Major coup for Trafford Metro swimming club as new Head Coach Kim Swanwick is appointed

 Trafford Metro has brought about a major coup for its swimmers in the recruitment of new Head Coach Kim Swanwick. Kim’s experience qualifications and expertise are the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to sport generally and swimming in particular. He has coached swimmers of all abilities from novice standard to Olympic champions excelling at getting the best out of his athletes. He has been an international level coach for more than 17 years producing swimmers that have medalled at world and European championships in addition to Commonwealth Games. Swimmers whom collectively have achieved 7 world records, 7 Commonwealth, 5 European and numerous British Scottish, New Zealand and other nations national records.

 In addition to Kim’s coaching attributes and qualifications he also has a detailed knowledge of sports physiology having graduated from Bedford College of PE in 1988 with a degree in Human Movement Studies Kim also graduated from Sheffield University obtaining a masters degree in medical science during 1992 where he completed a thesis on the ‘physiological differences between swimming freestyle and breaststroke’. He is a prolific writer on subjects involving sports science, having been published on numerous occasions and making presentations to a variety of audiences around the world.

 Kim’s inspirational coaching talents became apparent as long ago as 1993 when he coached Fraser Walker who was the first British swimmer to break the 2 minute barrier for the 200 Individual Medley. Fraser held British records for 100 and 200 IM and won gold at the World Student Games to go with silver from the 1993 World Championships. Around the same time Kim was also appointed Scottish team coach, a position he held until moving to New Zealand as Coaching Director for Jellie Park Aqualand swimming program and subsequently the New Zealand distance coach. In addition to his coaching role Kim was also lecturing in exercise physiology, exercise prescription, nutrition, sports injuries and professional studies at the Christchurch College of Education. During his time ‘down under’ Kim coached  Zoe Baker, to a gold medal at the 1999 European championships. The following year Zoe broke the European 50 metre breaststroke record twice and the British record 3 times – a record that had stood for 16 years. Zoe continued to prosper under Kim’s watchful eye, breaking her own record a further 4 times culminating in a gold medal at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games where she set a new world record for the 50 metre breaststroke. 

In 2003 the High Performance Centre in Pretoria South Africa approached Kim to assess, coach and advise their coaches and swimmers. He was an integral part in the build up to the 2004 Olympics playing a major role in selecting and guiding the South African team that won gold in the 4x100 freestyle relay. He was also responsible for designing a program for South African swimming development along with a plan for the development of the HPC programme. This covered learn to swim groups, club academy structures and a high performance group. He developed a number of initiatives for swimming South Africa to assist in the tracking and development of swimmers from age 12 through to international level swimming. During his time in South Africa Kim also worked with other sports, particularly cycling, for which he was responsible for the design and structural preparation of the Cycling SA program and an application for lotto funding.

 More recently Kim has been the Head Coach for the University of Bath swimming program where he developed the programme from low standards of swimming with limited performance to a structure of development from learn to swim through to international level swimmers. His team had 3 swimmers selected for the Olympics. Seven competed at the 2007 World Championships (2 finalists and a number of national records), three at the European short course, 7 at the world short course (including 1 medallist) and medallists at this years European championships. While under his guidance New Zealander Cameron Gibson broke a 3 year stagnation to become the first New Zealander to break 50 sec for the 100 free (long course) and has since gone 46.7 short course. 3 other Bath swimmers also broke 50 seconds for the 100 free. This year Team Bath also won the British Universities Sports Association championships for the first time in their history – a feat that had hitherto been considered impossible by the university.

 Earlier this year Kim has spent an increasing amount of time working with disabled swimmers and is a physiology advisor to the British ParaOlympic Swimming Team. For anybody harbouring concerns that Kim might be over qualified to coach our swimmers, he would like to reassure everyone that he will be giving 100% to his time at Trafford Metro to optimise success in our chosen goals. Kim has openly stated that he feels he has reached a point in his career where it is no longer a driving force for him to work alongside the top echelons of our sport. Instead he would prefer to work at a more grass roots level, developing younger swimmers making them better prepared for when they move up the competitive swimming ladder or able to make the most of their enjoyment in swimming at and for Trafford Metro. Kim also has family living locally, which is another reason for wanting to live and work in the area, particularly as his father is suffering from ailing health.

 Kim has given Trafford Metro a 12 month commitment with a remit to provide leadership and advice for all swimming aspects of the Club. He will review the swimming areas of the club including squad make up, number of sessions, use of pool time, programmes being completed and internal competitions including galas. In addition Kim will also review coaching standards within the Club and mentor our coaches where appropriate. He will define training plans and guide the coaching team to an agreed set of goals for the benefit of all our swimmers. Kim will be an active member of the poolside coaching team for all our groups throughout their development and will instigate specialist starts/turns and stroke clinics. Kim also suggested that he might be able to invite some of his international swimmers to a training camp at the leisure centre in what would be a wonderful opportunity for our swimmers and parents alike to gain first hand experience of how some of the best swimmers in the world approach their swimming training.

 Club Chairman Simon Hartland is really excited about Kim’s appointment stating that it ‘represents a great opportunity for the Club to build on its successes of the past and become even stronger in the future’. Simon couldn’t believe how fortunate the Club was in finding Kim just at the right time. He went on to say, ‘as a new committee, we could never have justified our actions to the swimmers and their parents if we’d failed to capitalise on recruiting somebody of Kim’s obvious stature in the swimming world. This represents a great opportunity for all our swimmers (and coaches), from the youngest to the oldest, to benefit from what, for many, could prove to be a once in a lifetime chance to work with an internationally renowned coach. We couldn’t possibly deny anybody this opportunity’. When Simon reported the details of Kim’s appointment to Bernie Jones the Chief Executive of Trafford Leisure Trust, Bernie was delighted to see that the Club had made such a high profile appointment in what he considers as having beneficial implications for the Club and Trafford Borough generally for both competitive and non-competitive swimmers alike.

 Kim will be present at the Sprint Gala on Saturday 12^th July where he will present some of the medals to the winners on the night. This will be an opportunity for all our Club members to meet Kim for the first time. Over the coming weeks Kim will be making observations prior to commencing work in earnest after the summer recess in September.

 I‘m sure that everyone will give Kim their full support as the Club embarks upon what will hopefully be the beginning of a new era in the success of Trafford Metropolitan Borough Swimming Club.

For Club information, or to contact the Head Coach an email should be sent to: - tmbsc@sky.com