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TFIS - Glenrothes swimmer's European selection
At the British trials in March, its qualification event, the Glenrothes 16 year old got missed the all important cut for the 100m freestyle final. But at the last minute one of the eight finalists withdrew. Scott didn't just rise to the occasion, he left all but one of the finalists flailing in his wake.
Scott was officially announced as part of the British team, for the 4 x 100m freestyle relay team, last week. So nonplussed an individual is the 6'4 giant, described by his coach, Dave McLean as the type of person that would see Valium as a pick me up, it was a completely out of character Scott that admitted to being completely ecstatic at receiving the invitation letter.
Supported by the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport for the last two seasons, Scott has been soaking up the combined expertise of its synchronised support team - High Performance Swimming Coach, Gary Vandermeulen, Strength & Conditioning coach, Gilmour Stevenson, along with physios, podiatrists, psychologists and lifestyle advisors - who have all worked alongside his coach at Glenrothes, Dave McLean.
Daniel's case is probably the best example of the full support team working together because we all meet and communicate regularly, said Vandermeulen, husband and coach to former Scottish Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Alison Sheppard. You'd assume this is what happens for every athlete in every sport but it doesn't necessarily. In most cases the weights coach does their thing, the swim coach does their thing and the swimmer bears the brunt of over enthusiasm from all corners at the same time.
The zeal of Scott's own team is being properly channelled into a coordinated programme, which occupies as little as 12 hours each week and involves just one pre dawn session.
McLean readily admits Scott spends less time in the water than many 12 year old female swimmers, From a little provincial club we have the fastest 17 year old 50 m freestyle swimmer in Britain. What he's done is absolutely magnificent, way beyond anything he dreamed of two years ago, and there's plenty of room to add to his training, so there's a lot more to come from him.
On dry land, Gilmour Stevenson conducts the Strength & Conditioning sessions at the Fife Institute, adding his expertise as a gymnastics coach. Scott has developed some acrobatic manoeuvres and is working on performing a full back flip.
I've forgotten the number of times in the past I've seen him swimming at national level, be first to the turn and seventh out of it, says McLean. The gymnastics has helped his rotation and his turning. His start has become one of the fastest I've seen for his age - we've fine tuned his flight and he's acquired more power through the weight training.
Scott's Europeans selection is particularly gratifying for Vandermeulen, who less than four years into the post of Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport has now managed to help transform three local club swimmers - Andrew Rodgie and Dundee's Ross Clark being the other two - into international competitors.
In a short space of time we have gone from being an area that very rarely had someone on a British team to three years in a row having a swimmer in the European Junior Championships, he said.
No club in Britain has put someone on this British team three years in a row, and I doubt any other region of Scotland has achieved this either. It says a lot for the Scottish Area Institute of Sport network and the services they provide that there are three clubs in Tayside & Fife that have coached swimmers to an international level.
Scott is following in Andrew and Ross's footsteps and training with those two for the last three years has given him and other swimmers the confidence to belief that the work they are doing here in Tayside & Fife will give them the same opportunities to make these international trips as people from other areas of Britain.