Get to know our coaches at St John’s Performance Centre:

Lydia Powell

Qualification: Level 3
Joined: 2014
Highlight: National Junior Champion

Lydia, a former England International, is the Head Coach for our Junior teams at St Johns Performance Centre. She recently completed her Level 3 coaching qualification with Badminton England, making her one of the highest qualified coaches in the country. Inspired by her experiences training alongside World and Olympic medallists, Lydia is driven to helping our junior players come through into the senior setup, as well as preparing them for regional and national competitions.

Antony Barnett

Qualification: Level 2
Joined: 2019
Highlight: Top 25 Men’s Doubles (U19)

Antony has joined our coaching team at SJPC for a number of reasons. His love for coaching and his desire to give back to the sport he’s enjoyed multiple successes in as a player. His broad coaching experiences including assistant coach to the Brighton and County squads. But most importantly, it’s his natural ability to communicate and demonstrate everything he teaches. With all of his knowledge and experience, Antony will undoubtedly improve our junior players and prepare them for the next stage.

Molly Thomson

Molly is one of our assistant coaches at SJPC and in a short space of time has become one of the most important coaches here. Her enthusiasm and energy for the sport is infectious and her positive attitude helps get the best out of everyone. Not only does she support players across all of our sessions (influential!), she gets involved in sparring sessions for the ‘Performance’ group.

Dominic Burns

Qualification: Level 1
Joined: 2019
Highlight: Kent Junior Open MD Finalist

Dominic is our newest member of the coaching team. At just 17 years old, he’s already completed his Level 1 coaching qualification and is currently in the Senior Men’s B team. Dom has been playing in the senior setup for a couple of years now, and is living proof that our pathway for younger players is working.