Westpac NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley this week will kick off a pilot program for the NSWRL’s Changing Rooms, which aims to help at risk youths with mental and physical fitness, goal setting and improving motivation and resilience.
Daley will present 15 participants with their training kit on Friday 31 October at the start of the program, which has been developed in conjunction with Police Youth Command. It will run every Friday for five weeks, predominantly at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence in Sydney Olympic Park. A condensed school holiday version of the program will also be held over two weeks in January.
Participants will be guided by collaborators including NSWRL Community and Welfare Officer, head of the NSWRL’s Changing Rooms and triple Rugby League premiership winner Paul Langmack, Youth Regiment Founder and former Australian Army Infantry Paratrooper Matthew French, One Love Mentoring’s Joseph Tau, former UFC veteran and University of New England lecturer in Exercise and Sports Science Brad Morris and counsellor Samantha Gordon.
“The NSWRL is extremely proud of the work being done in the mental fitness space by Paul Langmack and the Changing Rooms program and we are pleased to partner with Police Youth Command to deliver this latest initiative,” NSWRL Chief Executive David Trodden said.
“This program is being delivered by some industry experts in their respective fields and will be of great benefit to the participants taking part.”
Langmack said: “A supportive community can make all the difference to someone’s life and development and that includes extended family, neighbours, teachers and other adults.
“The professionals we have assembled will arm the participants with the right knowledge and tools to help them in life.”
Participants will take part in a variety of activities including strength training, mentoring sessions, police talks on organised crime recruitment and cyber safety, a presentation at Polair in Bankstown in Sydney’s south-west, a youth regiment session, and meditation and controlled breathing.
The NSWRL’s Changing Rooms program started in 2019 and has been delivered to more than 21,000 participants at Junior Rugby League clubs with Langmack addressing issues including bullying, social media and mental fitness. It has also been delivered to the Royal Australian Navy, First Nations groups, a NSW Parliamentary committee, and a variety of other sporting codes.
