Speed doesn’t belong only to sprinters.
It changes a contest for the ball. It creates separation from an opponent. It closes space defensively. It allows an athlete to arrive first rather than second.
For Tess Palubiski, those fractions of a second matter on a hockey field.
And in 2026, they will be tested at one of the highest levels of domestic hockey in Australia.
Tess has been selected in the Canberra Chill women’s squad for the 2026 Hockey One season, another significant step in her development as a hockey player.
For FAST, it is also a great example of something we believe strongly:
Running fast is a sporting skill.
A Different Kind of FAST Athlete
Not everyone who trains with FAST is trying to win a 100m race.
Tess is in her mid-twenties, studies physiotherapy at the University of Canberra and trains with FAST Performance as part of her preparation for hockey.
That makes her development different from that of our competitive sprinters.
The objective isn’t to turn Tess into a track athlete.
It is to help make her a faster hockey athlete.
Through FAST for Sport, we take the principles that underpin sprint performance and apply them to the demands of other sports.
Acceleration matters.
The ability to produce speed quickly matters.
Movement efficiency matters.
And importantly, those qualities have to complement the technical, tactical and physical demands already being placed on an athlete by their sport.
For Tess, the question isn’t simply, How fast can you run?
It is:
How can greater speed make you a better hockey player?
FAST Performance. FAST Females.
Tess also represents another part of the environment we are continuing to build.
Through FAST Females, we want female athletes to have access to performance coaching that recognises them as athletes first — with individual goals, different sporting backgrounds and different reasons for wanting to become faster.
Some of our female athletes are sprinters.
Others hurdle, jump or run longer distances.
And athletes such as Tess bring those same performance principles into another sport entirely.
The common thread is development.
Evidence based. Development focused. Athlete centred. Excellence driven.
The Chill
Canberra Chill represents the ACT in the national Hockey One competition.
Hockey One brings together leading Australian and international players in a national home-and-away competition, with men’s and women’s teams competing on the same platform. Hockey ACT describes the Chill as representing the nation’s capital with an identity built around competition, excellence and community.
The level Tess is stepping into is significant.
The 2026 Hockey One season will feature Hockeyroos, Kookaburras, Olympians, World Cup players and international recruits. Canberra’s women’s squad has itself been strengthened by Dutch player Mabel Brands and German international Lynn Krings.
For a Canberra athlete, earning an opportunity within that environment is something worth celebrating.
October Is Coming
There isn’t long to wait.
The Canberra Chill open their 2026 Hockey One campaign at home against Adelaide Fire on Thursday 8 October, with the women’s match beginning at 6pm at the EPC Solar Hockey Stadium.
From there comes a national campaign taking Canberra to Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney and Brisbane before returning home for the final round against Perth Thundersticks on 22 November.
For Tess, that means the work continues.
Hockey preparation continues.
University continues.
And FAST continues to play its particular role within the bigger performance picture.
We are proud to have Tess as part of our FAST community and excited to see where the opportunity takes her.
Because sometimes Running Excellence isn’t measured by a stopwatch at the finish line.
Sometimes you see it when an athlete gets to the ball first.
Congratulations, Tess. 🖤❤️
FAST for Sport | FAST Performance | FAST Females
The Centre of Running Excellence.
Running Excellence grows.
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