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Lynette Skelton has a prominent photo on page 24 of UK's Rowing and Regatta magazine winning at Henley Veterans Regatta in her new Intersport Racing "predator" single and Dreher carbon adjustable sculls.

She uses Little big blade spoons, medium stiffness shafts and small handles.

Rowperfect spoke to Lynette about the race adn she said

It is most exciting making it onto the ARA Magazine.  It was an interesting race as I was told about the woman from USA who is 6 feet tall and very good.  I wasn't particularly well and am even worse now, but hopefully will be fit again for Vienna.
 
Towards the start I took note of her sculling and decided that she wasn't quite as good as people had made her out to be.  I had a good start and just kept moving out from there.  I decided to bring the rating down by 200 to go, and heard the announcer say that I was rating 22, of course, thinking of Mahe Drysdale our Kiwi star who lowers his rating when he is that far in front, and coasted home to win by "easily". 
 
I can't say enough about the Intersport scull, which is comfortable, 14kgs and is so easy to row, the same goes for the Dreher blades, a formidable combination to do well in any race.
 

We saw that Martin Cross wrote a huge number of articles…. and despite a nice mention of all the kiwi crews that won at HRR, the photo caption sub-editor managed to conceal this omitting a single photo of non-British crews.  Further they captioned Hodge and Reed as "Andy Hodge and Pete Reed were semi-finalists in the Goblets" leaving it up to us to work out they were losing semi-finalists. Later reporting on the Munich world cup the photo of Grainger says "Katherine Grainger is enjoying her single".  Does that mean her race results weren't worth mentioning? Funny pecuiliar.

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I met Tim and his coach, Claes Frans outside the boat tents at HRR.  He had just won his first round race in the Diamonds against Walton of Leicester RC.
 
I ask Claes about their history together.  "We started working together in 1998 at our club, Koninklijke Roeivereniging Brugge (KRB).  It isn't a big club with about 80 competitors and and a lot of recreational rowers.  I was coaching a lot of young boys together and Tim was one of the best and we started to go into the national team and there were 3 together worlds in Linz in a quad scull and we got 6th. 

The year after I spent more time with Tim and we got selected for the Junior Worlds in 1x and won bronze in Plovdiv.

Do you worry about being smaller than other single scullers? I was generally a little smaller than the rest from when I was a junior and its the same now.  I made a choice to row as a heavyweight so I don't have to complain about it.

I studied in Ghent and I continue to live there and in the winter I go back to Brugge to train on the canal because that is very good. I stopped rowing after the juniors because I was studying but after a two year break in 2002 I did a double for U23 and we came 6th.  We carried on in that combination and in 2003 we missed qualification for the Athens Olympics when we came 13th [the cut-off for pre-qualification was 12th].  This was a disappointment.

In 2004 I changed to the single scull and it just worked.  After the first world cup I was 7th and I realised that maybe I could go to the Olynmpics.

What did you mean "it just worked"?  I was just fast I knew I was fast as a junior single but the senior is different I didn't know what to expect but competing with the rest of the field and came 7th I knew if I worked a bit harder I knew I would be a bit closer.  The extra work was with my physio comprising back and abdominal strength to improve my positions [posture] and long endurance work as well.  The core stability was a problem after 2004 when I got a back injusry.  But it really increased my speed.

Claes, what did you learn as a coach from working with the Physio? The physio spent a lot of time with us at camps and races and I know him well.  He told me things I should look after and look out for and also in the weight training for correct posture.  At that time I wasn't a full time professional coach so in 2006 I became professional.

When did you become a full time athlete, Tim?  Since 2004 I went pro I had a contract and I finished my studies during 2005. The full time athlete's life in the beginning you have so much free time and so you have to be careful not to go crazy.  But the pressure is much higher because you have to earn your money.  There are four other professionals in Belgium: the mens 2x and womens 1x Anikke.   Tim was the first to get a pro contract and the year later the double and Annik this year. 

