AusLeisure

Surf Life Saving South Australia has launched a new Surf Sports High Performance Training Academy to help keep athletes in the state.

In developing the Academy, Surf Life Saving SA partnered with Flinders University and SA Aquatic Leisure Centre to design and develop a program aimed at assisting surf sports athletes, with the top 20 senior athletes having already participated in group training session.

Surf Life Saving SA Surf Sports Manager Mike Schetter said South Australia's flat metropolitan waters did not provide the best training ground for professionals, explaining that, as a result, many were moving interstate, searching for tougher competition at the big surf beaches of Queensland and New South Wales.

Schetter stated “we've got incredibly committed and dedicated athletes, but we just haven't, in the past, had the resources to support that or to keep them here."

Schetter said the new academy would help give South Australian competitors the tools to excel and reach ‘high performance’ levels, telling the ABC “(Flinders University) will provide a full testing regime for all of our athletes (and) they'll then provide full nutrition and hydration advice for every athlete.

"They'll provide a full sport psychology service plus a sport psychology session for every one of our athletes.

"They're even going to the stage, with their optical school up there, to help our athletes with optics (sunglasses)."

Surf Life Saving SA Chief Executive Clare Harris said the testing and a new three-level training program would help boost the state's results leading up to the 2018 World Championships in Adelaide.

Harris added "I don't think we're at the same standard as what's in Queensland and New South Wales.

"However, we're going to do everything we can to get our athletes to that standard so they can come home with some gold medals."

For more information go to www.surflifesavingsa.com.au/the-academy

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