The Australian Army and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) have joined forces to work on ways to improve the fitness and skills of the nation’s soldiers and top athletes.
The two organisations will share facilities and knowledge through combined activities to focus on improving the cognitive and physical capabilities of Australia’s military personnel and elite athletes.
Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Rick Burr said the agreement was an important investment in maximising the potential of the Army’s personnel.
“Army continuously looks at how we get the best out of our people. This partnership with the AIS focuses on what we can achieve to continually improve human performance,” LTGEN Burr said.
He said the partnership would include four key areas: Mental health and wellbeing; performance under pressure; injury and illness prevention, and talent confirmation and induction into high performance.
Director of the AIS, Peter Conde said the Army provided the ultimate mentoring example when it came to preparing its people for performance under pressure.
“The AIS sees this as an opportunity to develop our sports, athletes and coaches to help them convert more podium potential into medal success,” Mr Conde said.
“When people think of army and sport, the image is often of boot camps to build resilience. This partnership will be far more advanced, exploring education opportunities, mentoring, familiarisation techniques and strategies to deal with pressure.”
He said the program would benefit some 120 athletes, coaches and performance teams in the next two years before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The first activities under this program are expected to take place in November.
