John Beckworth …..Swimming Coach
Qualifications
John graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Science Honours in Chemistry. University. Before retiring John was a teacher for 35 years, the last 15 as an Assistant Principal of a large secondary school in Geelong.
John is a nationally accredited ASCTA Gold licence coach with 22 years experience.
Club, State and National Experience:
John is currently Head Coach of the Geelong Swimming Club which caters for all levels of swimmers. He has coached Club teams at the Australian Open and Australian Age Swimming Championships with gold medal success. 2010 was a particularly successful year.
John’s experience at a Victorian State level is extensive both with School Sport Victoria teams (1992-2008) and Swimming Victoria Development squads.
This season he has swimmers in the Swimming Victoria Silver and Bronze squads because of their success at the 2010 Australian Age Swimming Championships.
In 2009 he was Head Coach of the Victorian Team for the Australian Paralympic Junior Games held in Melbourne.
This year, John is Program Manager of the Swimming Program for the Barwon Sports Academy. The program is designed to promote and enhance the development of Geelong’s elite swimmers.
International Experience
John was a team coach of the Australian Paralympic team at the Athens Paralympics in 2004 where his swimmer, Daniel Bell won two individual silver medals and a relay Gold. Daniel is preparing for the 2012 London Paralympics
He was Team Manager of a Swimming Australia Disabled team at an international meet in Berlin in 2006.
He also coaches Phoebe Mitchell, an Australian representative at the World Downs Syndrome Games in 2010
He has coached age group triathletes for many World Championships, including his son Adam who won a silver medal at the World Championships in Hawaii in 2005.
He helped to prepare Scottish and Welsh triathletes for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
John coached Austrian tri-athlete, Kate Allen at the 2008 World championships in Vancouver and at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
He has also provided specialist coaching for Yvonne Van Vlerken who held the World Ironman Record in 2008 and Richard Thompson, Elite Ironman in 2009.
John’s sets high technical standards for his swimmers in developing a mechanically efficient stroke that maximizes propulsion and minimizes resistance. He builds power through speed and strength training which he develops into speed endurance.
