Stuart Donald
Head Coach
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From swimming competitively with Beckenham, Addington and
Croydon Amphibians swimming clubs, Stuart has always had a passion
for swimming. Having taught many children to swim in his
spare time, he undertook his first ASA Teachers' and Coaches'
qualification in 2006, quickly followed by his Level 2 in 2007 when
he joined Sutton Atlantis SC as a part time coach.
In 2009, he decided to teach and coach swimming full time,
working for Greater London Leisure, David Lloyd health clubs and
various schools/clubs. Simultaneously, he devoted time to study for
his ASA Teachers and Coaches Level 3 qualification, achieving this
in 2010.
He was subsequently appointed Joint Head Coach of Sutton
Atlantis SC, guiding the club to many county and regional successes
with minimal resources.
In March 2014, he joined the coaching team at Guildford City SC,
gaining valuable experience at a high level. In July of the same
year, he took on the additional role of head coach at Elmbridge
Phoenix as part of the ‘Pathway’ between the two clubs
whilst continuing to work part-time for Guildford City SC with the
High Performance and Competitive Development squads. This
successful arrangement was officially ended in July 2017 when
Stuart was asked by the committee at Elmbridge Phoenix to take on
the role as Head Coach full time, and the club has continued to go
from strength to strength.
With an ever-growing membership of swimmers aspiring for success
at the highest level, Stuart works with a great group of committed
coaches. Together with the dedicated committee at EPSC that share a
combined vision, Stuart and his coaching team aim to achieve
success at all levels in our sport and to continue guiding many
athletes to compete and succeed all the way up to National and Para
National level.
Despite the challenges of Covid 19 and the devastating effects
on the swimming community, Stuart and the team are excited to be
back striving to help EPSC swimmers achieve their goals and again
pushing for County, Regional and National honours once again.
George Wilson
Club Performance Coach and AGP Co-Lead
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George has been a competitive swimmer throughout his life,
competing both Nationally and Internationally, gaining podiums at
Nationals and British Championships with 2 British Records in the
200m Freestyle. He has represented the County, Southeast Region and
England Schools in a variety of competitions.
As well as being the Clubs Performance Coach, he is also Co-Lead
of Age Group Performance with Glen. George uses his experience and
knowledge from competing at a high level to fuel his passion for
coaching and developing performance swimming. He has his Level 2 in
Teaching Aquatics and an Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting
Excellence; this extends to a BTEC Level 3 in Understanding Sports
Performance.
Lizzy Bickford-Sawkings
Junior Performance Coach
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Lizzy Started her swimming at Teddington swimming club, whilst she
was there, she swam at a National level, specialising in 800FR,
1500FR, 200Fly, 400IM and Open water swimming, competing for 15
plus years. Whilst at University, Lizzy swam at BUCS as her
Uni swim captain, which consisted of coaching the lower squads
whilst training. She still trains twice a week with
Teddington Masters when not coaching at Elmbridge.
Lizzy Started off her coaching career at Teddington swimming club,
gaining her level two coaching at 18 years old, this year will be
her 10th year coaching.
Alongside working for Elmbridge Pheonix, Lizzy teaches
swimming of all ages and levels, and has her own illustration
business.
Since joining Elmbridge in 2020 Lizzy has been very impressed with
the Talent, she has seen at EPSC. She is excited to be heading up
the development squads and looks forward to spending more time with
them, she is passionate about pushing the club to its full
potential as well as getting the most out of the swimmers.
Glen Melson
AGP Co-Lead Coach
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Glen has been a member of Elmbridge Phoenix since 2003. He has
swum competitively for 15 years, going to the National
championships on multiple occasions.
In 2015, Glen graduated from Loughborough University with a BSc in
Sports and Exercise Science. During his time at Loughborough, he
swum for the university team. After graduating from
university, he became an ASA level 2 teacher of aquatics, as well
as an ASA level 2 swimming coach. He has been able to use his
previous knowledge and experience of competitive swimming to
benefit others in the club. Glen is the Co-Lead for the Age
Group Performance Squad with George
Glens passion for exercise and health lead him to completing NASM
Level 3 Personal Trainer course. He now instructs the land
conditioning sessions for the Seniors and Juniors, developing core
strength, flexibility and mobility. In addition to this, he works
in the gym with the senior swimmers to increase aerobic fitness,
muscular strength and power, to improve performance.
