Chris Stothard
I started off in coaching as many do, as a young lane assistant still swimming competitively for my local club City of Wakefield SC up north. I had always enjoyed helping on poolside, but it was when I moved to the nearby University of Leeds that I realised coaching was a passion of mine. During my first 2 years of studying, whilst still competing for the University team I became an assistant coach at both Wakefield SC and with the for the university. In September 2014, I ventured out of Yorkshire and down to Basildon on a placement year and I started my first stint under the watchful eye of Doug and the excellent coaching staff at BPSC as lead coach for Gold 2.
At the end of the season, I returned back to university to complete my studies. Keen to stay on poolside, I had the opportunity to be a lead coach with the university performance team working with the Sprint group, before becoming Head Coach of Performance Swimming in January 2016. Over the next two seasons, the team had its most successful period to date, breaking 73 University Records and placing 6th at the BUCS Team Championships in both years against the likes of Loughborough, Bath and Stirling. It also gave me the opportunity to coach at a national level, both in the UK and abroad, with swimmers achieving national qualifying rankings in the UK, and winning national titles abroad.
Having graduated in the summer of 2017, I moved back down to Essex for a graduate role with FMC at Dunton Technical Centre, and jumped at the chance to once again work the Doug and the rest of the BPSC coaching team. I lead the Silver 1 squad, where you will often see me either being overly enthusiastic during fast sets, or doing some rather strange looking demonstrations to confused looking swimmers!
Chris
