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Program

Performance Teams Forum

The Performance Teams Forum program delivers insights from leading experts, real world reflections, peer-to-peer learning, and intentional space for curiosity, reflection and exploration of Performance Teams, with topics covering:

  • Spotlighting Performance Teams
  • The Coach and the Practitioner
  • Competitive Advantage
  • What It Takes To Win (WITTW) and Individual Athlete Plan (IAP)
  • Intuition and data insights
  • Professional development – explore new areas of performance
  • Growing, retaining and leveraging high performance system expertise
  • Exploring our Connection to Country
  • A Legacy in Knowledge

These discipline network activities will take place today. Session details are subject to change.

Time

Session

Details

9:00am

Registration opens

Arrival and networking

The Biomechanics discipline activity will bring together the Biomechanics network to strengthen the collective direction, impact and future readiness of sports biomechanics within the Australian High Performance sport system. Themes include clearer performance problem framing, stronger integration in Performance Teams, improved focus on insight generation, and greater national alignment in capability development. 

Time

Session

10:00am-10:30am

Pre meeting coffee networking

10:30am-11:00am

Session Introduction

Speaker: Andrew Lyttle, NPSL - Biomechanics (AIS)

11:00am-11:45am

Setting the Scene

Speaker: Brendan Burkett, USC

11:45am-12:30pm

Small Table Discussion

Role Prioritisation Exercise

Future Focus Activity: What is going to change in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years

Facilitator: Andrew Lyttle, NPSL - Biomechanics (AIS)

12:30pm-1:30pm

Lunch

1:30pm-2:15pm

Data Storytelling/ Success Narratives

Facilitator: John Warmenhoven, UTS

2:15pm-3:30pm

Generating Insights

Facilitator: Andrew Lyttle, NPSL - Biomechanics (AIS)

3:30pm-4:00pm

Break

4:00pm-5:00pm

Discipline Direction

Facilitator: Andrew Lyttle, NPSL - Biomechanics (AIS)

6:30pm-9:30pm

Network Dinner

The Performance Analysis activity will bring together Performance and Data analysts from across the system to increase understanding of each other's expertise, explore opportunities for collaboration, and share innovative practice across the system.

Program

Time

Session

9:00am-10:30am

Arrivals and Registration

10:30am-11:30am

Welcome and Pre Game Analysis

Speakers: Performance and Data Analysis Leads | AIS

11:30am-12:00pm

Data on and off the Field of Play: Bridging Performance Analysis and Data Intelligence

Speaker: Sam Wells | Paralympic Performance Specialist | Paralympics Australia

12:00pm-12:30pm

Sports Data Challenge - Introduction to real world sport challenges

Speaker: Various

12:30pm-1:30pm

Lunch

1:30pm-3:00pm

Sports Data Challenge - The Engine Room

3:00pm-3:45pm

Afternoon tea

3:45pm-5:00pm

Sports Data Challenge - The Final Whistle

The Nutrition discipline day provides an opportunity for the HP nutrition network to connect, share ideas, and collaborate. The program will include opportunities to showcase current work, learn from colleagues about athlete interventions, innovative projects, and system-wide initiatives, and explore new approaches together. Associate Professor Julia Carins from Griffith University will also lead a workshop on impact, focusing on how we can map, measure, and communicate the value of our work.

The Applied Physiology discipline activity Physiological Excellence: Advancing Practice, Driving Performance, Creating Scalable Impact will bring together the Physiology network to leverage collective capability, sharpen best practice implementation, and maximise performance impact across the Australian High Performance sport system.

The Learning Design discipline activity, From Cases to Conversation, will bring together the Learning Design network to share and learn from real cases of Learning Design practice with coaches, athletes, and the broader performance team. These cases will provide a catalyst for conversations about the processes practitioners work through to create the conditions for impactful practice.

Time

Session

9:30am - 10:15am

(Re)Connection - Guided Walk Along Birrarung Marr

10:15am - 10:45am

Setting the Scene on Growth for Learning Design

Facilitators: Derek Panchuk & Michael Maloney | National Perfomance Support Leads | AIS

10:45am - 11:00am

Break

11:30am - 12:30pm

Missteps as a Catalyst for Growth

Facilitator: Carl Woods | Learning Design Lead | QAS

12:30pm - 1:45pm

Lunch & Networking

1:45pm - 2:15pm

Practitioners in the Spotlight

2:15pm - 3:00pm

Stepping into the Unknown - Reflecting on a career of transitions

3:00pm - 3:20pm

Afternoon Tea

3:20pm - 4:40pm

Moments of Influence - How do we work with others?

