Many people have asked us, "how did Swim Smooth come about?" or "what and whom are your influences as a coach?" Paul always states that he owes as much to his experience and privilege of working with some of the world's best coaches both as an athlete himself and as a young coach, as he does to his formal qualifications. He also often quotes just how much of an profound impact working with over 1,200 one-2-one clients in the past 4 years from the broadest range of ability has had.

In order to fully answer these questions we have prepared this reverse-order chronological list detailing Paul's history and influences as a swimmer, triathlete and coach. Whilst it is quite self-indulgent in content (as any biography tends to be) we hope you find it interesting and that it helps you find a little bit more about "where we are coming from". Thanks.

And so the story begins...

13th September 1978:

Paul is born in the small English seaside resort of Bridlington in East Yorkshire to parents Shaun and Linda. Being close to the sea meant that learning to swim was a priority from day one, and this was something Linda believed in strongly.

1980:

Paul is introduced to his first learn to swim session just before his second birthday. Surprisingly he hates the water, is physically sick in the pool and even at such a young age is reluctant to try swimming again. Linda, however, persists...

1983:

After three years of sporadic learn-to-swim sessions which Paul develops quite slowly at, he is encouraged by Linda to join the Bridlington Amateur Swimming Club who in a few year's time went on to have the whole club kit printed up as "Bridlington Amateur Swiming Club"...such a shame for such a large club at the time!

1985:

Paul's swimming is picking up nicely by this point, enough to enter his first few club galas. His preferred strokes are backstroke and particularly butterfly, often winning the 25m and 50m events in this discipline.

1988:

By 1988 Paul is training and racing very regularly and would be quite commonly quoted as "not gifted technically, but tries hard" by his coaches. The club coach Geoff Edmonds has taken him under his wing and as such Paul starts to win some of the regional 50m butterfly events around the county of East Yorkshire. He is also inspired by the club's best swimmer and England Junior representative, Billie-Jean Clarke who held a British record for the 200m IM at the time. Billie inspires Paul to train hard and more specifically than he has done in the past and as such Paul's times drop dramatically, enough to gain recognition by the county's leading swim club, Hull Olympic.

1989:

Paul joins the Hull Olympic Club and is coached by the club's first full time salaried coach, Ben Pollard. This is the first time Paul is introduced to swim coaching as being a potential occupation and career. During his first year at Hull, Linda transports Paul to the various pools in the city three times per week, each of which are a 100km round trip after school! A BIG commitment. Paul makes up the other seven swim sessions on his program either solo or with the Bridlington ASA club sessions.

1990:

The next two years were probably Paul's peak of swimming performance, and at only 12/13 years of age. Even now, Paul only stands at 5'10", and as a developing swimmer this was always going to be a disadvantage against some of his contemporary swimmers, notably the brilliant City of Bradford swimmer James Griffin who was 6'3" at the age of 13! However, consistent hard work in the pool up to 10 times per week saw Paul bring his swimming (particularly the Butterfly stroke at 50m and 100m) up to County Representation Standard (Humberside, racing in France and Holland), and he regularly raced at the Yorkshire and North East County Championships, always being shy of a finals place by the smallest of margins.

1992:

The Hull Olympic Swim Squad assistant coach at the time, Mr. Eric Elbourne, had quite a bit of influence over young Paul's swim training and despite Paul's often scrappy technique in the pool which earned him the nickname of "Steam Boat Willy", Eric was keen to help him improve. Equipped with his (huge) home video camera, Eric was able to show Paul for the first time his stroke and where he was losing efficiency over some of the smoother swimmers. Had Paul not been at an age where most teenagers think "whatever", this could have had a profound effect on the swimmer. Unfortunately though, it seemed to be like water off a duck's back and Paul only saw this as a call to train harder, and harder, and harder!

