Captain's update, 5th January 2025

Dear Cygnets

Happy new year! I hope you all had a good break wherever you spent it and have set the resolution to drop 20 secs off your 2K...
It's back to all systems go with Cygnet. I have already been impressed with our first weekend's training - in pretty cold conditions on Saturday, and then heavy rain on Sunday - not many other clubs were out! This update covers upcoming races, the plan for training in the next couple of months, and a special plea from me. 

Upcoming races
Our attention now turns to the big end-of-winter race: the Head of the River (HORR). This takes place on 22nd March. For those who are new to the sport, it is fantastic spectacle of 400 eights belting down the Thames from Chiswick bridge to Putney (c. 7km) in a time-trial. It is a chance for us to see how our winter training has gone and ranks us against clubs from across the country, and indeed some international crews.
Whilst that is the focus, we will also be entering an 8+ for Hammersmith Head on the 23rd February. This is a slightly shorter race but will allow us to get invaluable race experience. 

Please can you sign-up with your availability for these races as soon as possible, as well as your availability (as far as you know at the moment) for the water sessions over the next couple of months (just as an indication). Key selection criteria will be outlined below. To enter we also require people to have their British Rowing membership up to date - with the 'Race' membership. Details can be found here.

Training
We will continue with our training days being:
Monday 7pm - Weights
Wednesday 7pm - Ergs
Saturday 8am - Water session; 10am - Erg
Sunday 8am and 10am - both on the water

On the water, we want to continue focussing in January on getting people out in small boats. This allows us to improve our technical ability, and we will then use the small boats to test people's boat speed - potentially with a few races in the coming weeks - which will help us select the crew for HORR.
As part of this, I'm really happy to see how well people are doing with our new 'floats' for singles with Simon. There has been fantastic progress and we will continue doing this throughout January. 

On the land, the main thing is building up our endurance base for a 20+ minute race in March. I will shortly let you know when the next 5K test will be (likely late Jan/early Feb), but we will look to do at least two before HORR. 

Coaching
A key part of this is our coaching. Simon has been great in getting so many people into singles in recent weeks and that will continue. Wes is due to return in early February - and will then reume retaking the weights and Sunday sessions. 

Special plea
We are short of a couple of voluntary postions at the moment. One is someone to run our '300 Club' - details can be found here. Another really key one is for a organising in advance the boating for races where Cygnet hosts multiple clubs (and this brings in money which allows us to buy new equipment).
If you are interesting in volunteering for any roles in the club - please do just drop me a line! 

Cheers,
Dom