About

ETC is an organisation that is focused upon developing the skill-sets of athletes and coaches in the throwing disciplines.

Our group of subject matter experts have hundreds of collective years of expertise in throwing, athletics and a number of professional sports environments including rugby, football, bobsleigh, rugby league, dressage, american football, boxing and more.

Our experts share and collaborate with ETC clients in fun, inclusive, informative and in-depth sessions.  As many of our clients attend multiple camps they are not only designed to provide a good grounding in topic matter they also act as springboards for onward progression outside the camp or check-ins.  Alongside regular contact sessions and “phone a friend” support this helps drive a long term development in our athlete and coach clients.

What we Do

We deliver quality education and tuition sessions on the following topics:

  • Technique for Hammer, Shot, Discus and Javelin
  • Physical Preparation
  • Psychology of Competing
  • Planning and Organising
  • Nutrition and Health
  • Coaching Skills

 

We provide education and tuition through various different formats.  These include:

  • Residential Camps
  • Warm Weather Camps
  • Focus Days
  • 1-2-1 & Group In-Person Sessions
  • Video Analysis
  • Remote Support Sessions

Our Team

Rob Thickpenny

Rob is an experienced strength and conditioning coach with a demonstrated history of working in elite sport for 17 years. He has provided performance solutions to international athletes, professional rugby players, professional squash players and international dressage riders. A former England Athletics National Coach Mentor for Physical Preparation where he led  a world class programme of coach and athlete development across all events, with more focus on speed-power disciplines. Rob coached and supported athletes who competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. He is experienced at working as part of an inter-disciplinary team which includes sports coaches, physiotherapists and sports physicians and nutritionists. Rob holds an honours degree in Sports Science from Brunel University and is a level 3 performance coach in jumps.

Gary  Herrington

Gary was a national standard discus thrower for 20+ years gaining international honours for GB and England on 3 occasions. He was the British Police Champion 15 times and as well as winning the European and World Police Championships. As a masters athlete, Gary won the World M40 Masters title in 2001.

Gary has now been coaching all the heavy throws for over 20 years and has coached athletes at all levels from complete beginner to Olympic. A number of his athletes have broken British records and achieved medals in national championships. Gary was the National Coach for discus for 2 years and a leading member of the NCDP Programme. He’s also mentored many coaches whose athletes have gone on to achieve national representation themselves.

Mark Chapman

Has been coaching athletics for over 30 years, mainly throwing and some multi-events. In that time has coached multiple English Schools champions and medallists and taken athletes to 5 world and European Junior Championships, reaching finals with most, and also 3 Commonwealth Youth medallists.

Is an academic at university leading on Sports Science programmes with a specialism in Biomechanics and Strength & Conditioning. Has presented at multiple athletic and sports science conferences and has published his research in many journals.

Stuart Carlaw

Stuart is a shot and discus coach based in Northamptonshire.  He is a former member of the National Coach Development Program and is currently a member of the British Athletics Futures Programme.

Stuart held team coach positions for a number of England and GB teams in 2019. He has delivered a number of Shot Masterclasses for England Athletics and has a B.Sc in Sports Science.

In 2019 Athletes coached by Stuart achieved 16 national medals, 8 national titles, a top 8 European finish and 2 national records in both Shot Put and Discus.

David Turner

David is the lead throws coach at Loughborough university and is a javelin specialist and coaches current Paralympic, Commonwealth and three time World champion Hollie Arnold MBE. David is also a team coach on Great Britain and England teams.

David has delivered a  number of masterclasses for England Athletics and is heavily involved with promoting the future of javelin in the UK through initiatives such as the Javelin carnival and arranging masterclasses from international superstars such as Thomas Rohler.

Kelly Bramhald

Kelly is a javelin coach and sports massage therapist for the athletics team at Loughborough University, having previously graduated with a degree in Sports Science.

Kelly was also a javelin thrower for over a decade, and competed at a national level after overcoming two shoulder surgeries, with a best throw of 49.56m.

She also has helped deliver numerous British Athletics / England Athletics and Loughborough University javelin, functional movement and mobility workshops.