Meet Our Coaches
Simon K. Cooper
Head Coach
Simon is an ASA Club Coach and Lifeguard and has been involved in competitive swimming for over 40yrs starting at Gloucester City SC under Coach Henri Meinike. From 2001 to 2013 as Head Coach of Cheltenham SWPC he coached swimmers to win medals and set records at County, District and National meets. Simon took over at GMSC in 2015 and has coached swimmers to various World, European and British titles and Club swimmers have also broken many European and British records in that time.
Details of Club Records and achievements can be seen on our Honours Board.
John Anderson
Assistant Coach
John has been a qualified ASA Club Coach for over 20 years.
He started at Brockworth SC, then went to Gloucester City as an assistant and then 16 years at the University of Gloucestershire, coaching numerous national level swimmers to medals at the British University Nationals.
As a youth, John was a 50M freestyle champion for Northern Ireland. He has swum for Gloucester Masters for over 30 years, achieving individual national medals and has also been part of many record breaking teams, including 2 world records.
John enjoys the technique, physiology and psychology of swimming to help swimmers go faster.
Lily Lowe
Assistant Coach
Lily is currently the Development Coach at Gloucester City Swimming Club and joins the GMSC Coaching Team from April 2025.
Lily is a Swim England Level 2 teacher with experience in top stage and competitive swimming.
Lily is passionate about swimming, researching new developments in the sport, specifically stroke technique. In coaching, she aims to look at the limitations and strengths of swimmers’ bodies to build the best stroke technique for each individual. Her approach to coaching is goal-focused with the aim of guiding swimmers on how to make the most of their sets, understand their training and build deliberate practice into all training sessions.
Lily is also a qualified yoga instructor and brings this experience into her coaching, looking to improve mobility and range of movement, breath-control and mental attitude.