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Brett’s role sees him working closely with triathlon coaches around the country, providing development opportunities and helping them identify what they need to do to meet the needs of their athletes and the sport. A key part of his role is establishing a meaningful and challenging coach development pathway for triathlon coaches.

Triathlon has seen a significant surge in popularity in New Zealand over the past decade, thanks in no small part to the success of athletes such as Bevan Docherty, Andrea Hewitt and Cameron Brown, all of whom have been consistently winning on the world stage.

As an organisation, Triathlon New Zealand has evolved rapidly over this time, building its capacity to deliver services to the sport where necessary, but increasingly supporting the great work done by clubs, coaches and event promoters around the country.

One area where capacity has been notably increased is in coaching, with two full-time coaching positions now established within the high performance programme, and 117 accredited coaches nationwide.

“What we are trying to do now is ensure that our elite success is ongoing. In addition to the high performance programme, we are putting a lot of effort into building our sport’s pathways and profile, and coaching plays a critical part in that process.”

“This is the best way to grow participation. Coaches are hugely influential and an important part of my role is to increase the number of Triathlon New Zealand accredited coaches in the community, so everyone who wants to can get access to a coach who understands a triathlete’s needs, whether they are a beginner, a competitive age-grouper, an aspiring Olympian, or a future Ironman World Champion,” Brett continues.

In terms of Brett’s career and his involvement with coaching, it’s plain to see that the dedication and passion are there. But how did he get to where he is today?

“In a previous life, for my sins, I was a sport psychologist. I had worked with the New Zealand Academy of Sport, and lectured in sport psychology at the Waikato Institute of Technology,” says Brett.

“In lots of ways, sport psychology is a form of coaching – clarifying goals, planning, implementing the plan and evaluating the outcomes. Essentially, facilitating change in line with the person’s goals. Indeed, many ‘coaching’ skills are generic, for example, communication, and they are transferrable from sport to sport, which is quite similar to sport psychology.”