Duncan contributes to national plan
Southland’s head coach, Jeremy Duncan, will contribute to Swimming New Zealand’s development plans for coaches and swimmers.
Swimming NZ targeted athlete and coach manager Gary Francis had discussions with Duncan in Invercargill this week, as well as a meeting with swimmer Jacob Blomfield and coach Lisa Pankhurst, who are both in the New Zealand squad for the Australian State Teams Championships in Canberra in October.
Francis is in charge of the country’s high performance swimmers and coaches and wants the views of senior coaches throughout the country on ways to strengthen development programmes for the next 10 years.
‘‘There are coaches around the country being underutilised and I want to bring them into [Swimming NZ’s] future plans,’’ Francis said.
He was impressed with training programmes, designed by Duncan, that are attracting high attendance numbers at Splash Palace in Invercargill.
Duncan, who swum at the top level for New Zealand in the 1990s, holds a gold license, the highest classification for a national swimming coach. He coached former international swimmer Natalie Wiegersma taking her from the junior ranks to the Commonwealth Games.
Duncan said he and Francis shared the same vision for the future with a priority on a high level of mentoring for young coaches, more training camps and swimmers competing overseas.
He believed swimmers would benefit from attending two or three meets, close together, overseas.
‘‘At the first meet they would learn a lot, at the second they would apply what they’ve learned and at the third, they would improve.
‘‘They would compete at a level above their own . . . it’s taking them out of their comfort zone.’’
Lifting coaches’ confidence and knowledge was an investment for the future, Duncan said.
He was honoured to be asked to contribute to the national development programmes.
‘‘I like to be part of a team. Being able to contribute to a national team and achieving success at a national level is great.’’