Tennis Coaching
Tennis Coaching at West Hants
The West Hants Coaching Team has a wealth of experience and expertise in all aspects of the game. From coaches who have over 30 years of coaching experience to newly qualified coaches who have recently come off the tour.
The team all have defined roles and there is a great balance of youth and experience across the team within the different elements of the coaching programme.
All the coaching team offer individual lessons and rates are based on level of qualification and overall experience. To request a copy of the current fees and availability, please click here.
The team is committed to developing every player within the programme and offering advice and guidance no matter what your level. The great qualities amongst the team are their shared enthusiasm, commitment and professionalism for the sport. Click here to see our current tennis programme timetable.
James White
Director of Tennis
James White
Director of Tennis
James is a level 4 Senior Performance Coach and fully licensed LTA Coach with 15+ years of coaching experience.
James previously worked at the West Hants Club from 2006 to 2018. He then joined the LTA working as their 10U performance co-ordinator for the South West region before re joining the performance coaching team at West Hants in 2020.
James studied at Bournemouth University and has a Bsc (hons) degree in Sports development & coaching sciences. It was during his studies that James had a placement year working at West Hants after which he became a full time member of the coaching team.
James played tennis for the University tennis first team and played county tennis for Lincolnshire for many years.
Richard Irwin
Head RPDC Coach
Richard Irwin
Head RPDC Coach
Is an LTA qualified Senior Performance Coach and has been working at The West Hants Club as part of the High Performance Centre since 2008. His role at the Club is centred on helping performance players aged 12-18 within squads and individuals, whilst helping to co-ordinate the AASE Programme. He also overlooks the performance tennis programme at Bournemouth University.
Before coaching at West Hants, Richard was a professional tennis player spending 6 years on the circuit. He reached world ranking highs of 98 as an ITF Junior, 705-ATP Singles Ranking, 430-ATP Doubles Ranking, and got to number 12 in the GB Men's rankings. He spent most of his full time career based in London with the LTA and had the opportunity to travel the world playing Junior Grand Slams (Australia, Wimbledon), Futures, Challengers and a Grandslam Qualifying event at Wimbledon. With all these achievements, his claim to fame is that he still holds a 1-0 head to head record against Andy Murray!
Sasha Wood
Sports Manager – Events & Tournaments
Sasha Wood
Sports Manager – Events & Tournaments
A one time West Hants junior member and Talbot Heath ball girl for the State Express Tennis Championships of Great Britain (held at West Hants) Sasha returned to Bournemouth in 1995 as Sports Manager at The West Hants Club after studying Leisure Management and working at the Delta Tennis Centre in Swindon.
Sasha is responsible primarily for co-ordinating and running the Club’s tennis events and tournaments both internal (Club run) and external (LTA run). In additional to the tournaments Sasha also organises all team fixtures and runs the members only singles and doubles leagues.
Sasha is Tournament Director of the Bournemouth Open and the 14 & Under Tennis Europe events held during the summer. She is also tournament organiser and one of the joint referees for the Club tournaments ranging from Junior Club Championships (including the Road to Wimbledon 14&U event) to the Veterans Club Championships and the Open Age Club Tournament.
Occasionally you may see Sasha on poolside teaching swimming and from time to time you may also see her organising Thursday Club Night sessions.
Scott Holland
11U performance manager
Scott Holland
11U performance manager
Scott has worked at the West Hants club for five years and is a fully licensed LTA coach with a DCA qualification.
Scott has qualifications is sports science and comes from a large sporting background.
He is currently part of the mini tennis team being the Mini Tennis tournament and Junior programme coordinator for the club.
Ollie Griggs
Strength & Conditioning Coach
Ollie Griggs
Strength & Conditioning Coach
Ollie has been with us at West Hants since August 2018 firstly starting as a Personal Trainer creating a good reputation plus client base.
Ollie has a warm welcoming personaility and is ready for any challenge that is put in front of him and moved onto becoming a Strength & Conditioning coach for the Tennis academy furthering his career whilst continuing his PT. Ollie has a great passion for training sport athletes and continues to better himself each day.
Outside work Ollie plays semi pro football for Winchester City F.C which takes up a lot of his time and he continues to keep progressing to hopefully play to highest standard he can reach.
Sarah-Jane Wright
Welfare Officer & Administrator
Sarah-Jane Wright
Welfare Officer & Administrator
Sarah-Jane has worked at the West Hants Club since 1999. Her current roles are Welfare Officer, ensuring that all children, young people and adults at risk are safe when at our Club; and Tennis Administrator, dealing with all administration connected with Invitational Squads, Talbot Heath, Bournemouth Collegiate and Club Programme players.
Sarah-Jane has a Bilingual Secretarial Diploma and spent 4 years working in Paris in the following companies: GEC France, Clifford Chance (International Lawyers), Knoll International. She is also a BACP Accredited Counsellor, working with U18’s and Adults in her Private Counselling Practice.
James McIntosh
Club Programme Manager
James McIntosh
Club Programme Manager
James joined the club in October 2020 and is now the Adult and Junior (12+) Club Programme Manager.
He started coaching at the age of 14 and was Head Coach at Totally Tennis in Basingstoke from 2013. James has coached a number of players who have competed at County, Regional and National Level and some whom have gone on to attain scholarships at American Universities. He has been involved in county tennis for Hampshire for a number of years and have been county captain for the U9 & U10 Teams.
James is a Level 5 LTA Master Club Coach and has an LTA tutoring qualification. He also received the Darren Toop Young Coach of the Year Award in 2008.
