Jon Ackland

When it comes to training athletes, Jon is the definition of the word guru. A world-renowned training strategist, he specialises in program design and planning for high-performance athletes. He has over 20 years of experience in helping top athletes achieve the impossible.

An experienced sportsman himself, Jon is a former national rowing champion and Ironman triathlete, and has represented New Zealand at two World Ironman Championships.

A world leader in performance education, Jon has authored 9 books on sports performance and training, including The Complete Guide to Endurance Training and the best selling Power to Perform, both of which are used as university texts. Jon’s most recent book Beginner’s Half Marathon Trainer has just been released in the USA.

Jon conducts seminars worldwide, and currently co-hosts “The High Performance Hour” on Radio Sport and 1ZB, where he discusses high performance strategy with New Zealand’s most successful athletes.

Since 1993 Jon has run Performance Lab, an organisation dedicated to helping endurance athletes achieve peak performance. He has been instrumental in the success of many athletes in New Zealand and worldwide, working with the All Blacks, The Blues (Auckland’s rugby team), America’s Cup yacht crews, New Zealand cricket teams, Olympic Yachting competitors, and members of the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.

Jon also uses his expertise with world-leading athletes to help beginners. Jon and the team at Performance Lab constructed a program to help over 500 casual sportspeople and sedentary individuals train for a Half Marathon, a first for most of the participants. A full 90% of the participants reached the start line … and every one of them finished.

Jon’s business is helping you learn that impossible really is nothing.