Swimming: Hearts still beating after 125 years

An Edinburgh swimming club celebrates its 125th anniversary this year as young members continue to work hard for a place at the Commonwealth Games in four years' time.

Heart of Midlothian Amateur Swimming Club will officially mark the milestone with a civic reception at the City Chambers next month and currently boasts an array of fine young swimmers looking to follow in the footsteps of Delhi 2010 success stories Hannah Miley and David Carry.

Phil Potter is head coach at Hearts, one of the Capital's strongest swimming clubs alongside Warrender Baths Club, and believes the latest crop of promising youngsters have potential to make the grade.

"As a club, we've enjoyed great success in the way we've progressed in the last two years, both at grassroots level and throughout the club," he says.

"It's our 125th anniversary and we're hoping to make things even better and to push on as a club.

"Traditionally, we've always been in the top 15 clubs in Scotland, and within our squad there are a lot of Scottish and British national medallists and champions.

"I coach swimmers here from 12 to 18 years old. They all have aspirations of competing at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and all of them are in a good place to be able to achieve that, but there is a lot of work to do to improve. They all compete at Scottish national level, and some at British national level, and the plan is to develop them farther."

Potter knows what it takes for his young prodigies to achieve international standard, having himself represented England at youth level and acted as British coach at the Tri-Nations competition in Quebec in 2008. He has been in post at Hearts for nine years and now mentors a young squad of elite swimmers he believes has the makings of something special.

The club staged a swim camp in Mallorca last week, an excursion that offered its team, deprived of the Capital's Commonwealth pool while the building undergoes renovation, to experience a full-length outdoor facility.

"The present squad is our youngest since I've been here," says Phil. "I see them as the new breed of the club - they have a lot of talent. The camp we just had was the best since I've been here and it highlighted the big group of youngsters we have who are ready to come through. They have talent, commitment and they were as tough as hell.

"On the camp, we asked the swimmers to do a presentation of the main attributes of a successful swimmer. We decided that you can have all the talent in the world, but you need commitment and self-belief - things I can instil as a coach. Work ethic is also important as it's a tough sport, and these guys train 20 hours per week, combining that with school and all the other things they have to do. The fourth attribute is resilience."

It is a rare species that harbours the complete make-up of a champion swimmer, but not one so scarce that Potter could be accused of day-dreaming in his lofty ambitions for the Hearts squad. He has, after all, a record at Hearts that includes nurturing a Commonwealth competitor.

"I've coached British champions such as Louise Pate, who was here for seven years and went on to achieve success in the Commonwealth Games. Her individual performance in competition, both when she was with us and now, has been the biggest success for me."

With role models of such esteem and so close to home, Edinburgh's best young swimmers require little more inspiration, other than that offered by Phil Potter, to make a splash in the sport.