About the Team
Our team this year are all very experienced coaches who are starting to be recognised for their success both at national and international level. All members of the coaching team are part of the National Coach Mentoring Scheme which is sponsored by England Athletics and is designed to support the development of the best UK endurance coaches. This shows our commitment to providing the very best of the new generation of coaches to support the development of our young athletes.
Richard Pickering
Has been coaching athletics for the last 10 years and working with Full Potential for the last 4. As a late arrival into the sport, Richard is still competing, all be it at a moderate club standard, but his true passion lies in coaching. He works with both adults and young athletes, many of them on a 1-1 basis professionally as well as in the traditional club style. Until recently he coached a group of U20 athletes at Epsom and Ewell, which included several county athletes and one who has represented England. However, he has recently moved to Essex where he has started with a new group at Havering Mayesbrook AC.
Richard also works part time for John Lewis in their head office learning and development function so brings with him a real breadth of experience and passion for training event design and delivery, coaching and the development of others.
Charlotte Fisher
Having been a keen athlete herself, Charlotte turned her attention to coaching where she has developed a strong endurance group in the West Country at Taunton AC. The group includes Naomi Taschimowitz, who recently came second in the European Cross Country Championships U23 race in Slovenia. Charlotte is well known for developing and getting the best out of young athletes.
Deborah Steer
Still one of the leading female distance runners in her age category, Deborah has transferred this talent well to coaching. She has steadily built up a large and successful endurance group at St Albans, which includes, amongst others, English National champion and UK fastest U17 1500m champion James McMurray
David Chalfen
An experienced runner and coach who ran a very respectable 2.36 for the marathon before turning his attention to coaching. He coaches a large training group in North London which includes members of the Serpentine running club and some elite female marathoners. He has coached to international level and is currently the area coach mentor for North London, Herts and Essex as far as Chelmsford. He was recently team manager for the England marathon team in Denmark and has been Team Manager for many other elite British and African marathon runners.
Kyle Bennett
A talented hurdler whose career was cut short due to injuries. However the track’s loss has been coaching’s gain as he has built up considerable coaching experience at a relatively young age. He now forms a key part of the endurance coaching team at Marshall MK. He is also a fully qualified Sports scientist and a strength and conditioning advisor to the Football Association
Stella Bandu
Has considerable experience of coaching young athletes. She is involved with the "On Camp with Kelly" project, which includes several residential get-togethers and educational camps of up to four weeks. She has also been part of the coaching team at the London Marathon supported young athletes camp at St Mary's for a number of years as well as being part of GB Team management. In addition to coaching and mentoring, she also delivers workshops on topics such as planning, getting yourself organised and pre race preparation.
Craig Pickering
Craig will openly admit to never having been a competing athlete but is a keen cricket player and golfer. He takes interest in most sports and is a big athletics fan, although much of it is from his armchair! As a teacher, Craig brings over 20 years’ experience of working with children to this camp where he will look after pastoral care.
Richard says
"I am so excited about the training camp this year. We have a great team and I’m sure we will have some fantastic young athletes who will make this a most memorable camp. I am absolutely committed to the development of young athletes and believe that part of our role is to educate and support athletes to help them to be the best they can be but also for them to begin the journey of taking responsibility for their own development and training. The camp of 2012 will be significant in itself, but what could be more inspirational than to be followed almost immediately by the London Olympics!"
All the members of the team have experience in the education system as school teachers or assistants, or are Coaches or help within athletics clubs. All our staff are CRB checked and approved. The team of Coaches and staff at our young athlete camps are committed, professional and passionate about developing young athletes’ skills, knowledge and potential.
