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Just got the news that they finished in 54 days 8 hours 39 minutes.

and from their site blog . 

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the final fulong….. last talk.

Before he started rowing he was both determined and stubborn and quite aggressive as a child.  I still am like that but it’s more controlled.  He remembers at school seeing older boys with a rowing badge on and wanting to be one of them.  Played trumpet in regional orchestra, Christian Union, school musicals – lots of extra curricular activities and I was told not to take on rowing.  Because I was told not to do it I joined up!  Bobby Platt was his first coach at Coleraine School.  It was all rowing, no sculling.   He also produced Alan Campbell.

First memorable school win was J16 8 which was a great memory.  I am on the School Rowing board and the motto was “it’s tough but you have just got to get through it.”

Left school and went to college and moved onto sculling coached by Simon Hamilton and joined Bann Rowing Club.  Raced in Eire as well and won a few races and got selected for Ireland rowing at home countries in Cork and came 3rd.  It was fabulous getting my first international vest.  We love the whole atmosphere and it was great representing your country.  It was where I met James Clark who was the English pair we raced.

University at Oxford Brookes – it was hard to study and row.  He was never much attracted to the big parties and massive drunkenness.  4 year programme.  It was very tough to combine both.  But made me a determined person and developed my time management skills.  Richard Spratley was the coach with Peter Haining.  Brookes developed my mental skills to be very tough and never to give up.  Pull to the very last stroke.  Haining helped a lot.  If he saw you back off he would be on your case hard – there were 2 hour sessions and they were high intensity.

20 mins ergos back to back flat out for 2 hours, runs, circuits.  There is no such thing as paddling at Brookes – always R20-22 half to firm pressure.  No such thing as light pressure.  Lots of testing done around the squad programme.  After 7 weeks of the programme we did a preparatory 2k session at rate 22 planning how to test.  I did a PB in that session!  That’s how hard the programme was and how fit we got.

Did trials in first year at Brookes 2003 and came 79th – they said go away and train for a year.  It was great because he did Henley with the club.
2004 started trials again with a view of getting higher up the order and kept being asked back to squad training weekends and final trials.  Was selected to do 2x with Stephen Feeney at Essen.  Not a success.  Did a 4x with Doug Perrin and Chris Bartley and went to Marlow and Amsterdam.  Got beaten by the juniors at Marlow but at Amsterdam we did better and so we got selected for U23 team.  It is such an honour to row with the British flag on your shirt.  Coach was Nigel Muir.  In the final race we won a silver.  500m we were 6th; at 1000m we were 6th and I called a push an dit was incredible the boat really picked up and something clicked we started moving really well together.  I remember calling 5th, now we’re 4th and then 3rd….coming through 250m I started shouting colours “silver”, “Bronze”, Silver, Bronze as we fought the Italians for that second place…. just beind the Germans.  I still get excited talking about it.  What a race!!!

2005 season we went on a training camp to Bordeaux and we had two crews a 4x and 4- and throughout the camp I was never allowed to go in the 4 because my trials eresults weren’t good enough. I gave Darren Whiter such a hard time becuae I really wanted to ge in the four.  It made me so determined.  2k test 2 weeks later I was so annoyed I pulled a 5 second pb.  I htank Darren for that, he made me more determined by not letting me get into the 4. 

Went to Duisburg as a 2- with Chris Bartley and were going to see how fast we were.  We won each race by quite a long way beating all the other gb pairs by 32-4 lengths. The next challenge was David Tanner letting us go to Poznan for the world cup… first senior vest.  Itw as my first senior vest. It was an intense atmosphere and we had a good time coached by Darren Whiter.  The Germans beat us in the heat by half a length.  We talked about it overnight to make sure we beat them in the final.  We decided to lengthen the start out and stay harder for longer and we changed some of the pushes and we rattled the Germans’ cage and we were up at 500m and at 1000 we were still level and the whole way we were stroke for stroke with them, bow balls jumping past each other and down to the last 2-3 strokes we just pulled it out of the bag.  We beat them by a canvas…. Gold.  On the podium I was kneeling because I collapsed!

Went to U23 worlds in Belgium with the aim of being world champions for a year.  Darren was a great coach and taught us a lot.  Developed the way we rowed and how to gel as a crew.  We weren’t the strongest and couldn’t lift the heaviest weights but we were neat rowing style.  When we got off the water we were told we could go to the senior championships too at Dorney.

This was phenomenal, mindblowing as it was the start of my senior career.  We came 6th but didn’t really have a good championships. Our final race wasn’t good.  It was just one race too far for us as we’d already done one world champs that year!  It was one of the toughest experiences of my life.
Being a lightweight we have a crew average weight of 70kg.  I have cut butter and cheese from my diet and on skimmed milk which is horrible.  Preparation for Beijing starts now and what I do now will make it easier then.  There are only 6 seats for lightweight men.  The competition is tough and tight and it makes us better athletes because of it. 
 

This took me into full time training as an athlete for the 2007 season  I was still at University and trying to do a dissertation and I had other commitments to Church and the Christian Union too and trying to keep friends as well as a full time rowing career is very hard.  I had to turn down so many invitations – they stop asking you eventually.  It’s a sacrifice you have to make.   Meeting deadlines was also tough.  But as training went on I got to final trials and came 6th.  The first year I did it I came last in C final; second year I came last in B final and then this year was last in A final.