Also in this year, a few of the other swimmers in Hull decided that they would get involved in the Modern Pentathlon sport of Biathlon, which featured a series of races where the athletes would swim in the morning over the distance of 100m or 200m, accrue points for their performance relative to a 'standard time' and then race after lunch over the cross-country running course of either 1000m or 2000m. Paul decided to tag along and found that his running wasn't too bad either, probably due to his fitness from the swim training. Whilst it sounds cliché, Paul's biggest influence at this time (and continuing to this day) was his mother Linda, who encouraged and supported Paul every inch of the way. Linda would even take Paul out for early morning runs along the beach as well which was a great help in getting Paul running.

1993:

In 1993, Linda was offered a new job in Bradford, West Yorkshire, which required the family to move 100 miles inland to the little village of Greetland, about 5 miles out of the textile-industry town on Halifax. As Linda was working late at night in her new role, it meant that swim training wasn't quite as feasible for Paul with his new club, the Borough of Kirklees (BOK), based in Huddersfield. As such, Paul began to keep fit by doing some road running of 4 to 8 miles each day on the magnificent Pennine Hills. Even still, Paul was totally shocked when he totally blitzed the whole school at the first cross-country run of the new school year at the Crossley Heath Grammar School. His PE teacher, the late Mr. Fleming, was suitably impressed and decided that if Paul could run that well over the mile, he would have no trouble on the rugby field as a right wing for the school. He was soon to be proved wrong however, as Paul's hand-eye coordination when it comes to ball sports is (still to this day) legendarily pathetic! Still though, Paul stuck with the running and the local running club, the Halifax Harriers, soon noticed him at some of the school's events and asked him down for a try out. Soon, Paul was racing at cross-country races and track and field events (3000m) nearly every weekend all over the UK, with swimming almost being totally eclipsed in the process! Over the next 3 years, Paul's running under the guidance of Brian Burgin (club coach) and his contemporary training partner the GB International, Jonathan Stewart, developed impressively and Paul and the U17 Halifax Harriers Junior Team took a silver medal at the National Cross Country Championships in Newark.

1994:

With run training becoming such a priority in Paul's life, but still under the age to drive, his mother Linda bought him a bicycle upon which to get himself to practice sessions. At about this same time he was fortunate enough to meet a guy by the name of Mark Botteril who was a former International 1500m freestyle swimmer coached by Paul's own coach Martin Mosey at BOK. Mark had recently made the transition to triathlon and was already doing well on the international age-group triathlon scene. Mark encouraged Paul to do his first Aquathlon event of 400m swim / 8km run in Wakefield, which Paul totally loved. Later that year Paul would do his first triathlon event (500m swim / 32km cycle / 12km run) at the age of 16 in Driffield, East Yorkshire. At this race (were Linda's partner Steve first took on the responsibility of "Team Mechanic"), Paul noticed a guy about his age in the transition area before the race parading around in a GB Speedo Track Suit. This put the fear of god up Paul, especially considering the other guy also had a full carbon fiber time trial bike, tri bars and clipless pedals compared to Paul's steel Giant road cycle, drop handlebars and toe clips. Steve comforted Paul by saying that the guys was probably borrowing them from a friend, but when the guy, named David Williams from Tyneside went on to blitzed the entire adult field by over 5 minutes it was clear he was not! Incidentally that same year, Williams won both the European Youth Triathlon and Duathlon championships in impressive style. Paul decided to put his head down over the winter and dedicate sometime to his improvements in triathlon.

1995:

Still having not experienced a "proper" triathlon with an "open water" swim yet, it wasn't until a family trip that year to the south of France that Paul would build the courage to even try this. Despite his background in pool swimming, the thought of swimming in a sea, lake or river without knowing the depth or having a lane rope to follow caused Paul some anxiety. After a day spent white water rafting near Pau in the Pyrenees, the rafting guide encouraged Paul to jump over board and pop his head in the water and go for a swim with his eyes open. Hesitant at first, Paul went along with it and was soon swimming down the river. Without this small stepping stone, Paul still doubts whether or not he would have had the guts to do an open water swim at all that year let alone do a triathlon. Paul now spends a lot of time working with swimmers of all abilities who have this same innate 'fear' of the open water and thanks to his experience of overcoming this himself in France, is well versed at doing this.

