Mark Stowe
Swimming/Sporting Background/Achievements
I learned to swim at age 8 and proved “a natural”, soon swimming competitively in Diddy League for Stratford-upon-Avon. I was pretty successful as a junior, winning County titles and achieving National qualifying times though I struggled a bit through my teenage years, balancing school work and training commitments.
Whilst I swam for three Counties (Warwickshire, Somerset and Wiltshire) my proudest achievements came when I was at the University of Bath where I earned a Full Blue for Swimming, and an Honorary Blue for Contribution to University Sport as the Athletic Union President. I was selected several times for British Universities and represented England students in the home nations gala against Scotland, Ireland & Wales…where incredibly I swam the 200m Butterfly, not my favourite event, I was much more of a 50/100m swimmer!
I quickly fell into coaching when I left University and enjoyed successful spells as Head Coach at Melksham and then Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire where we got so close (1 point) to being the first team to wrestle the Winter League away from Swindon Tigersharks!
This is my second spell at Worcester, having originally coached here when I briefly moved to the area with work in the 1990s. I fell in love with the Club then, encouraged by the likes of Andy MacBeth and Malcolm Latta who are still helping out today!
To my mind, we blend competitive success and a community / family oriented ethos brilliantly and it is my privilege to be Head Coach, now on a full-time basis having given up my “proper” job with Lloyds TSB a few years ago…and no, I didn’t cause the Credit Crunch!
I believe the Club still has untapped potential… we are lucky to have significant water time so I would encourage all the Club’s swimmers to be ambitious and train smart/hard/often so that they can achieve their potential.
My greatest wish is to see the Club develop a World Class swimmer, the next Rebecca Adlington or Liam Tancock who will inspire future generations!
Favourite stroke
To swim – Butterfly, it feels so good…until the wheels come off!?!
To coach – Breaststroke, highly technical with lots of different styles
Favourite training set
For endurance:
10 x 100, 1 x 125, 1 x 75
8 x 100, 1 x 125, 1 x 75
6 x 100, 1 x 125, 1 x 75
4 x 100, 1 x 125, 1 x 75
2 x 100, 1 x 125, 1 x 75
* all F/C with 100/125/75 all off the same turnaround times
* 100’s at Threshold pace, 125’s max, 75’s recovery
* total 4K
For race pace:
either broken 100’s (50/25/25) or 200’s (75/50/75) on No.1 Stroke aiming to beat PB!
3 things you couldn’t do without
1. Pizza
2. Red wine
3. Nysha (not necessarily in that order though!?!
If you won the lottery what would you do?
I would still coach…despite frequently saying “I hate swimmers”, it’s most definitely only in jest because working with the team of athletes and coaches that I do on a day in day out basis is the most rewarding / satisfying job in the world.
I would take a few more holidays though as I love to travel… and there is so much of this wonderful world we live on that I haven’t seen yet.