The new Lwt 4 was put together. The World cup season – we had no idea how well we would do or how fast we were.  We felt in the dark about this.  Got a Bronze from the first… needing to hold onto it and got Silver at Amsterdam.  After that we knew the Chinese were not going to be a Luzern and so we thought we could win the overall world cup at Luzern and we did win gold there.  At the back of my mind I thought it was because the Chinese weren’t there… I have something to prove at the Worlds   this was the best a Lwt 4 had ever performed for Britain.  

At training camp we have no travel, cooking and get maximum recovery time which means we can train harder.  Senior World champs Clarke, Mattick, Lindsay-Fynn, Chambers coached by Robin Williams.  We didn’t really know how we would do.  Our first aim was to qualify for the Olympics.  Have to come in the top 11 crews.  The toughest race for me was the semi-final.  I was so nervous, I was physically sick in the night.  Qualifying for the Olympics got decided in that race.  We did an awesome race and won our semi and qualified.  I put my hands in the air at the finish.  The final was so much fun after that.  The stress was gone.  It was fantastic, I enjoyed every minute of it.  We got a gold medal.  

What a line-up Canada, Britain, Denmark, China, France, Italy.  Awesome collection of fantastic nations.
James Clarke is the most laid back men ever and a great stroke and steersman
Mattick is very strong a mini-Schwartzenegger
Lindsay-Fynn – I was glad he was in my crew and not another one!

He commentated on the video of his Worlds final 2007.
Lane 4….we knew we had a quick start and had always been fist to 250 and that had to happen in the final.  45 – 46 and started to settle into about 42.  Focus at 250 length, hard, rhythm and we were down and I looked across and was comfortable where we were.  WE focused on good rhythm at 38 down to 500m.  At 500m we settled into our main race and we knew we’d done it right.  Under rating some of the others at tthis time.  The main part of our race was the best, all we had to do was slam the legs and open our backs.  750 I thought we weren’t quite in the race as we were about 3rd…. just before 1k I called legs and open up a bit more getting ready for our 1k push – this is a massive legs call and we all just hammered them in the boat.  It is amazine when 4 people commit to something the boat picks up.  Wes start to make inroads to Italians about half a length.  Rhythm was comfortable at this point.  1250m Robin told me I looked round too often and I looked round more in that race than ever before.  I think that’s how I race.  I do it seat racing too. Third place at 1500.  The last part of our race has never been great and at this point I called legs again and I think I am good at speaking when my lungs are hanging out. I put a lot of aggression.  White makers appeared and all I call is go for the last few calls.  James and Paul really made us work they took it up and it was neck and neck with the Italians and I remember thinking we can do this just hold on and don’t catch a crab. Half a length win.   It was really guts and determination.

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In rowing everyone is a different size and shape and the skill of coaching is to manipulate those people so they can all row together and make the boat go forward faster.
Differences in anatomy gives challenges – success doesn’t come without problems.  Milan 2003 W2- both athletes had major disc problems (Grainger and Bishop).  Flexibility and core stability tries to address these problems.

Pathology
-    Disc prolapse – 10 years ago there were lots of them e.g. Tim Foster (got operated on) and made a full recovery and competed again - others didn’t come back.  A disc is a small thing.  Rowers load the back at the point inside the belt line where your trousers go – low lumbar spine.
-    Muscles that support the lumbar spine – transverse abdominus (pilates people like this a lot) Strength here can give the internal spine some resilience. In-boat posture is important as well as having core strength.  
-    Lower back pain and stiffness
-    Functional instability Carry your good form from the gym / ergo into the boat.  Use the right words and descriptions.  Harry Mahon had 8 different commands for the same action for the 8 different men in the Sydney crew.  He was not inhibited by words.  Each understood in a slightly different way.
-    Rib stress fractures – symptoms are it is sore to row, coughing is sore, rolling over in bed is sore.  Generally 3 weeks on cross training and introduce slowly back…. last introduction is bench pull and bench press.
-    Shoulder pain – look at athletes and don’t forget the thoracic area…shoulders going up or down and check what’s happening in the ribs this affects the shoulders.  
 
Core stability
-    Improved force output – we teach athletes to load
-    Increased neuro-muscular efficiency
-    Decreased incidence of overuse injuries – conjecture and hope!  Better core stability means you can load up better and if you can do that you should be able to go faster in the boat.
-    Provides a solid base around which all athletic movement occurs
-    Improves the aesthetics – really strong people often look like they are rowing well.  Use images of this to improve others
Cylinder of support – transverse abdominus, diaphragm, multifidus, pelvic floor.

Relevance to rowing
-    strength training
-    posture: rock over position (dependent on hamstring length)
-    leverage: longer levers = greater force
-    injury prevention

Step up from core stability - Ensure the loading you are developing isn’t compromised by the following session e.g. core one day and heavy weights the next.  Check the loading mechanism is engaging properly.

Experiment with athletes you work with  - assessment techniques for core is as important as doing it.  Progress from gym to rowing machine to water.  Check they can engage properly before moving to the next stage. Watch closely as baggy clothing conceals what’s going on muscularly
Don’t be afraid of speaking to other coaches I your club if you spot poor posture in their athletes.
Stretching – him flexors, ITB, glutes / piriformis, hamstrings, lower back – flexion/extension/rotation
Very important for young people.  They have to be flexible enough to get into the positions you ask for.  Hamstrings match the quads – as you train one, do the other too.

