North Harbour Rugby Academy & Long Term Athlete Development

The North Harbour Rugby Academy’s ten year plan is based on Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD), which is a world class programme for developing the full sporting potential of talented young athletes, based on their individual growth rates.

It is the first fully integrated and comprehensive development programme of its kind available in New Zealand. Not only in rugby union but in sport overall, thus creating a national leading edge for the North Harbour Rugby Academy and North Harbour Rugby Union. This will be further enhanced, given North Harbour’s strong tradition as one of New Zealand’s hot-beds of talented, young rugby players.

Now recognised world-wide as being essential to producing elite athletes in all sports, the major sporting nations are increasingly adopting this programme as the foundation of their talent identification and development systems. The latest example of the success this type of programme can bring is Maria Sharapova, Wimbledon ladies’ tennis champion at the age of 17. She moved to the Bolliteri Tennis Academy in Florida, which follows a similar LTAD Programme, at the age of 9.

The RFU in England, along with several other major sports in the UK, fully adopted an LTAD Programme for their Regional Rugby Academies in 2001.  

The North Harbour Rugby Academy’s ten year plan is based on the same LTAD principles, of which key components are the Fundamentals, Learn to Train, Train to Train, Train to Compete and Train to Win Stages. It allows outstandingly talented, young rugby players to learn and develop to become outstanding young athletes as well, in the quest to achieve and maximise their full potential as an elite rugby player for North Harbour and beyond.  

North Harbour are 100% focused on their future, where they stand now and where they will be in 5 years time on the field and off it.

That is why the current Academy will be the backbone and the foundation for continued success. 2008 has seen Ben Afeaki, Mike Harris, Chris Smith, Nafi Tuitavake, Josh York and James King all move into the ANZC squad.

MARK MAYERHOFLER – Community Rugby Manager

HANNAH MYERS – Player Development Manager

JAN REYNEKE – Full time Strength & Conditioning Trainer

What is our Academy programme all about?

This programme allows players to:

• Work hard, push themselves to their true potential and get results

• Understand the required work ethic needed to succeed

• Have balance in their life

• Assistance in employment and Education

• Have fun, in a rugby environment

There are six key focuses for the programme:

• Strength and conditioning
• Skills work
• ‘knowledge' seminars
• Position specific upskilling
• Life balance (careers / study etc)
• Work ethic and attitude

What the North Harbour Rugby Academy programme will provide:

• An intensive training programme of supervised Strength and Conditioning work with performance testing by our fulltime fitness trainers.
• Coaching and skill sessions run by North Harbour Rugby coaching staff to provide you with the knowledge to progress to a higher level in your specialist position.
• Sport psychology sessions run by a specialist sport psychologist covering goal setting, confidence, activation, control and concentration.
• Knowledge seminars incorporating a range of rugby and life skill topics including: nutrition, sports psychology, time management, pro rugby / contracts and agents, marketing and media, leadership, sports medicine, sports massage and recovery, communication, investment / financial planning and career and personnel development.
• Ongoing feedback from the Rugby Development Manager to review and measure personal development in all areas of the programme.
• Educational and career advancement help from our full time Player Development Manager with Scholarships to Massey University and the AUT.
  

What we are looking for:

We're looking for people who have the potential to become professional rugby players. To become a member of the North Harbour Rugby Academy programme, you should be able to show us that you have at least one of the following:

• The potential to play Super rugby in the future.

• Work ethic and attitude!

• Previous playing experience at regional or national representative level.

• The motivation and commitment to succeed on the field and in your academic or chosen career.
  

How to apply:

If you believe you have the work ethic, attitude and desire to succeed in our environment and you are not already within the North Harbour system or believe you should be or you know of someone that you believe should be, please send to us your rugby and career CV, DVD of you playing recently and a reference from your current Coach or Manager to:

Mark Mayerhofler
COMMUNITY RUGBY  MANAGER
NORTH HARBOUR RUGBY

DDI:  (09) 447 2118
Mob:  027 577 0277
Fax:  (09) 447 2101