Damien Bryan may be the new big wheel at Kingston Royals Swimming Club, but he knows he is one of many small cogs when it comes to his swimmers’ future hopes and dreams.

The 32-year-old was announced this week as the new head coach of the Royals, taking over from Paul Hurley, who stepped down last month.

Damien has been a swimming coach for 16 years in various guises, including working with his brother Chris – an Irish long-distance swimmer.

Having lived in Wimbledon Chase for six years, Damien – who hails from Shannon in Ireland – jumped at the opportunity to join the Royals last year and help coach the more than 200 swimmers.

And when Hurley stepped down, the former Barnes coach saw the next logical step in his career open up ahead of him.

Now Damien has a vision for the Royals based on its community-reach, success in the pool and a happy group of swimmers.

It appears to have worked so far as the Royals finished third in last year’s Surrey County Championship, and a top 10 finish in this year’s Indoor Arena is not out of the question.

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Social event: Training sessions with Kingston Royals are as much about being with friends as swimming

Damien said: “We’re looking good right now, but we need to consolidate our position, and we need to be certain that as the 17- to 18-year-olds head off to university, we have the younger swimmers to bring up through the club.

“Keeping them interested is a hard task, the training can be very tough with 5am starts, but I am very keen to promote the social side of the club to help with that.

“I want the children to come to training to be with their friends and to enjoy the swimming.

“I want them to get on with their trainers so that they look forward to training. 

"We’re also very careful not to over-stretch anyone. The season runs from September to July, and then they get a good month off.

“We’re coming up to Christmas and I’ve told the guys to have a couple of days off, forget swimming and enjoy Christmas.”

The chances of a swimmer hitting the big time on the back of their time as a Royal remain slim, but that is where Damien’s cog theory comes in to play.

He said: “All we can do is give the kids the best possible start we can, give them the training, make them as strong as possible and fuel their love for the sport.

“Then we hand them over to the universities and let them take the swimmers on to the next stage of their careers.

“It is like this in most sports, we just play our role, we’re a small cog among many, but we take great pride in that.”

To get involved go to kingstonroyals.co.uk.