Questions

Big blades for juniors?  When they first came out the big blades were on long shafts and combined with a time when long ergos also were introduced and both contributed to injury.  Watch for failures in the kinetic chain and posture and then decide whether big blades or weights or ergos is causing the bad habit / poor posture. The key is the athlete can’t do the movement  

Do coxes need core stability?  Coxswains can reinforce the coaching and a good cox can feel changes in the boat sometimes quicker than the coach can spot it.  Front loaders sometimes give back and neck problems.  Make sure feet have something to butt up against - polystyrene.  Padding around the back of the neck.  Stop and stand up and stretch during the outing. Coxswains core stability is important.  Remember they try to diet at the same time and can get unhealthy.  Rowley Douglas was integral to the Sydney 8 and he did all the core training with the crew and was a very important part of that unit.

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Rich Stock, OARA Club and Coach Resources office

New distance learning system

In-house system www.rowhow.org RowHow
News on front page… latest resources for coaches, and a calendar
More interactive content and fewer “pdf for downloads”
Easier layout and navigate
Same login details as main ARA site (just tried it and my login doesn't work… I probably forgot it!) 

Content will include

• more coaching L2 and L3
• coxing - new introductory certificate in development
• Child protection qualifications & updates
• water safety
• beginner skills / teach yourslef rowing
• trailer driving

Hazard awareness for coxes (like the UK driving test)  what to wear - dress a paper doll!, computer game avoiding other boats, bingo identifying boat types, dominoes matching boat type

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Chris Shambrook: Intelligence for Coaching

 Discuss the most rewarding coaching experience you ever had round the table.  What did you feel like?
Emotional intelligence for coaching rowing
First test
-    Write down 4/5 words about the athletes who are easiest to coach
-    Alongside write down 4/5 words about how you feel when coaching them
Chicken or Egg?  What comes first – the great athlete or is it how you are thinking / feeling leading their response to your lead.
Discuss (now do the reverse for negative feelings)
We felt you have to ‘act’ and always be positive, but when you get nothing back from the athletes it is draining emotionally.
There is resource you have available to you influences the performance of the crew.
Performance = potential minus interference which prevents performance
-    Coaching performance
-    Individual athlete performance
-    Crew performance
Quote from Jurgen Grobler “We often ask is it the athlete? Or is it the coach.  Well that is a challenge, a bit motivation for me.”
Chris described this a ‘healthy’ paranoia…..!

Boat speed
-    Physical, technical, biomechanical, tactical options.  If we have exhausted improved boat speed via these means
-    Then focus on EI (Emotional Intelligence) by getting athletes more consistently in tune to how they are thinking and how it makes them feel is there an advantage to be gained here?
-    Will EI unlock more potential with the core elements?
-    Value of explicit EI work versus implicit consideration through good coaching

Stephen Covey mantras
“seek first to understand and then be understood”
-    We need to be world class in our ability to do this.
-    What’s it like to be in the receiver mode when you are asking an athlete, why don’t you understand what I am saying?
“we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behaviours”
-    Many athletes seem to have the intention of doing stuff wrong because their behaviour is showing mistakes.  Clearly this isn’t true all the time.
-    Can you be confident that the athletes’ behaviours are matched up with their intentions?
-    Is your communication as positive and helpful as possible and are you receiving back in a positive way and recognise what you get back in order to then be positive back again to the athlete?
-    Both of these result in the asking of different questions and a changing of perspective.
-    Sometimes being autocratic in coaching is exactly the right thing to do

If you don’t keep control of thoughts and emotions at key points in a game / match difficult things can happen – computer rage, players fighting.  A dis-connect between thought and emotion.
Most of the time EI is probably working very well because you don’t see the negative things coming out.
Good examples of many people interacting at the same time and keeping focus e.g. open heart surgery, F1 pit crew (24 people for 10 seconds round a car), rowing coaches monitor many things at one time (water conditions, how others are moving, stopwatch, megaphone, drive a launch – multi tasking).

You’re contagious
Attitudes are contagious – is yours worth catching?  Use this when selecting athletes and how they will perform in the changing room, in training, during a match.  When you spend time with people you tend to share moods – within 2 hours.  Research in work meetings proved this.
People who are more committed to the team are likely to link moods more readily.
Task 2: Think about your club / squad.  Which person is most likely to set the mood? Where does the emotional lead come from?

Coaches tend to set the tone
-    Emotional spread is often done by leaders – because they talk more, but people listen to people with authority and has more chance to influence
-    Leaders tend to comment first on matters and subsequent comments build on that first comment
-    The leader’s interpretation of a situation provides the reference point for the group so appropriate emotional reaction is a function of the message sent out by the leader.
-    Where are the opportunities when you can choose to spread a positive / negative mood?  Team debrief after an outing, before a race briefing

Positive emotions = better performance. 
Feel more relaxed / confident, relaxed.  Increased mental efficiency, flexibility of thought, mopre likely to break a movement pattern if they feel positive.  If not feeling like that they revert to safety their traditional way of moving.
Upbeat moods increase the positive view of others – tends to make better connection for teamwork.
Increased optimism of success leads to increases creativity and decision making and helpfulness within the crew.
The ability of a leader to pitch a group into an enthusiastic, cooperative mood can determine success.
 

