Forget performance-enhancing drugs, diet supplements or weightlifting sessions - Australian coach Mark Davies planned to make his swimmers go faster by putting a 10-foot crocodile in the pool.

Davies arranged with a reptile park to provide the crocodile but Darwin City Council forced him to abandon the scheme.

Davies said he planned to drug the crocodile and wire its jaws shut before putting it in the normal pool with his squad of swimmers, aged between seven and 20.

"I used to tell them that to help them swim faster they should imagine that a three-metre crocodile was chasing them," he said.

"I thought to have the real thing would be a good start to the swimming season."