I think in modern rowing you have to be professional - you can study half time but full time work and high level rowing is impossible. 

Claes, what improvments would you like to see in Belgian rowing? The changes the rowing federation should make is to look earlier to the younger rowers.  We should want everyone to row in the same way.  When the boys come into the national team there are some different styles and four different styles in one boat.  If we could start and begin them in the same way it would make our life easier as coaches.  Also we need to have the perfect rowing technique from age 14 and after that time the physical condition can be trained later. 

I would also like moire support as they move from a good junior to transition to U23 it is difficult because nobody was looking after the group and and it was being done in the free time of the coaches who also had to look after the pro rowers.  Now it is more strictly followed. We could look for more professional coaches - the money for that can't come from the clubs - unlike the big ones in Britian, we can't afford it.  I am the only pro coach after the head coach.  The government should spend money on that.  

Tim, Claes do you have any advice for young athletes? Tim: enjoy the rowing, improve your technique and listen to the coach.  First enjoy the rowing especially when youare young.  Claes: If you enjoy it then you need a lot of training so you don't forget you need to work hard - more than 2-3 times a week. You have to do it when the conditions are bad like rain or windy.  It is hard work to get to a high level.  

Follow Tim on his Facebook page.

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Welcome to the end of summer round-up newsletter from Rowperfect.

With the Olympic fire fading fast, it's time to look forward to the coming season. If you missed our summary of the Olympians who were writing about the regatta it's all here.

Many clubs run a clubhouse clean-up day and boat cleaning and rigging session.  Don't forget that we can supply you with spare oar buttons, scull grips, pitch gauges and amplification wiring looms.
And if you have new joiners and want to show off a video of good technique, the Rowing and Sculling DVD is useful.  Rob Roy used the FISA Sculling DVD on its summer sculling camp to good effect.
Our interview with David Low has some cunning tricks for head racing and improving the boat movement through the water.

And so enjoy the autumn and we'll see you out on the water while the evening light still lasts!

Rebecca Caroe and Grant Craies
Rowperfect UK

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Download Rowperfect Newsletter 23

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I was recently in Austin, Texas, and approached the local club to borrow a single. During my visit I was introduced to Charles Barksdale the energetic coach who has helped to build a very successful and inclusive local rowing community.  Charles does two jobs and each job is different – he works as a Boatman on the University of Texas Varsity Programme and takes care of the equipment, tune up rig, repair and drive the trailer and as the Head Club Coach, at the Texas Rowing Center, he says, “This job allows me to coach.  My philosophy is to try to get as many people out on the water as possible.”

What is your background in the sport?  I have been rowing since ‘95 and coaching since ‘98.  I wanted to be a better rower and so I started to coach.  Now I am a better coach than I ever was a rower since I am not an ‘ideal’ body shape (5’10” and 170 lbs) but most importantly, I still love it.  
When I started the first things I learnt that no one way is right.  Every athlete is different and the most interesting part is that no matter who you are dealing with you have to find a new way to help them fix the problem.  Look at their background and manipulate your coaching to get them to do things.  This keeps me on my toes and so I am never stagnate and I never do the same thing twice.

What are the differences between the groups you coach?  Coaching kids – you want a quick session, on and off the water fast.  Don’t give them a lot of information – they figure it out themselves.
By comparison, masters (veterans) want to know everything – they are constantly asking “why am I doing this?”.  Masters keep me on my toes the kids are the second hardest group to coach because they have parents!
Open athletes you don’t coach – you give suggestions.  They are wrapped into coaching themselves – you are not training them just moulding.  If they don’t get the right answers from you as a coach they will go and find another coach.  Open rowers sometimes have 6 – 8 coaches because they take what they want from each one.  I usually advise them, “Go find out what works for you and tell me”.  I need to know.  I am a two way street – If you don’t ask me question it is hard for me to tell what you need.  

  
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