Having transitioned into the role of Dunsborough Community Coordinator late last year, former West Coast Eagles player and coach Mark Nicoski has been rolling out a new program in schools across the South West.
Nicoski leads the sessions with students undertaking a variety of activities involving education and discussions about full-body health, mindfulness and gratitude practices, as well as an opportunity to hear from AFL and AFLW players about their first-hand experience with these practices.
He first became passionate about health and well-being skills at the backend of his career when he was introduced to the concept of mindfulness and began to use it in game preparation, finding it provided strong benefits on and off the field.
After a successful career as an Eagle and then shifting into the coaching staff, Nicoski delivered these tools to the 2018 playing group again seeing an extremely positive shift among the players in their premiership season.
“We saw some really great benefits for our players, a little bit on-field but personally for me to see them grow emotionally and learn a lot more about themselves off-field was all that we could ask for,” he said.
“In the past, especially in the athletic world, we have always been told to train our bodies and our craft. From a performance perspective we are now seeing a shift where both athletes and everyday people are beginning to properly invest in the health of their minds, which is critical in today’s world with all the distractions and pressures that are around both internally and externally.”
Nicoski has evolved the Flight Zone program from a tool for players and coaches into a program for students across WA, being taught across secondary schools in the broader South West earlier this year with plans to extend the workshop to other regions of WA.
“We are keen to get the program into as many secondary schools as we can, with the first two modules being mindfulness and gratitude.
“We want to enter into a space of well-being, looking at different methods of this through acts of kindness, storytelling, and creating a sense of belonging in the environment you are in.”
The Flight Zone program has already received a lot of positive feedback from teachers and students, with Bunbury Catholic College Elite Sports Coordinator Jason Frisina having high praise for Nicoski and the program.
“Nico has a really great way of relating to the kids that makes them feel really settled, gets them engaged and answering questions really quickly, enabling him to get his message across really easily,” Frisina said.
“Mindfulness and gratitude are such valuable tools for the student’s focus and attention as well as their stress management, helping them remain concentrated on the task at hand, whether that is sport, school or in their own personal lives.”
Nicoski highlights why it is critical to develop these well-being and mindfulness skills in young students as they grow mentally and physically.
“Kids in society today are faced with so many more external pressures than we went through, it’s a different world we are living in and the more tools and skills we can provide to help with that, the better,” Nicoski said.
“Everyone is walking away at the end of the practice with a better understanding of themselves internally that can benefit their well-being and performance.”
The Flight Zone program will continue to roll out across the South West before heading to the metro region in 2025 and beyond. To find out more information or to get your school involved in the program contact Mark Nicoski markn@wce.com.au.
