Coaches

Emma joined Mount Kelly in 2012 having previously worked as Head Coach of Rushmoor Royals and Performance Coach at Millfield School. With 16 years of coaching experience, working with all age groups in a club and performance environment, we are very proud to have Emma lead our programme as Director of Swimming since 2018.  A former GB swimmer herself, Emma is a passionate swimming lifer and after she gained her degree from Loughborough University in applied Sport Science, she retired from swimming, and picked up a stopwatch.  This extensive experience has seen Emma mentor and coach multiple swimmers to the European Junior Championships, World Championships, Commonwealth and Olympic Games success. Most recently Olympic bronze medallist Federico Burdisso and in the Millfield days, Olympic Champion James Guy.

A big believer in lifelong learning, Emma has seen great success being part of prestigious coach development programmes such as ‘UK Women into High Performance Coaching Programme’ (UK Coaching), ‘Coach 2024’ (Swim England) and more recently ‘Female Coaches and High-Performance Work Shadowing Programme’ (UK Sport). As well as this she is regularly involved with governing bodies and was awarded ‘Swim England South West Coach of the Year 2019’ and ‘UK Coaching Talent Development Coach of the Year 2020′.

Emma’s coaching philosophy very much integrates a swimmer first approach. Her passion for creating a world leading culture at Mount Kelly, involves a belief system that positively influences young swimmers’ lives with hope to embed good values and life lessons, in turn helping to create the optimal experience for all. She believes that swimming is a true team sport and real success come when swimmers, parents and coaches work together in a performance partnership through collaboration, communication, co-operation and confidence.

Greg joined Mount Kelly in 2013 and has played an integral role in shaping the swimming programme, with a specific focus on nurturing the next generation of national and international swimmers coming up through the School. With over 10 years of coaching experience, he has coached multiple swimmers to international level as well as producing many national champions and guiding swimmers to break both long course and short course British records. Greg now works alongside Emma on our Elite squad where they work closely together to deliver world class coaching. Consequently, Greg has worked extensively within the Swim England Talent Pathway and most recently was selected as part of the GB coaching team for the 2022 European Junior Championships held in Romania.

Greg also has a strong background in education and graduated from the University of St Mark and St John with a First-Class Honours Degree in B.Ed. Primary Education in June 2014, leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). He therefore brings a very current knowledge and understanding of the educational system to the swimming programme at Mount Kelly and nutures and mentors swimmers across all aspects of school life.

Greg became Assistant Director of Swimming in 2018. His performance coaching and teaching experience have instilled a strong belief in the holistic approach to every swimmer’s development – a feature which is key to the ongoing success of Mount Kelly Swimming.

Jon came into performance swim coaching a little later in life than most, in 2009 having spent the previous 10 years in business management and coaching part time, when he joined Guildford City as the divisional head of Competitive Development. At the time this was a division of the club, where over the next 6 years it grew to three squads and placed swimmers into Regional Finals. Then in 2015 he took up the assistant head coaches role at Windsor Swimming Club, where for the first time he coached swimmers to multiple Regional and National Medals. In late 2016 he got the opportunity to move to the larger program at Rushmoor Royals where he spent the last 6 years developing performance age group athletes culminating in my first swimmer being selected for a junior GB team. Jon has an infectious passion for helping every athlete achieve their full potential. Jon is truly excited to be part of the Mount Kelly family, having admired its growing success over the years.

Neil joined Mount Kelly in April 2019 from Plymouth Leander Swimming Club, where he spent the previous 3 years of his career where he worked as Head of Junior Programmes and more recently, the Head of Regional and National Age Group. During this time Neil coached a wide range of swimmers across the junior set up and has helped many swimmers progress through County, Regional and National level. In 2016, during his first year, Neil helped guide the Plymouth Leander team to third place in the National Junior League final.

Prior to this, Neil worked at Oldbury Swimming Club based in Birmingham from 2012-2016. Neil’s coaching career started here at Oldbury, initially as an assistant coach, before adding the role of Junior squad coach. After 3 years in these two roles, Neil was appointed the clubs first ever full-time Head Coach in 2015. During his time at Oldbury, Neil helped the club progress to their best finish in Arena League and achieve their highest number of regional qualifiers. Neil’s own swimming journey began in Bedfordshire, where he grew up, swimming for Modernian Swimming Club. After leaving swimming at the age of 18, Neil started to compete again in his mid-twenties, achieving regional times and winning medals at the British Swimming Masters Championships in 2018. Neil can now be found swimming regularly in open water training and events.

Outside of the club environment Neil has previously been selected to the West Midlands coaching development programme, and has also worked extensively within the Swim England talent pathway at county, regional and national level.

Aside from his swimming background, Neil has a strong experience of working in a school educational environment. In 2011 Neil completed a PGCE in Primary Education from Birmingham City University. Also, whilst coaching at Oldbury part time, Neil’s full-time job was a sports coach responsible for swimming within a primary school. These two areas of Neil’s development give him a strong grounding to join the Mount Kelly school environment and help benefit the welfare and wellbeing of all children.

Ernest joined Mount Kelly in September 2024, bringing a variety of experience and enthusiasm for sports coaching. Before this, he served as a Performance Swim Coach and Athletic Development Coach at Hillingdon Swimming Club, where he coached athletes from County to National levels. Earlier in his career, he interned at Millfield Prep School, gaining valuable experience in skill and technique development for young performance swimmers.

