The panel of Dr Dave Gerrard, Mark Bone and John Brimble began two days of meetings with swimming groups in Dunedin yesterday.
The Waves Swimming Club has doubts about the purpose of the independent review of competitive coaching contracts at Moana Pool and fears it could undermine the existing contracts.
Those contracts are held by Andy Adair and the Waves club, and by the Otago Swim Coaching Academy (Osca) with coach Gennadiy Labara.
The Waves contract expires in December and the Osca contract next April. Neither coach has the right of renewal written into his contract.
"Waves had the right of renewal for its first two contracts but not for the last one," Dunedin City Council aquatics services manager Steve Prescott said.
This means that neither group has the automatic right to get its contract renewed, and there is no guarantee the two coaching set-ups will be retained.
"That will be determined by the recommendation from the review panel," Dunedin City Council general manager (operations) Tony Avery said.
"The independent panel will make a recommendation of their views to the council.
"The council will make the final decision."
The terms of reference for the panel say it aims to "make recommendations as to what they believe is the best solution for Otago swimming".
Professional coaches have 11 lanes allocated to them in the morning and eight lanes in the afternoon.
Due to the lack of lane space, this cannot be increased in the immediate future.
The terms of reference state the panel is to "look at the present coaching arrangements and see what is good about it and what can be improved.
"It is charged to look at different options and find out what can work for Otago swimming."
There have been rumours in swimming circles that the panel was appointed to get rid of Adair and the Waves club.
This was denied by Avery.
"No, categorically no," he said.
"That is not the purpose.
"It is not a dressed-up process with a pre-determined outcome."
The existing coaching arrangements were put in place nine years ago for Adair.
"It was timely to have a review and make sure that whatever we put in place will meet the needs of Dunedin swimmers tomorrow rather than the needs of nine years ago," Avery said.
When the Waves committee meets the independent panel today, Adair will be absent.
He is coach-manager of the New Zealand swimming team competing at the Oceania championships in Noumea.
"The existing arrangement at Moana Pool is working successfully because it gives swimmers a choice between two coaches," Waves committee spokeswoman Diana Evans said.
Moana Pool is the only pool in Dunedin suitable for the development of elite swimmers, and both squads train at the pool.
There is rivalry between the squads on race days but there is no animosity between the squads during training sessions.
"There must be choice," Evans said. "Dunedin is too big a city to have just one coach operating at Moana Pool."
Swimming in Dunedin had gone backwards before Adair started coaching at Moana Pool nearly nine years ago.
There are more people involved with competitive swimming today and the standard has improved.
Adair is one of only five coaches in New Zealand who have gained the gold coaching award.
He has brought a sports science approach to his squad and recruited a team of professionals to work with the Waves club.
This includes massage therapist Yvette Latta and physiotherapist Helen Littleworth, who will be members of the New Zealand support team at the London Olympics.
Other members of the Waves team include nutritionist Fiona Simpson, personal trainer Mike Harris and mental skills expert Menzies Hanham.
