News

Posted:  October 8, 2013

The Scottish Rowing Coaches Conference 2013 was held at Edinburgh University's Centre for Sport and Exercise on the 5th and 6th of October. The conference was well attended by coaches from all over Scotland and we were privileged to have a great line-up of speakers who generously shared their knowledge and experience.

To start proceedings, the delegates were treated to a talk from Pete Sheppard, GB Rowing's Chief Coach for the Junior and U23 squads, who spoke about long term athlete development. This was followed by a fascinating and frank insight into the journey of the Lightweight Men 2008-2013 from Darren Whiter the Lightweight Men's Squad coach who coached the men's lightweight double scull at the Beijing and London Olympics.

After lunch the programme became more hands on with a workshop on GB Rowing Technique, led by Darren Whiter, assisted by the other two GB Rowing Team coaches. Darren focused on 4 basic principles which everyone was able to try out under expert supervision.

We moved from the Katherine Grainger Rowing Gym to the Performance Gym where Edinburgh University/sportscotland Institute of sport lead coach David Hughes led a practical session on Strength and Conditioning for rowing and the day's business concluded with a talk on the subject of Injury prevention from sport physiotherapist Kelly Horne.

After a brief break for the Scottish Rowing Awards Dinner on Saturday evening, the attendees returned on Sunday morning when Steve Gunn, Head of the GB Rowing Team Start programme, put everyone through their paces with a Safe & Strong Trunks workshop. This was a fun practical session which gave coaches hands on experience in assessing and developing core strength - knowledge which they are all looking forward to sharing with their clubs. 

Polly Swann then gave an engrossing talk about her journey as an athlete - from junior to World Champion. This insightful and inspirational talk was one of the highlights of a weekend of high quality presentations.

Heather Lowden and Lynn Allison from Scottish Disability Sport gave a talk about Inclusiveness in Rowing.  They challenged the group with a series of scenrios which got the coaches thinking more practically about how to include people with a range of different disabilities within their own clubs.  The conference closed with Jason Foster who gave us a rundown of the highlights from the British Rowing junior conference.

Scottish Rowing would like to thank Darren Whiter, Steve Gunn, Pete Sheppard from GB Rowing Team; John Gill from Marlow Rowing Club; Polly Swann; Heather Lowden and Lynn Allison from Scottish Disability Sport; David Hughes and Kelly Horne from the sportscotland Institute of Sport.  Thanks also to the staff at the Centre for Sport and Exercise at the University of Edinburgh for their support.

If you missed out this time but would like more information on upcoming events run by Scottish Rowing please contact us at office@scottish-rowing.org.uk