4 quadrants of EI
-    Self awareness – this has to be high – your mental and physical state.  What about your personality and how it interacts with other people.  Are you conscious of your fatigue, concentration levels physically as well.  Remember to look after yourself as well as your athletes
-    Self regulation – can I make choices to change me from how I am now to where I need to be.  How good am I to shift a mood or a thought process to a different one?  How good am I to get phycisal rest and recovery?  Coaching sharpness this is really challenging when your body is tired and your brain needs to pick up on this.
-    Awareness of others – pick up on them once you’ve sorted yourself!  How good are you at others’ physical state, mental state.  Vital.
-    Management of others – how good are you at putting things in place that allows them to shift and move to the most appropriate state for functioning now.

Task 3
Think of each EI quadrant as 100% score possibilities.  What is your current profile in each of the 4 segments?  Consider the right side and the left side of the grid.

You are doing this technically all the time with athletes
technically.  Now add in the EI side to
include emotion and thought.  Will this
help you as a coach?  Making a conscious
choice to bring this into your coaching will that make it more effective.  If you do it implicitly you could probably
improve from unconscious competence to conscious competence.

Ask the question, do I need to change how the athletes are
in order to change what they are doing?

Be alert to what is interfering with the communication
process. May be worth taking off the water for a discussion rather than trying
to solve it during an outing.

Most of sports psychology is about getting athletes to
choose their thoughts and feelings in order to deliver success.  Can you do this systematically (visualisation,
arousal levels, pep talk, pre-race plan) and can you do it consistently?

The challenge

-         
There is the here and now version of the grid.  What’s happening now?

-         
Then what happens in preparation – project ahead
to a situation you are going into.  How
am I typically and how do I need to be in this situation – and for the crew.

-         
Make proactive decisions about how you and they
need to feel and then do everything possible to ensure that you deliver on
those behavioural / attitudinal goals. 
Practise!

-         
Set and evaluation thinking and behavioural
goals

The Self Management Recipe
-    Mood management – how strongly can you rate yourself, recognise and change it or accentuate if required
-    Self-motivation – regular conversations with yourself to keep you motivated, focused. How easy do you find that.  How much time do you invest in this? Regularity?
-    Using intuition – a coaching skill you should pay attention to regularly.  Do you suppress it?
-    Dealing with setbacks – how good is your self-management on this? This is a skill you will be faced with on a regular basis.  If prepared, you can take positive steps on from a setback.  You know how to deal with them.  Visualise the situation.  Sets a good example to athletes
-    Managing energy and peaking for a performance – for yourself.  When is peak moment, how effectively do you have all the resources ready for that moment? When an important week comes up, look at the week prior to ensure you go into the big week as prepared as possible
-    Switching on and off – when you leave the boathouse, can you leave it there and not think about it. 
Identify your strengths and play to them as often as possible.  Practice your key mental skills. 
Concentration - attending to the right thing at the right time.  What are the key things at this time?  Managing energy enables better concentration management.

Management of relationships
-    Motivating others (or not demotivating them) Most people turn up with all the motivation they are going to have and leaders tend to reduce that level of motivation! Can you give a pep talk?
-    Leading others – giving them a view of where you are going, the map of the journey.  What is your style of leading?
-    Coaching others – most of your time is spent doing technique, can you add in other umbrella concepts as well
-    Collaboration – how good are you at this?
-    Confrontation? 
-    Facilitation relationships between others – allowing each athlete to be aware of the strengths of others, how to get the most out of them when in crew boats together,

Getting on the same page… if all this works
Being emotionally intelligent involves
-    Noticing feelings
-    Paying attention to them
-    Recognising their importance
-    Using your thoughts about them to make decisions about how to respond
This applies to your own feelings and those of others.

Crew EI
-    A crew may react differently e.g. stroke may be very self involved and not aware of what’s going on around
-    Bow may be very focused on everyone else but not very focused on themselves
-    2 – may be focused on the thoughts and feelings of the coach rather than themselves
-    3 – may be good at focusing both on themselves and the crew as a whole
-    As a coach you have to consider both the individuals and the whole crew…. what is the style of each athlete…..
-    Athletes who are good at noticing feelings are often also good at kinaesthetic awareness (how their body is moving)

What EI rates – “self”
Definitions  on sheet in pack…. give yourself a score rate 1-10
-    Emotional resilience – maintaining positive
-    Personal power – the degree that you believe you are in charge of and take responsibility for the things in your life rather than seeing yourself as a victim of circumstance
-    Goal directedness – important as a coach.  The degree to which your behaviour is related to your own long term goals.
-    Flexibility – how good are you at being blocked off and coming up with new ways to overcome, flexible thinking
-    Personal openness and connectedness – how readily people see you as approachable and how effective people see you are in terms of making relationships.
-    Invitation to trust – how trustworthy are you. Do you act congruently with your aims and goals.  If you say you will do something do you do it regularly?

What EI rates – “others”
There is a ‘sweet spot’ with just enough and not too much or too little of all of these.
-    Trust – you can be too trusting (mistrustful, carefully trusting, over trusting) do you trust athletes to do things on their own.
-    Balanced outlook (pessimistic, realistically optimistic, over optimistic) when preparing a crew… what would your athletes say about you
-    Emotional expression and control (under controlled, free and in charge, over controlled) is emotion something that happens to you (are you Dr Spock and over controlled)
-    Conflict handling (passive, assertive, aggressive) What is your style?
-    Interdependence (dependent, interdependent, independent) What is the balance of working with others, do you let others work with you?

