It has been a tumultuous week for British Swimming, after the organization found out that all national funding for its women’s water polo and synchronized swimming programs was being cut.
However, Thursday brought some uplifting news, as the group has brought in a big-name in British sports to lead its elite coach development program. His title will be Elite Coach Development Manager.
“I’ve been involved with a number of Olympic sports over the last six years and this role will provide a great opportunity to work more in-depth with British Swimming, which I’m really looking forward to,” Redman said of his new role.
British Swimming has appointed Nigel Redman to a lead role on “elite coach development,” a program that is designed to raise the overall education and professional level of British coaches. British Swimming is hoping that this will help it meet its new World Class Performance Programme goals, created after what they viewed as a disappointing home performance at the 2012 London Olympics.
Redman is a well-known retired rugby player in the UK, having earned 20 caps for the English international squad and served as a captain for at least one of the team’s matches.
While his personal experience isn’t directly with swimming, he has emerged as an expert in “coaching for coaches” in a similar position with England RFU, and when he assisted in the development of UK Sport’s Elite Coaching Apprenticeship Programme (ECAP) as a member of both the delivery team and the Elite Coach Steering Group.
“He brings vast knowledge and experience of high performance coach development across the UK sport system, where he has been widely regarded for some time,” National Performance Director Chris Spice said of the new hire.
“To be able to attract such a high-calibre professional to the British Swimming World Class programme is both exciting and challenging. The Elite Coach Development Manager post is a key part of our restructure to invest in our current and future elite coaches so that we can achieve our aim of more medals on the world stage.
“We look forward to Nigel assisting our coaches to achieve those goals.”
His work will officially begin on Monday, February 10th, 2014.