Facilitator: Georgia Askew | Skill Acquisition & Learning Design | Boccia Australia

4:40pm - 5:00pm

Where to from here?

Facilitators: Derek Panchuk & Michael Maloney | National Performance Support Leads | AIS

The Performance Psychology discipline activity will bring together the Performance Psychology network to strengthen connection across the Australian High Performance sport system, discuss emerging areas of best practice, and explore themes of innovation and excellence.

The Physiotherapy Leads activity will bring together the network to strengthen connection across the Australian High Performance sport system with a focus on health and performance challenges. It aims to explore data utilisation as a performance enabler and inform current and future best practice.

The Performance Support Manager activity will bring the Performance Support Manager network together to strengthen connection across the Australian High Performance sport system with a spotlight on performance support leadership, to explore challenges and opportunities, and share strategies for success.

Opening day of the Performance Teams Forum

Time

Session

Details

8:00am

Registration opens

Arrival, coffee and networking

9:00am-9:30am

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Matti Clements | Director, Australian Institute of Sport

9:30am-10:30am

What is our Brisbane 32 Competitive Advantage?

Driving a competitive advantage in the field of play - driving towards home ground success

Exceptional Performance Team Environments

How performance teams need to evolve for 2032 and beyond - what is the vision for exceptional performance teams in the future

Enhancing Performance Teams

Exploring frameworks and philosophies to establish Performance Teams as the engine room of Win Well

10:30am-11:00am

Break

Morning Tea

11:00am-11:30am

Think Like a Coach

Building a Strong Succesful Performance Team around an athlete/s

11:30am-12:30am

Sport Case Studies

12:30pm-1:30pm

Lunch

1:30pm-2:00pm

Can Intuition and Data co-exist in Performance Teams?

Exploring the 'gut feel' of intuition and experiential learning, in the Performance Team environments rich with data insights.

2:00pm-3:00pm

From Intuition to Data: How Performance Teams Learn

John Sullivan | Head of Psychology, High Performance Sport New Zealand

Facilitated Table Discussions

The presentation explores how high-performance teams can translate information into clearer, more informed decisions. Drawing on functional neuroscience, the presentation examines how the brain learns and perceives information, the influence of affective cognitive pathways, and the biases that can cloud judgement. It also considers the fundamentals of clarity and the human factors required to facilitate learning, collaboration, and effective decision-making within performance teams.

3:00pm-3:30pm

Break

Afternoon Tea

3:30pm-4:30pm

National Project Showcase

ParaUplift Showcase

Performance without Barriers - strengthening your coaching tool kit

4:30pm-4:50pm

Power of Reflection

4:50pm-5:00pm

Closing Remarks

5:00pm-6:00pm

Networking Event

Second and final day of the Performance Teams Forum

Time

Session

Details

8:00am

Networking

Arrival, coffee and networking

9:00am-9:30am

Welcome and Day 1 Recap

9:30am-10:30am

Spotlighting Stronger Together: Case Studies

Highlighting the power of collaboration, shared purpose and integrated approaches to achieving performance success.

10:30am-11:00am

Break

Morning Tea

11:00am-11:30am

Playing the long game - Retaining performance knowledge through time

How organisations can capture valuable insights, learn from experience and strengthen knowledge retention through research, cultural connection and deliberate legacy-building practices.

11:30am-12:00pm

Performance Team perspectives - Strengthening a legacy of knowledge

How we use a legacy of knowledge as a performance advantage, and how the entire Performance Team plays a crucial role in achieving this.

12:00pm-12:30pm

Yarning Circles

Creating space for connection, listening and reflection, the Yarning Circle session encourages meaningful conversations about personal journeys, shared experiences and future aspirations.

12:30pm-1:30pm

Lunch

1:30pm-3:00pm

Performance Theme Rotations

Optimising Heat Acclimation in the Elite Athlete

Julien Périard | Director of the University of Canberra Research Institute for Sport and Exercise (UCRISE)

This presentation will explore the science and application of heat acclimation in elite sport, focusing on how adaptation can be optimised to maximise performance and athlete readiness. Particular emphasis will be placed on individual responses, effective implementation strategies, and translating research into competitive advantage.

Performance Theme Rotations Performing Under Pressure

Performance Theme Rotations Research Showcase

3:00pm-3:30pm

Break

Afternoon Tea

3:30pm-4:30pm

HP System Initiatives:

ARC Industry Training Centre - Human Sensing Technology

B32 Committees - Who, What and Why

Mandatory Genetic Sex Testing - main considerations

4:30pm-4:50pm

Leaving Stronger Together on our journey to 2032+

4:50pm-5:00pm

Closing Remarks

5:00pm

End of the 2026 Performance Teams Forum