As a World Championship silver medal winning swimmer who also represented Scotland at three Commonwealth Games, Dave Leith had developed a comprehensive understanding of what was required to perform in elite sport before moving into coaching.
Having graduated from Napier University with a BSc in sports and exercise science, he took that knowledge into a wide range of sports as a strength and conditioning coach, working with track and field athletes, golfers, gymnasts, weight-lifters, judo and rugby players, as well as swimmers and divers, helping them achieve success at Olympics, World Championships and European Championships.
In 2011 he joined sportscotland as national Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach, working with GB Alpine, Basketball Scotland, Tennis Scotland and Triathlon Scotland.
He then took full-time charge of the British Curling physical preparation programme ahead of the Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics in 2014, where Team GB and Paralympics GB came home with medals from all three disciplines, the men’s, women’s and wheelchair events.
Having worked with British Curling through a full Olympic and Paralympic cycle ahead of PyeongChang 2018, coordinating with the coaching and multi-disciplinary team to develop and deliver the “What it Takes to Win” model and player performance enhancement strategies, he was appointed Head of Performance Support in 2019, joining British Curling’s senior leadership team.
Leith prides himself on taking a holistic approach to his management style, maximising his understanding of all aspects of the sports he has worked with in order to tailor the delivery of his specialism to best possible effect. Drawing on his own experience, Leith is a powerful advocate of encouraging athlete ownership in terms of their development in driving a process of culture change towards training and practice both in able bodied and wheelchair curling programmes.
