In October 2019, after spending 15 years working with Great Britain’s best Olympians, I made the decision to leave the UK High Performance System and begin working for myself. There were two main reasons for this. The first was wanting to spend more time with my young family. I realised it was becoming ever more difficult to be present at home and was missing the small things which, for me, were the things I would never get back again, such as festive productions, or simply taking the girls to school in the morning. 

The second was something I had been yearning for, for several years prior to setting up business on my own. That was to provide the learning opportunities that I was involved in developing and delivering within the boundaries of the UK High Performance System, to those without the privilege of access to them.

I had spent five years as Head of Strength and Conditioning at the English Institute of Sport (EIS), followed by two years as Head of Learning. During this time, I was responsible for the growth, development, support, governance, and safeguarding of practice firstly of the strength and conditioning team of 60+ coaches working across 35+ sports, and latterly for the entire 400+ staff at the EIS. The systematic support and development of those I was responsible for was one of the most fulfilling parts of my roles and is one of the most important reasons I choose to continue working within these areas now. 

During my time at the EIS, I’d come to realise that the learning opportunities within the system that I had developed were not accessible to those on the outside, despite being equally as applicable to them. I was conflicted for a couple of years with this tension between what is available for the few, and the lack of support for the many. 

It was also clear there was an increasing skills and experience gap between those graduating and those working with athletes or clients for the first time. This is not the fault of any institution or organisation but simply the reality of the fast-moving progression of the industry over the last 20 years. In 2019, I realised that if I was to have a chance of changing this, I would need to step away from the comfort of employment within the UK High Performance System. I would need to actively set about the democratising of knowledge and experiences around the technical and non-technical development of strength and conditioning coaches, as well as allied support staff. 

This is why Strength and Conditioning Academy was born, with one simple mission: To provide credible, accessible, and affordable solutions to support individuals with their personal development. 

We do this through the use of my experiences and knowledge gathered over the last 20 years. I have led the design, development, and delivery of each of the EIS’s flagship practitioner programmes. I am trained and experienced facilitator, coach educator and mentor. This allows me to take a global view of learning and development while also understanding the granular detail required to genuinely support the growth and development of others. My sincere hope is that this ethos comes through in Strength and Conditioning Academy’s support of you.