The Royal Dutch Swimming Federation (KNZB) has announced that it has filled all of its coaching positions at its national training centers.
This comes shortly after the federation announced it was going to revamp its national talent development process, resulting in a coaching shakeup. In its previous announcement, the federation announced that it would extend all National Team coaches through the 2021 Olympic Games, including Marcel Wouda, who leads the Eindhoven Training Center, and Mark Faber, who leads the Amsterdam Training Center.
Now, KNZB has named the positions for three additional coaches: Job van Duijnhoven, Harm Rozenga, and Robin van Aggele.
While KNZB didn’t specifically point to a correlation between the coronavirus pandemic and these new hires, around the world, countries that employ the national training center system have seen many athletes move to these centers in the past few months. That is because in many countries, it has been easier for federations to resume training at these national centers as compared to local clubs. Britain, for example, announced that 7 swimmers would move to the Bath and Loughborough National Training Centers, the first two in the country to open, earlier this year.
Van Duijnhoven will lead the Swimming Training Center in Amsterdam as a coach for high performing junior swimmers looking to make the leap to the senior level. He will also serve as the head coach of the Dolfijn swimming club, located within the training center. Prior to this, he coached in Australia for seven years.
Speaking to his new role, Van Duijnhoven said, “After a wonderful and educational time in Sydney, it started to itch to go back to the Netherlands. Now that the opportunity arose to work as a full-time coach in Amsterdam, the choice became a lot easier. I am really looking forward to the combination function in Amsterdam. Ambitious junior and youth swimmers help to develop into a top swimmer and also lead the swim selection within the Dolphin. I am really looking forward to getting started with this job. ”
Both Van Aggele and Rozenga will work in the Hague, coaching junior athletes and supervising the OC. Rozenga comes from Racing Club swimming club, where he has worked as a coach for the past nine years, while Van Aggele coached at Utrecht swimming.
Rozenga commented on his excitement in stepping into this role, stating, “I am convinced that I am ready for this step in my trainer career. I have gained experience as a swimming coach on several fronts. I would now like to use my knowledge and experience within the talent development program of the KNZB. I think it is an excellent development that there is now more intensive cooperation with clubs at a number of locations. ”
Van Aggele released a statement on his new position, saying, “’After years of coaching at various locations and at various clubs, I think it is an honor to start working for the KNZB. I am going to do everything I can to have junior and youth swimmers take steps in the The Hague region. In addition, I look forward to being able to contribute to supervising top swimmers within the HPCs.”
After the coaching announcement, KNZB Technical Director Andre Cats commented, “With these latest appointments, we have occupied all trainer positions for the coming period within the OCs and HPCs. Since the start of the corona crisis on March 15, we have worked hard to achieve this at an accelerated pace. With the associations De Dolfijn, PSV, Racing Club and with the relevant sports companies, municipalities and CTOs, I have had excellent consultations about more intensive cooperation in the area of talent development swimming at the local level. We have thus taken a number of steps in the further professionalization of the profession of swimming coach in the Netherlands. I am convinced that a step in professionalization can also be taken at other clubs, if you look together at the opportunities on the spot. ”
