AFTER 20 years as an endurance athlete, including two Olympic triathlons, Courtney Atkinson still found himself impressed with the level of fitness of Port Adelaide’s players when he trained with them during the club’s pre-season camp on the Sunshine Coast.

Atkinson was invited along by Port Adelaide’s Head of High Performance, Stuart Graham, to take part in some running and cycling sessions and share his experience and knowledge with players about backing up day after day.

While he admits growing up in Rugby League-mad Queensland and only taking an interest in Aussie Rules now that his son plays the game, Atkinson was impressed with the intensity of a running session he took part in at Lake Kawana, particularly as it was the second training stop of the day after players had taken part in a punishing morning session at Maroochydore.

“Stu and I come from a similar background with how we approach sport and we get along well,” Atkinson told portadelaidefc.com.au the day after he trained with the group. “He invited me up and asked me to get involved in the sessions. There’s nothing like immersion.

“My bread and butter was fast running when I was around the Olympic Games and nowadays it’s more endurance running so to jump into a footy session where there’s sprinting and shuttle runs, I think I found some new muscles I haven’t worked out in the past five years.

“It was really impressive to see what they were doing. I wouldn’t say I was surprised but I wasn’t expecting as a group how well they could run. I thought there’d be a few key midfielders who run really well but right from the tall forwards and the backs to the whole group, it was really impressive to see the running they were doing and the pace they were doing it at.

“What I took out of it was that when they were running their short-rest repetitions, they were recovering really well. There’s a great level of base fitness there and it’s encouraging for the year.”

Atkinson’s involvement was made possible through the club’s partnership with RedBull.

That partnership also saw big wave surfer Mark Mathews present a talk to the touring party about overcoming fear.

RedBull now has a stable of high-performance athletes and Atkinson said it was always valuable for athletes to learn from each other.

“My perspective is very physical,” he explained. “For 20 years my job was to get up and train all day – to keep going and going and going.

“It’s about consistency. It’s not so much about hurting yourself but backing up day after day.”

And that is exactly what Port Adelaide’s players were asked to do on the six-day camp.

RedBull athlete Travis Boak said his teammates had taken a lot from Mathews’ talk and Atkinson’s presence.

“It’s always really valuable to hear from other professional athletes, especially someone in his industry who has faced and continues to face some pretty extensive challenges and things he has to overcome in terms of surfing big waves – fears and injuries in particular,” Boak said of Mathews’ presentation.

“For us to understand what fears he goes through and how he deals with those things was really good, and we spoke about gratitude, which is something we are mindful of.

“Courtney is one of Australia’s best athletes. He’s had an extensive and successful career and for him to pass on his knowledge in terms of endurance for our guys when they were running was really valuable in terms of seeing how another athlete prepares.

“He was around for a couple of days and guys were just picking his brains on certain things – whether it was goal setting, how to deal with fatigue and all sorts of other things.

“We were very fortunate to have those guys come in through RedBull to talk to and spend time with the guys and we’re very thankful for their time.”

But what were Port Adelaide’s players discussing with Atkinson?

He said there was nothing he was not expecting.

“What sports people are interested in is what you do and how you do it,” he said.

“I was interested in how Stu ran the session and these guys were interested in what drives me after 20 years to keep going and how I prepare.”