Let me tell you a little about myself, I am 27 I live in Berkshire and Oxfordshire I started skating when I was 8 years old just for fun. My Mum tried to persuade me to not skate as she had skated in her teens and knew all the consequences!
But being 8 years old I wanted to SKATE and so I was enrolled in the Saturday morning beginner classes which I whizzed through!
Having shown great promise I was then taken on by an Ice skating coach in Oxford for private lessons for which I had to skate very early mornings, evenings, weekends you name it I skated it!
By the age of 13 I was in my first British Junior Championships which is quite an achievement.
At the age of 16 I developed an injury to the Achilles tendon and was forced to have physiotherapy most days and was out of the sport for nearly a year.
When I was able to return I moved to Swindon to train with one of the best coaches who at the time was training champions. I then qualified for the Senior Championships and ranked top 15, then top 10 then top 6 I never made it to the top 3 as I retired in September 2001which was really too early as I would have been in for a good chance of a medal but my Injury was causing me issues as the problem had never really gone away.
I have over 50 trophies and medals a few from 1st in the Scottish championships, 2nd in the Irish Championships and 3rd in the French Nationals.
To come 3rd in the French nationals was a great feeling as well as an astronomical achievement as I was competing along side world and Olympic standard skaters!
I also went off to skating school in Norway for 3 weeks to train with the best coaches from Russia which was a brilliant experience and from which I gained an international flavour of the sport.
I also found that I have a natural aptitude for choreography as I knew how to move to music and made all my programs up myself.
I took some time out from 2001 to 2005 after my retirement but I missed the sport so much that I decided to take my NCCP 1 coaching course. I passed this within 9 months and then went on to take my NCCP 2 coaching exam which I passed after doing the course for 3 months. So I am now a fully qualified ice skating coach level 2.
I am using this site for people see what I have done in my past, my qualifications and my abilities before they decide to take lessons with me.
One day I would like to coach in the US and mirror the world class coaches so I can bring back some new ideas for the future ice skating athletes of GB (which of course I intend to be training).
Thanks for taking time to read, and I look forward to teaching you to skate.