Programs

Rick Duncan as a Level 3 Australian Surf Sports Coach initially established the Australian Surf Ski Coaching and Development Academy (ASSCADA) in 2008 on the key initiatives of providing surf lifesaving club coaches and individual surf ski and board paddler’s knowledge and experience in the form of specific training programs, technical paddling information and competition performance mentoring.

This higher level of knowledge and information was not available in the past to the general club athlete or it was limited to a few elite athletes who had gained some limited knowledge from high performance programs.

As a direct result of ASSCADA coaching across clubs program, greater knowledge with better results was achieved through sound management with open and transparent training programs available for both clubs and athletes. The coaching programs have not been limited to board and ski athletes but have evolved to include all surf sports disciplines.

As the success of the coaching program grew within the individual clubs so did the competitive success of the individual athlete at a state, national and international level. Many athletes both male and female who started with the program have gone on to have success as international athletes at world championship in both surf lifesaving and sprint kayak. It has been from the success of these international athletes that the Rick Duncan Academy was established in 2016 after inquiries from outside of Australia to help and provide similar training programs, structure and competition knowledge to improve individual and or national teams performances.

The training programs have evolved over recent years to provide more of a yearly or competition season, holistic athlete management plan with specific structured training phases which include a weekly and daily session plan that is flexible enough to be integrated around other training sessions, home, school and work commitments. Club coaches are also able to facilitate training sessions with variances that are dependent on conditions or ability of the athlete. The athlete management program gives guidance and variation to advanced athletes who have the opportunity to train two or three sessions per day.