Confidence
Athletes learn to trust skills they have earned through preparation — not wait to feel fearless before they act.
Our mission
Develop the athlete. Strengthen the person.
Our mission is to make high-quality aquatic coaching a positive force in young people’s lives — helping them become capable, disciplined, resilient and supportive teammates.
What sport can teach
The pool gives immediate, honest feedback.
A movement either works or it needs adjustment. A teammate either receives the pass or needs clearer communication. This creates a powerful place to practise self-awareness, effort and response — with a coach there to make the lesson constructive.
Discipline
Progress in the pool rewards routines, attention and doing the important basics consistently.
Resilience
Mistakes become information. Athletes practise resetting, adapting and returning to the next action.
Teamwork
Water polo makes communication, responsibility and support for others visible in every session.
Coach & founder
Ilya Mokin
A former elite athlete, specialist goalkeeper coach and active contributor to New Zealand water polo.
Ilya brings more than a decade of experience across competitive water polo, youth development and programme coordination. He is known for calm communication, clear standards and the ability to build positive, inclusive team cultures.
Since moving to New Zealand, he has coached junior and school programmes, supported Marist's player pathway and mentored athletes who progressed to New Zealand U15 and U18 representative teams.
Water Polo New Zealand has formally recognised his value as an athlete, coach and contributor to grassroots and performance pathways.
View the full water polo recordCareer at a glance
From national-team competition to developing the next generation.
Ilya’s playing career spans Uzbekistan, Russia and New Zealand, including championship wins, international tournament medals, goalkeeper awards and representative selection.
Uzbekistan
Five national titles, eleven Cups, youth and senior national-team competition and Master of Sports recognition.
Russia & Europe
National-league and international tournament medals, a division title and two Best Goalkeeper awards.
New Zealand
Auckland titles, national-league medals, Senior Goalkeeper of the Year and representative selection.
Our coaching code
High standards and human respect belong together.
Make expectations clear
Athletes should know what they are working on, what good looks like and what the next step will be.
Challenge at the right level
Difficulty should create learning, not confusion. Progressions are adjusted to the athlete in front of us.
Coach the response
Performance matters, but so does how an athlete reacts to feedback, pressure, mistakes and teammates.