20 Oct 2009
Sports science lecturers at the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Human Movement Studies will return to Indonesia on Wednesday 28 October to continue providing intensive assistance to that nation’s elite athletes in the lead-up to the South-East Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos, in December 2009. Lecturers Dr Stephen Bird, Dr Rob Duffield and Mr Benjamin Barrington-Higgs have three tasks to manage on this visit as part of the Sports Science Division for the Indonesian Elite Athlete High Performance Program (Program Atlet Andalan – PAL). “Firstly, we will be very involved in the final preparation training for Indonesian elite athletes, the performance optimisation phase, before the start of the South-East Asian Games,” Dr Bird said. “We will also deliver an intensive four-day elite sports coaching short course for Indonesian coaches and academics. Our third task is to conduct the first applied sports research with elite boxers in Indonesia.”

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Media Officer	: Bruce Andrews
Telephone	: 02 63386084

Media Note: Contact CSU Media to arrange interviews with Dr Stephen Bird or Mr Ben Barrington-Higgs. The South-East Asian Games will be staged in Vientiane, Laos, from 9-18 December 2009. The School of Human Movement Studies had previously secured contracts to provide strength and conditioning and sports science services for Indonesian elite athletes, and, with the State Ministry of Youth and Sport Affairs in Indonesia, to assist athletes in a range of sports and to provide education programs for the coaches of elite athletes. Ten Indonesian national sports coaches visited CSU at Bathurst in December 2008 to undertake intensive training for an Advanced Certificate in Sport Conditioning.