Specific needs for coaching
Pre race pep talk – how are you typically and how do you need to be to give the best send-off? How are the athletes and how do you need them to be?
Post race debrief after a defeat – how are you typically and how do you need to be?  What is the challenge in an emotional sense for you?
Post race debrief after a surprise victory – to build on this.  Typical reaction versus ideal.

 
Question

How do you stop people talking themselves down?  Come up with two different sets of recipes – how do you become the world’s worst rower and what would you say to yourself in order to become worse each session (rhythm, timing, bladework) Then what would be the world’s most receptive, improving rower.  If I incentivised you enough are you confident you can do all these things to become the worst….?  [they are confident that they can choose behaviours to make a bad outcome].  Then talk about the positive and whether there is any difference between the two.  Commit to doing the change.  Remind them on the water “you are choosing to be rather ineffective right now.  Do you want to carry on making this choice, because I’ll support you fully….”
Working with cricketers – he gets a list of all the negative things they talk to themselves.  Permission to coach them using the same negative phrases while they are facing a batting machine….. this makes them realise that if someone else talks to them in the same way they talk to themselves it isn’t a good thing.
 

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The Post Athens Perspective
-    Rowing without Pinsent and Redgrave
-    Building on the results from 2004 – 3 medals for women, 1 gold for mens sweep, poor performances from lightweights
Everyone remembers the Olympics results and can ‘forgive’ any failings in the World Championships.

This will be the first Olympics since 1984 when we will be going without either Pinsent or Redgrave on the team.  That year was the breakthrough for GB rowing…. the first gold since 1948.  In 1996 the rowing gold medal was the ONLY one GB won in the whole games.  Our great media profile is in part due to us producing ‘heroes’ for the public eye.  It didn’t use to be like this we got about 3 pieces a year in the newspapers.  Sydney was the first EVER Olympic medal for GB women, a silver in 4x.  

We now have the best womens sculling squad in the world.  We should ‘deliver’ at Beijing. At Athens only one mens crew made a final…. it won the gold.  This is what counts but we need more crews in finals in Beijing.

Finding and developing Olympians
-    The club is where every rower starts
-    The coach is the greatest single influence on a rower
The dilemma for clubs is that you lose the best athletes quite quickly.  E.g. Richard Spratley got Tom Lucie at Brookes and within 18 months he was 3rd at senior trials and taken away to the GB squad programme.  Richard can be proud of this achievement.
-    World Class Start is 5 years old.  2005 the first WCS athletes came to senior trials; 2007 first medals in Olympic classes and U23 had 6 medallists; 2007 starting Sporting Giants initiative started
-    Trying to find athletes from ‘new and different’ places.  There is a shortage of state sector schools, few universities offer high performance.  This complements the ‘traditional’ rowing schools / universities / clubs programme to world class rowing.
-    Sporting giants is for volleyball, basketball and rowing talent ID.

 
The high performance model depends on
-    Good funding
-    Developing coaches
-    Supporting the rower
-    Top logistics
-    Caversham (GB Rowing’s first base)

“I am still a volunteer in my head, of course I do get paid now, but I still think this is my hobby” David Tanner

More people are able to make Rowing coaching a career than ever before.  There is a career pathway here now.  When GB rowing increased coaches from 2.5 when DT started in 1996, there are now over 20.  There was a fear that this would suck all the good club coaches to the ARA leaving nothing in the clubs.  This hasn’t happened.

Logistics – important.  He visited NZ last week and has found only 2/3 hotels that he considers possibly appropriate for the team when the worlds go to Karapiro in 2010.  Advance planning is key.

Caversham funded by Lottery £13m.  Opened in April 2006.  He doesn’t think it is a coincidence that our best ever World Championships were last year.

 
Create new champions
-    GB Women – Golds in sculling and building the sweep squad. Redgrave visits to give advice.
-    Qualified  womens 4x, 2x, 8. Not qualified W2- or W1x
-    GB Men – making a new four, building the sweep squad, sculling into the medal zone
-    Qualified mens 1x, 2x, 2-, 4-, 8.  Not qualified 4x
-    Lightweights – raising the bar.  Outstandingly good work by coaches and athletes
-    Qualified LM2x, 4-, LW2x.

Target is to win 3 medals in Beijing and 3 A finals.  There are 130 qualified Olympians from UK so far and 41 are rowers.

 
The Paralympic Challenge
-    Rowing becomes the only new paralympic sport in 2005
-    Four paralympic boat classes – LTA mixed 4+, LTA mixed 2x, AW 1x, AM 1x
-    Secured UK Sport funding and starting to develop the club pathway
-    Top nation at worlds last year was Brazil, UK second.
 

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This is now a Paralympic sport and will be in Beijing – 4 categories.  We are seeking to win 4 medals.  I do talent identification for the team.  21 athletes came to our trials for 9 places on the team.

