Hurdler increases mobility by 70%

CLEAR YOUR HURDLES FIRST PRIVATE INSTITUTE OF SPORT This article was originally published in the Wentworth Courier, October 2015.  By Rebecca Dargie. THE gap between a great athlete and an elite one can come down to fine tuning, but access to specialised services is usually limited. Those earmarked for greatness through a scholarship at the NSW Institute of Sport have specialists to help reach their potential. There is now a chance for those outside those auspices to get the same help. Precision Athletica is the first private institute of sport. Based at Sydney Olympic Park, it offers physiotherapy, psychology, dietetics and performance coaching.

“To be picked up by NSWIS you have to be at a certain level and then you get looked after by their people,” founder and director Pete Magner said.

“Clubs provide competitions but there’s nothing to look specifically at any restrictions or limitations. “Sometimes athletes don’t realise where their short­comings are but they soon see how mobility relates to their performance,” he said. Precision has set up a partnership with NSW Athletics sending members of NITS targeted program. Promising members of Golf NSW and NSW Triathlon are also being assessed.

Byron Hollingworth-Dessent is a 15-year-old hurdler. After winning a national title at 12, Byron found races were becoming tougher. A school coach found that his hip and hamstrings range were impaired and he is now under the care of Precision to improve mobility. “I was running at 30 per cent capacity, like a machine running with the brakes on, “ he said.

Precision Athletica can tailor a STAR program for any discipline. It works on speed, torque, agility and reaction.