| Ki ora koutou
Welcome to my website. My name is Brett Smith and I am currently a Lecturer at the University of Waikato in the area of exercise physiology and exercise prescription. I am also contracted to the New Zealand Rowing Associations high performance program where I work with Richard Tonks, the Head Coach for the New Zealand Elite Rowing Team.
Within the Department of Sport & Leisure Studies at the University of Waikato I teach three undergraduate and one postgraduate paper. These papers examine the physiological responses to physical actvity and critically evaluate the dose - response relationships between physical activity (exercise), health and fitness. While the processes of prescribing physical activity (exercise) are also taught, I aim to make the students critically aware of the importance of adherence and safety especially with sedentary clientele. At the other end of the spectrum I have a passion for periodisation theory which I also teach at the University and to various sporting organisations
I have been very fortunate to have worked with a number of successful elite sports organisations, however since starting my PhD I have committed solely to one sport - NZ rowing. Work with rowing started in 1994 and in that time I have interacted with some great Coaches including the late great Harry Mahon (UK) and Sam LeCompte (Aus). Since 1998 I have had the great priviledge of working with Richard Tonks who has revolutionised the NZ elite rowing program. Under his Coaching NZ rowing has won 2 Olympic Gold Medals plus 11 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 3 bronze medals at various World Championships, whereas in the 15 years prior to his involvement NZ's medal haul was a couple of Bronze medals.
My role with the NZ Rowing team is primarily program monitoring where I utilise a wide variety of technological tools to monitor the performance of the boat and the individuals within the crew. Unfortunately collection of meaningful data that is reliable and valid is difficult but the real challenge is to make meaning of the data so that it can be used by the Coach to help optimise each crew members physiological capacity. The steps I have taken so far is to first develop a model for optimal performance, determine what variables within the model need to measured, develop the required measurement tools and then relate the measurements taken to the original model. In this way we have developed a monitoring system that provides the program with realtime measurements of key variables which can be compared against modelled values for specific training phases and also enables longtitudinal tracking of the crew and the individual rowers. Given the numerous successful Rowers that Dick has developed we now have a large volume of data on World and Olympic Champions which continually strengthens our model for optimal performance.
The results from the various monitoring tools enables me a unique insight from which we have been able to continually develop many aspects of our training program and examine the effect of various innovations. Currently the program has an active research and development component which continues to provide useful data.
Like most Kiwi's I have played a bit of rugby which has lead me to become involved in the training of a variety of senior rugby teams. A lack of resources in this area led me to develop a webpage on rugby training for club players which was initially meant as a source of information for the University of Waikato rugby club. However, since putting the site online it's popularity has mushroomed way out of proportion of my initial estimates.
I currently Cycle, Ski and Surf and unfortunately I participate in all at a very intermediate level. Surifing is my passion and if I didn't have such a great job and family I would live in Whale Bay and surf all day every day.
All in all I am very fortunate to have a great Job at the University of Waikato who have been extremely supportive of my work with NZ rowing. However my greatest supporters are my family who put up with my extended absenses in Europe and throughout New Zealand - apparently I was only home 8 month in the last 12. | 
