Strength & Conditioning Coach
ASCA Level 1 Strength & Conditioning Coach
Main interests: Swimmers, rugby and field sport athletes, youth athlete development, strength and power development, return to performance, and getting athletes back to doing what they love.
S&C Coach to TSS Aquatics, Queensland Academy of Sport and St Hilda’s Aquatics. Contributing coach to Paralympic qualifications and a World Record at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
I grew up in Maroubra, Sydney, in a family that revolved around sport and the surf. The oldest of four kids, we each had our own sporting pursuits, but swimming was the one thing we all shared. Mum had represented Australia in the sport and Dad was Head Coach and Manager of Cranbrook Eastern Edge Swimming Club, so the pool was never far away. What Mum drilled into all of us was simple: hard work is how you get what you want, whether in school, sport, or life. Dad balanced that with perspective. He pushed us hard but was equally quick to pull us back when we needed rest or had schoolwork to catch up on. My fondest memories are of the autumn months in Yamba with my grandparents, barefoot around town, hours in the surf, time just melting away.
Through school I always said I wanted to follow in Dad’s footsteps and coach swimming. That evolved as my love for learning grew in my final years, and the two together pointed me toward sport science. Physiotherapy was my first instinct but I chose a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science at ACU deliberately, wanting the full picture before committing to a lane. Starting university brought a strange and frustrating period in my swimming. My training times were consistently faster than what I could produce on race day and I couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t until two years after I stopped competing, sitting through a sport psychology module, that I finally understood. The pressure I was placing on myself was causing my muscles to tighten and cramp, producing unusual fatigue mid-race. Performance anxiety had been quietly dismantling my racing for years without me having the language to name it. That realisation fundamentally shaped how I think about the athlete in front of me, not just their body, but what they’re carrying into the session. Around the same time I discovered strength training and found something I loved, the honest and unambiguous feedback it gives you. A door was closing on my swimming and another was opening. I walked through it and never looked back.
A childhood friend invited me to complete placement hours with an AON Rugby Sevens squad she was coaching. From the first session I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I stayed in rugby and eventually became Head of Rehabilitation and Head S&C Coach for the Women’s Sevens and XVs program at Randwick. Alongside that I moved into a full-time S&C role at Scots College, where working with young athletes cemented something I now consider central to how I coach: confidence is a trainable output, and building genuine competence in a young athlete changes everything about how they move, compete, and see themselves. For a period both environments were exactly what I wanted, high standards, great teams, and work that felt meaningful. Over time though, both organisations began moving in directions I didn’t want to be part of, and I was missing out on my family, including my sister welcoming her third baby. The decision to move to the Gold Coast was straightforward.
For the first time since I was 16 I had no job and no team around me, so I enrolled in a Graduate Diploma of Strength and Conditioning, picked up a casual learn-to-swim role at St Hilda’s, and started my own business. What I didn’t expect was that stepping back into the pool environment would bring together the two things closest to me. The sport I had grown up in and the craft I had spent my career building. Off the back of that teaching role I was recruited to deliver S&C for the national swimming squad, including three para-athletes within the program, a chapter that culminated in contributing to two Paralympic qualifications and a World Record at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games with athlete Alexa Leary. I eventually moved into a full-time position at St Hilda’s as both a Junior Swimming Coach and Head of S&C, but despite the quality of the work I felt isolated, without a team to push against and be pushed by. I resigned without another role lined up.
Leaving without a plan didn’t worry me as much as I expected. Britt and I had already worked together on some interesting cases and I had genuinely valued having someone to think through problems with again. When I left she offered me a position at MyGCPhysio, and it didn’t take much deliberation. I had spent enough time at the Burleigh clinic to know this place was different. The standard of care, the way staff spoke with their clients, it stood out. What I’m most looking forward to is bringing everything I’ve learned across swimming, rugby, youth development, and para-sport into an environment that’s actually built to use it, and being part of a team that’s genuinely invested in getting outcomes right.