As a Junior, James competed through school and college and played for Queen Mary’s College at the National Finals in the Mixed Doubles Event. He also played football for a semi professional youth side and competed as an amateur boxer for Hampshire!
"I enjoy working with both adults and juniors and love seeing players improve and enjoying the game."
Catherine Lawson
11U club programme Manager
Catherine Lawson
11U club programme Manager
Catherine is a Level 4 Senior Club Coach and has been working at the club since 2013 when she was studying for her degree and became a full time member of the team from 2015.
Catherine studied at Bournemouth University and has a BSc (Hons) in Psychology. Whilst at University she captained and played in the ladies teams.
Catherine coaches across all areas of the tennis programme whilst coordinating the Junior and Schools Programme
Rob Ringshaw
Club Coach
Rob Ringshaw
Club Coach
Rob has been coaching since 2010 and is a fully licensed LTA Level 4 Senior Club Coach. He worked at the Royal Berkshire Club in Bracknell from 2014-2019 and in his time there worked with the Berkshire 14&U and 18&U Boys County Cup teams for several years as well as captaining the 8&U Boys and Girls teams in 2017.
Rob works with players of all ages and abilities and is passionate about helping everyone to reach their full potential and achieve their goals whilst having fun at the same time.
Rob will be working in all aspects of the tennis programme and within the 11&U performance programme.
Roger Dibblin
Club Coach
Roger Dibblin
Club Coach
Roger was born on 27th July 1962. He lives in Bournemouth with his wife and daughter. He is a fully licensed LTA coach with both DCA and CCA (development) qualifications.
Roger has a significant sporting background having played county badminton as a junior and both football and cricket for the town. His passion for the game of tennis inspired his career where he is now in his 14th year of coaching at the West Hants Club.
Roger coaches all ages and all standards with a good record of producing players. He is an integral part of the mini tennis team and heads up the adult programme. He has been Dorset County Cup, 9U Captain 2009/2010, with his teams performing well both years, coming runners up and winners respectively. As Adult Programme coordinator responsibilities include implementing the new grading system and running a series of events throughout the year.
Rob Booth
Talbot Heath Academy
Rob Booth
Talbot Heath Academy
Rob Started working at The West Hants in 1984. He became tennis director at David Lloyd Ringwood in 1994 and became Dorset county performance officer in 1997 based at West Hants. Rob is a former LTA National coach, and is now responsible for the day to day running of the West Hants Talbot Heath academy.
Rob is a fully licensed LTA coach and is PCA upgraded.
Rob has represented Great Britain at u.18, u.21 over 35 and over 40 levels. He is a former British number 12 and achieved a Highest World Ranking of 510.
Stuart Anderson
Club Coach
Stuart Anderson
Club Coach
Stuart joined our team in January 2013 as Junior Programme Coordinator. He has over 15 years of coaching experience, is a level 4 Senior Club Coach and is fully licensed.
Stuart also studied at Chichester University, gaining a 1st class Honours degree in BSc Sport Coaching Sciences. Whilst at university Stuart founded the Mens Tennis Team and coached them to promotion in their first year. Stuart has coached players at County and Regional standard.
Emily Rushen
Club coach
Emily Rushen
Club coach
Emily is a fully licensed and accredited Level 4 LTA Senior Club Coach with 8 years of coaching experience.
Emily has a BSc (hons) degree in Human BioSciences and it was while she was studying at Exeter University that she started coaching at the University Tennis Centre and Exeter Golf & Country Club.
After finishing her studies, Emily continued coaching at Exeter Golf & Country Club, and also initiated and ran several schools programmes. Emily has been heavily involved with coaching the Devon County junior teams for a number of years; as well as captaining and playing for the Devon County Ladies Team.
Mike Booth
Club coach
Mike Booth
Club coach
Mike is a level 5 master performance coach and has been coaching tennis for more years than he cares to remember!
He is currently the under 18 and under 11 County coach for Hampshire and IOW and has worked with many National and International players during his career.
He has a passion for working with players of all ages and abilities and enjoys trying to bring the best out of everyone he works with.
Amelia Fortescue
Club Coach
Amelia Fortescue
Club Coach
Amelia is a level 1 LTA coach
James Pankhurst
Tennis Academy Head Coach
James Pankhurst
Tennis Academy Head Coach
James joined us from Bath Uni where he has worked for the last 4 years. Some of you may already know James as he has previously worked at West Hants.
He spent 18 years with us building the clubs performance programme before moving to the performance programme at Bath in 2019 as U18 performance manager. In his time at West Hants previously James coached multiple junior national champions.
He has been coaching in performance for over 20 years now and rejoins the team at WH with the same enthusiasm for coaching he has always had. James is a level 5 master performance coach, qualified tutor and has a degree from Loughborough University.
Jazzamay Drew
RPDC Assistant coach / Academy coach
Jazzamay Drew
RPDC Assistant coach / Academy coach
Jazzamay joined us from Culford school RPDC where she has been working for the last 2 years.
As a player Jazzamay achieved a world ranking of 824. Jazzamay is a level 4 qualified senior performance coach.
She has coached players who have gone on to scholarships at American colleges and multiple national level players across all junior age groups.
Jazzamay has led and captained several GB age group teams on official LTA trips.
Josh Cull
Strength and Conditioning Manager
Josh Cull
Strength and Conditioning Manager
Josh is a level 4 Strength & Conditioning coach, a Personal Training Tutor and has over 5 years experience working in the field of Strength and Conditioning.
He previously lead the S&C at Bournemouth Rugby club in addition to working at a local specialist Strength & Conditioning gym.
He has a degree in Sport Science, and is currently studying for his Masters in Strength & Conditioning.