FINA conducts clinic for swim coaches
View(s):James Richards, a senior age-group swimming coach of Leeds City Council in the United Kingdom conducted a five-day coaching clinic for 39 Sri 
Lankan coaches on an invitation of FINA, the world governing body for aquatic sports. The advanced swimming coaches’ clinic was held in Colombo from December 10 to 14 under the patronage of Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU).
The programme updated the knowledge of senior and upcoming coaches on long-term athlete development, energy systems and training methodology, testing and performance monitoring, strength and conditioning, planning for success, stroke mechanics and mechanics of starts, turns and finishes.
“We were very conscious not to allow the course to be merely a certificate course and we are grateful to Richards for being open to discuss and plan the design and structure of the clinic through Skype calls and emails well in advance. This resulted in not only SLASU but everyone involved being happy with the outcome including the participants. I should thank FINA for being very supportive of our initiatives and granting us this 
programme upon our request,” said Akhry Ameer, general secretary of SLASU.
The participants were selected through a stringent process by a three-member committee headed by Victor Pieris, a former secretary of SLASU along with two other senior coaches, Julian Bolling, a former national and international swimming star and Ruwan Manawadu. The selection ensured a ceiling on the number of participants and they were selected based on capability, performance whilst ensuring that participation was distributed to the leading coaches in the regions out of Colombo.
The programme was delivered through a full 8-hour session was each day comprising of lectures in the mornings at the Otter Aquatic Club and practical application with leading age group swimmers at the SSC Pool. The coaches were made to work in groups culminating in developing, presenting and implementing a segment of training plan.
SLASU hopes to develop on its training programme focusing on training swimming officials in January 2015 through FINA assistance and a workshop based coaches training together with swimmers later in the year with sponsorship assistance.