Who is eligible for the Paralympics
You may get approached in the future and we want to hear about them
What we are looking for
-    Physiological attributes – strength, power, endurance
-    Anthropometric attributes – tall body, long limbs
-    Specific disabilities – arms only (A), trunk and arms (TA), legs trunk and arms (LTA)
-    Want people with minimal disability in each category.
-    Arms only – complete spinal cord injury in the low thoracic region e.g. T12.  Upper trunk function and full arm and hand function.
-    Trunk and Arms – single leg, above knee amputee, desirable full function of trunk and upper body.  
-    Leg, Trunk and Arms – fused ankle or wrist joint, visual impairment B3/B2, through foot amputation, below knee amputation, three finger amputation on one hand, fused ankle.  Desirable full function above the knee.
Please tell your clubs that we need more recruits and so look for people with minimal disability.
Tom.dyson@gbrowing.org.uk

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Darren is high performance coach for U23s….

He will talk about..

-    Evaluate, review, debrief and prepare
-    Physiological development
-    Technical development
-    The podium coach

Converting top places into medal performances in Beijing. 

“Tactics are for amateurs, planning and preparation for professionals” Field Marshall Slim

“Victorious armies often make the mistake of preparing for the ware they have just fought rather than the next one” Winston Churchill

A systematic winning review – know the outcomes and understand why.  Performance predictability is important strength for UK Rowing.

Planning to Perform
-    What are the key demands for the athlete in this sport?  What proportion are for racing and training and the specific demands of a gold medal race.
-    What is the limiting factor in rowing…. and our limiting factor?
Physiology required for rowing
-    High force, low cadence
-    A race is 80-90% aerobic
-    The skills are quite gross
-    Pacing strategy is more physiological than psychological
-    Oxygen uptake is a limiting factor
Physical preparation
-    Endurance: the ability to sustain a high aerobic power output required to maintain boat speed for 2k race
-    Strength: the ability to apply a high force to the feet and the handle especially in the start phase.  After the start the biggest influence in power which gives distance in between strokes
-    Power: the ability (can’t type fast enough – Darren speaks quickly)

Darren showed the ARA training model – available from the ARA
The programme is high volume classic steady state which has these benefits.  
-    It gives a stable and progressive form over months / years
-    Development of economy of movement and skills
-    Low psychological stress
-    Weight control
-    Enables best training of utilisation of oxygen at muscular level
-    Low acute injury risk
-    Big tapering end results
Disadvantages of Steady state
-    Time
-    Risk of chronic overuse injury
-    Boredom
-    Slow progression of form
-    Enough stimulus of central lung / heart?
-    Regression of fast twitch fibres
-    Risk of overtraining

Programming is a balancing act
Training versus recovery is the most important of all.
Rowers supervise their own recovery (coaches supervise training).
A typical week’s programme is 25-30 hours and about 200km, 14-18 sessions, over 6/7 days of which 2-4 are weights and the rest is endurance.
Sessions are usually simple with a basic structure soothe athletes can focus easily and delivery good quality. 

Jurgen Grobler “The best training is simple training”.  Doing the basics very well under extreme pressure.

The programme can make people immune-stressed and makes them vulnerable to viruses.  Work hard on hand cleaning, alcohol wipes, First Defence nasal spray.
“We spent the whole war looking for the magic technological bullet. We never found it.  Battles continued to be won or lost depending on the basic fighting courage and ability of the man on the ground”.  US General in Vietnam
[Darren likes military metaphors]
There is the opportunity for lots of technology but we also do the basics very well.

Robin Williams “the criticality of skill failure in racing”.

Successful rowers do the basics well.

-    Posture
-    Effective stroke length
-    Sequencing of drive phase
-    Distance per stroke
All the way through the speed/rating progression

Posture – we want the back to be pretty static (10-12 degrees only).  Load should be low in the boat.  Sit tall, drive low.
Stroke Length – distance per stroke = length of stroke.  Vertical shins, arms loosely extended, shoulders neutral
Effective power phase sequencing – large muscles first and add weaker ones to assist.  Bodyweight then legs, back, arms.  A leg-based stroke.  Legs = 50%; trunk 30% and arms 20% of total power.
Power and distance per stroke – distance in between strokes = power per stroke

The podium coach qualities
-    Planning a programme
-    Communication to individuals
-    Prioritise key actions and cut out irrelevance
-    identify end goal and
-    Good motivators
-    Personal discipline and focus
-    Self confident aura
-    Converts opportunities
-    Looks after the rower best interests
-    Willing to seek advice
-    Composure under pressure
-    Able to stand back from rower
-    Reviews their performance constantly
-    Synthesise the technical, physical and mental side with teamship.

Questions

What techniques do you use to prevent overtraining?the coaches delivering the programme consistently monitor rowers to see they are handling the training load well.  Monitoring / testing.

How is the programme periodised? This year we have a lot of camps.  We do a little less at home and do more on camp.   the sequence of events dictates the workload mostly.

What should a young coach focus on? The most important thing is to recognise that others have gone ahead of you to discover what works.  It is unnecessary to keep trying things that don't work.  Use the experience of others.   Be a good motivator to your athletes.  They often need more than appears.

How do you reassess athletes who miss training due to injury? Illness is generally straightforward - alter training on the day they come back.  The coach deals and if backs off for more than 3 days it goes to the medics team.  They set the exercise programme with chief coach and get nurtured back in at the appropriate time.  It usually takes a bit longer than we think.  For long term injuries the squad doctor runs it and the coach monitors the rehab programme.  

