TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF:
22-year-old who spent his whole life in a small country town; Hamilton, South West Victoria, before moving to Ballarat at age 18 to study a Bachelor of Health & Physical Education. Throughout my time at Hamilton I was an avid lover and player of Footy and Tennis before constant shoulder injuries ruined my very unpromising future in these sports.
Whilst in Year 12 (2015) I completed my Certificate III & IV in Fitness and got my first experience working in a gym. In 2016, I went off to Ballarat to study, and during Uni holidays, I would go back home and work at the gym where I began to discover my love of coaching. Conflicted about where I wanted to take my future; I took the first semester of 2018 off Uni and focused solely on Personal Training in Hamilton at the gym that I had been working at for 3 years at this point and in that time, had been promoted to Gym Floor Manager. I loved this new role but as a still very young coach and human being I was nowhere near prepared for it and I knew I needed to get a lot better in all facets before undertaking another large role like that in the future. In my pursuit to get better, I transferred over to a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science and began upskilling myself and surrounding myself with a number of great mentors outside of Uni, one of them being the great former Virtus coach Cam Elliot.
I had followed Virtus on Instagram for quite some time but had always thought it was just a little too far away from home and Ballarat for me to go and visit and complete a mentorship, until the first half of 2020 when I had a girlfriend who lived in Rosebud. After that ended, I figured; if I could budget and take the time and travel all that way to invest in someone else, what excuse do I really have for not budgeting, taking the time, and travelling less distance to invest in myself and make myself a better human being and coach?! I reached out to Lachie and now here we are – seriously looking forward to properly getting into it, making the most out of this experience, and getting to know the family!
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO SPEND 12 WEEKS WITH THE VIRTUS FAMILY?
You’re a product of the people you surround yourself with. In order for me to get better as a coach, friend, and human being I need to invest in myself and surround myself with the people that I aspire to be like. I hope to develop my intellect and apply and develop my coaching skills, develop my confidence and ability to build relationships, and meet some unreal people over these next 12 weeks.
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
An excellent human being and knowledgeable coach who people gravitate to and want to be around in order to make themselves better. My domain is junior athletes and developing them into top notch humans and performers, although my interests over the last few years have also evolved into assisting humans of all ages move better and without pain. I would love to at some stage work for myself in my own facility, working with all populations and mentoring young coaches.
WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS AS A PERSON AND A COACH?
My ability to be empathetic and understanding, and the quality of coaches/mentors that I have to lean on.
WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST STRETCHES AS A PERSON AND A COACH?
I feel my knowledge is good, but the more I learn and the better I get, the more I feel like I don’t know and the more confused I tend to make myself. I feel like this is just a confidence thing. I need more confidence in my ability to program, understand and apply anatomy into my coaching, and engage and build relationships with clients and explain in clear, concise, and easy to understand terms the things I am implementing with them and why I am doing it.
FAVOURITES –
Book – How to Win Friends & Influence People
Movie – Benchwarmers is an absolute all-time classic for mine. It’s concerning the amount of times I would have watched it since I was a kid.
Hobby – Spending time in the sunshine with friends
Exercise – Dowell Dislocations – after years of shoulder troubles these got my cooked shoulders feeling strong and juicy!
Quote – “I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again”
