We caught up with Michael at Henley last summer. Here’s what he told us
It’s my 5th year in the job and it’s still exciting. This year we had a fun year – this is a first year student crew I’ve brought to Henley and though I didn’t coach them through the year this is the first time I’ve been with them a lot.
Racing overseas works as a good transition for them to get to know me better [as I will coach them next year]. We do some combined training with the freshmen and upper class crews so they all know me but they have their own coach.
Why race in the UK?
One of the reasons for coming to Henley is to get experience racing on famous courses. Coming on a tour like this I see the guys mature and get more racing experience too.
So how good is this crew?
We have a bit of experience: Alexander Perkins the stroke was in a losing schoolboy crew in the PE last year so he’s experienced some close racing and the 7 man won for the last 2 years in school boy events.
How much small boats work do you do?
We mainly train in 4- and pairs. We do a lot of testing and selection in 4- and pairs and we see that as an opportunity to go race.
