Poway Masters – Masters Swimmming

Coached by Dan Peck

Dan has been growing his reputation as a premier coach at the Masters level, and coaches multiple athletes ranging from triathletes, fitness swimmers, channel swimmers and more. He has been teaching private technique to athletes all across San Diego for the past 6 years and is also a certified USA Triathlon coach. In addition, he is the Head Senior Coach of Pacific Swim, a nationally recognized competitive swim team, and is the Head Coach of local powerhouse Mt. Carmel High School.

With Pacific Swim as the Senior Gold Coach, he has coached and elevated swimmers to the national level placing multiple swimmers at the Junior and Senior National meets as well as the US Open and Short Course Nationals. He had a swimmer chosen for the “National Select Camp” in 2007 as one of the top 30 young swimmers in the country. Swimmers in his group have also set numerous team, high school records, CIF section records and most have gone on to college on scholarship.

Since he took the program in 2003, Mt. Carmel has won the CIF Team Championships with both the women(2005) and men(2007) and Dan was selected as “San Diego Coach of the Year” by the Hall of Champions, Union Tribune, and North County Times in 2007. He has coached 3 separate people to ìCIF Swimmer of the Yearî and his swimmers have set 3 individual CIF section records as well as 1 relay record. His swimmers and relays have made All–American numerous times and have been ranked as high as 1st in the country. Mt. Carmel has selected his swimmers 3 times for “Overall Athlete of the Year” and selected 6 others for ìOutstanding Athlete of the Yearî. The Mt. Carmel record book has been rewritten with 9 total individual records and 3 relay records being set since 2004.

From 2000–2005 he also coached the University of California San Diego varsity swim teams as the head assistant. In his tenure, UCSD was top–4 in the country 6 times between the men and the women and had multiple All Americans, National Champions, and National Record Holders and school record holders.

Beginning in 2003, Swim Smarter ran the masters group in La Jolla known as Swim Smarter La Jolla Masters (SSLM) before pulling out in 2007. In that span, SSLM ranked 14th in the country at Masters Nationals in 2005 and at the 2006 World Championships SSLM had multiple top–10 finishes, a World Champion in the 200 Free, and a relay that was within tenths of a World Record. The program also was part of a record setting Double English Channel crossing and hosted the 2006 Regional Zone Championships.

Dan Peck and Swim Smarter also founded the Wind Ní Sea Swim Team in 2004. Currently Wind N’ Sea is a stable USA swim team in San Diego teaching developmental as well as competitive swimming to all ages in the La Jolla area. They are currently under their own management and can be found at www.windnseaswimteam.com.

Dan has also taken the time to train and learn from the USA triathlon coaches at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado. He was a certified USA Triathlon Coach in 2002 and has used this background to effectively coach triathletes in their swimming today. Dan also competed in triathlon at age 16 and 17 in–between swim seasons. In 2000, Dan completed Ironman California and won a swim premium in the process.

For his own swimming career he was awarded his high school MVP for 3 years in a row and was team captain both his Junior and Senior year. After high school he became a four year NCAA Division I varsity swimmer for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst , where he specialized in middle distance and distance events. Winning the UMass Minuteman Award in 1996, he was ranked 3rd, 4th, and 5th in New England in the 200yd, 500yd and 1650yd freestyles respectively and helped the Minutemen to win their first 3 Atlantic–10 Conference Championships.

Dan has worked hard to be able to coach all different people from kids, to adults, triathletes, masters swimmers, fitness swimmers, and college elite swimmers. He has developed a unique successful coaching technique based on the most recent scientific findings of the swimming and triathlon world. His knowledge of stroke correction as well as the ability to train swimmers competitively has gained him respect in the swimming and athletic community of San Diego.

Dan currently lives in San Diego, California with his wife coaching full–time. He prides himself on being easy to talk to and wants to keep a personal touch with his readers and swimmers. Dan would like to bring his talents to triathletes, masters swimmer, competitive swimmers, and fitness swimmers in the US and around the world.