Sports Excellence Program

5-7- Emerging Athlete Program

Whether we consciously decide to or not, we are constantly forming habits. Some of these habits get us closer to our goals, whereas some practices move us further from them. Our Year 5-8 Students in the Emerging Athlete program have worked extremely hard to engrain as many positive habits as possible. Whether that’s getting out of bed on those cold frosty mornings for 7 am class or arriving after school no matter how tired they are. Our athletes know they are becoming better humans by consistently coming to Sports Excellence.

When you make your bed, you embody the identity of someone who is clean and organised. When you study, you embody the identity of someone who is studious.

“What identity are you embodying today? Who are your habits helping you become?"

Despite these cold mornings and tired evenings, we’ve been working on the shoulder complex for our first and second-year program athletes. Don’t you think it's strange that everyone can swing on the monkey bars in Junior School, but when we get to Senior School, we suddenly lose this strength? We’ve included many games this term to increase the upper body strength of our athletes; the diagram below shows our first years performing a wall walk. Once we can develop a neutral spine at the top of a push-up, we then challenge the system to see if we can maintain this shape against a wall.

Our students in the weights room are working on some single-leg plyometric strength. In the photos below, our athletes can be seen performing a continuous single-leg hop; we spend lots of time on single-leg playing sports, so we must train this way also. Before students can perform continuous hops, they must demonstrate proficiency in a single-leg depth jump. We need to learn to stop before we can learn to Jump. 

If this is something your son/daughter might be interested in, or you have any further questions about the program, please don’t hesitate to contact me. This is a wonderful Co-Curriculum subject and will set up students for an athletic life.

Mr Ben Furphy & the SEP Team

VCE: Year 11/ 12 Sports Excellence

For many athletes in our VCE program, finals are fast approaching.

But what exactly does that mean for our programming? Do we need to adjust our training?With the start of finals just a few weeks away. We need to ensure we’re maximising our performance, knowing that these simple things will have a flow-on effect on the rest of the team.While on-court or on-field training sessions focus on fine-tuning skills and solidifying game plans, our work in the gym is just as important. Many players have now had a long stretch of games that comes with carrying niggles or injuries. Completing your structured S&C program that rehabs a specific injury, reduces the risk of future injury, and promotes enhancements to other physical aspects of your game.Our Year 11’s here are in the gym twice a week from 7 am; they’ve been slowly building volume all season and are set to peak for finals. We wish them well in their respective sports and can’t wait to see how they fare in both individual and team sports.