It’s funny how, as a kid, I wanted to be Mark Spitz. My mum even took me to Munich in 1972 to inspire me. I had the Stars and Stripes speedos too! Later on, when I competed in Track as a sprinter, my hero was Harold Abrahams – as immortalised in one of my favourite films ‘Chariots of Fire’. Little did I realise then that I would identify more with his maverick coach Sam Mussabini in later life (let alone Ted Lasso).

Since then, I have been coached by a number of amazing swim, athletics, rugby and business coaches. It’s absolutely essential to keep learning – improving and fine tuning your craft – and I swear by it. I have also coached a large number of swim and tri coaches myself. In fact, I find it particularly rewarding coaching the coaches. The fastest learners who simply “get it” first time I have found tend to be military, actors, dancers and coaches (both mind, body and business). Perhaps it’s the strategic approach, or the neural pathways they have developed.

A recent case in point was Joe Wicks who I had the pleasure of coaching for his first triathlon in the UK and half Ironman in California. He isn’t just a nice bloke, you know. The man is a grafter and simply one of the nicest “tigger” personas in this world. His fabulous empathetic and inclusive approach to his work aside, the man is razor sharp focused. He went from barely managing 50m in open water before losing it, to 750m front crawl non-stop on his second lesson. I have to confess that when I paced him on his third session I was struggling to keep my cool and secretly had to work pretty damn hard. Obviously he doesn’t know that his coach was working his arse off to keep abreast (and he won’t unless he reads this!)

On his 4th outing he came 3rd in the Men’s Open 750m at Shepperton!! From zero to hero in 4 sessions! I’d love to say it was my coaching – but it wasn’t. I simply combine 35% coaching with 65% instruction after assessing an individuals needs.

And I love being coached too, parking my ego and letting someone assess and guide the person you now are. We are all constantly changing. We age, get stronger weaker, injured, but always wiser and more self aware of our bodies and how they work. We get better at deploying our strengths and compensating for our weaknesses. Which is why I often get some swimmers to be faster and more efficient with age. Layer on top of that the fact that strokes evolve and you can see why coaches also need coaches.