In a quiet and unassuming corner of Cambridgeshire countryside, Junior Rowing News had the opportunity to sit down with Dr Persephone Wynn to talk about all things rowing as we head toward the long overdue regatta season.
Dr Persephone Wynn – or Perse – is the programme manager for the UKCC Level 3 Senior Club Coaching Award and UKCC Level 2 Strength & Conditioning programme at British Rowing, a UKAD Educator and also volunteers for FISA, delivering coaching development in some of the more deprived countries in the world. Her work sees her developing coaches to allow them to have a holistic understanding of what it means to be a coach, or as she puts it (far more succinctly), “Coaching the Coach”, and ensuring that British Rowing’s ethos of ‘Rower Focussed Coaching’ is at the forefront in the world of rowing.
As we spoke it became quickly apparent that here was a lady who has devoted her life to the sport she loved; over my shoulder crews would be boating and her gaze would follow their oars, stroke by stroke. But don’t be fooled into thinking that you’re reading about some airy-fairy coach – far from it. In conversation, a fierce intellect shone through in her words, from her depth and breadth of knowledge to the passion and conviction in the way she held such discussion.
One of Dr Wynn’s roles is to run the Level 3 Senior Club Coach programme for club and volunteer coaches. On the course, participants will be asked to “develop someone”, whether the person they choose to develop is aiming for national selection, or returning from an injury, or has potential as a coach. One of the aims of the course is to “ask those who come on the course to bring on the next generation of rowing coaches because without volunteer coaches the clubs simply would not function.”
It is clear then that British Rowing is keen to not only to develop their current cohort of coaches at club level but also safeguard the future of club rowing, an intelligent move amid growing concerns about the future of small clubs.
But it’s not all plain sailing; as our discussion changed to centre around the Strength and Conditioning programme, the problems she and the wider rowing community are facing became quickly apparent: “Unfortunately we have to have very highly qualified tutors for that, and those that are prepared to give up four days over three months are few and far between.” Persephone herself had a waiting list of around “100 applicants waiting to start their course”.
On a lighter note, the physiologist had some better news about the use of the gym for junior rowers, and how it was helping them on the water, but she was keen to stress that “teenage boys are very prone to showing off in the gym, and unfortunately that is how many injuries occur so it is important that they listen to and heed their coaches’ advice”.
Great Britain has been one of the leading nations on the world stage for a number of years, and Dr Wynn had some brighter news about how British Rowing and the wider sporting community was combatting doping and drug use alongside UKAD. “We’ve only had two positive tests in British Rowing,” she explained, in contrast to other nations. “A Brazilian lady made the semi-finals at the last Olympics and then didn’t turn up, because she’d had a positive test.”
British National team athletes are required to tell UKAD their exact location for each day using the ADAMS reporting system, 3 months in advance although athletes can fill in a time that would be preferable to them for testing.
Regatta season is easily the most competitive time of year for rowers the world over, but as tensions run high, Dr Wynn left us with one piece of advice: “Do as you would be done by – the principles of being a nice person spill over into rowing”.
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