COACHES

COACHING STAFF

Samantha Lomax

Head Coach

Although Sam did partake in lots of gymnastics when she was younger her chosen sport was as a trampolinist and a swimmer. She discovered a real love for gym when after having three boys that climbed up door frames and taught themselves to backflip from the sofa, she signed them up at the local gymnastics centre. She started to help out in classes, and within a couple of years took exams to become a fully qualified coach and then after further training became the Head of the Pre School unit.

Having spent 7 years coaching, Sam wanted all children within schools to have the opportunity to partake in gym classes learning skills they would learn if they were in a gymnastics centre. She truly believes that every child deserves the best so she set up ‘the little gymnastics company’ – a mobile gymnastics club that brings quality accessible lessons into schools.

Sam and her team now teach breakfast, lunchtime and after school clubs in 18 local schools and she also teaches gymnastics in curriculum PE lessons backed by the recent government sports funding.

Sam believes one of her biggest strengths as a coach is having children that are gymnasts. She understands the frustrations and upsets that sometimes come a gymnasts way, and being the Mum of Freddie, our local GB tumbler and two other boys that have been high level gymnasts, she can understand and empathise with the amount of time, money and dedication the sport sometimes demands.

Sam is obviously really proud of all that her three boys have achieved as gymnasts, but is just as proud of the children that she teaches.

Mark Gorringe

Senior Coach

Mark is a hugely important member of the team and we’re so pleased to have him on board. The proud Dad to two boys Mark has been the Head Coach at two previous clubs but took a step back to spend precious time with his boys. Mark is qualified in many disciplines – General Gymnastics, Pre School, Sports Acro, Men’s Artistic and Disability Gymnastics and has been coaching for 25 years. As a gymnast himself he has traveled the world as part of a well known display team and competed in the Great Britain Team Gym Squad in Portugal coming 4th. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience and we feel privileged he’s bringing that to Allegro. The children here absolutely adore him, he has a fantastic way of bringing fun to everything he does and making every child he teaches feel special.

Kim Johnson

ACRO / Pre-School Coach

Kimbo has been a gymnastics coach for over 15 years having retired as a gymnast at the age of 15. She has competed in both Women’s Artistic gymnastics and Sports Acrobatics, winning the title of London Regional champion in both a women’s pair and a women’s trio. She has travelled the country and performed as a member of the elite ‘Sharks’ display team and her strength for choreographing displays and routines will be a huge asset at Allegro. As a mum of two small children Kim brings a certain kindness to the children she teaches and we are so delighted she’ll be heading up a Pre school unit for us as teaching the babies and stars of our future is Kim’s absolute passion.

Anna Lavelle

Women’s Artistic Coach

Anna is an ex gymnast that has brought so much to the club and the squad over the past year. She competed in many competitions when she was younger as a Women’s Artistic gymnast having been a gymnast at a local club for many years. She is a qualified Women’s Artistic coach and has shown a great deal of responsibility and commitment to both the squad and the recreational gymnasts at our club. She is a highly regarded member of the team and we love having her on board. Anna is hoping to become a fire fighter having completed her A levels before the Summer but she will still continue to coach on a part time basis.

Grace Logan

Women’s Artistic Coach

Grace has taken part in gymnastics for many years in both a squad and recreational capacity. She has a natural ability with the gymnasts and whilst working in our recreational classes she showed a real flair with our Women’s Artistic squad so was offered the opportunity to work with them during their Thursday sessions. She also managed to squeeze in her WA coaching course before leaving us to complete her degree at university. Grace lives locally and so so will always be part of the club and we look forward to seeing her at Club Competitions in her role as a qualified judge and in Summer courses and occasional sessions.

Richard Carter

GG Coach

Rich really enjoys teaching all ages of children at Allegro, but has taken a particular enjoyment to teaching our tumbling groups. An ex gymnast himself, who represented Great Britain at the Eurogym Festival in Germany, he brings a natural leadership and ability to Allegro, constantly thinking up ways to help gymnasts achieve having huge technical knowledge of all of the skills the children are learning. Rich competed in Men’s Artistic gymnastics from a young age where he reached the National finals and represented London. He then transferred into Sports Acro and went onto be part of a ‘Men’s Four’. Having achieved that fantastic title he retired from competing to concentrate on his family, and his son is now also part of our club. Rich, a fully qualified coach loves to teach the girls and boys some cool tumbles and tricks and the children adore him.

