Local swimming coaches who are yet to be certified, will have an opportunity to attend a coaching clinic that will be conducted by renowned aquatic sports administrator Diego Novaq, the founder of the Infinity Aquatic Centre. 

The coaching clinic will officially get underway in Windhoek today and will run until Thursday this week. The training is being organised by the Infinity Aquatic Centre in collaboration with the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA). 

The aim, the organisers said, is to ensure that local swimming coaches receive the needed knowledge and are fully certified. The training is targeting swimming coaches across all 14 regions of Namibia.

Novaq told New Era Sport
swimming is currently one of the least pursued sports in Namibia.

With the coaching clinic, he hopes to change this narrative and promote the sport at both schools and national levels.

“The goal of the clinic is to provide training, education, and certification to swimming coaches across the 14 regions of the country. 

As is well-known, swimming is one of the least pursued sports in Namibian schools due to the
scarcity of qualified coaches and limited access to swimming facilities,” he stated.

The training will target teachers from public and private schools, with the aim of popularising swimming
at grassroots level. 

It will be moderated by highly-qualified American coach Rick Power, who has worked with various age group teams in Illinois and Alaska, as well as national teams in various countries including Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Malaysia and Greece. 

Power is also a renowned Federation Internationale de Natation (Fina) lecturer with an ASCA level 5 swimming certification.

This coaching clinic offers a promising step forward in advancing the sport of swimming in
Namibia.

“By having a large number of kids participating in swimming at
the school level, we can cultivate a strong pool of competitive swimmers at the national level.

I am confident that there is a significant amount of swimming talent across the country, and if
we can provide them with the appropriate platform, we will be able to uncover it,” Power said.

- mkambukwe@nepc.com.na