every success in the workforce.
On Saturday 16 July, we were thrilled to deliver the Program to 65 Club Captains, Vice Captains and emerging leaders who were nominated by their clubs for the skills they have shown both in and out of the pool.
The day started with a session facilitated by Andy Farrow, who has worked in High Performance Sport for the past 20 years. She has provided wellbeing support to athletes across a number of organisations including Netball Australia, Melbourne Vixens, St Kilda Football Club and the Victorian and Australian Institutes of Sport.
The session focussed on ‘Flourishing in Life and Sport’. Which allowed participants to reflect on more than just their swimming abilities and encouraged them to analyse themselves as individuals.
After a quick lunch break, the athletes we lucky to hear from another inspirational leader, former AFL footballer and current Western Bulldogs AFLW Head Coach, Nathan Burke. With 27 years’ experience in the elite world of AFL Football, he has gained great insight into how to extract the best performance from individuals and teams.
Nathan spoke about the importance of Club Culture and how each individual has a role to play in identifying and enhancing their own club’s culture.
We asked the participants what they enjoyed most about the day, here’s what they had to say:
“I enjoyed meeting new people my age from lots of different clubs and talking with them about our different workloads and schedules and feeling like more people can relate to the business I experience because of swimming.”
“Being able to reflect on more than just my swimming abilities and analysing ourselves as individuals and our team dynamics.”
“Talking between people from your club and seeing what we had noticed and how we could change it.”
We look forward to seeing this group of athletes put these skills to use as leaders both in and out of the pool and continuing to work with them on their personal development.
