For the past two years, the Warrnambool-raised Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club coach has guided Ahmed Kelly, who does not have your typical swimmer arms.

In fact he has no lower arms. Or legs.

"The whole experience of coaching him is a phenomenal thing," Harris said.

"The things he can do without arms or legs, it blows me away."

When Harris attended an AIS training camp with Kelly, people were constantly asking him if he needed assistance.

"But he did everything himself," Harris said.

"He is just like a normal athlete.

"He trains really hard and his performance at competitions are even better."

Harris is hoping to steer Kelly - who is the adopted brother of Krishna and Trishna, the conjoined twins who were separated in a marathon surgery in 2009 - to a spot on the blocks at the 2012 London Paralympic Games.

He will enter next month's 2011 Para Pan Pacific Championships in Canada fresh from a world record-breaking swim.

While he used the 2011 Australian Short Course Championships in Adelaide to establish himself as the quickest SB3 100-metre breaststroke swimmer (1:48.94), unfortunately it is not a Paralympic event for his classification.

But the 50m breaststroke is, with he and his coach focused on cracking 46 seconds so they will both be able to attend the Paralympics.

Harris admitted it was a challenge when he initially started coaching Kelly.

"Your idea about swimming coaching just goes out the window," he said.

"You just have to start all over again."

And so they did, beginning with analysis.

"We looked at his strokes and freestyle and backstroke didn't quite work," he said.

"He didn't get the propulsion so we focused more on breastroke and we changed his freestyle so it looked slightly like a butterfly action.

"We had to change his technique here and there to get the best out of him and we had to make sure the ideas we had were legal."

Harris also had to make sure he had some extra time in his working week, which usually spans 40 to 50 hours, so that he could coach Kelly, who has an ideal attitude.

"As soon as he walks onto the pool deck, he's smiling," he said.

"I've never seen him without a smile.

"If you ask him to do something, he does it.

"He's a true athlete."

Kelly is one of 80 to 100 swimmers who Harris coaches at Melbourne Vicentre, Australia's premier swimming club.

After coaching in Ballarat, he stepped back from the role to study human movement/sports science, a subject which included placement at Melbourne Vicentre.

The club subsequently offered the Warrnambool export a job.

"All my life people were saying that coaching is not a full-time career but I've got my dream job," he said.

Harris paid tribute to all coaches for the time and effort they put in behind the scenes.