Sam Minster
Head Coach
Lead Squad Coach – Performance Group
Sam has been involved in competitive swimming for over 30 years and swam for Saxon Crown SC at Nationals level in the 1990s. More recently he has been working at Greenwich Royals Swimming Club as a coach and at London Aquatics Centre delivering the Olympic Legacy and working closely with British Swimming.
Currently Sam has the honour to sit along side some of his own mentors on the London Region Events committee for the delivery and success of the London Regional swimming.
In 2016 Sam won both British and European championships in Powerlifting and came second in the world with the WPF/BPO
He has also competed in several semi-professional Cage fights back in the early 2000s and hold 3 martial art black belts.
Emma Savage
Assistant Head Coach
Lead Squad Coach – Competitive Group
Emma first joined Bexley Swimming Club at the age of 8 and has been involved with the club as a swimmer and a coach for the past 28 years. As a swimmer, she competed at County, Regional and National Level for over 10 years. She first qualified for the National Championships in the 100m Butterfly at the age of 13 and went on to compete in National Championships in the following 8 years in the 50m,100m and 200m Butterfly and the 50m and 100m Freestyle. One highlight of her time with Bexley was competing in the 2000 National Championships which doubled as the Olympic Swimming Trials. She moved to swim and study at the University of Bath in 2001 and was fortunate to spend 4 years training at the High Performance Centre with some inspirational swimmers and coaches. In 2003 she lived and trained with the Dresdner SC in Germany for a year, which gave her more insight into different coaching and training techniques. On her return from university, she began coaching at the club, alongside her full-time job as a secondary school teacher. She has continuously coached at the club in some capacity for the past 12 years, while raising her young family.
Dave Laurie
Assistant Head Coach
Lead Squad Coach– Competitive Group
Dave is our Assistant Head Coach and has responsibility for overseeing Academy, Development and Progressive Groups.
Born in Southampton, Dave started swimming with Southampton, then Eastleigh before moving to Portsmouth Northsea Swimming Club as part of their elite group. He swam at National Age Group, Senior National Championships, and at two World Cup meetings in 1998. Dave has a wealth of competitive coaching experience and leading swimming programmes. He coached national and international level swimmers with Eastleigh and Winchester City Penguins before moving to London in 2003. He had been coaching with Saxon Crown (Lewisham) Swimming Club, before joining us in November 2017.
Mick Couzens
Lead Squad Coach – Progressive Group
Mick has been involved in swimming since the age of 8yrs old, and became a national age group freestyle swimmer.
He went on to play Water Polo for Great Britain and coached the Under 16/18 Club Team to become National Champions and produced several international players. After coaching in the UK for several years, he went on to be an age group development and masters coach in Australia for 3yrs and then in Kentucky, USA for a further 3 yrs. He is very much looking forward to helping move BSC forward and enjoys coaching, encouraging and developing the individual talents of our swimmers.
Marina Snelling
Lead Squad Coach – Development Group
Marina has been coaching at Bexley SC for 17 years. Before joining us she also coached at Bromley SC for 6 years and swam as a Master there for 4 years as she also swan competitively in her youth. She Coordinates the ASA Swim England Learn to Swim programme at Sidcup Leisure Centre and through this she is proud to say that they have a good rapport with Bexley SC with children passing through the Learn to Swim programme into Bexley SC. She was made an Honary Member of Bexley SC in 2014 and was very proud to accept it. Marina is very passionate about her teaching and coaching and enjoys passing this on to all her swimmers and hopes that they will enjoy swimming as much as she does and maybe Coach at the club one day themselves.
Amy Rush
Lead Squad Coach – Club Masters (25+) / Club(AA+)
Amy swam competitively for Bexley SC as a child through to her teenage years, reaching County and Regional level and has been associated with the club for 30 years. Amy teaches the ASA ‘Learn to Swim’ programme for Bromley High School and has returned to Bexley to coach our ClubMasters Group. Amy also provides cover for other squads when required.
Honor Woods
Lead Squad Coach – Academy Group
Honor Woods is 17 and is a level 1 coach. She joined Bexley Swimming Club when she was 10, which was late compared to many others. However she quickly improved and reached County level in all strokes. She went onto compete in regional and national events, with her favourite stroke always being breaststroke. Later Honor spent time swimming at Greenwich Royals, where she was lucky enough to train at the London Aquatic Centre every week. Sadly she had to give up competitive swimming, however as well as coaching at Bexley, she also teaches younger children at Farrington’s school. Honor’s favourite part of the job is building relationships with her swimmers and getting them to love swimming too.
League Managers Arena – Sam Minster
Tudor – David Laurie / Sam Minster
KJL – Emma Savage / Sam Minster
All our coaches hold relevant ASA qualifications