James Richards, the head coach of Gloucester City Swimming Club, freely admits that he is not the greatest swimmer.

Not that he is a poor swimmer by any means, the 29-year-old reached county standard back in the day so he knows how to get from one end of a pool to the other at a pretty decent lick.

It’s just that he considers himself to be a much better coach and coaching swimmers is something that he has been doing successfully for a good number of years now.

He’s been head coach at Gloucester for the past couple of years and said: “You don’t have to be a good swimmer to be a good coach. What makes a good coach is someone who puts in lots of time and effort, just like an athlete.”

And while hard work is vital there’s more to it than that, of course, and as well as putting in the hours poolside, Richards has studied long and hard over the years to build up a bank of knowledge that has shaped his coaching beliefs today.

He learned to swim at Bridgwater Swimming Club down in Somerset and moved up to this part of the world when he became a student at the University of Gloucestershire.

It’s fair to say he was a model student because he got a 1st in applied sport and exercise studies before taking a Masters which included a particular focus on the importance of warm-ups in competitive sport.

And the warm-up remains a key focus for Richards today.

“People think you do a warm-up to reduce injury and while that’s true it’s just as much about optimising performance,” he said.

“I’m a big believer in the education of athletes. The warm-up does help you to get better results. It does work but you have to build it into the training programme.”

The post-swim recovery period is also vital too, says Richards, who is clearly a deep thinker about the nuances of swimming that make it so appealing to so many.

And it’s not just the physical well-being of his athletes that fascinates Richards, he loves the technical side as well.

“I’ve always liked breaststroke because in so many ways it’s such a stupid stroke,” he said, almost with a laugh. “Butterfly evolved out of breaststroke.

“Breaststroke is a historic stroke but it’s not fast and it’s not efficient. The regulations that surround it are so strict and you have to find a technique within them to suit the athlete.

“Something I’m very proud about is the amount of individualism I put into each athlete’s programme.

“I love performance coaching whether it be an 11-year-old at their first county meeting or an 18-year-old at the British Championships. Success for them makes me super excited.”

Richards has been teaching swimming for 15 years after starting as a volunteer in the Learn to Swim club in Bridgwater.

“I’ve always loved swimming and I’ve always loved coaching,” he said. “I’m passionate about it. Helping kids get to the next level, whatever that level is, is amazing.”

Richards, who lives with his wife Grace and their two young children in Stroud, originally arrived in Gloucester via Truro College where he did a foundation degree in sports coaching and therapy.

He also did some coaching in Truro – no surprise there! – before linking up with Gloucester City initially as a volunteer coach where he worked with the swim skills coach.

“I’m still a technical coach, I’m not just a fitness coach,” he said.

“Fitness training can be really tough. You obviously have to be fit to swim to a good level but on its own it’s not enough. If your technique starts to fall away that’s a real problem, you don’t see any Olympians with a shoddy technique.”

Richards’ passion for the sport is obvious. He’s already coached up to British Championship standard but he is ambitious – “I want to coach Olympians,” he said – and is happy to challenge himself to further his development.

“I was head coach at Cirencester Swimming Club for a year when I was only 22,” he said. “I was really young but it was so valuable because I was thrown in at the deep end.

“We finished the year with a couple of regional medals but it was a real eye-opener because I had to deal with so many people within the club.”

Richards was still volunteering at Gloucester while he was the main man at Cirencester – “I was getting my extra coaching qualifications,” he said – before taking on the role of assistant head coach at Gloucester in 2013.

Now he’s enjoying being the man in charge – he works full time in swimming – and he said: “We’re doing really well. We had 10 national qualifiers last summer and we had one swimmer competing in the British Championships.”

That swimmer was Donald Bisset, who competed in the 400 metres individual medley, and Richards said: “He got a scholarship to Stirling University which is a really good swimming university.”

Indeed it is and along with Bath and Loughborough is considered by many to the best for swimming in the country.

Gloucester City have links with the University of Gloucestershire and Richards said: “Realistically, we’re quite a small club. We’ve got 130 members but we don’t have a Learn to Swim programme. We’re a grassroots competition swimming club for people up to the age of 18.”

That is something that Richards – and swimming in general – would like to change because at 18 there is a massive drop-off in the number of competitive swimmers.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “We’re trying to maintain athletes in the sport for longer. It’s really tough, it’s a very gruelling sport, very, very hard.

“In some respects it’s very anti-social because you’re in the pool at 5.45 in the morning and you’re back swimming again in the evening.”

Richards is aware of the demands on the better swimmers – especially in exams season – and has made some subtle changes since taking over as Gloucester’s head coach.

“I’ve changed our mission statement,” he said. “Our programme is to create a fun and enjoyable environment to learn competitive swimming, performance is secondary.

“I would love it as a sport if we could accommodate more swimmers of different ages.”

And nationally, progress is being made.

“Swimming as a culture has changed quite dramatically,” continued Richards. “At London 2012 a 15-year-old girl won the 100m breaststroke but at the last Commonwealth Games we had a 27-year-old woman swimmer winning a gold medal in the 200m butterfly

“As a sport we are moving towards genuine long-term performance.”

The Olympics are something that Richards would love to be involved in in years to come.

“I’m very ambitious,” he said. “I realise that’s it’s not something that’s just going to happen, you have to have a plan. I’m involved with the national pathway and I’m trying to build my own skill set, I’m learning all the time.”