COACH CATCH UP is an ongoing blog series we’ve created to be able to highlight different amateur sports team coaches, and talk one-on-one with them to hear about their story and coaching experience. Here, we had the pleasure of speaking with Coach George Swinburne, PE Teacher and Rugby Coach at Northcote Lodge in London.
Where the love for sport started
George Swinburne is one of the most passionate coaches and educators we’ve spoken to so far. Starting at the beginning, he took us through how he originally got into sport as a kid. At a very young age he got into rugby and football, thanks to the exposure from his parents, as well as his PE teacher at the time. He described his Australian PE teacher as extremely talented and enthusiastic, giving him a great first touch into sports.
In talking about his introduction to sport, George goes to describe, “I became obsessed, so to speak. It was just another outlet for me to burn off as much energy as I possibly could because my parents didn’t know what to do with me in the inner city of London. It was a great outlet for me and my brothers to expel and have some fun outdoors.”
Over time, George became more obsessed with playing sport, viewing sport and eventually coaching sport in different environments. His parents acted as a great backbone and motivators as they were the ones that educated him and taught him the nuisances and values that sport could give me.
In terms of other influences in his life along the way, George mentions a few key coaches that made a significant impact on him. Firstly, there was a teacher named Mr. Antony Dalton, who was infectious in his delivery of sport. Once George moved onto senior school, there was a man named Steve Shortland who took George under his wing. George says, “He was incredibly enthusiastic but also pushed me beyond barriers that I couldn’t have possibly got to without his guidance.” And finally, there was a guy called John Brimacombe who led by a different voice and ethos but George describes, “You’d be perfectly happy to run through a wall for him because you wanted his approval.”
As a young kid, football and rugby were George’s main focuses and passions. In football, he managed to trial with Chelsea FC for a period of time at a very young age, although rugby he favoured more. Because his dad and granddad gave him a lot of exposure to rugby, it was very easy that he was going to go into that sport.
George played rugby age grade internationally representing his country. At a school level, he played for three different clubs, one of them being Bath. When he was at Bath, he got a sports performance degree while he was playing.
In his teens in his spare time when he wasn’t playing rugby, he would normally have the summer off and would work for a sports action company. George says, “It showed me a different avenue to deliver sport and gave me a foundation as to what I wanted to achieve. So I went into coaching to use sport as a vessel and change lives.”
From player to coach to educator
Although George started coaching alongside playing rugby at the young age of 12, he knew he had to figure out where he wanted to take his career as he got older. From playing with the short career that he did have, George moved very quickly into that “if you can’t do, teach” scenario.
Additionally, because when he played he would get injured or wasn’t favoured or wasn’t good enough, it gave him a good perspective that he needed something behind him education-wise. His mom always drove him into that he needed to have a backup. If you were to stop tomorrow, what would you want to do?
Considering all of these teaching moments from these key figures in his life growing up, when he stopped playing, it was a very easy transition for him on deciding what he wanted to do for his career. He decided to become a PE practitioner and started at age 24. Alongside that, he’s done a little bit of rugby coaching on the side.
He went into the independent education market and worked for a number of different schools. Now he’s at Northcote Lodge, based in London, teaching and coaching ages from 7 to 18.
George is someone who’s always looking to expand his wheelhouse, so he’s educated himself in Level 2 cricket, Level 1 football and also got into personal training.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that George even started his own business. He got the itch during Covid and launched a business specialising in health and fitness along the beach, called Fit Ties. It’s essentially a seasonal popup bespoke health and fitness company that will pop up on the beach, run classes. When it launched it was incredibly lucrative but in the meantime he’s taken a bit of a break since it’s based down in Devon.
The rewards and challenges
Like everything, teaching and coaching comes with many challenges and rewards. In asking George what he finds most rewarding about his role as PE teacher, he said, “For me, it is using sport as a vessel to change lives. I’ve been lucky to be in an environment where I get a boy’s or girl’s attention just as a comparison that his or her day will be in a classroom looking at a whiteboard and writing on paper - compared to what could be running around having fun enjoying games and playing with their mates. And that’s the reason why I went into education. It probably took me a little bit to figure out that actually, there’s a lot of people that can change lives. Not only because of health and fitness benefits, but also because of the fact that actually, you can change their lives for the better long term whether that’s through sports or education.”
He continues, “When I moved away from rugby, the biggest thing I wanted to do with my professional career was make a difference in people’s lives. The only way I felt that I could do it was through schools. I have been teaching over 1000 students over the course of a year. Every year’s group there is going to be turnover of children when they progress through the curriculum, but that’s 1000 people you can change lives of or perspectives by just using sport as a vehicle. What other profession can give you that! That’s why I blow a whistle for a living.”
When talking about challenges, it was interesting to hear what George considers the biggest challenge for him. “It’s not the children. It’s generally the pressure of parents now and the expectation of what they’re having on educators. I completely understand this. A parent is giving up the most precious item they have in this world. If that service is deemed by them as unworthy then that can be really difficult to communicate in those circumstances. Covid hasn’t helped this either, the reason why is because your virtual classroom or your way of delivering a lesson is now available for any parent to access on their laptops - and you suddenly have been very exposed as educators. That’s been difficult to navigate but it’s been great to get back to face to face teaching again.”
Words to live by
“Positive thinking is naturally contagious”. This is a quote that George holds very close to him and tries to live by and teach others through.
George actually told us that every year he has a theme for himself on how it will drive and motivate him. He explains that he has images at the top of his workspace. One image is a goal, and the other images are a theme around how he wants the course of the year to go. These images set the tone and act as a good daily reminder for him.
In talking to him about how he tries to influence his students and players on and off the field, he tells us that he puts a great amount of effort into this. “You could be one goal up and then you lose two goals in two minutes - and it’s very easy for a child or athlete to scream or throw things and not shake the hand of the person next to you and say well done thank you very much. That’s the beauty about sport. It gives you barriers and constraints but it also gives you a framework to not only have a mini adventure of life but also what you can deliver both on and off the sports field.”
Going into detail, George continues to describe the emphasis he places on giving his students teachable moments to take into their everyday lives, “Especially at a young age and what I’m delivering right now, those life lessons are crucial. With U8s and U9s, results don’t really matter in my opinion. Of course we would like them to experience winning, but their achievements as a person are just as important as their athletic achievements, because that’s the point of sport. It’s not just about the W’s and L’s, it’s about the person and the team, and being a part of something that’s greater than yourself.”
George Swinburne is definitely making his mark on many youth in sport and he really exudes passion for what he does. For more about George, check him out here.
