Spotlight - Assistant Head Coach Jan Hutchings

As mentioned earlier, we are a club that relies heavily on our valuable staff and volunteers. To celebrate these wonderful people, we will be running a initiative in 2021, where we recognise these special people through sharing their amazing superpowers with our community.

If you have any lovely stories from your experiences with these fantastic people, please do share them with us here [email protected] We would love to hear them. 

On March 8th, we celebrated International Women’s Day and as a club, we send a special shout-out to all our female athletes, coaches and volunteers. 

This month’s special mention goes to PSC’s Jan Hutchings, who has been Assistant Head Coach since 2014. 

Jan has been instrumental in the development of professional coaching practice and the progression of swimmers from entry level competitive skills, to seeing our athletes achieve Swim England and British Swimming National level qualification.

She has brought an enormous wealth of experience from her Doctorate in Sports and her desire to constantly develop her own skills has ensured that the highest standards of coaching and technical performance training are at the heart of our club.

Jan has been recognised by Swim England for her coaching expertise and dedication to developing athletes in the awarding of the Senior Coach qualification; her selection as National Development Coach; her role as Dorset County Pathway Head Coach and as South-West Region Coach, in Lisbon in 2020.

Our swimmers have a huge respect for Jan’s professional and focussed training programmes and her care and support for each individual athlete in her charge and for the wider club. 

Jan was nominated for a Sport Poole award prior to the pandemic, for services to sport in the area, at which one of our swimmers was quoted, summing up Jan’s coaching style:

“Jan has always been there for me, through the ups and downs of training; when I’m winning in competitions and through the tough times, as well; when I was finding it hard to progress and to PB; when I was growing; when I was tired. She pushes us, but she knows how to support us too and she always made me feel like I could do it, sometimes with just a look. I want to do well to make her proud and I would not have achieved what I have without her as my coach.”

Mel Marshall, Adam Peaty’s coach, summarised her view of what female coaches bring to the poolside in an interview on International Women’s Day: 

“I think we listen well, I think we take time, I think that we care well, I think that we are diligent. I think that we qualify ourselves, I think that we educate ourselves, I think that our CVs are full”.

We all agree that Jan demonstrates these attributes and more and we thank her, along with all of our female coaches: Maralyn, Meghan, Katie and Emma, for all they contribute here at PSC!