1996:

Another winter of solid training with the Halifax Harriers, BOK swimming club and the Condor Cycles group in Brighouse, saw Paul hit the 1996 triathlon season in good form, easily winning the junior section of the inaugural Excellent Promotions "Iron Tour" in Cheshire. At this race another athlete being coached by Chris Jones of the One Vision Racing Team was really setting the triathlon scene alight. His name was Alistair Johnson, and over the next few years Paul would hold AJ as his biggest idol in triathlon. AJ epitomized excellence in every form and this was the first time Paul was exposed to what a life as a full-time triathlete could be like. As determined as Paul was to represent Great Britain at the World Junior Championships, he saw that the only way this would be realized would be if he turned his 'erratic' training regime around with some professional coaching advice. This was to eventually come from Chris Jones himself (who has since gone on to become the Head British Triathlon Coach and arguably one of the world's best and most respected triathlon coaches), and Paul rapidly began to learn about the principles behind SMART training and periodisation. Also in this year, Paul was asked by the Crossley Heath Grammar School to become their Head Boy for the 1996 / 1997 school year...a great accolade for Paul and the first time in the school's history that a non-rugby captain had been awarded the mantle. This was the first time that Paul really started to develop his leadership and group communication skills on a regular basis.

1997:

1997 was a year where Paul learnt a huge amount about himself and in particular how his body wasn't as "invincible" as most 18 year olds often think it is. Whilst training hard for the 1997 UK & European triathlon season under the direction of Chris Jones and at the same time studying for his A-Level exams, Paul became very sick with an illness which was later diagnosed as chronic Glandular Fever due to his excessively busy training and studying schedule. Clearly young Paul still hadn't learnt to follow the advice of his coach and those around him well enough yet. Confined to bed rest for nearly 7 months in total, which had a big impact on his ability to study for his exams to get the necessary 26 points from 30 to attend the University of Bath's inaugural Bachelor of Science degree course in Sports and Exercise Science, Paul became very depressed at this sudden cessation in his triathlon career. If there was ever one point to date in Paul's life that taught him more than anything else about balance and perspective, it was these few months. As such, in hindsight, and for the experience which he now brings to his younger athletes in particular, he wouldn't change it for the world. Luckily Paul managed to scrape into his first choice course at the University of Bath by achieving straight "Bs" in his A-Levels. For a supposedly straight-A student, this was a bitter pill to swallow but at least he managed to make it to the University of Bath which would play a critical role in Paul's coaching development.

1998:

When Paul arrived at the University of Bath in September 1997, the University was very much in the throws of developing rapidly to the point where it would soon become the UK's premier institute for University Sporting Excellence across all disciplines. Lead by the Director of Sport, the ambitious Ged Roddy, the University of Bath really was the place to be in 1997/8, and continues to this day as an example of excellence in sporting infrastructure. Funded in the majority by the National Lottery the University already had world class training facilities of a 25m and 50m training pool, outdoor 400m running track, excellent Sports Science support, a well equipped gym including two hypoxic chambers, and as such began to become a huge draw-card for many of the UK's aspiring sports men and women. When Paul first arrived there, there was only a very small but very social triathlon club scene which made for great integration in his first year. Paul also took the role of the University of Bath Swimming Team's Chairperson, under the direction of British World Class swim coaches David Lyles and Ian Turner. Being able to easily integrate and communicate with such swimmers as Mark Foster, Paul Palmer, Jamie King, Sarah Price, and even world record 110m hurdles champion Colin Jackson was hugely inspirational for Paul on a daily basis and together with his training partners Andy Blow and Eliot Challifour (who now run the triathlon coaching company VOTWO.co.uk) they began to raise the bar on British University triathlon standards with Paul winning the National Biathlon Championships in '98 and the National Triathlon Championships in '00. Paul also represented Great Britain at the European Elite Junior Duathlon Championships in Poland, and also at the annual Saudi Arabia GB Junior training camp where he won both the men's cycle road race in impressive breakaway style and the Olympic Distance triathlon that same week. He also won the Home Nations Junior Triathlon Championships in Derry, Northern Ireland and the British Junior Sprint Championships at Market Bosworth. By the end of 1998, Richard Hobson professional triathlete and coach had been appointed to the University of Bath as Head Triathlon Coach and would take on the short term coaching duties of working with Paul, Andy and Eliot until Chris Jones was eventually appointed to the University as well in 1999.

