Making a splash in water sports
A DREAM Aidan Withington had as a youngster had a real impact on his life.
‘‘It’s a dream I remember quite vividly – I wanted to fly and for some reason I was swimming as I flew, it just seemed logical.
‘‘It’s the same feeling as being under water, to me it’s the closest feeling you can get to flying,’’ he laughs.
Spurred on by that dream, the self-confessed water baby took up swimming and it has consumed his life ever since – in a good way.
After being talent spotted as an 11-year-old Withington moved into the competitive swimming arena but for the last 13 years he’s worked with swimmers and swim clubs in both the North and South islands.
‘‘I’ve been doing early mornings poolside since I was 12, and I still do it – I actually don’t know what people do when they don’t get up to come down to the pool early because it’s something I’ve always done!’’
Poolside these days is at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre in Kilbirnie where the former Invercargill man is a Capital Swim Club coach.
He’s also working for Paralympics New Zealand, coaching New Zealand para swimmer Mary Fisher during school hours.
‘‘It’s exciting to be able to work with someone like Mary and to have the opportunity to train her, she’s an amazing athlete and a nice person as well.’’
Before and after school, he looks after about 200 swimmers aged nine to 16 who come through the doors every week.
Withington is proud of the fact he not only knows every child’s name, he also knows how each one swims.
‘‘You get used to what the child looks like in the water, and I make sure during the session I use their name and give them feedback every time they stop.
‘‘They respond better when they know their coach knows who they are and how they swim.’’
Each pool session lasts for up to two hours and comprises some longer swims, some shorter bursts, diving practice off the blocks, and training in different energy zones, all the while focusing on technique.
‘‘We want to make sure we get some good, fundamental skills set up while they’re young, and tweak those techniques as they get older.’’
Withington’s main job is correcting body position.
‘‘A lot of kids can’t hold body position and that’s the most important thing, to get their body through the water.
‘‘We teach them to push down with their chest and hold their core in, to get their heads down which brings their hips up and then they’ll sit up nice and high on the water,’’ he explains.
Leading from the hand and cutting over the bodyline is another common problem, which Withington says can eventually cause shoulder injuries.
‘‘We focus on leading from the elbow coming over, the hand should be completely relaxed as it enters the water, and the stroke underneath should be a nice straight line which is where they get their power from.’’
Dry land sessions are another focus, both before school and after school for different age groups next door at Kilbirnie Park.
‘‘Body awareness is really important, we’ve done a lot of jumping, core work and upper body strengthening which helps them in the pool and with injury prevention.’’
Apart from patience – and a loud voice – Withington says a good coach also needs to understand their young swimmers.
‘‘You need to know how to deal with children, they need to know when it’s okay to muck around and when to take it seriously. It’s not hard to teach, they just need to know boundaries.
‘‘When I was training my coach would talk and being a male I didn’t have the attention span that’s required to listen.
‘‘The golden rule with boys is that their age in seconds is how long you’ve got to explain something, and you might have to explain it again.’’
Over and above coaching, Withington is busy with paperwork, be it emails to parents, coming up with session plans, seasonal plans, organising swim meets, and preparing or attending swim meets locally or nationally.
At the recent five-day New Zealand Age Group Championships in Wellington that involved 700 swimmers from 100 clubs Withington spent 78 hours poolside.
Of Wellington’s 28-strong contingent, Lewis Clareburt (coached by Gary Hollywood) broke one national record and equalled another and was selected for the Commonwealth Youth Games 2017 in the Bahamas.
Sophie Irving, Lea Muellner and Thomas Watkins were also selected to represent New Zealand at the State Teams Age Group Championships in September.
‘‘One boy in the 13-year age group set a new New Zealand record in the 50 breaststroke – he did it 0.6sec under the old record which is quite a bit.’’
Another previously unranked swimmer made the top 10 in his event and even placed as high as fourth in the 1500m freestyle.
‘‘That’s one of the reasons I coach – a New Zealand record is good, but the rewards can be different, it can be kids who improve over a year or make it to national age group level.’’
Withington, whose two younger sisters represented New Zealand in synchronised swimming, comes from a competitive swimming background. His own specialist strokes were in breaststroke and butterfly.
Initially, Withington started swimming lessons as a preschooler, continuing on through a learn-to-swim club. At age 11 he was talent spotted by the Southland swim coach.
‘‘I wasn’t very co-ordinated at all,’’ he laughs, ‘‘but I was very good at body position work and underwater, which are really important skills in swimming.’’
His very first competition was memorable, for all the wrong reasons.
‘‘I was in a 100m freestyle race and I stopped after the first 50m, which wasn’t the greatest start to my competitive career,’’ he grins.
His passion for swimming continued to grow though, and his understanding of the sport deepened when, at only 13 himself, he voluntarily stepped in to help his struggling club teach five-yearolds to learn to swim.
‘‘I attended my very first NAGs at 14. I was a late developer but then I took off in a massive amount in one year, I went in to the 200m fly ranked last, I came first in my heat and in the finals I ended up fourth.’’
Three years later, injury forced Withington, who trained alongside New Zealand triathlete Tony Dodd, to make the tough decision to bow out.
Still at school and teaching his club’s learn-to-swim programme, he was asked to help coach Southland’s talent identification squads.
He went on to become Southland’s development coach, a paid, part-time role working with local clubs to increase numbers and achieve junior and age group titles.
When he wasn’t poolside he was studying for his diploma in accountancy at Southland’s Institute of Technology.
After graduating he took up another part-time role, not in accountancy but as Southland’s very first development officer working with schools and clubs on learn-to-swim programmes for children.
‘‘That’s where my passion was, I don’t think I’d be a personality to sit behind a desk, I would fall asleep, because that’s what I did for most of my school life!’’
Eventually he gave up those jobs to tackle a bigger challenge in the small Hawke’s Bay town of Waipukurau.
In six years he turned the Central Hawke’s Bay Swim Club around, growing numbers from 10 competitive swimmers to more than 40, and over 100 swimmers in total, and coaching athletes to national age and open titles.
Four days short of six years, the lure of city life and working under Capital head coach Gary Hollywood brought him to Wellington.
They and fellow coach Craig Elliot have since revamped the Capital club, offering swimmers more opportunities to train, setting up dry land programmes, and creating pathways into the competitive environment.
While Withington enjoys watching his own swimmers progress, he has no regrets about giving up the sport himself.
‘‘It would be interesting to see where I could have got to.
‘‘But I don’t know what would have happened if I had carried on, I mightn’t have got the opportunities I’ve had and be where I am today.’’