Waterborn's ethos lies in the shared commitment of coaches, parents and swimmers to work together to enhance the swimming experience.

Waterborn aims to have the best-coached swimmers in the country, irrespective of competitive achievements. Everyone at Waterborn wins – you will be coached to fitness, develop your body's strength and learn efficient movement in the water. Swim for life knowing you are one of the best-nurtured swimmers in South Africa.

Few sports offer the intensity of coach - parent - athlete relationships that exist in swimming. Waterborn seeks to develop the potential inherent in such relationships by providing an environment of support, open communication and mutual sharing of knowledge. The Waterborn Programme allows for development over periods of 8 years or longer.

Waterborn swimmers are beautiful to watch in the water and therein lies the secret to the outstanding success of the Club. Waterborn coaches pride themselves in having created an identifiable coaching style and seek to extend Waterborn’s leading edge by focusing on

• A fun, team-based atmosphere of learning from one another.
• Coaching positive, confident well-educated athletes with positive self-esteem.
• Maintaining team-member consistency.
• Building a working team environment at advanced levels of training.
• Steadily increasing the coach to swimmer ratio in each squad, by training and employing coaches with a common Waterborn mindset and managing the squad environment.
• Sharing the coaching load, both at galas and in the training environment, in order to ensure ongoing coaching commitment and motivation.
• Avoiding pre-puberty overload training.
• Encouraging coaches and parents to enhance their swimming and coaching knowledge.
• Developing efficient movement in the water.
• Appropriate training loads with respect to the athlete's broader environment and commitments.
• Teaching best competitive attitude with regard to performance.
• Teaching optimum race strategy.
• Nurturing relationships amongst coaches and parents to form an effective management unit to guide the athlete's career.

Club Achievements

Waterborn's success is not restricted to the swimming pool. The focus on development over a 6–12-year period allows athletes to focus on academic results first and other achievements, including swimming, second. Waterborn team members are encouraged to develop leadership skills in a friendly & supportive team environment.

The Club’s swimming achievements include perennial Top 5 national rankings at both the National Age Group and Senior Elite Championships. Waterborn Swimming Club has been crowned National Age Group Champions 6 times. More than 60 Waterborn swimmers have been awarded athletic scholarships in the United States. Standout swimmers have attended Universities such as Tucson – Arizona, Berkley – California, and Ann-Arbor Michigan, Princeton-New Jersey; where they have been guided by the world renowned coaches.

14 Waterborn swimmers are international class swimmers who have competed at the Olympics, World Championships, Common Wealth Games, European Championships. They are Dominic Meichtry, Jean Basson, Ilse Petersen, Greg Widmar, Sasha Schwendenwein, Ricky Ellis, Megan Stephens, Mathys Goosen, Brent Szurdoki, Gabi Grobbelaar, Kate Beavon, Dylan Bosch, Jarryd Baxter, Mariella Venter and Dakota Tucker.