Hamish’s story: The rewards of coaching Para athletes
Coach Hamish Meacheam has been helping Para athletes achieve their goals for 10 years. He hopes LevelUp, a series of online resources developed with the support of ACC, will help inspire a new generation of Para coaches and athletes.
Hamish Meacheam says coaching Para athletes has made him not only a better coach but a better person.
The Community Manager at Athletics New Zealand has been coaching Para athletes for the past 10 years with great success. He says good coaching is simply problem solving with your athlete.
“Coaching Para athletes is challenging, but ultimately really rewarding,” says Hamish, who was born and raised in the Hawke’s Bay.
“It actually makes you a better coach because you can’t just take what you’ve learned in your coaching 101 course, you actually have to adapt what you’re doing.
“You have to put some thought into it and think around the problems.”
Hamish, a former elite middle-long distance runner himself, encourages others to be brave and put their hands up to support the Para sport pathway in New Zealand.
“Don't shy away from it, just get stuck in,” he says.
“I definitely encourage anyone to get involved if they have the opportunity to work with a Para athlete.”
Supporting Para athletes with LevelUp
Paralympics New Zealand, with the support of ACC, has recently launched LevelUp.
It’s a new series of online modules for sports coaches. The modules are designed to help coaches gain the skills and confidence to coach disabled athletes.
The free-to-use resources have been designed with coaches to make sure they’re fit for purpose.
They cover topics such as terminology, classification and coaching considerations for a wide range of impairments – from limb deficiencies to intellectual impairment.
The material complements existing coach development resources provided by national sport organisations.
Hamish says the aim is for every coach in the country to be open to coaching a Para athlete.
“This LevelUp toolkit is a great initiative from ACC and Paralympics New Zealand,” he says.
“It’s an important piece of that puzzle. Not every coach can get along to an in-person course.
“We don’t want 20 new Para coaches, we want 200 new Para coaches, so the fact that the course is online, you can access it in your own time, from your own home, is really fantastic.”
Kicking off a rewarding coaching career
Hamish first got into Para coaching in Palmerston North. He came home from the United States after an athletics scholarship in Texas and approached local legend George McConachy, who became his mentor.
“I thought he was going to hook me up with a nice group of talented middle-distance runners or something. But instead he threw me in the deep end and had me coaching a ‘Run, Jump, Throw’ programme for the three, four and five-year-olds at the club,” he laughs.
“That’s not what I wanted to do, but it ended up being a great basis for coaching.”
From there, he coached Ashley Exeter, a talented single-leg amputee thrower from Dannevirke, who in 2015 ranked fourth in the world for the discus, and fifth in the shot put.
Hamish then became the chief executive of Disability Sport Auckland, where he widened his knowledge base around different impairment types.
He now coaches around a dozen athletes, with about half of them Para athletes.
One of his Para athletes, Mitch Joynt, had a World Para Athletics Championships to remember in July.
The 28-year-old broke an Oceania record with a time of 23.32’ to finish third in the 200m (T64).
Mitch secured a top-four spot, which guarantees a slot for New Zealand in this event at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
The power of sport as a rehabilitation tool
Hamish says seeing his athletes excel on the world stage is a great experience, but the real rewards come in connecting with people.
“It’s lovely seeing the wins at big events, but it’s the icing on the cake,” he says.
“The real reward is getting to walk out of my office and finish each day with a bit of coaching, and being able to spend time with my crew of men and women who are talented and hard working.
“The process of coaching and spending time with young, motivated, enthusiastic people – I find that rewarding.”
Hamish sees first-hand the power of sport as a rehabilitation tool.
Many Para athletes he’s worked with have overcome great adversity in their lives and getting back into sport gives them hope.
“I think having something to focus on besides yourself is really positive for any young person,” he says.
“But particularly for someone who’s been through adversity, having that process of setting some goals, committing to something and following it through by being consistent and persistent.
“If you do all those things, you usually get the payoff in that process and it’s invaluable.
“It’s great for any person, but if you've been through some adversity in your life, it's especially fantastic.”
What is LevelUp?
- LevelUp is a series of online modules for coaching disabled athletes, no matter whether you’re just starting out or want to grow your skills.
- It’s a free and accessible training course for coaches. It’s available on the Sport New Zealand learning platform, Sport Tutor. That means you can learn in your own time, at your own pace.
- LevelUp resources are made up of nine modules. Once you complete the first two modules, it will unlock seven additional impairment-specific modules.
More information is available on the Paralympics NZ website.
