Cygnet Weekly Update

Cygnets,

Quintin Head on Saturday was our first race of the year and it was heartening to see two Cygnet VIIIs competing in excellent conditions. We had three people making their debuts in Cygnet colours, Ian Schofield, Niall Smith and Bjarne Hustad and they all enjoyed the experience and excitement of racing. The results were Cygnet 1st VIII 107th overall in a time of 15:17 and Cygnet 2nd VIII were 178th in 16:32. Both boats reported having good rows down the course and looked good in the photos, but there could have been more pain in the boats to get the times down. So we need to work hard on and off the river to improve our relative positions for HoRR and VHoR. Huge thanks to Marj and Charlie for coxing the boats.

This week:

Tuesday 7:15 at Cavendish School Circuits with Maxi, carrying on the focus on core strength

Wednesday 7pm Club run - Club Run 40' easy. Non runners 4 x 4' squats/1' rest Rate 30

Thursday 7pm Squad ergo 5 x 1500m @5k pace -0.5s split, sign up with Sarah Powell for food afterwards, you're going to need to refuel after the ergo!!

Saturday Main squad outings, meet at club at 7:20, OTW by 7:45 for first outing, 2nd outing at 10:45 - Sunrise is getting earlier so we can start and finish our outings earlier

Novices: meet at club at 9:15, OTW at 9:45

Sunday Main squad outings, meet at club at 7:20, OTW by 7:45 for first outing, 2nd outing at 10:45 - Sunrise is getting earlier so we can start and finish our outings earlier

Novices: meet at club at 9:15, OTW at 9:45

We tried on Sunday including a Novice 4+ in the main squad outing but there was too much difference in speed between them and the main squad for Tim to shuttle back and forth between the crews so I think for now the Novice outings are best scheduled between the main squad's first and second outings.

Preparing for HoRR/VHoR and squad development

On Sunday the group of rowers who were doing both outings and coach Tim talked about plans for Head of the River weekend and the obvious fact that we were a small and select group who are doing all the weekend outings. It's something that I've put in previous news letters and I know people have other commitments and priorities that puts a limit on the outings they can make. But there is no getting away from it that those attending all Tim's session are getting the full programme of technical and physical development and will progress faster than those that don't or can't. So Tim wants to put the squad into three categories of rowers - fully committed, part committed, social. Fully committed means making all the sessions on and off the water, part committed means training every week but not all sessions, social means joining the squad as and when. Crew selection for races and outings will take from the committed group first, then the part committed then the social. In the recent poll 11 people said they were going to make all the weekend outings, but with only four of us on the second outing on Sunday, that's clearly not the case. We will put up a list in the changing rooms of the squad and which category they are in. This is not a fixed thing, if you can move between the categories in any direction depending on attendance. The aim of this is so people know where they stand with regards selection, that those putting the time and effort in get the recognition and most all more people make more outings and take full advantage of Tim's fantastic coaching and programme. Finally, the four of us who did the second outing on Sunday, we had a great session in single sculls racing each other back from Putney to the club.

Recruitment

In the same discussion on Sunday we talked about recruitment and how we can build the base of active rowers in the club. We have the fleet and coaching set up to support a substantially bigger squad which is good for the club in many ways both competitively, socially and financially. Most of our recruitment traditionally comes from our Learn to Row courses and the next one starts on the 1st April. We also should recruit experienced rowers who can get straight on the water and join the competitive squad and we have been less successful at this. We all thought we need to do more on this. Ideas include advertising locally and in rowing websites. I'm sure there is a lot more we can do, it needs to be the responsibility of every club member to help by using their own networks of work, family friends and by coming up with ideas on ways to attract guys to the club. So let's keep the ideas coming and turn them into actions and into new recruits, both for the LTR and of experienced rowers. More to follow, but to start with fire your ideas over to me, Nick and Charlie.

That's rather a long update, have a good week and enjoy your rowing!!!

Jez