1999:

If 1998 had been exciting for Paul, being surrounded by the caliber of athletes that he was, 1999 was to be a dream come true! It was announced that the 4-time World Triathlon Champion and arguably the world's most dominant triathlete in Olympic Distance Triathlon of all time, Simon Lessing, would now use the University of Bath's training facilities on a daily basis as part of his winter training preparation. Coupled with the newly appointed National Team Coach, Chris Jones and ex-Olympic swimmer and now coach Robin Brew, this was truly an amazing place to be. Needless to say the training experience and anecdotal training advice from Simon, Chris and Robin all had a massive impact on Paul's experience and 'education' whilst at the University. Unfortunately whilst it looked like 1999 was set to be a great season for Paul, a cycling accident whilst racing in Montpelier in the south of France as part of the British World Class "Target 2004 Athens Olympics" team (led by Glenn Cook and Steve Trew), resulted in a compound fracture of his right clavicle and put paid to any racing for the early to mid-part of the season. Despite this setback, in really rough waters of the British Elite Triathlon Championships in September '99 in sunny Brighton, Paul exited the water in 3rd place on the toes of Stuart Hayes and Tim Don, though proceeded to finish 11th at his first hit-out at this level of competition. In August 1999, Paul was also appointed as the British Triathlon Associations' South West Regional Development Officer as part of his work placement year from his degree syllabus. This was a position Paul was extremely proud of, learnt a huge deal about triathlon club development and appropriate initiatives, and was even lucky enough to be put through his Level 2 Triathlon Coach's accreditation under the supervision of Steve Lumley, Jack Maitland and Fiona Lothian. Paul subsequently set up a small junior triathlon squad at the University which he coached once a week, and attracted a young athlete by the name of Harry Wiltshire who was to become Paul's first coaching prodigy and is now rated as one of the world's best swimmers in ITU World Cup Level triathlon.

2000:

From a racing perspective, 2000 was to be Paul's year of accomplishment in triathlon. He took out the National Title at the University Triathlon Championships in dominant style and form. He then went on to represent Great Britain at the World University Triathlon Championships in Hungary where, following a great swim to exit the water with the lead pack, proceeded to ride off the front of the cycle group in the last 5km leaving triathletes such as Filip Ospaly and Szabolcs Agoston wondering who the heck this British guy was! Unfortunately, Paul's lack of experience over the drafting format was evident as he was swallowed up by the more dominant athletes to finish a still respectable 11th overall. Paul was also selected in 2000 to race at the inaugural European U23 Elite Triathlon Championships in Enniskilin, Northern Ireland where he missed the lead pack in the swim by a whisker and despite a strong bike and run, came 18th overall. 2000 was also the year that Paul 'returned' to University to complete the final year of his degree course. Paul's favourite subjects on the Sport Science course were "Teaching & Coaching", "Psychology" and "Sports Development" and was lucky enough to be tutored by some international experts in the field, including his mentor John Gregory (now senior Physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sport in Tasmania).

