SEVERAL of Gunnedah's future swimming stars have benefited from a freestyle clinic hosted by two of Australia's best.
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Junior swimmers from around the region gathered at Tamworth's Scully 360 Swimming Club on Sunday for a How to Swim Faster Freestyle clinic hosted by James Magnussen and Kurt Herzog.
Swimmers from a variety of clubs such as Kootingal, Manilla and Nundle made waves to the 360 Scully Swimming Club to gain tips and advice from their idols on how to improve their freestyle performance.
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Club president Peter Ryan said the clinic would be invaluable to the youngsters development.
"The clinic focused on what the kids need to do out of the pool before competing, getting their strokes right and overall improving their performance," Ryan said.
"Being in a regional area, we don't often get the chance to work with this level of coaching expertise, so it really is fantastic.
"I'm sure all of these kids will remember this day for a long time."
A Port Macquarie native, Magnussen said it was "awesome to pass on some tricks of the trade" to the region's juniors.
"Growing up, we never had too many days like this, so I take great pride in coming up to country areas and helping out where I can," Magnussen told the Independent.
"All of the skills and drills we are teaching the kids here today [Sunday] are things we have learnt from our time at a high-performance level.
"Hopefully, a few of the things we have passed on will help these kids improve their performance going forward."
Retiring from the sport in June, Magnussen said he would now look to focus more on coaching the country's next generation of swimmers.
"Now that I am retired I have a bit more time up my sleeve, so it would be nice to do more of this kind of stuff," he said.
"I really enjoy passing on my knowledge to the kids, so I will be keen to regularly the regional areas, especially Port Macquarie having grown up there.
"As well as that, I have a few business ventures and I did some commentating recently.
"That's all stuff I will most likely be doing in the future to keep me busy."
As for Australia's 2020 Tokyo Olympic hopes, Magnussen said he was confident his former Australian teammates would do well on the big stage.
"It is a bit difficult to predict how we will go this far out from the Olympics," he said.
"However in saying that, I think we are shaping up pretty well at this stage."
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
