Coach Profile: Rob Partridge

Coaching Focus (Community, Development or Performance)
Development/Performance

Qualified since
2009

Last CPD Course With Year
Safeguarding and Protecting Children

Coaching Rates Group Individual


My Coaching Philosophy
My coaching philosophy is about having trust, honesty, and integrity. As a coach, you trust the athlete will do what you recommend, however this should not be done without the ability to question, as trust and honesty work both ways. The athlete must be able to trust you and your decision making and feel comfortable that they can question decisions or an approach. They should be able to trust that you will be honest and mindful and to give their opinion the thought that it deserves. And so, there should be relevance and ownership, an athlete should know why they are being asked to carry out a task, as well as have input into what they are doing. The athlete should have a positive learning environment with a view to long term development and wellbeing.
Potential and ability are in every individual to reach and discover, I coach because when those discoveries are made, it is priceless. It is also being able to understand the complexity of sport, the entwined relationship of the technical, tactical, physical, and mental skills that are required, and that as a technical coach and a strength and conditioning coach, I have a role in helping an athlete with some of that understanding and to help them embrace it. To aid the athlete in recognising that it is the incremental gains required to reach their personal goals, which may at first seem very distant, to help them realise that they can be achieved, and to manage expectations if they are a little out of reach. Every athlete will have different aspects of a sport which they find problematic, therefore, the challenge and joy of coaching is to help find the key to unlock that aspect. Lastly, I believe that we should empower athletes to be independent, resilient, and resourceful, and to ask searching questions of themselves and their coaches.
Rob has been involved in fencing for over thirty years both as a competitive fencer and a coach. He trained under Professor Alf Simmonds for the first year then moved to Salle Frohlich where he trained with the then GB team fresh from the 92 Olympics as well as other top seniors, juniors, and cadets of the time. He is a former national champion (team) and was consistently ranked in the top eight of the senior rankings, fencing for England and Great Britain at national and international events.
As a coach he has worked alongside Ian Williams at Camden FC, where they had great success and produced national champions at cadet and junior level, he was a lead coach for the National Academy, former GB coach to the cadets, travelling to all international competitions, including World and European championships, with athletes finishing in the top ten. Former athletes include Jonathan Webb, who is now the current Commonwealth champion, as well as the success he had while working at MX, helping Phil to get cadet athletes qualified to represent Team GB. He holds a Level 3 Sabre coaching qualification, a degree in Strength and Conditioning Sports Science, a Level 3 in Sports Massage, and is starting a master’s degree in Sports Nutrition.