A competitive swimmer in Hong Kong, where he grew up, Ernest moved to the UK to study Law at Durham University. His coaching journey began at Durham City Aquatics, where his passion for coaching was ignited while volunteering. After graduation, Ernest continued his coaching career in Durham, leading the University’s swimming team in competitions at the British University and College Sports (BUCS). During this period, he also coached the University’s Triathlon team and Olympic Weightlifting Club.

Ernest is passionate about all aspects of sports and is a certified Level 2 Olympic Weightlifting Coach, currently working towards his UKSCA accreditation as a Strength & Conditioning Coach. In 2023, he worked at Athletic Performance Academy, a consultancy specializing in tennis performance, where he worked with athletes ranging from 5-year-olds to National-level players. This experience deepened his understanding of the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model.

Ernest is thrilled to join the Mount Kelly family and deeply resonates with its mission of developing well-rounded individuals through swimming. He firmly believes that success stems from a culture that puts people first.

Josh joined Mount Kelly in September 2016 from Dinnaton Swimming Club where he worked as an Assistant swim coach and lead land training coach. Josh also worked at Sparkwell Primary School as a teaching assistant leading P.E across the school. In this time Josh worked with county, regional and national level swimmers both in the pool and in the gym; gaining an understanding and application for long term athletic development.

Prior to this Josh graduated from the University of St Mark and St John in Applied Sport Science and Coaching which included a module in advanced strength and conditioning. He also took on volunteer work at Plymouth Argyle Football Club working with the academy teams in a sport science and strength and conditioning capacity.

Josh has undertaking various roles since joining Mount Kelly having worked as Head of Prep Swimming for two seasons. Josh then worked closely alongside Emma for a season on the elite swimming squad coaching both on poolside and leading the strength and conditioning for the squad, working with national and international level swimmers. During this time, he has also worked for Swim England and was selected to coach the South West team at the ESSA Inter-Divisional Championships.

His keen interest for nurturing athletes long term development and discovery of athletic narratives for all has led to his current role as Head of Athletic Development, overseeing provision of strength and Conditioning for the whole foundation in a range of sports, with his specialities in swimming football and Tae-Kwon-do. His Philosophy is very much centred around “better people make better athletes” with a strong underpinning of evidence-based training, aiming to create a dopamine rich environment for all to thrive.

Rikki joined Mount Kelly in January 2021 from Team Luton Swimming Club where he worked as Head Coach for 3 years, leading and mentoring a growing coaching team, as well as guiding the club to promotion to the top division in the Junior League and narrowly missing out on the same achievement in the Arena League. Rikki also coached many swimmers to success from county all the way through to international level.

Prior to this, Rikki started his coaching journey at City of Coventry where in 2011 he began coaching just 3 hours per week working with the junior groups of 7-10 year olds. In 2012 he was then assigned lead coach of the Senior Performance 2 squad (ages 12-15), which consisted of county and regional swimmers. After 2 years of coaching Senior Performance 2 Rikki had guided 5 swimmers to national level, an achievement that didn’t go unnoticed, which lead to him being offered the Assistant Head Coach role and lead coach of Junior Elite (ages 11-15 Regional through to National). Over his 4-year period in this role Rikki saw many of his swimmers obtain great success at national level and move on to Senior Elite to develop further and have very successful swimming careers.

Rikki also swam to a Junior International level himself. He started his journey at Nuneaton and Bedworth Swimming Club in the Midlands at the age of 5. Rikki swam for Nuneaton and Bedworth from 1995-2006, and during that time he qualified for 10 events at summer nationals every year from the ages of 12-15, and also swam at his first Olympic and Commonwealth trials, before moving to City of Coventry in 2006. After the move to Coventry, Rikki developed his skills and became a more rounded athlete which lead to national and junior international success. He went on to win multiple medals at a national level, and made finals across 10 different events throughout his swimming career. Rikki also represented GB in a number of junior international events, most notably the Commonwealth Youth Games in India in 2008 where he competed in the 50m, 100m, and 200m Backstroke and the 100m Freestyle, making 2 finals, in the 100m Backstroke finishing 7th, and the 200m Backstroke finishing 5th.

Rikki still loves to swim and has competed a number of times since stopping his full-time swim training back in 2014. In his spare time, he really enjoys a good walk/hike and exploring the outdoors.

Niamh joined Mount Kelly in 2023 from Tiger Aquatics Swimming Club, Louisiana, where she spend 18 months as the lead coach of two junior squads and developing age group athletes. Niamh began volunteering for the club in 2020 before accepting a permanent position where she coached and guided a variety of swimmers to State Champion and Zone Championship success.

Niamh attended Mount Kelly as a pupil from 2016-2019 and completed a coaching internship at Mount Kelly from 2018-2019 working with the Prep squad. She went on to study and swim at Louisiana State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree majoring in Journalism paired with a Sports Study minor and represented LSU at the SEC and NCAA championships. Niamh is the current LSU 200 Yard Breaststroke school record holder.

Niamh represented the Isle of Man at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games where she progressed to semi-finals and finals in individual and relay events respectively. She also achieved numerous top 8 rankings over the 9 years she competed at British National competitions and placed top 3 on multiple occasions.