2001:

After a great 2000 season, Paul was encouraged by the opportunity to try and qualify for some funding from the World Class Potential Plan Squad to further his athletic aspirations. This included dropping his 800m swim time to under 8'50" and his 5000m run time to under 15'25" which he just managed to do...just. However, the level of intensity and amount of work which went into achieving these targets was soon to take its toll, and whilst revising hard and carrying out his Final Year dissertation (looking at the muscle imbalance in triathletes between the hamstrings and quadriceps muscles using a fancy isokinetic dynamometer machine) Paul sustained a severe bilateral ankle injury which went undiagnosed for some time. This injury would eventually become the turning point in Paul's triathlon career forcing him to effectively 'retire' from competition in the short term and look towards pursuing his academic and professional coaching aspirations instead. Paul graduated from the University of Bath with a high 2:1 honors degree pass mark and decided to give training and rehab a break for a year and head off traveling around the world solo out of a backpack. Having never done any traveling solo before and starting in deepest, darkest India, this was a huge baptism of fire, but one which taught Paul a lot about different ethnic cultures and social tolerance and acceptance of values. During this trip which saw Paul travel through India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Java, Bali and then finally on to Australia, even featured an 'extras' appearance in a Bollywood movie whilst in Bombay, a swim coaching assignment with a group of young swimmers in Rajhastan and even an appearance on the British ITV television show "Blind Date" with Cilla Black (which Paul did dressed in a Speedo skinsuit, and actually won a holiday to Egypt by being selected by the lovely Anita as her date. NB. this was filmed before Paul left on his world trip). Quite a trip! This whole experience and time away from triathlon taught Paul a valuable and important lesson in "keeping things in perspective".

2002:

Paul finally arrived in Perth, Western Australia on 28th January 2002 and promptly met up with his best friend Daniel Moore (a former International pro-cyclist) who encouraged him to get back into a bit of recreational triathlon. Paul did, and in doing so was introduced to Warren and Aaron Milward of the Stadium Triathlon Club, based at the world class facility of Challenge Stadium which has three 50m swimming pools in the one facility! Aaron informed Paul that he was due to leave his duties of Head Coach and that the position may be available. This sounded like the dream opportunity for Paul to develop his coaching career. Before he could do so though, he had to hop over to New Zealand to collect an appropriate work permit. Paul started work with the club in June 2002 and was immediately responsible for the coaching and club development of over 200 athletes. It was a challenge he relished though. As an additional service to the club members, Paul offered his coaching expertise on a one-2-one basis and ran numerous stroke correction and video analysis sessions for the swimmers, gradually developing his 'model' of improvement and drill progression. To this date Paul has kept every single video file of every one of his +1,200 clients which he used to develop his knowledge, understanding and ultimately coaching of the freestyle stroke, drawing upon basic biomechanical principles from his Sports & Exercise Science degree course. Bill Kirby Olympic Gold Medallist and teammate to Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett observed one of Paul's coaching sessions during one Saturday afternoon and was suitably impressed enough to state:

"Paul's coaching techniques, philosophies and apparent knowledge seemed outstanding. His video analysis on deck alone was remarkable. I have seen and witnessed many of the world's best coaches; there is no doubt that Paul will become one of them."

He subsequently asked Paul to work with him at his newly formed Kirby Swim School in Claremont. In doing so, Paul's coaching really took off, learning firsthand from one of Australia's best ever freestyle swimmers in a coaching capacity and developing new drills and ideas on technique in the process.

