Exactly how qualified is Daniel?
To pursue his dream career path as a Strength and Conditioning Coach after a successful stint as a national level athlete, Daniel completed a Bachelor degree in Sports Science at AUT
Throughout his studies he worked with Strength HQ weightlifting coach Tina Ball and completed a year-long weightlifting coaching internship, learning from the best.
He has since continued on as a Weightlifting Coach under Tina Ball with Strength HQ’s Weightlifting Club.
Daniel is currently continuing his education at a post graduate level, completing a Masters in Sport and Exercise Science.
Daniel is a strength and weightlifting specialist.
He currently coaches the Strength HQ Fortis Weightlifting Squad as well as being involved in the One Tree Hill College Youth Weightlifting program.
Daniel strives to go above and beyond for his athletes, ensuring they have all the evidence-based guidance and support they need to progress.
His coaching and programming is based around sound scientific principles and due to my connection with the academic / scientific world and the continued research involved in completing his Masters, Daniel is up to date with the very latest in sport science.
He coaches to a performance and evidence based model. Everything begins with a needs analysis and everything prescribed is geared towards achieving each athlete’s goal. Daniel doesn’t advocate fancy exercises because they look cool or are trendy. Everything in his programs has a purpose and is scientifically proven to work.
Daniel has many years of experience under his weight belt and has personally achieved the levels of athleticism that many athletes are looking achieve. He fully understand the physical and mental transformations they will go through on their journey to getting bigger, faster and stronger.
Being a sportsman from childhood, training and competitive sport has always been a key part of Daniel’s life. A keen basketball player from a young age, he was always the shortest player on the team. He wanted to be able to dunk a basketball and through effective strength and power training he was able to add 10 inches to his vertical jump and achieve his goal of dunking a basketball at a height of only 5’10.
Through his quest to dunk and improve his explosive power capabilities for basketball, Daniel became involved in the sport of weightlifting and began working with New Zealand Commonwealth Games weightlifting coach Tina Ball at the Strength HQ Weightlifting Club. Although his initial intentions were to use the olympic lift training as a tool to improve his vertical jump even further, he fell in love with the sport and decided to take up weightlifting competitively.
Shortly after taking up weightlifting competitively Daniel took up an opportunity to live and work in the United States for a year. During his time in the USA he had the unique opportunity to train at ESPN Wide World of Sports, a large sporting complex within the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando Florida. This complex is the home of several ELITE strength & conditioning coaches, including former NFL Strength & conditioning Coach Tom Shaw, and legendary USA track & field coach Brooks Johnson. During his time training at ESPN WWOS Daniel was able to shadow and learn from these coaches and their athletes. It was during this experience that Daniel came to the realization he wanted to pursue a career as a professional Strength & Conditioning Coach. So he relocated back to New Zealand, and that’s exactly what he did.
Passionate about athleticism and intensely focused on finding the best ways to enhance his own performance as well as that of his athletes.
Calm, positive and forward thinking, Daniel focusses on solutions rather than problems. He is chilled out by nature but knows when it’s time to go to work.
A critical thinker, he is always looking for the best and most efficient way to achieve something.