DAVID LYLES
BSCA International Member
About Me
Former swimmer at City of Leeds (Leeds Central) under legendary coach - Terry Denison
Professional swimming coach since 1989, coaching at Tigersharks in Swindon, Waltham Forrest London and helping to create the University of Bath programme 1997-2005
Worked for the Shanghai Sports Bureau 2005-2013 before moving to Auckland, NZ as Head Coach to the NPC
Currently (2016-present)owner of NZL Swim Ltd providing swimming lessons on Auckland's North Shore and Head Coach to Phoenix Aquatics.
Serving on Swimming NZ National Events and Coach Education committees as well as Chair of the Auckland Coaches group.
Have been married to Jenny since 2002 (Jenny also runs a swim school in Auckland and feeds swimmers into the Phoenix Aquatics programme) and have 2 daughters - Jasmine - multiple NZ Champion/Junior squad and Jade - Auckland Team/Champion/record holder and multi-instrumentalist.
Qualifications & Experience
ASA Coach Award circa 1991
NZ Gold license coach
Placed swimmers and/or coached at Olympic Games for GB: 1992, 1996; 2000; 2004. China 2008; 2012, New Zealand 2021
World Record - Lauren Boyle W1500 Fr SC 2014
Coach on Commonwealth Games Teams: England 1998. NZ 2014/2018
World Championships coach: NZ 2013, 2015, 2022
Notable Successes
First Olympic swimmer - Jamie King , Barcelona 1992. Jamie was 15 and I was a very young 24!
Learning enough mandarin to fully coach my Chinese swimmers without using any English
Coaching 2 boys onto the 2012 4x200 Fr relay - China's first (and only?) Olympic male relay medal
Starting my own swim business at 48 years of age and my own club at aged 50
My daughters - 2 beautiful champions - in swimming, music and life
Achievements & Recognition
BSCA Young Coach of the year 1992
Swimming NZ Coach of the year 2014
Shanghai Magnolia award for contribution to Sport
Favourite Drills / Sets
Br/st with fins (pads)
VASA Bench
Swiss Ball/core