Growing up a land-locked swimmer: Musings on oceans, pools and coaching

[Extract] My mum was a poor swimmer. She had migrated to Australia from England in 1964, and remained permanently worried about being ‘out of her depth’. She had heard that all Australian children swam, and therefore fretted even before I was born about how to manage my safety in the water. For this reason I learnt to swim before I could run, and my mother insisted on lessons for both her children until they reached the age of ten. When my brother turned ten, he quit swimming and went on to explore other sports popular with Australian kids in the 1980s: soccer, cricket, and eventually mountaineering. When I turned ten, I received an unexpected invitation to represent the club associated with my swim school at an annual meet with the famous Sydney club, Carlile.