Meet our head coach – Steve

Steve has been Spencer’s Head Coach for 7 years, but returned to swimming himself this year following a serious shoulder injury.  He has been a keen swimmer since he swam for Camden Swiss at club, county, region, national schools and national level, when his favourite event was 100m fly.  He joined Spencer in 1986 because his coach thought that coach Dave Mace would improve his fly!  Steve has recently discovered open water, and now trains outside in the lakes and at Tooting Lido. He loves “the air, the scenery, the company and the cake”, and even claims to have enjoyed swimming in Lulworth Cove in November.  With three 10k swims under his belt this year, and also the 110 length challenge at Tooting, he is now planning for the Mediterranean (Europe to Africa) crossing next year, a channel relay and perhaps another go at Hellespont (Europe to Asia) where he won a bronze 5 years ago.  Steve is also a serious water polo player, holding a  Commonwealth medal and having won every single water polo event in the country at Age Group and Senior level.  In the pool,  Steve was once the GB record winner of British Championships with eight wins but pool swimming is not without its embarrassing moments – such as getting disqualified on the blocks for not “taking your marks quickly enough” and at Sheffield this year for not being able to get down to grab the block for the track start.  Steve is a well-known member of the swimming community, having been London Region President of the ASA, and has lots of friends in the swimming world.  As our coach, he is famous for his fly sets and his awful jokes (Steve thinks they are good!), but expects swimmers to turns up on time and engage and  listen to instruction and direction.

2 Comments

Leave a Reply