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Before Christmas, we asked for volunteers to review the Good Coxswain Guide series of booklets.  Written by Andrew O'Brien they form a great library resource for anyone who coxes or who coaches coxswains.

Here are the first three book reviews and our grateful thanks to Sudbury Rowing Club and Vesta Rowing Club whose members took time out to write these.

They are now available for sale in the Shop as electronic e-books . Each one costs £6 or £65 for the full set with a free bonus Log Book to record progress.

My name is Ellie Adams (photographed above), I am 11 years old and I am a cox and sculler at Sudbury Rowing Club.  I have been asked to check out some of your coxing guidebooks by a member at the club.  I have read two or three of them and I think they are good, they give you lots of information and are very helpful, especially all the pictures and diagrams. I think that lots of coxes like me should use these books to improve their skills.  I also like the way the books are split into different categories, this is helpful at the club as it allows as to borrow different books at one time.  I thought that the 'log book' was a good idea to record all of your outings as a cox with different crews and boats; therefore you can know what to improve on next time you are out. I think Sudbury Rowing Club will find these books very useful and will use them often.
 
Thank you for letting me try these books out.
 
Ellie Adams
Sudbury Rowing Club - Junior Squad
 
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Like many other clubs we have seen an increase in people wanting to learn to row over the last 12-18 months which has led to a growth in our junior and novice squads.  This has provided us a whole new audience to teach about the skills of coxing and has meant that as a club we have had to think again about how to train coxes.  
 
Having recently read 'The Good Coxswain' series of books I think they will be a positive step for us to helping find and nurture the potential in our new coxes.  The books are split into categories (1 - 12) so it is possible to focus on one element of coxing skills at a time.  Each book contains a guide detailing what is covered in that section, a glossary of terms (very important as sometimes we forget that we use a different language rowing!) and the informative text is accompanied by diagrams and pictures which help to explain the subject to all ages and experience levels.  The books also have tips and quotes from coxswains, rowers and coaches which help to make it more real to the reader.  These books are written in a way that explains things to those new to coxing, both junior and adult, but also contain tips and information that a more experienced cox can use as a refresher when they need it.
 
As a club we have recently trialled our own coxing course but we can now organise the content of the course to align with the categories of the. books to reinforce.  The fact that the books are in separate sections will also allow them the sections of interest to be 'borrowed' or used for a quick refresher whenever needed.
 
The final book (no. 12) in the series covers the difficult and sometimes overlooked area of how to coach the cox.  Coaches are used to coaching the rowers in the boat but when dealing with new and novice coxes the advice in here really focuses your mind on how to release the potential in your cox.
 
The 'log book' is such a simple idea I do wonder why we never thought of it ourselves but I think it is a good way of getting the cox more involved in their development and it will help document their coxing CV if we ever need to supply it (for coxing the tideway for example).
 
I also own 'The Down and Dirty Guide to Coxing' , which is another reference book I would recommend to coxes, but 'The Good Coxswain' series for me does have a distinct advantage for those of us in the UK as it uses the same terms as us (i.e. bowside and strokeside)!
 
Katherine Cass
Sudbury Rowing Club - Vice Captain, Learn to Row Coach   

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I decided to start coxing in December 2008. Unlike most coxswains, I had no previous rowing experience, so starting out felt really quite intimidating. There is such a huge amount to try and learn. Once you have basic steering skills, there’s rowing language. When you know your bowside from strokeside, you need to start fine tuning calls, work on timing of calls, annunciation, sharpening your steering and all this whilst keeping your crew safe on the Tideway and trying to tweak their rowing technique.

The majority of my existing coxswain experience has come from learning ‘on the job’, talking to other coxes and listening to the after outing sum up. I desperately wanted as much reading material as I could get to help with rowing terms and basic skills. Whilst information is on the internet, it’s few and far between. So when I saw Rowperfect had started to stock books which were for coxes, my inner rowing geek jumped for joy.

The Good Coxswain Guide Books are designed to be a handy source of information. Their aim is to cover complete basics of coxing for novice coxes to simplified explanations of drills etc for senior coxes. The guide books are also a resource for coaches who would like direction on how to coach coxes. They come in booklet form so they can be easily used as a quick reference. Separated into 12 different sections, they address core coxing topics, without all the jargon.

For someone who is thinking about becoming a cox or has just started, these booklets are invaluable. They explain everything from getting the boat out of the boathouse/shed to what the different components in a boat are called and what they do. I certainly found the section on creating a race plan useful (booklet number 9) and I am always on the lookout for tips to improve my landings (as is my Bowman!). What I also thought was a good aspect, is the section on how you can still be useful and an integral part of the crew when land training. To quote the first booklet, ‘I knew how to do it, I just didn’t know why’ was exactly my attitude and these booklets explain the Hows, Whats, Wheres and Whys succinctly. Each booklet has a glossary section and then a summary to reinstate what you should’ve learned.

My only criticism is that, for coxes who have steered more races and outings than they’ve had hot meals (granted a bad analogy – we are after all – always trying to make weight!!), the booklets would be quite redundant. Certainly adding further booklets to the series which concentrate on more advanced topics would be a superb idea.

