David Swift - Great Britain BobSkeleton Team

I am a member of the Great Britain Bobskeleton Team aiming to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. I have been sliding for 6 years now and am one of the fastest push starters in the world.

I was formerly a 100m and 60m sprinter and University of Bath Sports Science Graduate; I represented Great Britain briefly in the 100 metres and in 2006 decided to turn my abilities to a new and demanding challenge. Driving a sled down an ice track, head first, centimetres off the ice, with forces up to 5G’s and speeds in excess of 80mph, the sport of Bobskeleton! Since then I have become a World Juniors Silver medallist, a British Championships Gold medallist and finished the 2011/2012 season ranked 23rd in the World. The 2012/13 season will see me make my World Cup debut.

This change of sport meant that I now train full time (6 days a week) at Bath and had the problem of trying to find suitable work and education courses to set myself up for life after being a full time athlete. This is why I became a Personal Trainer through The Training Room. Personal Training has always been something I have felt pulled towards and with exercise and training being such an integral part of my life it seemed like the ideal step forwards. The distance learning course offered by The Training Room was perfect; it provided me with the flexibility I needed to finish the course around my training as well as teaching me to apply my own skills to training others. The standard of the teaching was brilliant and provided useful knowledge and skills onto the degree I already have, most of all I had a great time doing it with a lovely group of people.

The course has really whetted my appetite to get stuck into the Personal Training world although for now pursuing my dream of Olympic Glory takes priority. It has however opened my eyes to perfecting my own training techniques and has aided me massively going forwards. Long term I would love to take my skills back into my sport post retirement and potentially train the next generation of athletes. Alternatively opening my own gym and inspiring high quality personal training to the public and elite sports people alike would be a personal dream, a dream that The Training Room has set me up perfectly to go and achieve

David Swift