Last night I had a lengthy WhatsApp discussion with a Swimwatch reader. We covered a variety of swimming subjects but ended up at the reader’s favourite place; the standard of New Zealand coaches.

I was told that the Kiwi West coach, Trevor Nicholls, was an example of the poor standard of New Zealand coaching. I had to strongly disagree with that view. It is true that Trevor Nicholls is “old school” but so am I. So was Duncan Laing. So was Arthur Lydiard. So is Arch Jelley. So is Steve Hansen. In fact Trevor Nicholls is a bloody good swim coach whose record of preparing fast swimmers is comparable to anyone.

He is also a person of considerable integrity and personal courage. When Trevor worked for Swimming New Zealand he was cautioned to stay well away from that David Wright. In spite of that, when he visited Auckland, he would meet me for a chat and a cup of coffee. Just before my daughter Jane left to swim in the Yokohama Pan Pacific Games I wanted her to swim an official time trial. There were no local events but Kiwi West was having a club night a week before Jane was due to leave. I called Trevor and asked if Jane could swim. “Of course,” he said. When we arrived I was surprised at the effort Trevor had made. Jane’s lane had three timekeepers. A qualified referee, starter and judge had been brought in for the occasion. Clearly his view was if someone was getting ready to swim for their country he was going to make sure their country did its best to help.

And one last story that tells us much about Trevor Nicholls. When Jane broke the National New Zealand Open 200m breaststroke record the swimmer who held the previous best time swam for Trevor in Palmerston North. One of the first messages received congratulating Jane on her new record was from Trevor Nicholls.        

Exchanging ideas with a man of his experience and coaching record was always interesting and rewarding. The string of national open champions, representatives and record holders coached by Trevor Nicholls speaks volumes to his coaching ability. He was and still is an example of all that is good in the New Zealand sport’s coach.         

At about 12.30am my correspondent concluded our conversation with this comment copied directly from my WhatsApp.  

“not too many NZ swimmers do have futures unless they skip the country.”

And there in 14 words lies the destructive heart and soul of the New Zealand’s swimming problem. What he is saying is the same thing Swimming New Zealand has been saying since the beginning of their failed centralized training program. Both parties are convinced that no coach in New Zealand is any good. My correspondent actually says it. Swimming New Zealand say the same thing by always appointing a foreigner to head the national program. In twenty years there have been at least three coaches from England, one from Germany, one from Spain, four from Australia and one from the United States. Ironically the best coach was a New Zealander, Clive Power, who stood in to help Swimming New Zealand after they decided David Lyles was not what they wanted. That’s eleven coaches in twenty years and ten of them have been foreigners.

In an interview with Radio Sport, the previous Swimming New Zealand CEO described the organizations opinion of New Zealand based coaches. This is what he said:

“One of the central themes that has come out of my tour, I think, coaching is an area where we need to do more work. It’s an area where we need to put a bit more attention to. If we had the domestic talent that we needed we would have been looking in that (the New Zealand) direction. You need to hunt for the best talent you can get and if they come from overseas then so be it.”

Swimming New Zealand and my correspondent are flat out wrong. But worse than being wrong, their low opinion of New Zealand coaches has savaged the sport’s reputation and confidence. In my opinion the correspondent and Swimming New Zealand are guilty of crass and malicious sporting vandalism. Swimmers do not need to “skip the country” to be successful. New Zealand coaches are good enough to successfully coach the national program.

Let me give you some examples of the depth and quality of New Zealand’s coaching talent. It is not my intention to discuss every good coach in the country. But a brief consideration of just a few coaches puts a lie to the story being peddled by my correspondent and Swimming New Zealand.

Consider the names Judith Wright, Brett Naylor, Emma Swanwick, Gary Hurring, Gary Martin, Jeremy Duncan, Igor Polianski, Horst Miehe and Paul Kent. Add me to that small group and there are hundreds of years of coaching experience. Experience gained in New Zealand’s smallest towns to its biggest cities. There are coaches on the list who have swum for New Zealand in Commonwealth, World and Olympic competition. There are coaches who have successfully built huge swim programmes from the most humble beginnings. There are coaches that have successfully worked in eight different countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia. And there are coaches who have gained their coaching qualifications from the world’s best coaching programs. I can think of ten FINA world records that have been set by swimmers coached by coaches on that list. There are coaches of swimmers who have competed at European, Pan Pacific, Commonwealth, World and Olympic Championships. There are coaches of swimmers who have won medals at European, World and Commonwealth Championships.

But if the resume of these coaches is not enough for my correspondent or the doubters at Swimming New Zealand let me quote to you a message received by a New Zealand coach from an Olympic Gold Medallist he used to coach. Just to repeat, this is a message from an OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST to a current New Zealand resident coach. This is what the message said.

“Haha yeah most of the stuff they are “teaching” me I’ve already learned from swimming under you, Schubert, Bernal, and Scott. When you learn from the greats you kind of already know the stuff lol.”

And so to my correspondent I say, “Back off.” By all means, go overseas to get an education or take up a University scholarship or live with mates in Australia. But do not tell me that your disappearance is because there is no good coaching here at home. And to Swimming New Zealand, start supporting us. Give us a chance. Make us responsible. The evidence says clearly that we will not let you or our country down.