Wendi Henderson on improving youth sport
Wendi Henderson on improving youth sport
Video transcript
[Wendi Henderson speaking]
Being a Balance is Better Champion excites me because it's an opportunity for me to share my experiences and my stories about my journey, and some of those really resonate with you know what the program is all about.
I hope to achieve by being a champion getting alongside you know coaches administrators or in any of the environments that I'm currently involved in and I guess sharing those experiences and stories and working with them to I guess look at the bigger picture and how the impact that they have on on you know the youth of today and you know what they can do to change things.
Playing multiple sports helped me as an athlete because it allowed me to look at different environments and try different things and you know play in either pressured environments or non pressured environments and just yeah give everything a go really.
The Balance is Better philosophies fit with my personal journey just because it's something that I really believe in. I think sport has really made me the person I am today, and the having a balance in my life - it's really shaped and formed the the person I am, and sport has played a large part of that, and playing a range of sports has done that. So yeah I think it just fits with me really well.
My message to young people is go out there and enjoy as much as you can, as often as you can, and make sure that you don't lose the fun in anything you do.
My message to parents is to allow your kids to have fun and do what they like doing best.
My message to coaches and administrators is just understand the big picture, you know. Understand what these kids are doing, you know what are they involved in, what part can you play? Because you have such a big impact on those kids.
In ten years time it'd be great if we could see the participation still there, the numbers still high, and people playing sport and enjoying it. I think there'd be better pathways around people enjoying sport, and those that want to kick on to grow and develop in the sport that they’ve chosen. And just that, yeah that sport as a whole has actually moved and changed with the times in terms of what people are wanting.