Queensland Tennis School of Excellence

In 2017, the College partnered with internationally renowned health and fitness expert, Michelle Bridges. As our Nutrition Ambassador, Michelle oversees the implementation of our athlete's nutrition plan, designed by Dietician Lisa Donaldson, founder of FEEDinc.

Our philosophy on nutrition focusses on the impact of nutrition on performance being as integral as all other aspects of physical development and performance. We aim to aid our athletes in understanding that how we fuel our body directly influences the way our body works.

Lisa and Michelle have developed resources, including The Healthy Athlete Plate, a wide range of recipes and diet considerations and undertake cooking classes and demonstrations with the students. The resources are accessible to our Sports Excellence athletes through the AMS platform.

These resources encourage the whole family to engage in considering their nutrition, not only for athletic performance but also for healthy lifestyles.

All athletes across our Sports Excellence programs undertake a physio screening or physical competency assessment. Conducted by our specialist physiotherapists, these processes allow athletes to better understand their physical areas of strength and weakness. The results of these tests provide our strength and conditioning trainers a platform to develop programs that will prepare the athlete's bodies for the stresses placed on them in their chosen sport, and assist managing or avoiding injury.

Physiotherapy is available to students in the Sports Excellence programs 4 mornings per week for triage and rehabilitation progress checks. The athletes progress is communicated through AMS to coaches and trainers to ensure the athletes sessions are appropriate to their recovery phase. Athletes are also provided with the tools necessary for carrying out their rehabilitation work in their Sports Excellence classes.

Following injury assessment through physiotherapy triage, our athletes are provided with the sessions for supervised injury rehabilitation. An exercise physiologist, who is available on Wednesday afternoons to supervise and assist athletes carry out their rehabilitation sessions following injury.

Through these sessions, the physiologist can monitor the athlete's progression and evaluate their return from injury timelines, and can communicate with coaches and physiotherapists where appropriate.

From Year 10, all athletes in our Sports Excellence programs are required to complete their Certificate III in fitness. This is facilitated by the College of Health and Fitness, and not only provides students with a qualification that can assist in gaining employment in the fitness industry, but also contributes 8 points towards their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE).

Students are also offered the opportunity to complete their Certificate IV in fitness, following successful completion of their Certificate III.

Athletes in KGSC Sports Excellence programs utilise Athlete Management System software called Catapult AMS.

AMS is a tool used to manage athlete's time and training load, monitor wellness, track injuries and rehabilitation, and communicate with coaches and trainers. Our programs utilise the calendar in AMS to plan our weekly sessions, as well as physiotherapy bookings. Parents can view their students physiotherapy reports following triage sessions using AMS.

Players can access the AMS app, to log their training times and intensities, as well as respond to a wide range of wellness metrics. Using AMS, our coaches can keep track of players physical and mental states, and ensure their training load is appropriate and meaningful.

Each athlete also has access to their own profile, which shows their fitness and skills testing results, keeps them up to date with their program calendar, and communication tools.

Aside from the normal social benefits that come with the group dynamics of team sport, and indeed individual sports that train as a squad, we run a range of initiatives to assist students in personal growth and social development. These range from individual mentors to our annual leadership camp, where some of our Years 9 and 12 students undertake a camp at Emu Gully Adventure Education Centre.

This allows students to reflect on the culture within their program, their individual and collective contribution to it, and ways promote a positive environment.