ARV Fitness Summit 2022

On Thursday, 17 November, the Fitness and Leisure representatives of the Victorian Aquatics and Recreation industry gathered for ARV’s first Fitness and Wellness Summit at RSEA Park, St Kilda Football Club.

The 2021 ARV Members Survey indicated the Industry’s interest in Fitness-focussed initiatives. To respond to this, ARV developed a dedicated day to this area of the Industry.

The Summit’s objective bring together the industry to discuss the transition of the fitness industry to an industry inclusive of wellness incentives.

Key presenters included:

Mark Williams, Head of Development, Melbourne Football Club. Mark is an All-Australian AFL Player & Coach, Captain of Collingwood and a Premiership Coach with Port Adelaide. Most recently, he played a critical role breaking the Melbourne Football Club's 57-year premiership drought.

Mark candidly shared his thoughts on how creating an environment with greater buy-in and connection leads to success at the highest level. Mark shared openly about his personal and professional adversities, and how mindset and care helped him to deal with these as well as support some of Australia’s most successful football teams and individuals.

Adele Bergin, ARV Mental Health Clinician/Consultant who introduced participants to the concept of Mental Fitness.

Dr Ben Robbins, Head of Mental Health and Wellbeing, St Kilda Football Club shared the strategies and methods currently in place to manage stress used at St Kilda Football Club to increase high performance.

Dean Beattie, Founder, Reset Wellness generously shared an insight into recovery from rock bottom and how the components of modern wellbeing support recovery. He highlighted how important our facilities are to supporting this.

Justin Tamsett, Managing Director, Active Management brought learnings from across the globe, showing the latest technology and trends.

Ryan Mifsud, VIC/TAS Health & Wellbeing Manager, Belgravia Leisure provided a case study on the Danny Frawley Centre and its establishment and learnings from early implementation of its recovery infrastructure and services.

The last session was an Industry Fitness Panel featuring:

• Fiona Kriaris, The Y
• Jacqui O'Dwyer, Aligned Leisure
• Jayden Cox, Belgravia Leisure
• Luke De Vincentis, Brimbank Leisure
• Sally Farrow, Para Mobility

The panel reflected on their successes and challenges in the fitness and wellness industry, their organization plans for the future and ideas for consideration by the industry.

The day wrapped with a full site tour of the St Kilda Football Club High Performance facilities and the Danny Frawley Centre.

ARV thanks the St Kilda Football Club for their hospitality and for their generosity of the exclusive facility tour. Thank you to the Danny Frawley Centre Belgravia Leisure team for the tour and insight.

ARV has invited feedback from participants and hopes to host this event again in 2023.