Rest and recovery? Programme is mostly left to the athletes.  Al Smith the team physiologist did some presentations to the squad about this.  Simple nutrition, hydration, sleep quality, hot/cold treatments, be hygienic.   

Are there opportunities for coaches to visit and watch the reality not the theory?  There are opportunities to visit Caversham.  Speak to Rosie Mayglothing who can arrange this.  [Rosie says this doesn't always need a more experienced coach - you and work with people at your level they just have a different perspective.] 

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Gary Harris, Chairman of the ARA… opening spiel

FISA Coach and Crew of the Year - Gary acknowledges the receipt of the International Coach of the Year won last year by Paul Thompson, Head coach women and lightweights .

Young Coach of the Year - Dan Singleton of Durham School Boat Club presented by Robin Williams, collected by Debbie Connelly on his behalf - Regional Coaching Commissioner for the North East region.  He coached from J12 to J18 last year and was nominated by a pupil. We learnt teamwork ethos and special tutorials for GCSE students. 

Senior Coach of the Year - Charlie Simpson of Reading Rowing Club presented by Paul Thompson he champions womens rowing and has won at major regattas and the rowers are encouraged to fulfil their potential.

Lifetime Contribution to Coaching Award - Roger Silk of CUWBC presented by Annamarie Phelps (who was taught to row by Roger at LMBC).  Professional performance on a tight budget as a volunteer.  Outstanding success 14 blue boat wins in 16 years; 12 Blondie / Lwt wins.  5 golds at national champs and U23 W2- Silver in 1992.  

Adaptive Coach of the Year Award - Vicky Parry and Victor Bridges of Isle of Ely Rowing Club presented by Robin Williams.  The club has a lack of money and suitable equipement and the site is often inaccessible and muddy when wet.  They have worked with athletes with a range of needs and got them to integrate into the life of the club.

Coaching Team of the Year Award - Ross Rowing Club Junior Coaching Team presented by Steve Gunn. They set up a Junior Rowing Academy from scratch.  And 1 coaches came along in matching team t-shirts.

Highly commended Team - Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham .  3 coaches all under 17 years old.  This was because their adult volunteer moved away and so they decided to continue the programme.  WJ14 4x won silver at Nat Schools. 

Highly commended Team - Weybridge Rowing Club .  Juniors running learn to scull weeks in the summer. 

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Pathway to junior rowing…. you don't need to be enormous compared to WCS… more about the traditional pathway.  We don't select because we think they WILL be good.  We work with those who turn up at clubs and schools and who choose to row.

Participation

Teach to train and compete - local identification in clubs and schools by local coaches

Encourage to train properly - higher levels 

Send to GB Junior trials - Richard visits local regattas and tries to spot good athletes

GB Junior trials month by month
October 2k ergo at 24.  This is an early identification trial entry and registration in BIRO scheme
November EIDT 1x 5km trial at Boston
December 5km ergo rate 24
January 5 km ergo rate 28 (keep training over Christmas)
February Long Distance Trial 5km 1x or 2-
March 2km ergo at free rate [the first time we are really interested in the scores]
April Spring assessments side by side at Nottingham, seat racing – learning what will happen at final trials, selection for Munich
May Munich Junior International Regatta – race the Germans who often do well at junior worlds
June - Ergo 2k free rate
July – final trials and selection (3 weeks to the big race)
August – Junior World Champs

It is a single year cycle repeated each year.  Junior worlds combine every 4th year with the non-Olympic events to a larger regatta.  Selection in UK is only based on performance.
Issue is only 3 weeks from selection to Championships. 25 Junior Men  and 22 Junior Women – max team size.  Team tends to change each year because few are good enough to do 2 years at junior level.

2007 Average Ergo scores – JM 6:21.4 JW 7:20.1 – broadly correlated with success.  Reducing most years in 2002 boys were 6:34.3 and girls 7:21.  The boys tend to medal each year but girls less successful.  Difference boys to girls is about 50 seconds…. but issue right now is the girls are mostly a minute behind.
Targets for successes – they are gold medal times for Junior Worlds.  Reassess each year.
 

The Coupe de la Jeunesse
A second string team for sub-world champs level athletes.  We run a big final trials in order to select two full teams.  First run 1985 and over 3 days now.  Based on points total for the team.  Can swap athletes between crews as race both on Saturday (heat, final) and Sunday (heat, final). 

We do get athletes through the coup and move onto Juniors the following year.  It is the top achievement for some athletes.  It is tough and not a breeze!  GB always sends a full team and we’ve won it 9 times (France 8 times, Italy 5 times).  30 boys, 16 girls (they double up into the 8 and race on Friday).
Coup Ergos 2007 boys 6:29.4 and girls 7.27.9. 

Trial selections
October target was 7 minutes for boys and 7:55 for girls.  We got 183 boys and 99 girls beating these targets.
January 5 km at rate 28 boys had to be less than 17.50 and 120 came.  Girls 20:10 and 39 made the cut.
June 2km ergo at free rate boys 6:30 and 58 made it; girls 7:20 and 9 made it. 
This really shows the drop-off.
 

