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International Swim Coaching
A UK performance coach flown to your pool, for a concentrated block of work with one swimmer, a family or a small squad. You cover the travel and the pool; we bring thirty years of coaching. A handful of engagements a year.
We come to
your pool.
Plainly: a coach flies out, stays for an agreed block of days, coaches at your pool, and leaves you with a written plan to train on afterwards. Not a camp, not a franchise, not a holiday with a whistle. One coach, a small number of swimmers, and enough consecutive days to actually change something.
This exists because a client asked. We said yes on the condition that it is done properly — a real block of days rather than a single session, a pool we can genuinely work in, and the travel settled in writing before anyone commits to anything. That is still how every engagement is arranged.
It suits two kinds of client. Families overseas whose child swims for a local club, is chasing qualifying times, and has no technical coach within reach who works at that level. And adults — masters swimmers, triathletes, open water swimmers — with a fixed event and no performance coach nearby. Children are welcome, with a parent or guardian poolside for every session.
It is not for single sessions, holiday lessons, or learning to swim. The minimum is three coaching days, and the swimmer should already be able to swim continuous lengths of more than one stroke.
Enquire about an engagement →A week that
moves something
Consecutive days do what weekly sessions cannot. Film in the morning, review it before lunch, swim the correction in the afternoon — a fault that would take a term to shift at home can shift inside a week.
Before we fly
You send video of the swimmer. We agree the goals, confirm the pool, the lane times and whether we are permitted to film. A draft plan goes to you before any tickets are booked — so you know what you are buying before you pay for a flight.
Day one — assessment
Every stroke, filmed, at a range of paces. We pick the two or three changes that will make the most difference, and we tell you what they are and why. No mystique — you should be able to repeat the reasoning back to us.
The working days
Drills targeting those priorities, with poolside correction on every repetition. Footage reviewed the same morning at the pool, not emailed a fortnight later when the feel of it has gone.
Under fatigue
The new patterns tested under load. Holding technique when tired is the whole point — anyone can swim well for one length. A block of consecutive days is long enough to get there and prove it.
Handover
If there is a local coach or club, they are welcome poolside for the whole block. We would rather leave behind something that continues after we have gone than protect a method. Bring them.
Afterwards
A written plan for the twelve weeks that follow, and one remote video review at no extra cost once the swimmer has had time to work on it. That review is where most of the retained gain shows up.
One coach.
Not a roster.
Everywhere else on this site we say “we”, because Herts Swim Coach is a small network of coaches. Here it matters who is getting on the plane, so: it is Brian.
That is also the honest explanation of the price. Brian coaches in Hertfordshire, and every day spent at your pool is a day of sessions cancelled at home. There is no cleverer justification than that — the day rate is what it costs to take a working coach out of his own pool and put him in yours.
30 years of aquatic experience, coaching club swimmers chasing county and regional times, triathletes preparing for Ironman, and adults rebuilding a stroke from the ground up.
Still racing himself — Brian competes as a masters swimmer with Potters Bar SC.
- STA Level 2 Certificate in Coaching
- STA Level 2 Award in Open Water Swimming Coaching
- ASA Level 2 Swimming Teacher
- RLSS National Pool Lifeguard (NPLQ)
- Enhanced DBS checked, renewed regularly
Who this
is for
Families overseas with a club swimmer
Training with a local club, chasing qualifying times, and no technical coach available nearby who works at that level.
Families who trained with us before
You moved abroad and want the same coaching for a fortnight in the school holidays, without flying the whole family back.
Adults with a fixed event
An open water crossing, a masters meet or a triathlon, no performance coach within reach, and a date that will not move.
Small squads and clubs
A visiting technical week alongside your own coaching staff, not instead of them. Your coaches stay poolside throughout.
UK, but a long way from Hertfordshire
Cornwall, the Highlands, the islands. The same terms apply and the travel is simply a great deal cheaper.
Camps you are already running
An additional technical coach for the duration of a training camp you have organised yourself.
What you need
in place
None of this is bureaucracy. Each one is something that, missing, turns an expensive trip into a wasted one.
A pool we can work in
25m or 50m are both fine — a 50m pool is an advantage, not a complication, and most overseas performance venues are long course. What matters more is a lane reserved for the whole block and written permission from the venue to film.
A realistic schedule
Up to two sessions a day, agreed before travel, with the lane actually booked rather than provisionally mentioned to someone at reception.
A named local contact
One person who can deal with the venue, arrange transfers and sort out whatever goes wrong. Something always does.
For swimmers under 18, an adult poolside
A parent, guardian or responsible adult nominated by you, present at every session, without exception. A UK DBS check carries no legal weight abroad, so this is not a formality we are willing to waive.
Two parts,
quoted separately.
The coaching fee is what you pay us. The costs below are what it takes to get a coach to your pool and keep him able to work there — you book and pay for those directly. Keeping them separate means you can see exactly what is ours and what is the airline’s.
