Coaching Team

Jimmy Orr

Head Coach

Jimmy is the Head Coach of REN96 and leads the development programme. He is an experienced Level 3 swim coach who has been a familiar face on the Scottish Swimming scene for many years. Having originally started his coaching career at REN96, he has been head coach at West Dunbartonshire and Highland Swim Team before returning back to lead the club that started his journey.

Jimmy has had the joy of coaching multiple National senior medallists throughout his career as well as two Commonwealth Games swimmers, one of whom went on to swim at the Olympics for Great Britain.

“I am a great believer in coaching the athlete holistically. It important we create athletes who develop accountability, independence, self-betterment, authentic to themselves and many more positive character traits. We are not simply developing better swimmers but, hopefully, better people by the end of their swimming journey.
In coaching, I feel there is no better way to do this than building connection, confidence and competence in that order. Only then will each athlete be the best they can be”

 

Ross McCafferty

Performance Coach

Ross McCafferty leads our performance programme. He is a fully qualified level 3 swim coach as well as studying Sports coaching and development at both the University West of Scotland and City of Glasgow College. Ross has been involved with the Scottish swimming national programme for the past five years taking up multiple roles at a range of different levels.

Ross has a passion for developing athletes to fulfil their individual protentional while challenging them to be the very best they can be every day. 

“My coaching philosophy is simple everything we do must have a purpose to it, and every day we must try and be better than the one before.”

 

Alan Dickson

Assistant Performance Coach

Alan Dickson is a level 3 coach who joined the club in summer 2021. A coach since 2006, he started out as a poolside helper at North Ayrshire Swimming. During his time at North Ayrshire he was Junior Coach and spent three periods as interim head coach.

Alan believes that age group swimmers should pursue excellence in all four strokes and that continuing to acquire new skills is essential for both swimmers and coaches. Alan has coached age group swimmers who have subsequently qualified for British, Scottish and District level events.
 
Alan sees his role as ensuring every swimmer has the opportunity to reach their potential, he is passionate about coaching and loves helping swimmers achieve their goals.
 

Callum Johnstone

Coach

Calum has been involved in swimming for over 35 years, swimming at national level and laterally as a master with REN 96.
 
He is also a school teacher and believes in the development of the athlete holistically. Calum mainly works with Age Group and Junior Development swimmers and believes that in the early years the focus should remain on developing all aspects of performance. 
 
He believes that swimming is a sport that develops skills for life and that the personal skills, friendships, self discipline and memories make swimming the best sport of them all.

Michelle Galbraith

Lead Coach (Linwood Development)

Michelle started her swimming journey at REN 96 and competed for just over 13 years. She has competed at regional and National level winning medals at both! At 16, she decided to take her experiential knowledge on swimming and develop towards giving back to the club through coaching. She has been coaching with the club ever since!


She is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable member of the coaching staff. She is always happy to give feedback on every athlete’s development. She is also a firm believer that coaching is not only about developing the swimmer but also the person.

 

Sam McBurnie

Coach

Sam has been part of REN96 for nearly seventeen years as a swimmer and a coach. His journey with the club began as a swimmer at age 6 until 15, three years later he joined as a coach.

Sam’s background, as an experienced swim teacher and a swimmer, allows him to have a deep insight into the transition between finishing swim lessons and joining REN96. As a coach, Sam sets high standards for himself and his swimmers and strives for the perfect balance of working hard and having fun, after all, if you’re having fun, it’s not working hard at all. 

“As a coach, I like to set high standards for myself and my swimmers, I want the athletes to see training as an opportunity to improve a little bit each time, and be 1% better than last time, it’s not about perfection it’s about constant improvement and excellence. I feel this can be a great life skill, but there must be a balance, as much as I enjoy working hard I love having a laugh and having a chat, experience has taught me these are memories that last forever.”

Struan Kingdom

Coach

Struan joined REN 96 at age 8 and competed for 10 years with the club. Over those years he made the national team for open water swimming and was awarded the Eian Prentice memorial trophy in 2018.

Since 2021 Struan has been a swimming teacher with East Renfrewshire Council. He joined REN 96 as a coach in 2022 in the hopes of enabling others to fall in love with swimming and enjoy a life of sport. Struan also hopes to introduce new swimmers to open water swimming and the associated mental and physical health benefits.

"Everyone deserves the freedom that the water allows. It's a great way to both push yourself physically and ground yourself mentally. Every child should have that opportunity and deserves a space to access sport, judgment free. I hope to provide that for every child in my session."