The support staff are employed by the English Institute of Sport (EIS) and contracted to the British Volleyball Federation.
Support Staff
Karen Beattie
Physiotherapist (Men)
Karen graduated in 2003 with a BSc (honours) degree in Physiotherapy from Glasgow Caledonian University. She joined us from NHS Ayrshire and Arran, where she was a senior physiotherapist with them for 5 years. After playing volleyball at school level for many years she was unfortunately forced to retire from the sport at an early age, due to an inability to grow any taller (or be any good). She occasionally makes guest appearances for the GB staff team. She began her physio career in volleyball working with the Scottish Junior Women's squad in 2003, the Scottish Senior Women's squad in 2004, followed by the Scottish Senior Men's Volleyball squad in 2005.
Karen has been working as physiotherapist for the GB volleyball squads since the start of the interim programme in 2006, combining NHS work with GB training camps in Sheffield, and was appointed full-time physiotherapist in August 2007.
Karen spent the 2007-08 season in Holland with the men's squad as they played under the name 'Martinus' in the Dutch Eredivisie.
Vicky Annis
Physiotherapist (Women)
Vicky graduated from the University of Bradford in 2006. She joins us from the Carnegie Sports Injuries Clinic in Leeds where she'd worked for two and a half years. The clinic has a world class multi disciplinary team and her skills developed amazingly in that environment. She worked not only with the Carnegie Men's Football team, but with many other teams and individual sports including athletics, volleyball and triathlon. She was also part of the team who developed a screening tool for injury prevention purposes.
Other work has included the GB U20/U23 Combined Events team, at Adidas Eyewear Triathlon camps, and also the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Sheffield. Vicky also worked with GB Volleyball in December 2008 under the supervision of Ian Gatt.
Vicky is a keen triathlete and competed in the World Age Group Triathlon Championships in 2008. She adds "This was a great experience of hard training and tough competition which helps me understand what the players go through during training and competition both physically and mentally".
She sees her new role as an exciting opportunity to work solely with one sport, and is also keen to learn how to play!
Barry Edwards
Physiotherapist (Beach)
Barry graduated from University of the West of England in 1998 with a BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy. After a spell working for the NHS and the Army, he joined Team Bath in 2001 where he is now lead Physiotherapist. He has worked with high level athletes from a variety of sports during his time at Team Bath, and has been one of the Physiotherapy team for the GB Judo squad since 2001.
He completed a MSc in Sports Injuries at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2006, and is also qualified in Acpuncture. In addition to this he has achieved Gold certification from the association of Chartered Physios in Sports medicine. Prior to coming into Physiotherapy he worked as a personal trainer / Boxercise instructor for 10 years, and has trained in Karate for over 30 years.
He played Volleyball at recreational level for 5 years and gained his basic coaching award during that time so has a keen interest in the game, and is very pleased to be working with Beach Volleyball on a regular basis.
David Parker
Strength and Conditioning Coach (Indoor)
David has a postgraduate MSc degree in Sports Biomechanics from Loughborough University. During his MSc he worked as a Strength and Conditioning Coach with National and International standard athletes. In 2006-07 he was part of the UK Sport 'Fast Track Practitioner Programme' whilst completing his internship in the Yorkshire Region. Throughout his internship he worked very closely with Handball and Volleyball developing key relationships with their performance staff and coaches. He became Strength & Conditioning Lead for both sports and has spent time with the Handball squad in Denmark and the Men's Volleyball team in Holland.
He is a former World Junior Javelin Champion and finished 9th in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Kate Eddy
Strength and Conditioning Coach (Beach)
Kate is a UKSCA Accredited Strength and Conditioning Coach who leads strength and conditioning services for Team Bath at the University of Bath. She currently works with the GB Beach Volleyball Squad alongside her work with national and international athletes from judo, women’s rugby, and swimming. This is Kate’s second year working with the full-time programme having provided services to Beach Volleyball through the TASS programme since 2005.
Kate gained her BSc (Hons) Degree in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Bath in 2001 and is currently pursuing a Professional Doctorate in Health, researching the matching of strength training programmes to muscle fibre type. Prior to her current role Kate spent a year working for the British Paralympic Association conducting an audit of sports science services and gained her first experiences in strength and conditioning working with Bath Rugby Academy in 2003/04. She is also a level 3 rugby coach and coaches / plays for Bath Rugby Ladies.
