Magnussen passed on his knowledge for two hours to up-and-coming swimmers along with Thomas Fraser-Holmes.

Fraser-Holmes said it was encouraging to see the swimmers “come with a positive attitude and want to learn”.

“This clinic is so invaluable in so many different ways that not only are the kids learning techniques and the latest trends in swimming, but they’re also getting exposed to what James went through,” he said.

“He swam in these lanes and he swam in this pool and he became a world champion, so that’s what we’re all about and why the clinic is called “Why Not Me” swim clinics … why can’t anyone be a world champion?”

Talented Port Macquarie teenage swimming duo Pat Mullens and Nathan Smith admitted they learned a few “trade secrets” during the session.

“(You need to) progress your swimming as you get older,” Mullens said.

“Not start when you’re heaps young, but to slowly get into it each year and pick up the training sessions.”

Smith was a standout at the Queensland Championships at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre last month where he was the quickest Australian in a number of events.

He was the first Aussie in the 400-metre individual medley, 200-metre butterfly and 100-metre butterfly.

The teenager admitted “there was definitely a lot of technique (to swimming) that we didn’t know about”, but performances in the pool could also be attributed to good organisation out of it.

“I learned from James mainly how to keep everything organised and not panic when you get to the end of school,” he said.

Magnussen said the main message he wanted swimmers to take out of the clinic was that anything is possible for anyone from a country or regional area.

“I always like to give the kids a sense of hope whether it be in swimming, studies or other pursuits,” he said.

“I said to the kids that I do the same amount of training today as I did when I was 16.

“It’s not that I’m working ridiculously harder than I was, it’s about being smarter and being more technical and perfecting the trade.

“I had no different upbringing to these kids; I’m no more talented than any of them, I just stuck at it and got to where I did.”

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