The Sports Performance and Prevention Conference is set to be an incredibly valuable learning and sharing opportunity after the announcement of the first batch of speakers, with more speakers set to be announced in the coming weeks.

The conference brings together an exceptional line-up of industry experts, both from across New Zealand’s sporting spectrum and internationally-renowned professionals.

‘The Everyday Youth Athlete’ will be the central theme for the 2020 conference, which is delivered by the New Zealand Football Player Welfare team, in association with ACC Sport Smart.

All presentations will have a youth-centred approach and a focus on sports performance, injury prevention and athlete development, plus health and wellbeing in a player development context within sport.

The below speakers have all been confirmed to provide an insight into these topics, stay tuned for the announcement of further speakers shortly.

Tim Gabbett

Tim has over 20 years’ experience working as an applied sport scientist with athletes and coaches from a wide range of sports. He holds a PhD in human physiology and has completed a second in applied sport science, with special reference to physical demands, injury prevention and skill acquisition. Tim has worked with elite international athletes over several Olympic Games cycles and continues to work as a sport science consultant and advisor for several high performance teams around the world. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and has presented at over 400 national and international conferences. He is committed to providing ‘real world’ support for coaches and athletes.

Stacy Sims

Stacy is currently a senior research scientist at the University of Waikato after returning to academia from a six-year hiatus in industry. She is an applied researcher, innovator and entrepreneur in human performance, specifically sex differences in training, nutrition and environmental conditions. Prior to being launched into industry, she served as an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist at Stanford University, where she specialised in sex differences of environmental and nutritional considerations for recovery and performance. She had the opportunity to translate earlier research into consumer products and a science-based layperson’s book written to explain sex differences in training and nutrition. Her contributions to the international research environment and sports nutrition industry have established her reputation as an expert in sex differences in training, nutrition and health.

Matt Whalan

Matt is a physiotherapist and exercise physiologist and is currently completing his PhD in injury prevention in football at the University of Wollongong. He is part of Australia’s national teams unit working with the men’s Young Socceroos (U-20s), Joeys (U-17s) and women’s Young Matildas (U-20s). He is also the head of physiotherapy and medical services at Wollongong Wolves FC and has worked in a range of other sporting codes, including with NSW County Cricket, South Sydney Rabbitohs (NRL) and Gold Cost Suns (AFL). 

Simon Young

Simon is a specialist knee surgeon from Auckland. After orthopaedic surgical training in New Zealand he worked in the USA, completing a sports medicine fellowship at Stanford University and an arthroplasty fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. While at Stanford, he served as team physician at the Stanford Sports Medicine Clinic, providing orthopaedic care to the San Francisco 49ers NFL team and Stanford College football team, as well as being an attending physician at the Rose Bowl. He is a senior lecturer in orthopaedics at Auckland University and has a consultant public appointment at North Shore Hospital. He maintains a strong research interest, completing his doctoral thesis on prevention of infection in knee surgery. His award-winning research has been recognised worldwide.

Mark Fulcher

Mark is a sport and exercise physician at Axis Sports Medicine. He has worked extensively in sports medicine and is especially interested in injury prevention and the treatment of concussion. He works closely with ACC and is part of their Sports Collaboration Group which recently released the Concussion Service Guidelines for medical providers. Mark is the medical director at New Zealand Football and is currently doctor for the All Whites and Football Ferns. He was formerly medical director of the ITU World Championship Triathlon event and at Netball NZ, including being the team doctor for the Silver Ferns. He is currently team doctor for the Northern Mystics netball team and is lead physician for the upcoming ASB Classic tennis tournament. He is currently editor of the FIFA Football Medicine Diploma.

Jacs Horan

Having spent nearly 20 years as a sports physio across a wide variety of codes, including nine years with the rugby Black Ferns and Black Ferns sevens, Jacs developed a keen interest in minimising injury risk, hip and groin pain, the sporting shoulder and female athlete injuries, rehab and performance. Her time is now split between working as a sports physio at her own private practice, Bureta Physiotherapy in Tauranga, with a wide range of patients from weekend warriors to elite athletes, at pinnacle events for New Zealand teams or as a sports physio consultant overseas. In 2019, she became the first physiotherapist in New Zealand to become a registered sports physiotherapy specialist, which allows her to consult on complex sports injuries that are referred from other health professionals.

Dan Exeter

Dan is a sport and exercise physician based at Axis Sports Medicine and the High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) Training Centre. He is also a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland, medical director for Athletics New Zealand (High Performance) and was one of the doctors with the New Zealand team at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and 2018 Commonwealth Games. Dan has previously worked with Hawthorn AFL team, a role which culminated in a premiership win in 2013. He has worked in rugby for Counties Manukau and the Chiefs and as a tournament physician at the ASB Classic. He has active research interests in the areas of injury prevention and cardiac screening of athletes. A reviewer for Heart journal, Dan is also interested in physician-performed ultrasound.

Craig Harrison

An expert in athlete development, Craig is the founder of Athlete Development Project, a programme that delivers individualised physical and mental skills coaching for youth athletes in any sport. He also leads research at the Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand (SPRINZ) at AUT University in youth athlete development. Craig has worked with athletes to help them reach their sporting best for over 15 years, including time as the lead sports scientist for New Zealand’s U-17 and U-20 women’s football teams for their respective FIFA World Cups. Craig also hosts the Athlete Development Show, a podcast that shares insights and ideas from the brightest minds across many fields to support developing better athletes. 

Dom Vettise

Dom is a registered clinical psychologist. He has previously worked for corrections, forensics and in community and acute mental health services for a Kaupapa Maori organisation. Dom currently works in private practice where he treats sleep difficulties, mental health and contracts to several national sports teams as a performance psychologist. Working as a performance psychologist since 2016, Dom has helped the Black Ferns rugby sevens team to two World Series titles, a World Cup victory and Commonwealth Games gold. Dom also works with New Zealand Canoe Racing, the Silver Ferns development squad, Football Ferns Domestic Programme, Waikato BOP Magic netball and Auckland Aces cricket, as well as several high performance athletes who are currently qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

To buy early-bird tickets for the Sports Performance and Prevention Conference 2020 – The Everyday Youth Athlete please click here

Sports Performance and Prevention Conference 2020 – THE EVERYDAY YOUTH ATHLETE
Saturday 15 February, 8am – 4.30pm
AUT North Campus, 90 Akoranga Dr, Northcote, Auckland 0627

Pre-Conference – Players, Parents and Secondary Schools
Friday 14 February
AUT North Campus, 90 Akoranga Dr, Northcote, Auckland 0627

To read more about the 2020 Sports Performance and Prevention Conference speakers please click here

To keep up to date with the latest conference news please click here

Article added: Thursday 14 November 2019