On Worldwide Girls’s Day, Nicole Kriz, the newly appointed Director at Tennis Australia’s Nationwide Tennis Academy, displays on her journey within the sport.
Brisbane, Australia, 8 March 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Nicole Kriz has hit the bottom operating as Director on the Nationwide Tennis Academy in Brisbane.
In her new function, Kriz is liable for overseeing this system on the academy, which is the head in Tennis Australia’s expertise growth pathway for promising elite athletes aged between 16 and 23.
“I’m completely loving it,” stated Kriz, who’s the primary lady to guide the academy. “We’ve got a world-class workforce and atmosphere right here, so the place else would you wish to be?”
Kriz, who relocated from Sydney in January for the place, described her appointment as “a privilege and nice duty”.
“The 16 to 23 age house is a vital interval for adolescents,” she defined. “It’s a really thrilling time for his or her growth on and off courtroom, from each a private {and professional} viewpoint.
“I actually wish to make a distinction for the athletes and their households, with their experiences all through the pathway, and work with our workforce to create a terrific atmosphere for them.”
Kriz is set to implement lots of the key classes she has learnt all through a life-long involvement in tennis.
“It takes a village on the finish of the day,” she stated, noting the significance of a collaborative method.
“It’s vital to deliver all people on board, whether or not that’s the mother and father, personal coach or whoever the best supporters are for the athlete. If we aren’t together with them in that journey, it’s going to interrupt down for the athlete.”
She additionally recognises “athletes are people, and all want various things”.
Kriz, a former skilled participant who achieved a career-high doubles rating of No.104 in 2007, found her ardour for teaching at a younger age.
“Once I was injured at 14, I began teaching and completely cherished it,” she defined.
“To have the ability to see the impression that our sport can have on somebody is an absolute privilege. Whether or not that was a kinder child coming in for his or her first expertise of tennis after which seeing them six years later being the junior tennis captain, or an grownup, who we all know are so busy, selecting to spend a bit of cash on themselves to have a lesson and seeing what they obtained out of it.
“Having the ability to create that atmosphere is one thing that I actually cherished from a younger age and permitting athletes to get one of the best out of themselves, each personally and professionally, was completely an enormous thrill.
“That’s in all probability why I wasn’t the best tennis participant, as a result of I care an excessive amount of about different individuals and needed to see different individuals do properly.”
At age 27, Kriz made a full-time transition into teaching. She spent six years working at Newington Faculty in New South Wales, earlier than becoming a member of the Tennis Australia teaching workforce in 2016.
She labored intently with a number of of Australia’s prime feminine athletes throughout this time, together with Destanee Aiava and Priscilla Hon, was an inaugural member of the Nationwide Tennis Academy’s teaching workforce when it opened in Brisbane in 2020 and has spent the previous 12 months because the Nationwide Lead in Excursions, Camps, Faculty and Wellbeing.
A certified high-performance coach, Kriz is now finding out her honours in psychology on the College of New England.
“I’m ending my thesis this 12 months in some way. I don’t know the way I’ll match all of it in, however that’s the plan,” Kriz stated.
“The rationale why I initially began finding out psychology and stepping into the wellbeing house, and why I’m an enormous advocate for it’s, as a result of we all know how susceptible adolescents are at this era of their growth.
“It’s an important interval for them as individuals. Not to mention with out the stresses they begin to expertise going from a home to a world taking part in schedule. We are able to anticipate this, so plenty of the wellbeing aspect of it’s preventative. If we’re not seeking to proactively work on the wellbeing and the individual, then we all know the challenges they’re going to face.”
As Kriz settles into her new management function, this 12 months’s Worldwide Girls’s Day serves as a reminder of the ever-improving alternatives for ladies within the sport.
“I’ve stood on the shoulders of giants, there’s a couple of unbelievable ladies which have come earlier than me,” Kriz famous.
“I’ve benefitted from ladies pulling me up and saying ‘let’s do that and let’s do it collectively’.
“Nicole Pratt, together with her imaginative and prescient and her ardour for ladies’s tennis, is the rationale why I joined Tennis Australia. I used to be completely offered on the place she needed to take the sport.”
Kriz additionally named colleagues Anna Livingston (former Head of Folks and Tradition), Belinda Colaneri (Efficiency Coach Growth Supervisor) and Andrea Buckeridge (Head of Girls and Women) as main inspirations and supporters all through her teaching profession.
“I can solely say wonderful issues about Tennis Australia and my journey. I’ve had a lot assist,” she stated.
“Now I’ve an enormous duty to offer again and create pathways for ladies like I’ve benefitted from, personally and professionally.
“There’s a complete bunch of younger feminine coaches and employees that we have to proceed develop and take away any limitations, in the event that they do exist, for them. However I feel our organisation does a terrific job of making these pathways and supporting them.”
Kriz lists the President’s Girls in Tennis Scholarships and launch of Coach Join as constructive initiatives which have additional created “a way of belonging” for feminine coaches throughout the nation.
“The alternatives for females are undoubtedly there,” Kriz stated. “As a sport, it’s not essentially a straightforward pathway due to the journey that comes with it at an elite degree. However I feel we’re doing a significantly better job of recognising and understanding these challenges.”
Discover your solution to play: Go to play.tennis.com.au to get out on courtroom and have some enjoyable!