Marcus Agnew looks over the new indoor training track and sports courts during work in April. Photo/File
Marcus Agnew looks over the new indoor training track and sports courts during work in April. Photo/File
The new EIT Institute of Sport and Health is a chance for Hawke's Bay to lead the way in health and fitness training. In case you've missed it, there is a pretty awesome new facility going up at Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park.
The new EIT Institute of Sport and Health,will be a hub for community health, wellbeing, and performance development. A truly inspirational facility, accessible for all of Hawke's Bay.
Being a new entity, there is a blank canvass opportunity, a chance for a fresh start, creating a magic and unique environment – a chance for Hawke's Bay to lead the way.
There's no point in building just another gym, the opportunity is to establish a new way, a new health and fitness training environment.
With the first stage of this amazing new facility about to open for Hawke's Bay, now more than ever, we will be able to use sport and fitness to break down barriers.
The EIT Institute of Sport and Health will be a vehicle for engaging and connecting communities, and inspiring people with the work ethic to succeed in sport, health, and life.
A shared space, accessible for all, a place to galvanise the community.
A unique environment where all walks of life can be training together under the same roof, with the same expert trainers, and the same training ethos – regardless of whether you are novice or elite, young or old, and covering the full spectrum of social and cultural diversities that we have in Hawke's Bay.
The Sir Graeme Avery led Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust was created to establish and operate the new institute for Hawke's Bay, and the trust has already been successfully delivering programmes from a temporary training centre on site.
The new EIT Institute of Sport and Health is designed with open views and connecting spaces, avoiding silos, and promoting the full community integration.
The physical athletic development systems are being delivered off-site too, within schools and community centres across Hawke's Bay, with partnerships from Central Hawke's Bay to Wairoa.
In terms of physical development, the goal is to develop a world-class athlete development system.
The training principles align with national sporting codes, and High Performance Sport NZ, and the same expert knowledge and methods will now be accessible for anyone to enjoy and benefit from.
That vision is already well on its way – the trust is already delivering new athletic development initiatives not previously available in Hawke's Bay to a range of local sporting codes and schools.
Young sports people from HB Netball, HB Rowing, Tennis Eastern, CD Cricket, Rugby League HB, Marist Football, NZ Hockey, NZ Athletics and more.
Schools from Wairoa to CHB, from Flaxmere Primary Schools to Woodford House and Napier Girls are benefiting too, as are more senior members of our communities, legends, who are loving the mixed training environment, accessing the same training and rubbing shoulders with the young athletes.
Access and specialist training for the elderly will continue to advance, promoting movement and strength development to maximise quality of life.
Programmes for those with disabilities will be a major focus, for disabled athletes, and anyone with a disability just wanting to maximise their physical activity and confidence.
Thanks to great friends of the trust, like the Hastings Karamu Rotary Club, subsidised access will be available for groups where cost is a significant barrier.
Females engaging in quality athletic strength development training is already a feature, catching the attention of national bodies, and already showing great results for health and performance – young female athletes have kicked on to senior NZ representation while still at school, and more mature women benefiting from the same expert training systems to improve functional movement for every day activity.
Marcus Agnew
Athletic ability is about moving well, and having enough strength to do what you want to do – so who wouldn't want that?
Mental health is intrinsically linked to physical wellbeing, and further enhanced by being in a positive quality environment, mixing with positive hard-working individuals of all ages and backgrounds.
For that reason, there will be no silos, no one should be held up on a pedestal, we are all normal – just different.
At the end of the day, we all want the same thing, to improve our fitness – regardless of whether that is enough fitness to be happy and do the simple things in life, or enough fitness to make that NZ representative team. Everyone wants to be fit and well, and as a community we can all be on that waka.
* Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.
