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.
