After a month of no activity on this blog I'm back but not in Surrey, no not even in England. After 4 years of developing as a development coach I have decided to move on to my own command, developing the rowing at University College Cork, Ireland.
Before starting on the new venture I should take a moment to wrap up things with MBC... The standard of athlete that I have had the good fortune to work with and observe while at Molesey has been incredible. I am not referring only to the occasional outing with an Olympic Gold medalist or two (HoRR, 4's head and most memorably Hodge's 6 months full time at Molesey following Beijing) but to all the individuals that have strived to do the training whether they be giant novices, J16 girls or club men. To be delivered a dozen or so 'giants' all with aspirations to row for Great Britain at the Olympics is a coaches dream, to then find that they are the best bunch of lads you could want to coach was a bonus, to then find that they have ability and guts makes it a group that I will never forget. I have watched a few races at Henley from the launch including the Thames Cup win in 09, for pure fight and determination the 08 Giants race will stick in my memory forever. They may have lost, but in the process they led a crew for a mile that on paper should have been lengths faster. A note to all, if you are going to lose make sure you push your opposition so hard that 2 of them throw up and they struggle to get out of the boat. Oh and ensure that the following year one of your number will go on to win the event.
With regard to coaching juniors at Molesey, I don't know where to start. One thing I do know is that through all the nonsense, all the terribly managed childish twaddle the young athletes got on with it. They got on with it and made us adults look like kids. They got on with it to such as extent that in 2 years they returned 10 medals from the National Schools Regatta including a gold in the Champ girls quad beating a crew with Rachel Gamble-Flint and Kath Copeland in, Hannah Waltham-Hier got on with it and won 2 Gold medals at the Coupe. Jack Shepherd got on with it and won a silver at the Junior Worlds. Frankie, Becky, Grace and Courtenay got on with it and beat all their senior opposition at Women's Henley. More importantly the academic results of these athletes are almost without exception way above average. In fact 'average' is a word that Molesey just doesn't do.
The passion and determination of the training Molesey athlete genuinely runs from Olympian to Junior, it is a unique asset and one that the club should make more of. In my new job I will rarely if ever come into contact with Olympians let alone Gold medalists, at Molesey it happened all the time. In the past year the Junior girls have been coxed by Acer Nethercott and coached by both Cam Nicholl (guns) and Martin Cross (mind expansion rowing). The greatest example of this unique strata, and one that will forever be etched in my memory for tragic reasons was watching Hodge and Scott Rennie sitting side by side doing a thirty minute ergo. Olympic Gold medalist and superb young athlete going at the flywheel stroke for stroke. I am quite certain that the respect and motivation worked both ways, that is the nature of excellent athletes.
Excellent athletes require excellent coaches and I have been lucky to spend many hours in launches and on camps with Tom, Ben and Neasa, not only great coaches but also founts of useful knowledge, I hope in some small way I have been able to raise their knowledge of various historical conflicts...
I have no doubt that whatever I may know about rowing, whatever experience I may now be able to bring to Cork is down to time spent with the coaches and those athletes that have given me the honour of listening and giving it a go. You know who you are, thank you.
Before starting on the new venture I should take a moment to wrap up things with MBC... The standard of athlete that I have had the good fortune to work with and observe while at Molesey has been incredible. I am not referring only to the occasional outing with an Olympic Gold medalist or two (HoRR, 4's head and most memorably Hodge's 6 months full time at Molesey following Beijing) but to all the individuals that have strived to do the training whether they be giant novices, J16 girls or club men. To be delivered a dozen or so 'giants' all with aspirations to row for Great Britain at the Olympics is a coaches dream, to then find that they are the best bunch of lads you could want to coach was a bonus, to then find that they have ability and guts makes it a group that I will never forget. I have watched a few races at Henley from the launch including the Thames Cup win in 09, for pure fight and determination the 08 Giants race will stick in my memory forever. They may have lost, but in the process they led a crew for a mile that on paper should have been lengths faster. A note to all, if you are going to lose make sure you push your opposition so hard that 2 of them throw up and they struggle to get out of the boat. Oh and ensure that the following year one of your number will go on to win the event.
With regard to coaching juniors at Molesey, I don't know where to start. One thing I do know is that through all the nonsense, all the terribly managed childish twaddle the young athletes got on with it. They got on with it and made us adults look like kids. They got on with it to such as extent that in 2 years they returned 10 medals from the National Schools Regatta including a gold in the Champ girls quad beating a crew with Rachel Gamble-Flint and Kath Copeland in, Hannah Waltham-Hier got on with it and won 2 Gold medals at the Coupe. Jack Shepherd got on with it and won a silver at the Junior Worlds. Frankie, Becky, Grace and Courtenay got on with it and beat all their senior opposition at Women's Henley. More importantly the academic results of these athletes are almost without exception way above average. In fact 'average' is a word that Molesey just doesn't do.
The passion and determination of the training Molesey athlete genuinely runs from Olympian to Junior, it is a unique asset and one that the club should make more of. In my new job I will rarely if ever come into contact with Olympians let alone Gold medalists, at Molesey it happened all the time. In the past year the Junior girls have been coxed by Acer Nethercott and coached by both Cam Nicholl (guns) and Martin Cross (mind expansion rowing). The greatest example of this unique strata, and one that will forever be etched in my memory for tragic reasons was watching Hodge and Scott Rennie sitting side by side doing a thirty minute ergo. Olympic Gold medalist and superb young athlete going at the flywheel stroke for stroke. I am quite certain that the respect and motivation worked both ways, that is the nature of excellent athletes.
Excellent athletes require excellent coaches and I have been lucky to spend many hours in launches and on camps with Tom, Ben and Neasa, not only great coaches but also founts of useful knowledge, I hope in some small way I have been able to raise their knowledge of various historical conflicts...
I have no doubt that whatever I may know about rowing, whatever experience I may now be able to bring to Cork is down to time spent with the coaches and those athletes that have given me the honour of listening and giving it a go. You know who you are, thank you.
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