RISE Academy Manager and former Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs premiership winner Adam Perry will continue to expand and refine the holistic Rugby League program after a successful season which saw the number of participants top 1000 for the first time.
“The RISE program is very much about core skills, learning the game, it’s also an introduction to strength and conditioning work,” Perry told nswrl.com.au.
“There’s also a wellbeing component to it where the kids will do a bit of online learning, and then we reiterate what they’ve learnt at the face-to-face sessions.”
“We had just over 520 kids last year and it’s up to around 1200 this year.”
The RISE program has seen continued success in 2023 with increases in both boys’ numbers from Under 13s to Under 15s and in girls’ numbers from Under 13s to Under 16s.
Perry said the most pleasing aspect of the program was it was inclusive for all participants.
“The philosophy is a lot to with that research from the player development framework about giving every kid an opportunity to come and get more advanced coaching and be a part of what would be seen as a representative program before,” he said.
Improving and educating coaches are also a significant part of the RISE programs.
“We’ve got a coach development program which runs alongside the RISE program as well where the coaches do some online training, some face-to-face training and then they’re mentored by a head coach at each of the programs as they take the kids through the program,” Perry said.
“It’s not only coaching the kids but letting them explore and learn for themselves, so it’s pretty cool, and coaches actually if they complete all the requirements during the time with the RISE program they actually get an accreditation out of it.”
These programs have run far and wide across New South Wales with nearly 20 locations in places like Tweed, Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Central Coast, Wagga and Western Sydney which was the first RISE program run in a metropolitan area.
“The aim for the future is obviously to keep growing the program, keep extending it into the metropolitan areas and linking up with NRL clubs,” Perry said.
“We also want to keep refining and improving the program as well. So, it is relatively new, and we have made improvements from last year to this year and we want to keep doing that as well; so, making the program as good as it can be.”
