From the Centres

Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra*

Sport is an integral part of Australia'sheritage. When declining fortunesthrough the 1960s reached a crisis at the1976 Montreal Olympics where no goldmedal was won, it became evident thatother countries were placing a farhigher priority on sport.Concern at the country's sporting

decline had earlier led to two FederalGovernment commissioned reports,by Bloomfield in 1973, and Coles in1975. Their common recommendation,drawing on overseas models, was toestablish a national sports institute tofurther the development of eliteathletes and coaches. This wouldremedy the lack of opportunities forAustralian athletes to live and train intheir own country with full sport andcoaching support rather than to have togo abroad to develop their talents.

In 1980, the Federal Governmentannounced the establishment of anInstitute of Sport at the National SportsCentre in Canberra. Itwas hoped that itwould provide:* Top quality training and coaching* World Class facilities, including

sports science and medicine sup-port

* Domestic and overseas travel to topcompetitions

* Educational opportunities foracademic study and career employ-ment.

The Institute was intended to beperformance-oriented, not simply atertiary educational establishment.Officially opened by the Prime Ministeron Australia Day, 1981, it was initiallyrun as a public company with a boardof management under the chairman-ship of the former Olympic runner,Kevan Gosper, with the swimmingcoach Don Talbot as foundation Execu-tive Director.

In 1987, Federal legislation alteredthe Institute's status to that of a statut-ory authority, with appointment of amanagement board by the FederalMinister of Arts, Sport, the Environ-ment, Tourism and Territories. The

*From information kindly supplied by JohnPurnell, Australian Institute of Sport, POBox 176, Belconnen, Act 2616

(C 1989 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd0306-3674/89/020072-04 $03.00

Board's main responsibility is thedevelopment of policy initiatives.

Objectives of the AIS

The objectives set out in the AustralianInstitute of Sport Act 1986 are:

* To provide resources, services andfacilities to enable Australians topursue and achieve excellence insport while also furthering theireducational and vocational skillsand other aspects of their personaldevelopment

* To improve the sporting abilities ofAustralians generally through theimprovement of the standard ofsports coaches

* To foster cooperation in sportbetween Australia and other coun-tries through the provision ofaccess to resources, services andfacilities related to sport.

The functions of the Institute are:

* To devise and implement pro-grammes for the recognition anddevelopment of

persons who excel, or who havethe potential to excel, in sportandpersons who have achieved, orwho have the potential toachieve, standards of excellenceas sports coaches, umpires,referees or officials to the con-duct of sport

* To establish, manage, develop andmaintain facilities for the purposesof the Institute

* To provide sports medicine ser-vices and sports science services topersons participating in pro-grammes referred to above and toundertake research related tosports medicine and sports science

* To collect and distribute informa-tion, and provide advice on mattersrelated to the activities of the insti-tute

* To raise money for the purposes ofthe Institute by appropriate means,having regard to the proper per-formance of the other functions ofthe Institute and

* For the purpose of fostering co-op-eration in sport between Australiaand other countries, to provide ac-cess to persons from other coun-tries to the resources, services andfacilities of the Institute.

Facilities

The Institute is at Bruce, ten minutesfrom Canberra's central business dis-trict on a 65 hectare site which includesboth the national indoor and outdoorstadia. Capital work prior to the Insti-tute's foundation amounted to $A77m.The operating budget in 1987/8 was$A15.2m. Income is raised from gov-ernment grants, commercial chargesfor facility use and corporate sponsor-ship.The facilities include an outdoor

stadium and warm-up track, indoorstadium, swimming hall, tennis com-plex, halls for gymnastics, basketballand netball and general trainingfacilities, in addition to the Sports Sci-ence and Medicine Centre, administra-tion centre and halls of residence.Details of these facilities are as follows:National Outdoor Stadium completed in1977. Fully equipped 18,000 seatstadium with electronic scoreboard;Rekortan all-weather track; hostedathletics World Cup in 1985.Warm-up track 1985. Fully equipped.National Indoor Stadium 1980. Multi-purpose 5 200-seater indoor arena withwide use from tennis competitions,Torvill and Dean ice skating, opera androck concerts.Swimming hall 1984. Includes 50 metrepool (2.2m.deep) and a 25 metre train-ing pool, 1.lm.deep, plus conditioningroom, spa and sauna. Open to publicoutside AIS training hours.Tennis complex 1982. With four indoorand six outdoor courts, all withPlexipave surface suitable for round-the-clock play. Open to public outsideAIS training times.Gymnastics hall 1984. A multi-purposecomprehensive gymnastics trainingfacility.Sports training facilities 1984. Incorpor-ates outdoor (grass and Poligrass) andindoor (Poligrass) pitches. Otherfacilities include weight-lifting centre,

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From the Centres

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Views of the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, showing from top left to bottom right: aerial view, gymnasticpit, main entrance, biomechanics running track and weights room.