Minimum three coaching days · Travel days charged at half rate
Where you land in that band comes down to how many swimmers are on the poolside and how far we are going. One swimmer within Europe sits at the bottom of it; a small squad or a club week long-haul, with two sessions a day, sits at the top.
Separately, and booked in your own name, you cover:
- Return flights. Economy under six hours; premium economy or better beyond eight.
- Accommodation for the full stay. A private en-suite room within reasonable travelling distance of the pool.
- Airport transfers and daily transport to and from the pool.
- Pool or lane hire, and any facility, guest or coach-access fee the venue charges.
- Visas, entry permits and any required inoculations.
- Any local work permit or coaching registration the destination requires of a visiting coach.
- Any local vetting or safeguarding clearance the venue or governing body requires.
- Meals, or a daily allowance agreed in advance.
- Excess baggage where camera or timing equipment has to travel.
Every engagement is different — distance, pool access, how many swimmers and how long you want us there all change the shape of it. Send your dates, your location and what you want to achieve, and we will come back within 48 hours with a written quote covering the coaching fee and an itemised estimate of the costs above. Nothing is booked until you have that in writing.
Full terms for travel engagements — deposits, cancellation, insurance and safeguarding — are in section 15 of our terms.
How an engagement
is agreed
Enquire
Country and city, your dates, the pool you have access to, how many swimmers and how long you want us there. The form below asks for all of it.
A call
Twenty minutes to work out whether this is worth anyone’s money. If it is not, we will say so and point you at video analysis or a trip to us instead.
A written quote
The coaching fee, the number of coaching and travel days, and an itemised estimate of the costs you will be covering. Nothing is booked until you have it in writing.
Deposit, then travel
Half the coaching fee confirms the dates. You book and pay for flights and accommodation in your own name. The balance is due before departure.
Common
questions
Anywhere, in principle. In practice it depends on whether the trip makes sense for the swimmer: we need a pool we can work in, a lane booked for the whole block, and enough consecutive days to make the travel worth what it costs you. This also covers UK locations a long way from Hertfordshire — Cornwall, the Highlands, the islands — where the same terms apply and the travel is simply cheaper. Send your location and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.
Five consecutive coaching days is the usual shape, and three is the minimum we will travel for. Below three days the travel costs you are covering outweigh the coaching you get out of it, and we would rather say so than take the booking. Longer blocks — a full fortnight, or a visiting week attached to a camp you are already running — are arranged the same way.
There are two parts, quoted separately. The coaching fee runs from £750 to £1,200 per coaching day, depending on how many swimmers there are and how far we are travelling, with travel days charged at half rate and a three-day minimum. Separately, you cover the cost of getting a coach there and keeping him able to work: flights, accommodation, transfers, pool or lane hire, visas and any permits. You book and pay for those directly. We send a written quote with the coaching fee and an itemised estimate of the rest before anything is booked.
You do, directly and in your own name. That is deliberate. It means you hold the bookings, you can see exactly what is being spent, you can use your own airline and hotel preferences, and if the trip has to move you are dealing with the airline yourself rather than through us. We will tell you precisely what is needed — dates, airports, the standard of accommodation and how close to the pool it has to be — and check the itinerary before you commit to it.
The coaching fee follows a sliding scale set out in section 15 of our terms: the deposit is not refunded, and cancelling within 30 days of departure leaves the full coaching fee due, because the days have been held open and other work turned away. Separately, because the flights and accommodation are booked in your name, whatever is non-refundable on those is yours — we cannot recover it for you, which is why travel insurance covering cancellation is a condition of the engagement. We will always try to move the dates rather than cancel.
Yes, with conditions. An enhanced DBS check is a UK document with no legal standing in another country, so we do not present it as clearance to work abroad — where the destination, club or venue requires its own vetting, you arrange it and we co-operate fully with whatever it involves. A parent, guardian or nominated responsible adult from your side must be poolside for every session with a swimmer under 18, without exception. We will not coach a child unaccompanied in another jurisdiction. We work to Swim England’s safeguarding standards as a floor and the venue’s own rules where they are stricter.
If flying a coach out
is not proportionate
Often it is not, and we would rather tell you that up front than take a booking you regret. These three cost a fraction of a trip and solve a good deal of the same problem.
Video
Analysis
Send us footage instead. Most of the technical diagnosis happens on the screen anyway — the flight only adds the correction.
Find out more → →Crash
Courses
Travelling to us is usually cheaper than us travelling to you. Five sessions over two weeks in Hertfordshire.
Find out more → →Coaching Outside
Your Club
For club-swimmer families weighing up where extra technical coaching actually fits alongside a squad programme.
Find out more →Enquire about
an engagement
The more of this you can tell us up front, the more useful the first reply will be: the country and city, your dates, the pool you have access to, how many swimmers and their ages, and how many coaching days you are thinking of.