Charlotte Smith

General Gymnastics Coach

Charlotte is one of our main Recreational coaches having just completed her coaching qualification. She has the gentlest nature and has a natural, kind and calm way with our gymnasts which is why she is loved so much. Charlotte started with us as a gymnast and has matured into the loveliest most responsible young lady and we feel really privileged to have her in our classes as a coach. She is studying for her A levels this year but will continue to teach in her regular classes and support us in our termly events.

Sofia Casali

Level 1 Coach

Sofia has been part of our club for three years now in a coaching capacity. She started as a junior coach, bringing all of her knowledge and expertise as a high level Acro gymnast to our classes, and now as a level 1 General Gymnastics coach she has a much more predominant role in our rec classes as the gymnasts adore her. She’s an absolute asset to our club, she gives her absolute best in every class and we are going to do all that we can to stop her going to Uni so that she can stay with us forever!

Alicia Garrett

WA Coach

Alicia competed as a gymnast at Elite level from the age of 7 to 15. She competed at many competitions reaching up to regional level with the particular achievements of highest score on bars and placing 2nd overall, as well as being awarded the Jack Petchy award for gymnastics. Alicia has represented Great Britain at the well known ‘Gymstrada’ event in Switzerland and has loved being part of her gymnastics display team. She qualified as a level 1 Women’s Artistic coach last year and is currently studying Biology, Psychology and PE at A level with hopes to study physiotherapy at University. We are thrilled to have her on the team at Allegro, she has a love for all things gymnastics and with her knowledge of display and Artistic gymnasts she is a huge asset.

Emma Young

Level 1 Coach

Emma is also an ex gymnast who competed at the British Finals in her chosen discipline of Sports Acro. Emma has absolutely flourished as a coach in the time she has been with us and the children she teaches absolutely adore her. She teaches from pre school through to squads and her gentle calm nature brings something special to the groups she coaches. She has completed his first coaching qualification and loves all aspects of gym in the classes that she is in. We hope she’ll stay at our club and part of the team for a very long time to come.

Natasha Flin

Level 1 Coach

Tash brings tons of life and soul to Allegro! An ex Women’s Artistic gymnasts she is an absolute bundle of enthusiasm and energy and the older gymnasts often ask to be taught by her. Tash also teaches in all of our Pre School classes and has a natural gentle ability with our little gymnasts, she’s a huge asset to the club. Although Tash is now enrolled at university, she is still a huge part of the club and will continue to teach when she can and attend all of our termly Allegro events.

Grace Dalton

General Gymnastics Coach

Grace is an ex cheerleader who progressed into gymnastics via her love of tumbling skills and teamwork. She helps to coach our advanced girl groups as well as our recreational classes after taking her General Gymnastics coaching qualification. She is currently sitting her A levels before moving to university although she has promised us that she will always be part of the team and will return regularly to support our termly events and Summer courses while also squeezing in a few coaching sessions during the week! Grace is the loveliest gentle coach and the gymnasts adore her.

Niamh Tsang

Niamh has been a fantastic gymnast since she was tiny and competed nationally as a tumbler. She is now an amazing cheerleader and is looking forward to not only taking over our tumbling squad but bringing some cheerleading moves and tricks to the gymnasts. Her lovely gentle nature brings that something special to the classes and she has very quickly become one of the children’s favourite coaches. Niamh is also hoping to be able to come and teach in some of our new Pre school classes too, and we know she will be a huge asset.

JUNIOR COACHES

We are really fortunate to have so many brilliant Junior Coaches. These coaches are a huge part of our club, they all complete a Junior coaching course with British Gymnastics to enable them to help within the classes and usually all of our JC’s go on to become the level 1’s and 2’s that help to run our recreational classes so they are hugely important. Most are ex gymnasts and dancers, which is fabulous for our younger, and older gymnasts as they have a brilliant knowledge of the skills they are teaching having learnt them themselves.

Our current Junior Coaches are –

Megan Carr, Annie Poulton, Amelia King, Dia Bhandari, Ellie Smith, Imogen Spear, Holly Kibblewhite, Bella Ahmed, Shivali Prashar, Olivia Huntingford, Eve Ellis, Grace Clark and Mahi Gupta.

Harriet Buckingham

Club Photographer

Harriet has been our club photographer for many years now and has supported us as a club with the most beautiful photographs. She comes into our classes once a year to shoot the children in their environment and her wonderful professional nature produces the most beautiful images that parents can purchase for friends and family. We can’t recommend her enough, many of our prints can be seen on her website –

https://buckinghamphotography.co.uk

VOLUNTEERS

We are very lucky to have a great team of people that support us and the club, if you would like to come on board and help we would love to hear from you.
Drop us an email at AllegroGC@yahoo.com