An Amateur Rowing Association: Growing Grassroots

In a previous article ‘Shaking it up: the Rowing Super-League’, a gulf in quality was highlighted with a group of larger clubs and universities leading the way in setting and lifting the standard of British rowing. This is also extended into school rowing with the like of Eton, St Paul’s, Windsor Boys School, Headington School and Henley Rowing club all producing impressive results in recent years to name a few. The rise of these larger clubs is due to a range of factors including finances, equipment and hard work. But the rowing world is beginning to forget about the volunteer run clubs which are still having to compete against these larger programs to win races and get recognition. Is it time for competitions to allow volunteer led clubs to compete on a more level playing field.

Many of us who did not learn to row at school will have learned to row at a local club. A large proportion of these are run by volunteers consisting of parents of rowing and people with a passion for growing the next generation of the sport. A great example of this is Bewl Bridge Rowing Club which is run by volunteers and has still managed to pull out some great achievements, notably a 1st place finish at National Schools Regatta in the J16 2x. This is however a rare occurrence for a volunteer led club like Bewl which is a club like many others with coaches and athletes which could have a much greater quantity of success stories if they were given the tools to fully commit to the development of the rowers and the infrastructure of the club. With the understanding that British Rowing, World Rowing or a few wealthy donors won’t be spreading their wealth to every volunteer run club in the world to level the playing field, it could be suggested to create an Amateur Rowing Association (ARA). This can create more categories in events or separate events to allow volunteer run clubs to directly compete against other volunteer run clubs with the ARA overseeing to ensure the fairness of these categories/events. This would be beneficial for these clubs as they could get more exposure on social media through the likes of British Rowing, Allmarkone and JRN as they will be seen winning more races in these new categories that are created. This can improve their uptake of rowers and memberships which is their main source of income to keep the club alive. Giving these volunteer-led clubs more exposure with the increased number of categories at larger events such as Head of the River and Metropolitan Regatta could be the difference between keeping the club on the map and it having to close its doors.
This isn’t a change that will significantly improve the GB teams results however it is one that can help improve the longevity of the grass root clubs. This is vital in keeping the sport diverse and sustaining tradition by allowing the clubs to pick up the athletes in their catchment areas while maintaining the values and history that those clubs have built up since they were established and how they have grown as volunteer led clubs in an environment dominated by the richer players in the sport. While the ARA will be in charge of maintaining the fairness across the competitions, they can also be a driver for change and opportunity by increasing the number of learn to row courses in schools across the country to tap into untouched areas. Increasing the number of people exposed to rowing and therefore given the opportunity to row at their local clubs. With increasing the number of members at volunteer led clubs being the key success factor of the ARA, they will have an incentive to increase the exposure of these clubs and giving them a level playing field to compete on could be a big step in the right direction.

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Sam Sheppard

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