To summarise, I found the booklets useful and enjoyable to read. They simplify ‘rowing speak’ without being patronising and all booklets have diagrams and/or tables to explain things further. I’d recommend owning them and I’ll certainly continue glancing at them from time to time to brush up my knowledge.

Celeste Boruvka, Vesta Rowing Club Coxswain

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We follow a Twitter account @TheRowingCoach and there was an interesting question from Tobias @soundblaster21

@TheRowingCoach hi any good websites for junior rowing games, either on or off erg looking for something a bit different to do with them. thx

 Now we know about ergo golf.  Here's the simple way to play:

1. set a number of holes and decide the length of each hole in meters.
2. Each athlete has to try and complete that distance in the fewest number of strokes.
3. Keep score

And we found this more complex version of "Erg Golf" with a score sheet table from the Cascadilla Boat Club.

We found a discussion thread on Coxie.com which included

• teams rowing 1 minute each and aiming for furthest distance
• 500m relays in teams of 5 where each rowed 5 times
• Coxswains yelling out split times (high or low) and the last person to achieve the split is out and gets to yell at the rest with the cox

Any others?

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The Coxmate HC is our latest innovation and is designed specifically for coxless boats.
Lighter and compact, it mounts into your boat on a wiring loom that includes a neat on/off foot-switch as well as magnetic pick-ups for rating and the speed impeller.

Designed to fit the NK loom. Its software is the same as the Coxmate SCT so you can double up if you own it already.
We also sell the micro-impellers separately, and they work with NK although you’ll need to recalibrate because it spins faster than the NK one).

Coxmate HC for coxless boats;         Coxmate Micro Impeller compared to NK impeller

Features Include:-

• Configurable display with following variables: rating, speed, time, distance, av. speed, distance, stroke count, dist/stroke, heart rate & ratio (min/max speed per stroke)
• Integral pick up for Polar Heart Rate monitors
• Takes AAA batteries: approx 1.5 years runtime without backlight or approx 100 hours runtime with backlight
• Substantial memory for storing data
• Real time clock for time/date stamping rowing records.
• Ability to display data concurrently on two HC units
• Mounting bracket compatible with NK Speedcoach®
• Includes auxiliary switch input, which can be used to start, stop and reset timer. Mountable for foot or leg operation
• HC micro impeller dramatically reduces drag and susceptibility to damage and weed contamination
• Optional PC link and analysis software is available

As ever, we have demo units available for you to try out. Please ask.

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Duncan Holland writes;

I watched a BBC programme last night, ‘Colin Jackson, the
making of me ’.  (As an aside the BBC is
one part of Britain
I am going to miss.)  The programme
addressed the old nature versus nurture debate in the context of Jackson . 
It didn’t do what the trailers promised, answer the question, but it
raised some good debating points.

The real answer of course is that to be a world class
athlete both sides are needed, great genes and great support.  This is where I start getting
interested.  Jackson was fortunate in
having supportive parents and a superb coach just down the road who was
prepared to invest time and energy into a kid with not much apparent talent,
and who saw sooner than others that Jackson had something special.

Rowing in most countries is haphazard in its search for talent;
GBR is an exception here with the World Class Start programme.  There is though, the informal network of
clubs.  Most clubs have a few big young
rowers who are considered to be talented. 
What I am interested in is the conversion this talent to
performance.  In the old days before the
advent of National Training Centres and HPC ’s and RPC ’s and professional
coaches these talented youngsters were bred up in the clubs and educated in the
way of the sport by rowing with, and mixing with, the older, faster rowers in
the club.  Now with most of the top
rowers spending their time as professionals hidden away at the National Centre
the young athletes miss role models and leadership in the clubs.

This sets the rest of us a challenge; we need to help those
talented rowers who aren’t identified early to blossom.  I believe the best way to do this is to keep
them in a group.  It isn’t necessary to
isolate talent.  Rowing in a crew boat,
even if most of the crew have less talent, is a good way for a potential star
to develop.  Don’t forget that a top
rower needs social skills as well as physical ones.  A good apprenticeship in club crews, and at
local regattas, can prepare an athlete to make the jump to top sport.

And finally, Jackson
told us he was proud of his genetic make up, his rare and special mix of muscle
fibre types.  I would suggest he should
be proud of what he did with his inheritance. 
Lots of people inherit a great body, few become World Champion!

Duncan

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Of late I have been coaching various crews in Cambridge UK, the Robinson College 1st Women’s boat and some crews from Champion of the Thames, and have been coaching women for the first time for a number of years.  All the crews have been preparing themselves for The Bumps . 
Apart from being great fun this experience has re-confirmed a belief I formed many years ago.  Men and women are different!  So what?

I often get asked questions along the lines of ‘What differences should there be in the training programme for men and women?’  I don’t think there should be a significant difference.  I believe men and women can, and should, row the same way, train the same way; do the same amount of work.

Where I see the difference is in the attitudes displayed.  These are merely generalisations, but like all good generalisations, have a grain of truth in them.  If a men’s boat isn’t going well the first reaction from most of the crew is ‘The others are messing it up for me’.  Women react with the polar opposite ‘Sorry, I am messing it up for you’.  

The interesting question for me is how I should react, and yes I know my views are filtered through my attitudes and experiences, and are therefore not truly objective, coaching is a subjective business.  

What are your experiences and suggestions?

Duncan

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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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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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