Sports Coaching BSc (Hons)

Dr Christian Edwards

Christian is a Principal Lecturer in Sports Coaching Science and the Course Leader for the sports coaching degree pathway, and leads on sociological, psychological and research methods modules within the school’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Christian also coordinates the final year independent research project for all sports coaching and physical education degree pathways.

Michelle Morgan

Michelle Morgan joined the University of Worcester School of Sport and Exercise Science full-time in 2011, after fulfilling a number of part-time roles within the School during both her undergraduate and MSc studies. Michelle has a range of experiences in sports coaching (both in the UK and USA) with a Netball specialism as a UKCC Level 3 coach. In her role as a Senior Lecturer for the BSc (Hons) Sports Coaching Science degree, Michelle uses her industry and academic experiences to support and develop students’ understanding of the demands of the sporting industry, including the skills and qualities needed to be employable.  

Dr Jennifer Joyce

Dr Jennifer Joyce is the course leader for the Sport and Exercise Science course and her passion lies in nurturing the talents and aspirations of her students to ensure they reach their full potential. She is deeply committed to supporting students in their personal and professional growth and enjoys supporting students to develop the resilience needed to succeed in their academic journey.

David Mycock

David consults and researches in the field of coaching science and coaches externally in elite level football. He has helped evolve the game of blind futsal and is a qualified FA Tutor. David is the Head Coach of Worcester Blind FC and has previously coached the England and Great Britain Blind Futsal teams at major tournaments, and is currently the Head Coach of the Czech Republic National Blind Football team.

David has a variety of NGB Awards and as an ex-professional football player is a member of the Professional Footballers Association. His role at the University has grown since 2006 and he is now the Link Tutor for the SSES Partnership programmes with Masaryk University in the Czech Republic.

Alexandru Radu

Alexandru Radu joined the School of Sport and Exercise Science in May 2010 after lecturing at Northumbria University, where he gained an MSc in Sport Management UK/European and the APT Award (Applauding and Promoting Teaching Award). As well as teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, Alex is actively involved in coaching basketball – Romania Women National Team, Romania U20 Women National Team, Worcester Wolves (BBL) men team, Cardiff Archers (WBBL) women team and Wales U18 Men's National Team are amongst some of the teams he coached (as either Head Coach or Assistant Coach).

The books Basketball Coaching - Putting Theory into Practice (2015); The Science of Basketball (2018) and Basketball: Skills, Drills and Session Plans (Technical Drills for Competitive Training) (2023) are three of his key publications.

Professor Don Vinson

Don's specialist area is sport coaching. He is driven by balancing his roles as teacher, researcher and practitioner, applying his expertise in learning and pedagogic theory to all areas of his work. Don has written extensively in the area of sport coaching, performance analysis, leadership and higher education pedagogy. In particular, his recent research focuses on Coach Developer learning through the perspective of Landscapes of Practice in various contexts.

Don is a member of the International Council for Coach Education (ICCE) Research Committee, founder-member and Secretary of the Cluster for Research into Coaching (CRiC) Executive Board and is the UK representative for the International Advisory Board for the Teaching Games for Understanding Special Interest Group. Don is currently the Lead for the Coach Developer and Performance Analyst Research Group.

Don has worked with a large number of National Governing Bodies (NGBs) including the Football Association, Europe Netball, British Cycling, British Gymnastics, British Rowing and the British Equestrian Federation. Don has also consulted for many influential bodies within the sport sector such as UK Sport, UK Coaching and the League Managers’ Association.

Don is passionate about most sports and, in addition to hockey, can also be regularly found playing squash, badminton and golf.

Dr Julia West

Julia West has a keen interest in sport and performance. She played football for a number of years in the Women's premiership as goalkeeper for different clubs and earned her England University caps against America, Scotland and Wales.

As a keeper, Julia's perspective on football may be slightly different, if not interesting and she is happy to discuss this with all comers. Julia read her BSc in Sport from Brunel University, where she also successfully achieved an MSc in Sports Coaching. Having completed her PhD in situational motivation, which arose from observations within her goalkeeper coaching, Julia has now turned her attention to all things goalkeeper related. 

Craig Williams

Craig is an engaging and innovative teaching practitioner who blends learning and applied experiences to develop student employability, both during and after their studies.

His extensive network has led to a range of interesting placement and job opportunities for students at the University.

Craig is passionate about most sports, and in his words, still attempts to play football and cricket when the body allows! 

Dr John Francis

Drawing on his wealth of applied performance analysis practice and his emerging research portfolio, Dr John Francis is passionate about enhancing the learning and employability opportunities for all undergraduate and post-graduate performance analysis students. He has provided performance analysis support to a variety of teams during eight European Championships, four World Championships, two World Cups and a Paralympic Games as part of his ongoing applied performance analysis work. Producing impactful and insightful research that informs future practice is important to his research interests and is particularly proud of how his work is shaping the future of performance analysis and the role of the analyst.

Mike Bateman

After accepting that being a professional footballer wasn’t his destiny, Mike did the next best thing and forged a career as performance analyst in professional football. Working at the top of the elite level, Mike’s experiences have included both first team and academy positions, helping to develop and support some of the world best players. Now he uses those experiences to guide the next generation of practitioners, focusing on the application of theory into practice through engaging, innovative teaching practices.

Richard Pepperell

Richard is an experienced PE teacher and sports lecturer and joined the University of Worcester in 2017. He has been working in education since 2002 and is the Course Leader for PE and Sports Coaching at Worcester since 2018.

He continues to work in rugby coaching, as a standards verifier for Pearson’s suite of PE and Sport BTEC programmes, an external examiner at two other institutions and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Chris Hughes

Chris completed his undergraduate degree in Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University in 1995 specialising in Biomechanics and Notational Analysis, and stayed in Liverpool to progress to a teaching assistantship and eventually completing an MPhil in The Effects of Forefoot Morphology on the Kinetics and Kinematics of Locomotion. From Liverpool he moved to the University of Gloucester before settling in Worcester. Prior to his career in Sports Science he completed a degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Southampton University, which explains his interest in the mechanical aspects of sport, from not only the body but through to the testing machinery and the equipment used.