NZL Swim Management Team

David Lyles

Director and Head Coach

David Lyles has been an International swim coach for Great Britain, China and New Zealand and has a wealth of experience coaching club and age group swimmers through to senior and International athletes.

He has been a Head Coach at club, University and National training centre level as well as being Head Coach to a professional provincial team in China. After starting coaching whilst still at University, David took his first coaching job in 1989 and in 1992, qualified his first swimmer on an Olympic team – a feat he repeated at 6 consecutive Olympics between 1992 – 2012.

Having started at club level, David was given the opportunity to help set up and develop a new scheme at the University of Bath in South West England in 1997. With a brand new facility and the ability to attract top swimmers, it was not long before the centre was home to the first British Swimming National training centre.

After coaching 20 International swimmers and producing finalists at both the Sydney and Athens Olympics, a unique opportunity arose to coach in China. Working for the Shanghai sports bureau, David was selected to lead the Shanghai provincial team in 2007, a move that saw Shanghai named as top team at the Chinese National Championships every year from 2008-2012. Success came quickly, and aside from his team duties, Coach Lyles achieved a 100% success record, with all 9 of his swimmers gaining selection for either World or Olympic teams between 2010 -2012.

With 7 swimmers coached onto the China team for the home World Championships in Shanghai 2011 and 5 swimmers selected for the 2012 London Olympics, David Lyles was a constant member of one of the worlds’ biggest and strongest swim teams.

With 7 medals from 5 different swimmers at World Championships (2010 + 2011) and Olympic Games it seemed as if the mission was completed and so a new challenge was required which saw David take up a position with Swimming New Zealand.

As head coach to the NZ National training centre, David oversaw a transitional period where a number of promising youth swimmers moved to Auckland with almost immediate success; several were selected for the 2014 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, winning 2 medals in the process. At the same time, the more established senior members of the squad broke over 10 New Zealand national records as well as the first World Record by a Kiwi swimmer for a number of years. In addition, New Zealand swimmers won Gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the first World Championship medals in the pool for a generation in 2013.

David was proud to serve as New Zealand coach at the 2013 & 2014 World Championships as well as the 2014 Pan Pacific Games, and 2014 & 2018 Commonwealth Games.

As Director of NZL Swim and Director of Coaching for Phoenix Aquatics, David’s goal is to help coaches and swimmers improve standards of swimming performance by providing them with the very best in swim coaching. In just a few years, a number of swimmers have gained International recognition whilst training with the NZL Swim scheme including competing at the World Championships, World University Games and Commonwealth Games.