Intro
The Western Australian Sport Development Pathways Strategy’s (strategy) vision is to support WA State sporting associations (SSA) to create environments where athletes, coaches and officials are provided with every opportunity to develop and achieve.
The Department of Creative Industries, Tourism and Sport (CITS) recognises the strategy as a vital initiative focused on sustaining the representation of Western Australians (WA) on the national and international sporting stage.
It is critical to the WA sport sector that there are increased sporting opportunities for community participants to progress through quality development pathways and into high-performance environments.
The creation of positive development environments and experiences will ensure increased opportunities for emerging talent within development pathways. The strategy will bridge the gap from community to high-performance sport through increased knowledge, systems and structures in SSAs.
The strategy was developed through an extensive and ongoing consultation period that included surveys, workshops and forums with SSAs. Further stakeholder engagement included the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS), Regional Academies of Sport, SportWest, VenuesWest, NSW Office of Sport, Australian Sports Commission (ASC), Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), Paralympics Australia, and multiple national and international experts
The consultation provided further clarity on the profile and demands on SSAs. With the 3 primary elements of the sporting system being:
SSAs are primarily responsible for community participation and development pathways. This represents a broad and extensive workload, with SSAs consistently challenged in how they anticipate and adapt to the needs of a dynamic sector.
Consistent and problematic challenges are present in relation to development pathways in the following areas:
In acknowledging this demand on SSAs, CITS has created the strategy to support SSAs in their efforts to elevate development pathway practices and provide a progressive link between community participation and high-performance sport.
The outcomes of the strategy are identified at the individual, organisational (SSA) and sector level. CITS’s focus is on supporting the achievement of organisational level outcomes, from which individual and sector level outcomes will result.
CITS has established the strategy over 3 structured horizons.
The strategy starts with a foundation based on current evidence and will be responsive to emerging information driven by an active approach to evaluation and assessment, further informing Horizon 2 and 3.
The strategy is built on 4 strategic priorities. These priorities contain a total of 12 strategic initiatives to be activated.
These initiatives will enable CITS to effectively provide enhanced system leadership to SSAs for development pathways and continue to support and lead the sector more broadly. The priorities and initiatives are:
1. Holistic system design and development
1.3 holistic coaching and officiating
2. Capability and capacity
3. Leadership and stakeholder engagement
3.3 Technology informed practices.
4. System alignment
4.3 Coordinated system support.
CITS will positively support and impact the sector in a progressive and ongoing manner. This will be achieved through supporting SSAs to identify, understand and implement advanced development pathway knowledge and practices, optimising elevated environments and experiences. This will result in a more informed and cohesive sector that identifies and leverages the strengths, roles and responsibilities of all within the sporting system.
Development Pathways, also referred to as talent development pathways or talent development environments, provide the appropriate conditions for youth athletes to realise their full sporting potential1 The quality of the talent development environment is important to long-term success, highlighting the need to understand how to actively create these environments2
other sport specific structures.
High performers will emerge when ‘environments are advanced to enrich an individual’s sport development experience’. This extends beyond their technical and tactical development to include holistic development, health, wellbeing and psychosocial development 3.
The profile underpinning an athlete’s sporting development, progression and attainment of elite performance is multi-dimensional4. In prioritising learning and development ahead of performance outcomes, development pathways positively exhibit the below traits:5
Beyond improved sporting performances, effective development pathways are reflected by a healthy, engaged and robust sporting system, where athletes are provided every opportunity to develop and achieve in the pursuit of their sporting ambitions.
The WA sport landscape stakeholder map (Figure 1) characterises the 3 key macro levels of the sport continuum — foundational (grass roots participation), pre-elite (development) and elite (high performance). The continuum is viewed from the perspective of governance, funding, events and direct service support. The positioning of the strategy is identified by the blue arrow on the left of the image.
CITS provides funding and support to organisations across the whole sport continuum, including to WAIS, regional academies of sport and SSAs. It also funds the development of sports infrastructure at all levels of the performance continuum.
WAIS is an integral service provider supporting national high-performance target outcomes through its supported Olympics and Paralympic sport programs, and direct support of categorised athletes (i.e. emerging, developing, podium potential, podium ready, podium) that are formally recognised by their respective national sporting organisation6.