The GB-France Match
There is a third team:
This is very different – the kids don’t have the same trials selection.  It is a ‘roll up’ race – first past the post goes on the team.  We have domestic and international J16s in the team.  Exceptional J15s can also make the grade.  This is all club combinations – we want ready-made crews for most events except the 8.  We want Club units at a young level at their age group and to give them their first taste of success.
They can never come less than second! 

We always send a full team 28 boys and 23 girls including spares (But not coxes).
There is also a WCS UK versus France regatta but they can only row if have been 12 months or less in the sport.
Ergos: boys 6:41 girls 7:43 in 2007.

Junior training progression
When a parent approaches you and asks about their child you should ask
-    How much should they train
-    How often should they train
-    Should they lift weights
-    More on water or more on gym
-    How to cope with training during exams and revision

There is a cunning chart how much and how often… which I can’t reproduce  because it’s tiny on the screen.  Don’t want to see J12 or J13s training 8 times a week. 

J11-J13 – mainly skills, up to 3 short sessions per week (time on water not distance covered).  Rowing shouldn’t dominate their age – they do other things, music, drama, cubs / brownies.  Don’t push them into it too early
J14 – still only 4 sessions a week.  Weight lifting technique only.  Light bars – no weights.  Teach them to work on the water and build the technique on the land.
Junior level – at J17/J18 they should be at their best…. 7/8 sessions building to 10 depending on exams and time (maybe 14 after exams).  One session per week off. 

To make the Junior worlds team they have to be capable of training 2-3 times per day for a week at a time (e.g. at camp and final trials seat racing).  This means they are preparing for the next level.  Capable of 20km UT2 outing.  With rest between sessions. If they get injured or sick, they won’t make the grade.

This depends on
-    Coach availability
-    Equipment available
-    Safety – numbers on the water
-    Weather
-    Time of athletes available
-    Club’s requirements
-    Demands and needs of the individual and the club
-    Aspirations of parents and coach

Make it enjoyable, it is not just about performance.  We have a duty to look to the long term development of the individual as a whole.   Education in more than just rowing.  They have to learn time management, have a family life (Sunday lunch), academic qualifications (the boys at Hampton who succeeded at rowing had better than average results because they learnt how to manage their time), manage social life, manage their health (growth spurts), other activities (music, Church, drama). 

Keep the variety, fun, teach skill development and quality MUST be in the programme.  This is essential.

Teach sculling and sweep and both individual and crew boats

Basics:
-    Correct use of the hands, bladework (correctly taught at the start they won’t have to un-learn it later)
-    Core strength – not necessarily a separate session – but part of the programme – it can be water technical sessions with core exercises within it.
-    Rest and recovery – as important as the sessions.  Without good rest the next session won’t be good.
-    Are they eating properly?Use a cycle of hard / medium / light weeks

Try to have at least one complete rest day per week (not a day off rowing in order to go running!)

We the coaches have the responsibility to see the individual athletes have the tools to survive the programme.

Mental, endurance, skills, technique, strength, general training, how to look after their hands.

How we are improving junior rowing?
-    We need emphasis on small boat performances
-    Ergo monitoring for older children
-    Periodisation of training programme
-    Training peaks including loading and tapering
-    Ensure paddling UT2 training is functional (perfect practice makes perfect and permanent)
-    Train how you want to race – technique good at rate 18
-    Practice the skills (there is nothing worse than taking on a group of athletes who don’t have the skills to survive that level)
-    Ergo – get the intensity right.  It is not a race.
-    Standardise monitored sessions.  Keep records.
-    Don’t de-train technical skills on the ergo by allowing poor technique.

Support for Juniors
Funding – lottery (for the very best), SportsAid, Local Councils
Subsidy of camps and events (Nantes just happened and was subsidised £20k)
Boats on loan (the National system has some boats it can help with).
Education
Training days and camps (get the best together so they can be identified)
Join the Junior mail-out list (training sessions, suggestions, programmes) free information and support for coaches and clubs.

Questions 

Why are girls not hitting the ergo targets? We need more girls in the system – more chance of finding the top athletes.  We treat girls differently.  Some coaches won’t ask the same things of girls as boys.  Some of the coaches of girls do not coach that level long enough.  The boys sweep are our most successful group at junior level.  This is because the coaches of the groups have an inbuilt structure that the same coach has J15s for many years.  Learns from mistakes and improves year on year.  Generally for junior girls and scullers the same coach takes the group from J13 through to J18. They don’t re-do the same year group and learn from their mistakes.  Also when they do switch year groups they coach and learn from their predecessors.  The best coaches take the youngest athletes. Our coaching methods – we need better tools for girls don’t be scared.  Sport in schools has reduced and for girls particularly it is un-cool (I don’t want to put on muscle).

Should they abolish racing for very young age groups? Richard is very against racing for the very young.  I try to stop it.  The type of racing that has been pushed through.  There should be fun-style, mixed up, short stuff in regattas.  [Pete Shepherd added – our sport has changed and more young kids join at J10, J11 when it used to be J14.  We have to be smart with what we do with them so they stay in the sport.] 

Using weights during growth spurts?  Individualise the programme to manage kids having growth spurts.  It is harder with schools when you have 30 kids to spot those being ‘weak’ because they are growing.  Work with low / no weights.

Would the junior performance be enhanced if they were available sooner in the summer? Yes it would. But it’s good for kids to get the all round education in their schools e.g. Henley, National Schools.  We can’t offer the same experience.
 

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