As well as working at Elmbridge he also coaches at ACS
International School in Cobham. His active lifestyle has meant he
can represent the club and compete at team events, as well as
swimming individually at counties and regionals. He hopes his
sporting achievements can motivate younger swimmers to develop as
athletes and encourage them to improve.
Stephanie Anne James
Masters and Development Squad Coach
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Pippa Sceats
Squad Coach
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Pippa (Pip) has been a competitive swimmer since 2011 when she
first joined EPSC. She progressed through the squads and competed
at her first Surrey County Championships in 2015 where her form
stroke is breaststroke - although in Autumn that year she joined
Woking SC where she subsequently won medals at both County and
South-East Regional Championships, as well as competing in the
Premier Division of the national inter-club Arena League. In Spring
2019, Pip returned to the Masters squad at EPSC.
Pip has also been working at Elmbridge Xcel since she became an ASA
Level 2 qualified swimming teacher in 2018 - and here she
specialises in younger years. Prior to this she was also an
Assistant Coach at Woking SC for two years. More recently she has
completed CPDs to further her knowledge, including Integrating
Autistic Children into Mainstream Swimming. In Spring 2021 Pippa
joined the coaching team at EPSC and is already planning to do
further coaching courses over coming years too.
In September 2020 Pip began her degree course in Sport and Exercise
Science at Portsmouth University, where she also swims on the Uni
team. Pip has a passion for the science behind sports and wants to
be able to apply her knowledge in areas such as physiology and
biomechanics into everyday scenarios, as well as using psychology -
and all of which can assist to find marginal gains and that
valuable extra competitive edge.
Grace Polley
Squad Coach
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Grace’s swimming journey started when she joined Elmbridge
in 2010, igniting her passion for swimming, competing at the Surrey
County Championships with the Elmbridge relay team on multiple
occasions. Alongside competing for Elmbridge, Grace was also a
Corporal with The RAF Air Cadets where she also competed, winning
medals at both county and regional level as well as finishing
4th in the RAF AC National Championships at RAF
Cranwell, in 2016.
Grace’s swimming career was cut short, following a
fractured femur but she went on to qualify as an ASA Level 1 and 2
Swimming Teacher in 2019 and now enjoys teaching both children and
adults. She is also working towards her Babies and Toddlers CPD.
Since returning to Elmbridge in 2021, Grace has been appointed Lead
Coach of Senior Competitive Squad, overseeing training sessions,
whilst also having fun!
In September 2020, Grace began her Geography degree at Royal
Holloway University where she also swims with the university swim
team. Outside of her studies, Grace has a passion for water sports,
particularly kayaking and paddle boarding. In the future, Grace
hopes to take up open water swimming.
Grace is keen to help swimmers achieve their highest potential
whilst helping the club perform to its fullest extent.
Kathryn Clover
Squad Coach
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Clara Nutting
Development Squad Coach
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Manny Obiago
Squad Coach
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Having taught swimming to children and adults for 6 years,
Manny wanted to ensure the children he has taught go on
to competitive swimming. He is passionate about the Swim
Active Programme because it welcomes non-competitive swimmers
to continue their swimming journey for fitness and fun. As
well as swim coaching and teaching, he is working towards
being a qualified personal trainer. He enjoys training in the gym
and swimming for fitness. Even though he works hard with the kids,
having fun and enjoying their sessions is his priority.
Cerys Howells
Development Squad Coach
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Cerys has been a competitive swimmer with EPSC since the age of 8
years old. At her first counties she won ‘Top Girl’ by
gaining the most points in the 10/11 year old age group. Since then she has
continued to qualify for the Surrey Age Group Championship each
year, winning multiple medals in 2016, 2017 with her most recent
being silver in both the 1500m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle
relay in 2020. She has qualified for the South-East Regional
Championships for the last 5 years in largely the long distance
freestyle events and has also been competing in Welsh Nationals for
the past 3 years.
