OPINION
Getting The Right Training “For years I have been strongly behind the importance that technical support plays in delivering the best customer support. But now I’m becoming more and more focussed on offering technical training to fill that role,” says Adam Clark, General Manager at wet leisure specialist Golden Coast
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like to learn, to improve and develop and be the best version of myself that I can be and I like to help other people to do the same. There is an attitude and an approach that I’ve learnt from fitness that I believe is going to work in our industry as well. So we’ve taken some thinking from the gym and we have applied it to an Academy.
TEACH A MAN TO FISH… I’ve always enjoyed learning new things; acquiring new skills or improving the ones I’ve already got. In terms of wet leisure, that attitude has never been more relevant than it is today. If you look across the sweep of the wet leisure industry, it now encompasses a whole raft of skills, technical know-how and areas of specialist knowledge. We use water treatment technology that is as advanced as any in the world. The latest energy efficient pumps are marvels of engineering. Automation that manages chemical dosing, or indeed the whole pool environment, that looks like it needs a software engineer to understand it, let alone install it. But like so many things, with the right training, people gain the skills and the confidence to tackle jobs that they might have thought were beyond them. Surely that is the essence of great customer support. The right training lets you achieve more than you thought you could.
DEADLIFTS A deadlift looks like a simple thing and you might assume that the amount of weight you can lift is simply down to how strong you are but that isn’t so. In a deadlift the barbell is at your feet, you bend over and pick it up. Stand up straight. Lock out your knees and you’ve done it. Simple. But a good deadlift is down to technique and skill and the right mental attitude. Yes, you need to be strong but you need to know how best to utilise that strength. And so we come to training. You need to spend time in the gym doing the exercise over and over again. You need to work with a coach who will study your form and show you where to improve it. Ideally, you need a goal; something to aim for, an
achievement at the end of your training. As a keen Crossfitter, that’s how I’ve approached my training in the gym and that is how we’ve approached building the Golden Coast Academy.
A NEW TRAINING FACILITY A gym is a space with equipment, staff to help you train and other gym members to work with and support you, as you get better and as you get stronger. That’s how I look at the new Academy. The Academy is located at our Newbury branch. It’s a lively training environment laid out over two floors. The upper has a specialised training room that includes live controllers on the walls, enabling hands-on learning in programming and troubleshooting. On the ground floor there is a purpose-built pool that showcases the latest innovations in lighting, pool covers and has a fully functioning pool plant. It’s a functional environment that lets you train for the real world.
YOU ARE ALREADY A MEMBER The Golden Coast Academy works on an open-door policy and we welcome visitors to come and explore the facilities. We want the Academy to be a market leading training facility for the industry. We want it to be a gym you visit regularly. Training
...with the right training, people gain the skills and the confidence to tackle jobs that they might have thought were beyond them” 72 June 2024 SPN 72_SPN_June_2024_Opinion.indd 72
is about adding value to yourself, which in turn means you can add more value back to others. It resonates with the old Golden Coast adage, ‘we succeed when you succeed’. As a distributor I feel we have a duty to educate those who want it; to help them understand the products we sell. Our Academy gives us the perfect setting to do that.
BE COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE The wet leisure industry is constantly changing and that rate of change is getting faster and faster. It’s not just about the environment that we work in; the need to reduce energy usage, to be green and to be sustainable but also the solutions and technologies that we have developed to meet those customer demands; heat pumps, UV water treatment, automated control and dosing systems. The world is changing and we must change with it. Getting the right training and expanding your skills is one of the best ways of doing that and there is no time like the present to make that happen. I’ve just turned 40 and I’m still constantly seeking new ways to be better, whether it’s knowing more about our bodies – micro biomes in our gut and how they help us with our digestion, or whether it’s getting better in the gym – getting that heavier deadlift with an improved technique. So, I look forward to seeing you in Newbury. Golden Coast 01271 378100 www.goldenc.com
www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk 10/06/2024 20:23