Matthew’s career in sport began as an athlete, representing Australia in swimming as an AIS scholarship holder. After graduating with a Bachelor of Sport Science degree from the University of New South Wales in 1996, Matthew decided to pursue a career as a coach. Matthew’s coaching career began at Caringbah under the guidance of renowned surf coach Kevin Nielson. This experience allowed Matthew to expand his coaching skills, and he was subsequently offered the head coach position at Hurstville Aquatic Centre. Matthew went on to work as head coach at Bexley Swimming Centre before taking a position as Director of Swimming / High Performance coach at Trinity Grammar School from 2002 to 2019. In his time at Trinity Grammar School he coached numerous athletes to win a total of 56 gold medals at Australian Age Championships. He led the Trinity team to win their first CAS Swimming Championship for the first time in 38 years and then led them to a record breaking 13 consecutive titles. In this time he was selected on the Australian team for the 2010 and 2012 world short course championship. Also in 2012 he toured the world on the Fina World Cup series to coach the 2012 FINA World Cup Male champion. In 2013 he was awarded the ASCTA Australian Age group Coach of the year. Also in this time Matthew was an integral part in the design, development and construction of a new swimming centre that included a state of the art indoor 50m pool and a refurbished 25m indoor pool. He was also a regular coach on numerous Australian and NSW teams that toured the world. Matthew joins the SOPAC coaching team in 2020, driven to build this club into a top performing age and open age program.
Coaching Appointment
Australian Swimming Team
New South Wales Institute of Sport
New South Wales Swimming
Having coached high-performance athletes at Sydney Olympic Park since 2011, Adam Kable leads the Olympic Park Performance Hub's coaching team. He is a four-time consecutive winner of the NSW Swimming Coach of the Year award and has guided athletes onto each and every Australian swimming team, including the Olympic Games, World Championships, Pan Pacific Championships, Commonwealth Games, World Cup events, and more. In 2019 alone, the NSWIS coach guided one athlete to a world-record performance and a world championship gold and silver medal. Adam’s philosophy involves connecting with each athlete as a person and developing an individual performance plan to help them achieve their goals. This plan combined with a strong squad culture built on ownership and accountability has driven the squad to be one of the best in the nation. Adam holds an undergraduate degree in Physiotherapy and a Master of Education in Coach Education.
Ryan learnt how to swim at the age of 10 where he quickly developed to qualify for his first state age championships at the age of 12. In the years to follow he competed at state and national age and open level in the 400m and 1500m Freestyle, 200m Fly, 200m Breaststroke and 200m IM. In 2006, Ryan began teaching learn to swim and coaching mini squads, which he continued for the next 6 years. Ryan finished his own swimming career at age 19 and began studying PD/H/PE teaching at University. After 2 years out of the water, and missing competitive swimming, he made the decision to progress from learn to swim. Ryan became a competitive coach with his local swimming club to continue his passion of competitive swimming in a different capacity. Ryan spent four years as assistant coach, during which time he trained swimmers from junior level squads through to junior and age state level competitors. His passion continued to grow for competitive swimming. After completing his Physical Education degree, Ryan made the decision to return to University and undertake a Sports and Exercise Science degree with the aim of becoming a high-performance coach. In 2016 he took on the role of national age head coach where he was able to apply his skills and knowledge and help swimmers achieve at a state and national age level.
Kazunori Suzuki is SOPACs State Age Competitive swimming coach. Before joining Swimming NSW, Kaz was a performance squad coach in the Blue Mountains. He is also a pool lifeguard for CBCity (Canterbury Bankstown). Prior to becoming a swim coach, Kaz worked in IT and tourism. Kaz is Japanese and he migrated to Australia in 1990. Kaz has a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Architecture Engineering from Nihon University in Japan. Kaz likes coaching because he likes helping people to achieve their goals. He was a competitive national level swimmer in Japan and has a strong passion for swimming.
Daniel has been a long time regular at Sydney Olympic Park, starting off his swimming career there in the parents and babies classes, and later re-joining in the learn to swim levels. He quickly worked his way into squads at the age of 13, and then soon following making state qualifying times at 14 for 100 breaststroke. Throughout the nest year he would end up making the 100 and 200 breaststroke, the 100 butterfly and the 200 IM at state age championships. Later on in his career he attended his first nationals at Brisbane in 2012, and continued to make national age and open events until he retired at 19. He then went on to teach learn to swim for 5 years at Sydney Olympic Park, where he eventually got a role as a mini squad coach, quickly progressing up to junior squad, than transitioning into competitive squads with age development 1 (transition squad) and now to age development 2 (junior squad). Daniel is currently doing a bachelor of arts/ bachelor of teaching at University and is on track to completing his degree by the end of the year.
Brianna Fisher has coaching experience at Glenbrook Swimming Club, working alongside Kaz Suzuki. She has also assisted in volunteer coaching and preparing young swimmers for club night races. Being a current swimmer at state and state open levels, Brianna has the knowledge and skills to help kids perform to their best whilst making training enjoyable and motivating. Brianna is looking to study sports and exercise science/psychological studies to enhance her understanding of the sporting environment.
Joining Brianna in this role is James Traiforos. For the past 10 years James has been training and competing as an elite level swimmer, selected onto a number of Australian and NSW teams. James has coaching experience at MLC Marlins, Trinity Grammar School and Meriden, ranging from learn to swim to junior competition squads. James is currently studying a Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies) at the University of Sydney. We are very excited to have such a dynamic and enthusiastic coaching team for the Transition Competition Squad. Brianna and James aim to provide an enjoyable and rewarding squad environment, passing their knowledge onto their swimmers transitioning through the program. The flexibility afforded by the two coaches also allows us to utilise their expertise with other groups from time to time.