10,000 Hours to the Top

"Swifter, Higher, Stronger" is the glorious motto of the Games. But for athletes, the saying "Good things take time" is possibly more apt. From the moment they first specialise, a New Zealand athlete typically puts in 8-10 years of training, competing, and learning – before they're in contention for an Olympic medal.

"None of the athletes have popped up out of nowhere," emphasises Marty Toomey, SPARC's High Performance Manager, and former fitness trainer to the All Blacks and Team New Zealand. "It generally takes upwards of eight years to get to the top. Every sport and athlete is different. But around the world, people typically talk of 10,000 hours of training to win an Olympic medal."

Until as recently as eight years ago, New Zealand did not have a consistent sport-wide strategy for supporting athletes through all the training sessions and events, past the inevitable injuries and losses, over the hurdles of life (including just paying the way). Support depended on an athlete's individual circumstances, on their sport, on their club and coach – and on chance.

But times change. With the global high performance bar continually being raised, New Zealand couldn't expect to gain any more than a rare medal with such an approach. Since the start of the millennium there has been a clear pathway, a process of identifying and supporting an elite athlete's needs on an evolving basis; whether their sporting stage is the athletics track, swimming pool, hockey stadium or kayaking course.

"When an athlete is identified by their sport as having exceptional talent, they get carded with the New Zealand Academy of Sport," explains Toomey. The Academy is the high performance delivery arm of SPARC, providing practical support to help turn athletes' dreams into reality.

"The newly carded athlete and their coach sit down with the Academy's performance services specialists to work out what the athlete needs – training support, sports science, sport medicine, education and so on. Every athlete is different. Some sports require more services than others. As the system matures our service support is getting more and more individualised." Toomey says.

The approach is repeated annually, across most of New Zealand's 800 or so carded athletes. As Toomey elaborates, "you want to work out the services that will have the maximum impact on their performance. It's very much a progressive system."

As the athlete advances, they'll likely gain more support from SPARC through travel to international competition, high-tech support, and specialist coaching. Performance Enhancement Grants are made to athletes who achieve a top-eight ranking in a team sport or a top-16 ranking in an individual sport at Olympic and World Championship level.

Interesting to note, New Zealand has around 300 athletes receiving Performance Enhancement Grants. Around half of those are individual athletes. "It's a solid group," reflects Toomey. "Year on year for the last five years, we have had more athletes ranked in the top eight in their event. You can never say how many medals we'll get, but currently we have 30 individual athletes who have placed top eight in their last world championships."

"Given the year on year improvement, SPARC expects a better medal return from Beijing than we got in Athens," he reveals.

Such tracking of the big picture is imperative to an understanding of how athlete support systems can be further refined. "We are continually monitoring the performance of athletes and sports. SPARC's investment in a sport reflects that sport's recent success, and their ability to succeed into the future,"

"There's also ongoing monitoring of the relative success of other countries' high performance systems. Similar sized countries like Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, and countries competing in similar sports like the UK and Australia are continually in the radar", says Toomey.

For many, the medal comes not at the first, but the second Games (Sarah Ulmer and Hamish Carter being the key examples in 2000 - 2004).

"The Olympic Games is different from all other events, including world championships," says Toomey. You have the additional pressure of staying in a multi-sport village with 10,000 other athletes. There's a lot more complexity, more security, more media attention. It can be incredibly daunting. There is huge opportunity for athletes to learn from the experience and deliver on their potential at their second Games," he concludes.

With clear support systems now in place to span their full elite sporting career, Martin Toomey envisages more New Zealand athletes could be making a third Olympic Games - and benefiting from a few thousand more hours of experience to stand on the podium again.

Martin (Marty) Toomey is SPARC's High Performance Manager, and is directly accountable for the implementation of SPARC's high performance strategy. Before joining SPARC in 2002, he was a Performance Director with the New Zealand Sports Foundation. He worked as Fitness Trainer with Team New Zealand (1998-2000) and the All Blacks (1994-1999). Early in his career, he established and led the Human Performance Centre at Otago University (1989-1996).

Immediately after graduating with a Masters Degrees in Physical Education, Marty worked as a raft guide, white-water canoeing instructor and ski guide. He remains a keen recreational skier, cyclist and runner. He lives in Wellington with his wife and 2 children.

Updated | 23 Dec 2008.

Skip page tools.

• Go to top