2003:

In 2003, the Stadium Triathlon Club underwent large growth and development which saw its membership levels and participation rates increase dramatically. The club sponsored Paul to travel to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra to sit his Australian Level 2 Coaches Award. Here he was tutored by Jackie Gallagher (now Fairweather), Wayne Goldsmith, Bill Davoren and was assignment partner with elite triathlete and world champion, Miles Stewart. This was another dream trip for Paul, working with and learning from some of the world's most respected triathlon coaches. Coaching at the Stadium Triathlon Club went from a very much part-time position to a full-time occupation with typical numbers of over 60 people attending each of Paul's training sessions with an average of over 15 video analysis sessions per week too. Paul really had landed his dream job and it would just keep getting better and better, learning volumes everyday from a whole host of sources and contacts in the sport. 2003 was the year Paul also met his partner Michelle Smith, a physiotherapist and triathlon geek like himself, who would help Paul understand more about the anatomy and biomechanics of the shoulder joint with respect to injury prevention. This proved to be hugely beneficial.

2004:

In 2004, three time World Triathlon Champion Peter Robertson would move to the city of Perth and Paul was lucky enough to hook up with Robbo on many occasions for training rides and the like. Having also trained with Simon Lessing, the difference in the personalities and attitudes of these two athletes struck Paul as being quite profound. Paul began to formulate an idea to collate all his video analysis footage in order to build up an instructional video on how to effectively swim smoother. Initially this was to be solely for his personal clients as a take-home guide to swimming efficiency, but once Bill Kirby agreed to being filmed demonstrating superb technique in the pool, the idea grew that this could be something of interest to a broader spectrum of triathletes around the world. Paul's belief was that the DVD needed to be comprehensive and detailed, but at the same time it needed to be easy to follow and understand for swimmers of all abilities. It needed to discuss a wide range of "old school" and "contemporary" theories on freestyle technique and be translated into a educational language that could be easily processed by the swimmers. It needed to address the specific differences between the pool (DVD # 1) and open water (DVD # 2) and show triathletes how best to practice these exercises (CD-ROM training program). As such filming and production of what eventually became the Swim Smooth DVD started in August 2004, with the aid of the professional film making production services of Alive and Kicking Productions. The structure of the DVD seemed to fall into place quite easily and despite a huge amount of work editing and reediting the DVD boxset, A&K Productions had managed to put together a final proof by late November. Paul was proud to have taught himself (with the aid and prompting of his Dad, Shaun Newsome MD of Corniche Fine Arts and sister, Sheryl Newsome of Story UK ) how to use the Adobe Photoshop software program and as such designed all the graphics for the Swim Smooth brand image which is modeled off the idea of "Cleaning Up Your Stroke", using a logo similar to a soap powder box design. The DVD is launched on the 23rd December 2004 at the Challenge Stadium Aquatic Centre and over 70 guests attend the launch which is run as a mini-seminar on swimming efficiency.

2005:

Paul's sponsorship to stay in Australia with the Stadium Triathlon Club was due to expire at the end of May '05 and as such, Michelle and Paul began devising an ambitious plan to take the Swim Smooth DVD idea to the UK and then on to North America. In doing so they also planned to develop a series of Swim Smooth Clinics across the country, marrying Paul's skills as a coach and seminar leader with Michelle's expertise in the biomechanics of the shoulder joint and associated structures. Video Analysis and practical pool time was factored into the day Clinics which eventually received a tremendously positive response from all the clubs who asked them along to their group. They did this whole thing out of the back of a 1990 Fiat Ducatto Motor Home, kindly bought for them by Paul's Mum and Steve. The experience of traveling and delivering Swim Smooth Clinics around the UK and Europe out of the campervan taught Michelle and Paul a lot...about everything, including themselves! It was an experience to be treasured forever. In November 2005, they took the Swim Smooth tour over to Canada, where they are now currently residing, organizing the next series of Clinics for the USA, Canada and also a repeat visit to the UK in March / April.

2006:

Well we've only just started, but suffice to say things have kicked off well and Paul is currently doing some work with Nigel Gray, 3rd place finisher at this year's Ironman Canada event, who coincidentally nudged passed Paul's old training buddy Simon Lessing in the final stages of the race!

We'll keep you posted. Hope you found this lengthy dialogue insight into Paul Newsome's background and the creation of Swim Smooth interesting and enjoyable to read.

Swim Smooth!