Perry, who is also the British Swimming open water coach, is hoping to put his mark on the youngsters, many of who are aiming for the Rio 2016 Olympics, and claimed that the Championships, which are due to take place in Belgrade between July 6 and 10, is the priority event on the British Swimming development calendar.

"The European Junior Championships are highly regarded within the international swimming community and we are judged by performances at this event," said Perry.

"Our primary aim is to facilitate the best possible development of talented young athletes while providing strong racing opportunities to give the perfect grounding for our next generation of elite athletes.

"The team is smaller than previous years but is brimming with quality and potential. We have a strong tradition at the event and we'll be prepared as best we can.

"We can dictate our own form but we can't control what the other nations are going to go."

In advance of the competition there will be an orientation camp that will involve all coaches on the development programme.

The national camps will provide an opportunity, away from major events for all involved in the programme to gather and share best practice, ideas and background.

Many of them will be hosted here in Britain so more athletes and more coaches can be involved and developed.

"The camps will be based on a race-train-race philosophy," explained Perry.

"We'll race on shore and analyse performances to identify areas for improvement.

"These will be addressed during a training camp before we then race again to see that improvements have been adopted.

"There will be sport science support at the camps and we will work with the coaches to see how findings can be practically used.·

"Together they will work as a team to ensure continuity of the development of our athletes.

"A great deal of work is being done on starts and turns with our elite athletes and British Swimming is also introducing this at an earlier stage within athlete development.

"The world has moved on so much in these areas and we'll be talking to coaches about extra resources they may require."

Perry sees the biggest gains coming from the development of coaches within Britain.

"I'm a firm believer in coach education as being a key to delivering best possible long term results and this will be a focus of the programme. It is something I feel passionately about," he said.

"In Britain we have some of the best coaches in the world and we need to make sure their knowledge and expertise is passed on to others as we continue to grow as a swimming nation.

"At the British Gas Swimming Championships in March we saw a marked improvement in this area and we'll be asking some of the prominent coaches responsible to share tactics and training methods.

"You can educate one athlete and they will do a good job.

"But if you educate a coach they can educate a hundred athletes and the results speak for themselves."

There will also be a focus on parent education - something Perry says is an important part of the development triangle of athletes, coaches and parents.

"Parents are an integral part of the process," Perry said.

"We'll be informing them regularly of programme developments as well as key components such as nutrition, and sports medicine.

"Our primary aim is to facilitate the best possible development of talented athletes whilst providing strong racing opportunities to give the perfect grounding for our next generation of elite athletes."

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