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From the Centres

conditioning room, spa and a fully-equipped 360-seat theatre.Basketball and netball hall. Comprisesthree indoor basketball and two netballcourts.Sports Science and Medicine Centre 1985.Adminiistration centre and halls of resi-dence completed in 1985.

Residential scholarships

Athletes, who must be gainfullyemployed or bona fide students, maybe awarded scholarships comprisingfull board and lodging, transport sup-port and sports clothing. They mayreceive annual education allowances of$A250 (secondary students) or $A850(tertiary students).

Athletes' Institutes programmesinclude inter-state and overseas com-petition and they receive full adminis-trative and technical support, includingsports science and medicine.

AIS sports

There are now sixteen fully residentsports, ten at AIS Canberra, six out-posted AIS Units as follows (in addi-tion to provision for canoeing on theGold Coast of Queen'sland).

In Perth, the AIS hockey unit isgrant-aided by the Western Australiangovernment, whose Department ofSport and Recreation provides freeoffice accommodation. Sport psychol-ogy and physiology support is pro-vided by the University of WA'sHuman Movement Studies Depart-ment.The Brisbane City Council provides

offices for the squash and diving unitat the Sleeman Sports Complex atChandler and the training venue forsquash at the QE2 Sports Complex.

In Adelaide, the South Australiangovernment Department of Recreationand Sport support the cricket andcycling units.

The Sports Science and MedicineCentre

Comprehensive sports science andmedicine programmes are now anintegral part of the preparation of inter-national standard athletes and arenormally available throughout train-ing, competition and touring. Until re-cently, Australia neglected this vitalback-up service and to overcome thisdeficiency, the AIS established a SportsScience and Medicine Centre compar-able with the best in the world.The Sports Science Unit includes

physiology, psychology and technicalsupport groups. It helps coaches byproviding continuous assessment oftheir athletes' physiological, psycho-

Some of the facilities at Canberra; from top: indoor soccer hall, the NationalIndoor Stadium and the gymnastics hall.

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logical and biomechanical characteris-tics and gives help with performanceenhancement.The Sports Medicine Unit, consisting

of two doctors, physiotherapists, mas-seurs and a nursing sister, not onlytreats injuries and illness but devisesand implements injury preventionprogrammes for individual athletesand sports.The Units are committed to dis-

seminating their knowledge to thebroader Australian scientific and ath-letic community through conferences,courses and the production of aquarterly journal 'EXCEL', now avail-able on subscription and funded by theSir Robert Menzies Foundation.The Centre's educational work in-

cludes the training of final yearphysiotherapy students from the Cum-berland College of Health Science,Sydney, and students of biophysics/in-strumental science from the SwinburneInstitute of Technology. Graduate stu-dents work on projects in physiology,psychology and biomechanics.The Sport Science and Medicine Unit

moved in 1985 into new spacious ac-commodation in the centre of the AIScomplex which incorporates the bestdesign features from similar complexesround the world and allows more test-ing, research and teaching. Currentactivities include the following:* A sports medicine clinic includes a

small three-bed casualty area,nurse's station and medical con-sulting rooms.

* The open-plan physiotherapy areahas 16 treatment couches, rehabili-tation and exercise equipment, a'wet area' for ice and water treat-ment, a massage area and a hyd-rotherapy pool.

* The physiologylbiochemistry sectionendeavours to identify and quan-tify the physiological, biochemicaland nutritional characteristics con-tributing to sport-specific energygeneration. An ever-growing rangeof testing equipment is available tomonitor performance, most re-cently an environmental chamberwas added to help athletes withacclimatization.

* The sport psychology programmeaims to equip athletes with copingskills for competition stresses.There are consulting rooms withaudiovisual facilities and a labora-tory with flotation tanks andbiofeedback equipment.

* The biomechanics lab analysestechnique with computer analysisof high-speed film fed through adigitizer. Force-plates and photo-electric timers are used in accelera-tion and velocity studies.

* Technical support services include anon-site workshop and computersection.

GENERATION

SPORT SUPPORT

1 Helps prevent & treat injuriesSuperb All-Round Compression SupportRetains Body Heat for better blood flowComfortable, Strong and Washable

J0 S SIZES AVAILABLE

Diamond Sport Supports are made from thermocelneoprene and help to prevent injuries such as pulledmuscles and strained tendons, and their benefits arewidely recognised by physiotherapists everywhere.Available from good sport shops or for furtherinformationcontact

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