We caught up with Mitchell Nairn who is Director of Aquatics at Mt Albert Grammar College and Head Coach of the Pukekohe Swimming Club in New Zealand.
With extensive coaching experience behind him, we wanted to find out how he was finding the autocoach products and how he uses them in daily training to get the best out of his athletes.
Here’s what he had to say.
Q. How long have you been using the autocoach products?
We started using the Autocoach system at the start of 2021 when our club purchased one of the first models of the system back in January, And it has been a technology asset to our Pukekohe Swimming Club High Performance Squad here in NZ.
Q. What is your favourite feature/s (what do you use regularly)?
We use the racing setting regularly for our pace settings we run which gains recordings of all the swimmers times which we then can produce feedback to our athletes, through time recordings.
We can work out Ave Speed, Ave DPS (Distance per Stroke), Best Average times, race event prediction times and more.
Simulation of a proper race start is huge mental and physical advantage to our athletes – hearing and working of specific queues, change of reaction times etc.
Q. How does it help you with coaching and support your swimmers?
We are a sprint based club and thrive of regular pace sessions – and rely heavily on this piece of equipment to provide the best for our sprint athletes.
Q. What results have your club and swimmers experienced?
The club has grown in size and this system recently helped swimmers in our club win a 3x 2022 Commonwealth Games Gold medals as well as place 6x Swimmers on the recent 2022 FINA World Short Course Team
We are very proud of the team’s results and here’s just a few highlights:
6x Swimmers qualified for the 2022 FINA World SC Championships in Melbourne this December
- Andrew Jeffcoat – Backstroke
- Zac Dell – Backstroke
- Carter Swift – Freestyle
- Michael Pickett – Freestyle
- Joshua Gilbert – Breaststroke
- Rebecca Moynihan – Freestyle
2022 New Zealand Short Course Championships Open Club Champions
Broke Multiple NZ Relay Records and National Records
International Benchmark events:
- Andrew Jeffcoat: 2022 Commonwealth Games Gold – 50m Backstroke 24.65 NZR 0.02 off Commonwealth Record
- Joshua Wilmer: Para 2022 Commonwealth Games Gold – 100m Breaststroke
- Tupou Neiufi: Para 2021 Tokyo Para Olympics Gold – 100m Backstroke and 2022 Commonwealth Games Silver – 100m Backstroke
3x Swimmers qualified for the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest
Andrew Jeffcoat
- 50m and 100m Backstroke
- 12th 50m Backstroke | 17th 100m Backstroke
Carter Swift
- 100m Freestyle 48.79 – NZ Record
- 4x100m Mixed Relay – 9th
Michael Pickett
- 50m Freestyle
We congratulate Mitchell and his Club on all their success. Immerse with autocoach plays a small part in providing a competitive advantage through technology and look forward to following and supporting their journey for many years to come.
We’ll be watching live and cheering when they take to the pool in Melbourne for the 2022 FINA World Short Course Championships at the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre (MSAC) on 13 – 18 December. Swimmers will compete for over $2M in prizemoney and the coveted title of World Short Course Champion. In an extra incentive for swimmers, World Records will be rewarded with a bonus $25,000USD
