NMIT Fitness Tutor Wins Top Level Prime Ministers Sports Award
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Applied Fitness Tutor Claire Dallison is to be awarded a prestigious Prime Minister’s Support Team Scholarship.
Claire will be awarded the scholarship, worth $ 14,500, at a special ceremony in Christchurch on the 29th of May.
The scholarships are administered by SPARC and they’re awarded to support teams including team managers, high performance managers, support services coordinators, sports scientists, sports medicine providers, and other sports specialists whose work underpins elite athletes' achievements. The purpose of the scholarships is to develop skills that contribute to the quality of New Zealand's sport performance at the elite level.
Claire’s application, supported by Basketball New Zealand and NZ Academy of Sport, is to research strength and conditioning training for basketball players.
Her award will allow her to travel to research programmes in the United States, Canada, and Greece. She will also attend the United States Strength and Conditioning Conference in Las Vegas, the Australian Conditioning Conference and visit Australian NBL programmes to look at strength and conditioning there.
Claire had extensive experience in strength and conditioning training for basketballers. She is currently the lead strength and conditioning trainer for Basketball NZ, not only for the Tall Blacks but also working on the junior programmes.
Claire has been a fitness trainer for the Tall Blacks for over a year, and she’s also been the fitness trainer for the Nelson Giants basketball team for 10 years. Claire was Head Coach and Manager for the successful New Zealand Athletics Team who were competing at the International Paralympic Committee’s World Champs, and has been working with the New Zealand Paralympic team for 8 years.
She says the award shows support for the Basketball New Zealand programme and to the sport at a national and international level.
“It’s really cool to have won this award. It’s the chance to take what I believe in and have investigated for years about strength and conditioning for basketball in NZ and see it in action on international programmes. We are different from many international programmes with Basketball being a sport that is played by many in New Zealand but small on the world stage. We need to develop a style of training and play for our players that will make us competitive on the international scene and that needs to happen in our national programmes through all age groups,” she says.
“For me personally, it’s the dream professional development. I just love getting new ideas and pursuing my passion for functional, sport specific strength and conditioning. If I can short circuit some of the learning by seeing other trainers in action it will be just great. I want to use what I learn in my teaching at NMIT and AUT and also travel around NZ to local programmes to help out trainers, coaches and athletes in the regions. I can’t wait!,” says Claire Dallison
Claire Dallison says it’s particularly encouraging for basketball, which is a contestable sport for funding and not one of the top seven sports in this country..
“It’s great to have support like this to help the development of our sport, and it’s perfect timing, as New Zealand has just been awarded the World Under 19 Basketball champs for July next year.”
Claire Dallison says her overseas research will begin in July and her first stop will be North America.
Claire says the knowledge she will gain from the scholarship will be of benefit to her NMIT Diploma in Applied Fitness students and she’s looking forward to being able to share her research on her return.