Eddie Worrall, Callum Bridge, Ned Deppler,15, Ben Matthews, Louis O'Callahgan, Noah Best,17, Ruben de Silva-Smith, 16, and Chloe Mutton, 12, travelled to Melbourne for a special session at the Victorian Institute of Sport.

The group of rising south-west sports stars were part of three learning sessions on nutrition, physiology and fitness at the VIS headquarters at Albert Park and also heard from Paralympian Mitch Gourley, Vixens netballer Lara Dunkley and top-ranked amateur golfer David Michelluzi.

Warrnambool hockey player Callum Bridge said the experience gave him extra motivation to improve.

"I would like to get into the VIS to help improve my hockey and hopefully use it as a pathway to get to the Australian team," he said.

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The goalie said he would be looking closely at a number of areas in his off-field preparation for his chosen sport.

"I'll be changing how I do the nutrition side of things because there were things today I didn't really know about," he said.

"I found out you have to have protein and carbohydrates after as well as before (playing sport)."

Bridge said the fitness side of the day gave him a better understanding of how he can approach his training.

"Most of the stuff was on leg work and upper body which is what I am trying to do," he said.

In the physiological session the instructors at the forum opened the eyes of not only Bridge but all of the athletes in attendance.

"To start off with, they asked us one question 'could you tell me more about your failures or when you have played your best?'," he said.

"And we all said our worst because we overthink it after we have played.

"I'll probably now be thinking about how well I played and how well I did compared to the bad side."

Bridge said the challenge now was to adapt everything to his chosen sport.

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