Collaboration between WAIS and clubs working to further Western Australian swimming success

The pool of talented swimmers in Western Australia continues to grow and is set to follow in the lane of WAIS scholarship holder Brianna Throssell and graduate Zac Incerti, who between them claimed six medals at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest and spearhead the seven WAIS swimmers on the Commonwealth Games Team. 

In alignment with Swimming Australia and Swimming WA, WAIS delivers the WA Swimming Australia High Performance Hub ‚Äì a daily training environment with coaching and technical leadership, world leading performance support, athlete and coach development and innovation. 

WAIS offers developing athletes including Iona Anderson, the opportunity to continue training with their home club, while gaining access to elite coaching and the WAIS performance enhancement team that includes physical preparation, athlete wellbeing, biomechanics, psychology and nutrition. 

The shared pathway responsibility (between home club and performance hub) is key to the success of a young athlete’s career. 

Will Scott, WAIS Senior Assistant Swimming Coach manages the relationships between the athlete’s home clubs and the WAIS program said, “It’s essentially a collaboration on the athlete’s development.

“My role is trying to find out as much as possible, how I can help the athlete, whilst using the skill set I have to see the next steps in the pathway.

“Ben Higson, our new head coach, is also experienced in this collaborative approach, having practiced it multiple times across the world, we know that it can help to achieve the best outcome for the athlete.”

Harry Clark, the Director of Swimming at the Breakers Swimming Club said, “I’m in an awesome position where I get to be quite influential and have an impact on a whole variety of kids. I get to oversee the whole pathway program, where my main drive is making a difference.

“I have personally really enjoyed the partnership between us and WAIS, I have been doing it for a couple of years now and it has definitely enhanced our environment and me as a coach. I’ve already started to see the impact of what we’re doing with our junior kids as well.

“I’ve had a really positive experience and good relationships have been built, not only with the swim coaches but the support staff at WAIS as well. It really helps having connections in the industry that I can go to, because the more skilled people we can have around us and reach out too, the better development our athletes will receive.”

WAIS Physiotherapist, Chris Perrey, is one member of the Podium Performance Enhancement Team providing support to developing athletes. Where through his regular screenings, early detection of potential injury threats and the adjustment to training loads, has protected the athletes and allowed them to perform at their full capacity. 

“Working as an embedded physio at WAIS, has been a really positive experience. I supply the athletes with treatment services and injury management, as well as performing weekly monitoring via screening.

“Swimming is a sport that demands extremes of ranges under load. My role is to support the coaches and Physical Preparation staff, to support a full training load. In the developing athletes we also plan to develop the swimmers physically, working closely with the physical preparation specialist, to build robustness and physical resilience.

“I think having the input from all the specialists that WAIS offers is invaluable to developing athletes. We have services that we can offer to the athletes as well as to their home clubs and coaches on a continuing basis, such as screening services, mobility and activation workshops, development days and exposure to different assessments and coaching styles.”

UWA West Coast Swimming Club, Rockingham Swimming Club and Riverton Swimming Club are also engaged in the collaborative approach. 

The close collaboration with UWA West Coast, who have been long supporters of this club/hub type of approach. Leading to the success of Brianna Throssell, Tamsin Cook and Zac Incerti, who all won medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. 

Caitlyn Ribbons, a developing athlete on a training agreement with WAIS is benefiting from this collaborative approach with sessions in the WAIS Program and as a continued member of UWA West coast. 

“I really enjoy being able to train with both the WAIS program and my home program. I’m not pulled away from either of them, but I get the benefits of both, which I really love and find really beneficial for my swimming.

“It’s awesome being able to get different coaches’ point of view, each coach sees things slightly different. I love my home club and the variety of swimmers that I get to train with, that are doing different events, but I also love WAIS and how the squad is smaller and more individualised ‚Äì you get more time to work on technique and skill.

The partnership between an athlete’s home swimming club and their scholarship with the WAIS performance hub, is designed to allow swimmers and clubs to benefit from the experience and knowledge within the WAIS program and allow athletes to reach their potential.