Cerys has been volunteering poolside with the club for the past 3
years and has enjoyed using her knowledge and experience of
swimming to help the younger swimmers of the club. During the
summer of 2021 she gained her Level 1 and Level 2 swim teaching
qualifications and is now lead coach of Bronze squad. She focuses
on ensuring the swimmers gain the correct technique as well as
making sure her sessions are fun as these are both very important
at this stage in competitive swimming.
Whilst coaching for Elmbridge Phoenix, Cerys is also doing A-levels
in PE, Media Studies and Psychology. She hopes to go on to study
something related to these subjects at university.
Katie Coackley
Development Squad Coach
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Katie joined Elmbridge Phoenix at the age of 10, in 2015, and
currently swims in Youth Performance Squad. She credits her
commitment to swimming as the source of her all round fitness which
along with a love of many sports led to her being awarded a sports
scholarship at Notre Dame Senior School in 2016, which was renewed
and combined with an academic scholarship on entrance to the Sixth
Form in 2021. Katie is studying for A levels in Mathematics,
Chemistry, Geography and Business Studies.
Katie finished second in the 100m freestyle at the Surrey
Schools’ Individual Swimming Championships in 2018 and
finished in the top 20 at the National Schools’ Biathlon in
2017. Katie has represented Elmbridge Phoenix at the Surrey
Championships and the Arena League.
In 2021 she qualified as a Level 1 and 2 swim teacher. She is
currently the lead coach of the Silver squad and teaches
‘Rising Stars’ swimming squad. She has thoroughly
enjoyed her time swimming with the club and has made many friends
in the process, she now wishes to pass on her passion and
experience to younger members of the club.
Megan Jenkins
Development Squad Coach
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Meg has been swimming since the young age of 7 years old,
competing for Kingston Royals in numerous Surrey County
Championships and the London Region Open Water Championships. She
also won the Victor Ludorum Trophey for the most points
collected over a whole meet for girls aged 11 years.
Meg joined us in 2019 and got her Level 1 and 2 Swim
Teaching Awards completed by August 2021. She currently teaches in
the Development Squads, Rising Stars, Bronze and Silver, where she
helps develop our younger swimmers into competitive athletes.
Outside of swimming, Meg is doing her A-Levels in Philiosphy,
Politics and History.
Duncan Harding
Land Training Coach
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Strength and conditioning training is
central to the long-term development of our swimmers, and as one of
our land training coaches, Duncan plays a key role in our
programme.
Duncan gained a degree in Physical
Geography at the University of Portsmouth, and, after university,
qualified as both a personal trainer and sports massage therapist.
He has since worked with elite level rugby players (at the
Premiership side, London Irish) and cyclists. He uses the extensive
knowledge and understanding of the human body he has gained through
his work outside the club to develop the strength and conditioning
bases of our swimmers, and to raise their levels of overall
fitness.
He is passionate about improving an
individual's health and well being, something which he demonstrated
to great effect when he helped keep our swimmers physically fit and
mentally engaged as preparation for their return to the pool by
regularly holding the club's land training sessions via Zoom during
the pandemic-enforced lockdowns.
Zoe Bainbridge
Seasonal Coach
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Eve Perry
Seasonal Coach
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Swimming became
a big part of Eve's life when she joined Elmbridge Phoenix at 9
years of age. After gaining her first county time for the 50m
backstroke in 2013, she continued to train hard, and went on to win
medals in multiple relay events at the Surrey County Championships,
a silver medal at the South East Regional Championships in the 100m
free, and compete at the English Nationals at Ponds Forge,
Sheffield.
Eve started to
volunteer as a coach at Elmbridge Phoenix for her bronze and silver
DofE and, after almost three years of volunteering, she then went
on to complete her Level 1 and 2 teaching qualifications. She
has now been teaching at Elmbridge Phoenix and two local swim
schools for three years.
In September 2020
she started a new chapter in her life, studying Sports Science at
the University of Birmingham. She is currently swimming with the
High-Performance squad at the University, where she hopes to keep
improving and adding to her swimming achievements. She
continues to coach for Elmbridge Phoenix during her holidays
Eve's focus is
primarily on the younger squads, ensuring that they develop the
correct techniques while enjoying their swimming. However, when
necessary, Eve will also work with the Age Group and Youth
Performance squads.
Archie Donald
Seasonal Coach
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