As an Olympic, European, World and Commonwealth medallist, Michael Jamieson certainly knows a thing or two about competitive swimming.

But it was his own experiences rising through the ranks of traditional ‘learn to swim’ programmes that has driven him to create a distinctive business model with his own Michael Jamieson Swim Academy.

Jamieson splashed into public consciousness at the 2012 Olympic Games, where he won the silver medal and broke the British record in the 200-metre breaststroke event. But he has been frank about the negative impact on his mental health that came with the relentless nature of professional sport.

“I think I took the sport a bit too seriously at too young an age,” he explains. “In order to build participation in the sport it should remain a hobby for a bit longer, where you are harnessing that general enjoyment and enthusiasm for being in the water.

“The national Learn to Swim framework is very performance based – where children have to reach certain standards of distance covered, and elements of the strokes they've mastered, in order to move through the pathway.

“I'm a huge believer in learning through play, especially in younger age groups. I really try to harness that mindset, that willingness to explore a new environment. In the Michael Jamieson Swim Academy we use tons of props and toys and come away from the traditional ‘armbands’ model.”

Jamieson tries to get children involved in swimming at a younger age, with around 55% of his business covering entry-level ‘non-swimmers’ (children aged 3 and upwards). He offers much smaller class sizes, with a ratio of one teacher per four children, compared to an average ratio of one teacher per 8-12 children in most local authority programmes.

This has become one of the academy’s USPs, stresses Jamieson, to ensure that children build a strong rapport with their teacher and feel safe in a new environment. All 80 of their swimming instructors are level two accredited, which also sets them apart from the national standard of using level one accredited teachers. These “steadfast rules” employed by Jamieson ensures that his swim academy is set apart from the norm.

“We are more expensive than a council service, but we have less than half the kids in the water. We also have more experienced teachers so the labour rates are much higher. But it’s a model that we've committed to, based on our initial philosophy and reasons for launching the business. We know that we're sacrificing margin to ultimately create a better product, with fewer bodies in the pool.”

He describes feeling a sense of “responsibility” to create “a more efficient pathway” for kids to learn to swim, while also offering lessons to adults who aren’t confident in the water.

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Jamieson established the business in 2018, around two years after he retired from professional sport. It has grown rapidly since then, with 2,500 pupils taking lessons each week in four pools around Glasgow and Lanarkshire and, as part of a recent expansion, two sites in Edinburgh. Prices are set at the “lower end” of private providers, while free lessons are offered through charities to refugees or those from lower-income backgrounds.

The Michael Jamieson Swim Academy does not own any facilities of its own, and works as a service provider in pools such as Glasgow University or Hamilton College. This can be problematic, Jamieson explains, as budget cuts mean that less facilities are available.

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“We've grown a lot the last couple of years, but we are approaching this crossroads where we're realising how difficult it is to find new facilities. If we had more venues, we could certainly fill them with existing enquiries. We are ready to aggressively expand and roll out a blueprint model – it's just about getting access to the water.”

Eventually, Jamieson would like to operate his own facilities, but in the meantime, he feels passionately about maintaining public pools for all. Once an essential life skill taught to children across the country, swimming is at risk of becoming an elite sport, he fears, with cuts to funding seeing public pools shut at an alarming rate.

“We have to find a way to keep community leisure centres and opportunities for sports participation open. We absolutely have to. If we start sacrificing facilities like that, we'll lose huge pillars within the community, opportunities to learn valuable social skills, life skills and coordination. That is only going to lead to more of the unhealthy habits we've seen in the last decade: more kids being indoors, being less active, with poorer diets, poor nutrition, poor mental health. The participation numbers within swimming particularly, have been dwindling year on year for the last decade, which is directly linked to pool closures.”

Perhaps this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris will help reignite public enthusiasm for swimming. These days Jamieson prefers “keeping dry” out of the pool, but he says he “absolutely loves” watching the Olympics on TV and will be avidly tuning in to the Paris events this summer.

“When the Commonwealth Games were on in Glasgow in 2014, it was amazing how engaged people got around swimming. Ultimately, we are a really strong swimming nation.”

mjswimacademy.com