The Coaching Team
Director of Swimming: Ron Philpot
After a successful 40 years of coaching where I coached European Junior Champions, over 20 Internationals and National Champions winning Medals at most major Games including Para Olympics. One being Mathew Kidd who swam at the 2000, 2004, 2008 & 2012 Olympics and I was then to become the first coach to have a British male swimmer, to Break the 50 second barrier for the 100m freestyle Long Course.
I was a member of the British Team in both Junior and Senior athletes with the Honour of being Head Coach on several occasions through 1996 – 2004. I have been involved with the Swim England Talent Team for several years whilst being recognised as a well-respected coach throughout my career. Apart from gaining my Olympic Rings the swimming honours I have received were British Junior Coach of the year 1996, and I have also now been included in the BSCTA Hall of Fame.
At the end of 2018 I decided to retire from coaching to take up the position of Director of Swimming at Crawley Swimming Club and pursue a career in educating coaches through their qualifications at all levels. This year I was runner up as Swim England Educator of the year for 2019 another honour, I am extremely proud of.
Going forward as Director of Swimming I hope to help lead the Aquatics programme at Crawley Swimming Club a programme that others will model on, whilst mentoring and guiding the coaches within our club.
Hopefully we can all change the way swimming is organised for the benefit of the Athletes, although we will have to be patient – as I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight.”
Head Coach (HPAG & HPY Squads): Will Philpot
As a former competitive swimmer himself, Head Coach Will Philpot has been involved in the sport for over 25 years, and coaching for over 13 years. He first came to Crawley Swimming Club in 2010 as Head of Junior Development. After some time away pursuing other opportunities as the Head of Swimming at Cranleigh School, Will returned to the club to take on the Head Coach role in 2019.
As a swimmer, Will competed at British National level, and finally hung up his goggles in 2013 after a last arena league performance for Crawley SC. Will has coached swimmers to British, English and Scottish National finals, and English and Scottish National Medals. Will achieved his Senior Coach Certificate (Level 3) in 2017, and is currently working towards his BSc in Sport Fitness and Coaching. Will has experience working with swimmers of all ages and abilities, from learn to swim to masters level. He directly oversees and provides mentoring for other coaches and volunteers across the club.
Outside of his role at Crawley SC, Will has participated as a coach on the Swim England regional talent camps in 2017 and 2018, and the national talent camp in 2019/20.
Want to see Will in action on poolside? Click here to see MIC'D UP, Episode 1
Assistant Head Coach (Junior and Senior Squads): Tom Baxter
Post Graduate Coach - Garry Jones
Coach - Lisa Mickel
Lisa Mickel has been a member of Crawley SC since the age of 12 and swam competitively as a child to Regional standard. In her twenties she balanced swimming with her career in banking but stayed in the water in competitive Life Saving, Representing the UK for a number of years including both European and World competitions and at the age of 25 she received an invitation to Buckingham Palace as part of a celebration of UK sport.
Lisa still swims competitively with Crawley SC Masters including County, Regional, National and European events and has won individual medals at County and also at Nationals as part of a relay team.
As a parent of two swimmers, Lisa felt it was very important to support the development of the Club and has volunteered on many levels including the roles of Welfare Officer, Chair and a member of the Events Committee and has attended many personal development programmes and is a qualified Official J2, qualified Team Manager 2 and is currently also the Club’s Workforce Co-ordinator. Lisa also attended the weeklong swim Camp abroad in 2017 as a Team Manager.
After three years in the role of Chair for Crawley SC, Lisa decided to focus her attention on coaching, something she had always wanted to do. She is now qualified as a Coach (Level 2) and has been spending many hours in 2019 poolside gaining valuable experience by, not only working alongside the Head Coach Will Philpot, but also volunteering as an Assistant or Lead coach for all the other Crawley squads where needed.
Lisa truly believes that swimming is for lifelong participation.