George Wilson
Director of Swimming and Performance Lead
George has been a competitive swimmer throughout his life, competing both Nationally and Internationally, gaining podiums at Nationals and British Championships with two British Records in the 200m Freestyle. He has represented the County, South East Region and England Schools in a variety of competitions.
As well as being the Club's Performance Coach, he is also the lead coach of one of our Performance squads. 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
Assistant Head Coach (Juniors and Development)
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 began her coaching career at Teddington swimming club, gaining her level two coaching at 18 years old, and now has over ten years of coaching experience. 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.
Grace Polley
Squad Coach
Grace’s swimming journey started when she joined Elmbridge as a swimmer 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.
Eve Perry
Performance and Development Squad Coach
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 compete, mainly in the freestyle sprint events, for Elmbridge Phoenix at Regionals and the English Nationals at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. She continued her swimming journey, training and competing with the High-Performance squad, at the University of Birmingham. Eve was the H-P Club Captain and part of the University Swimming Committee, which included organising a warm weather camp and increasing mental health support and awareness for the team. She really enjoys competing in team relays and league events.
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 and more recently her Assistant Coach qualification. She has now been coaching at Elmbridge Phoenix for 5 years as well as teaching at local swim schools. Eve has primarily worked with the younger squads, ensuring that they develop the correct techniques while enjoying their swimming. However, she is now looking forward to working with some of the older swimmers, where she hopes to apply the skills and knowledge that she has learnt from her Sports Exercise and Health Sciences degree.
Manny Obiago
Squad Coach
Having taught swimming to children and adults for six 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
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 competed in the Welsh Nationals.
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.
Megan Jenkins
Development Squad Coach
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 Trophy for the most points collected over a whole season 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 swimming, Meg is looking forward to studying Philosophy at university.
Jake Newbury
Strength and Conditioning Coach
Strength and Conditioning plays a pivotal role in a swimmer’s development. A well thought out Strength and Conditioning programme will improve all aspects of a swimmer’s ability to improve their starts and turns, injury profile and most importantly their swimming velocity.
Jake gained an undergraduate degree in Sport, Health & Exercise Sciences from Brunel University, completing a placement year as a Strength and Conditioning coach with Championship rugby side London Scottish during that time. After completing his degree, Jake returned to London Scottish two years later where he worked as a Strength and Conditioning Coach again whilst completing a Masters degree in Sport and Exercise Sciences.
After completing his studies, Jake took a role at the University of Surrey where he provided Strength and Conditioning services for the Universities swimming and rowing teams and supported the S&C provision the professional basketball team, The Surrey Scorchers.
Jake is passionate above improving all aspects of performance for the swimmers at Elmbridge, with a strong emphasis on making his work educational and enjoyable.
Beau Doran
Assistant Coach
