Snow Sports NZ Snowboard Coach, Sean Thompson (Queenstown) has been selected for the High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) Coach Accelerator Programme.
Sean is one of eight coaches to be selected for the highly acclaimed three-year professional development programme along with Debbie Fuller (Netball), Dan Kelly (Rowing), Greg Nicol (Hockey), Craig Philpott (Rugby), Debbie Strange (Athletics), Dean Vickerman (Basketball) and Helene Wilson (Netball).
Sean says he’s excited to be given the opportunity to participate in the programme.
"Being selected means a lot to me as it is a great opportunity to grow my coaching skills. Having the chance to work with other High Performance coaches is an amazing opportunity in itself. I believe there is so much more to learn from other sports and am excited to see how it can help Snow Sports NZ put more athletes on podiums internationally."
This is the eighth intake of coaches into the programme with prominent coaches who have graduated from Coach Accelerator including; All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, newly appointed Silver Ferns coach Janine Southby and Black Caps coach Mike Hesson.
“It’s a really tough process selecting each intake of coaches because the calibre of applicants is so high and we’re delighted with this latest batch,” says Alex Baumann, HPSNZ Chief Executive.
“Coach Accelerator aims to increase New Zealand's pool of world-class coaches and we’re certainly doing this when you look at who has been through the programme.”
During the three years the coaches receive individualised professional development programmes which include access to coaching mentors, high performance athletes and support personnel, as well as experts from various high performance environments.
More information on the Coach Accelerator Programme is available here
Sean Thompson is currently a snowboard coach for Snow Sports NZ, and has coached Christy Prior to gold and bronze medals at the 2015 Burton European Open and X Games respectively and Carlos Garcia Knight to silver at the FIS Junior World Snowboard Champs and fourth at the snowboard World Cup at the 2015 Audi quattro Winter Games NZ. He also coaches numerous junior snowboarders who are beginning to emerge onto the world stage as elite halfpipe and slopestyle athletes. In 2013 he was contracted to work on the Snow Sports NZ Talent Development Camp, which was then followed by an invitation to coach the New Zealand Junior team at the FIS World Championships in Italy. Sean has been a snowboard instructor for the past 10 years, and is a qualified examiner for Snowboard Instruction New Zealand at levels 1, 2 & 3 Freestyle. He also delivers instructor courses to New Zealand and International candidates.
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9 years ago