Simon Middlemas
Sports Psychologist (Beach)
Simon is a BASES Accredited Sport Psychologist working with Indoor and Beach Volleyball out of EIS Yorkshire & South West regions.
Simon has gained a broad range of experiences as a performance practitioner to date, including significant periods with British Ice Skating, the English F.A. and Nottingham Forest Football Club. He has worked with World, Olympic and Paralympic athletes and coaches in sports such as boxing, basketball, diving, rugby, and shooting. In August this year, he travelled with the BOA/Beach Volleyball to the Beijing Olympic Games.
Graduating with a 2:1 in Sport Studies from Northumbria University in 1999, Simon went on to work in education before gaining an Msc in Sport & Exercise Psychology from Loughborough University in 2004. Simon is currently completing the writing up of his PhD at Loughborough University on the ‘psychological impact of video feedback in sport’.
Simon originates from Thornton Cleveleys, on the Lancashire coast. He has two brothers, Gary & Neil, and a sister, Rachel. In no particular order, Simon is passionate about travel, good coffee, reading pretentious books, watching independent films, boxing, spending time with friends & familia, rioja, rugby league and northern soul music. As a young athlete he progressed rapidly from quite good to terrible in a variety of sports such as hockey, golf, badminton, and cricket. Having just recently become old, he can often be found wearing cardigans & dreaming of living in a fishing cottage by the sea.
Emma McCrudden
Nutritionist (Beach)
Emma is a sports nutritionist working with Beach Volleyball based in the EIS South West Region in Bath. Emma has been working with the GB Beach Volleyball squad since October 08 as part of the UK Sport Fast-Track Practitioner Programme. She splits her time between Beach Volleyball , Netball and Bob Skeleton.
Emma comes from Co. Monaghan in Ireland. She graduated as a Dietician from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland in 2007, and is registered with the British Dietetics Association. After that, Emma decided to branch out from Dietetics and enrol on an MSc in Sports and Exercise Nutrition in Loughborough University which she completed with a distinction in 2008.
Dr. Alistair Park
EIS Doctor
Dr. Alistair Park is the Medical Officer for British Volleyball.
Team Managers (volunteers)
These posts are filled by dedicated, experienced volunteers and by other members of staff.
Angela Cowell
Angela has been an international volleyball player and long-serving Team Manager for England Women. She works for the Ministry of Defence.
Andy Hopper
Andy has been Team Manager for England Men for many years and proved to be invaluable. He works for Mirror Group Newspapers.
Data Volley Scouts
The scouts are more than just statisticians, recording every contact in every game for real-time and future analysis. The Data Volley - Data Video link helps with analysing and understanding the tactics and tendencies of the opposition.
Craig Richardson
Craig was part of the men's squad based in Sheffield, when a persistent injury curtailed his participation on the court for the immediate future. After spending time during the 2008 season working alongside Ralph Post (Scout - Netherlands Women), Craig took the role of scout for the men's team for the 2009 season.
Matt Bianco
Matt has been a vital part of the statistics teams at events such as 2008 European Championships Qualification Round, 2008 European League, and 2009 World Championships Qualification Round, as well as both UK School Games, and numerous Volleyball England Cup Finals. 2009 saw him make a natural progression to the role of scout for the women's team, helping them throughout the European League, and at the President's Cup in Kazakhstan.
Former Members of Staff
Ian Gatt
Lead Physiotherapist (May 2007 - March 2009)
Ian qualified from the University of Malta in 2000 with a BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy. He worked in Greece for 6 years with a wide array of sports at elite level, with the national teams of gymnastics, taekwondo, weight lifting and cycling, and professional clubs in rowing, swimming, volleyball, basketball and football. In addition he concluded further studies in Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy (OMPT) in the Kaltenbon/Evjenth concept, and attended the Athens 2004 Olympics with the National Greek cycling team.
Ian ventured to the UK where he completed an MSc in Sport Physiotherapy at the University of Cardiff. After a short working experience in the Bolton Arena he joined the EIS taking the role of Lead for Volleyball.