After 50 years involved in swimming at all levels, coaching guru Clive Power is finally receiving recognition – not that he’s gone looking for it.
Power has been recognised on the King’s Birthday Honour’s list, becoming an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
“It’s a huge surprise. It’s been a great journey. I’ve been fortunate to work with many great athletes over that time,” he told 1News.
Power estimates he’s worked with hundreds of athletes, swimmers, triathletes and surf life savers. If you added in all Learn to Swim children and adults, his coaching ways would’ve influenced thousands.
Starting in Te Awamutu, the Christchurch-trained PE teacher and water polo swimmer initially used tin cans full of concrete in his garage for a gym weights programme. Power ended up coaching and consulting in and around swimming in Waikato, Christchurch, Southland, Bay of Plenty and all parts in between.
He even took over as the New Zealand national coach in an interim role for the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Back in the late 1980s, Power and former national coach Brett Naylor built the country’s first private training pool – the Aqua Gym in Christchurch – which still runs to this day.
“I remember working there one day during construction, stripped down to my shorts. A crane driver said to me ‘who’s the fool building this? They never make any money!”
The Aqua Gym’s first star pupil was 1990 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anna Simcic. The pool was also Dame Sophie Pascoe’s base for several years.
Power then arrived in the early 1990s in Bay of Plenty. He’s never forgotten the fateful day he met a 12-year-old Moss Burmester at the Greerton Pool.
“I had a group of kids and asked them ‘who wants to go the Olympics one day?’ Burmester thrust his hand up straight away.
“It’s one thing you see in top athletes they have a driven attitude.”
Power and Burmester would work together for 10 years. In the end, Burmester went on to win Commonwealth Games gold in 200m Butterfly in 2006 in Melbourne and finish fourth behind the legendary Michael Phelps at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Power was also heavily involved in the early days of Paralympic swimming in the late 1980s and continued in various roles through to recent times. He said it’s one of the significant and special periods of his coaching career.
“While I’ve received the honour, there’s a lot of people I owe a huge amount to.
“You learn all the time from other people. You learn from the athletes you coach. There’s a lot of people who can take a share in this honour.”
He called swimming a “cruel” and “very difficult sport training all those hours, looking at the black line day in, day out”.
“One thing I’ve tried to do is lay platforms for swimmers to develop. I always loved coaching youngsters.”
Power is now retired and lives in Pleasant Point, South Canterbury near his two sons.
“I guess if someone tapped me on the shoulder and needed help, I’d consider it!”
SHARE ME