I don’t think that anyone who knows me would describe me as a high-performance athlete. However, I would like to believe that over my years of rowing I have at least dipped my toe in the water of high performance and developed a taste for what elite performance in this sport might look like. I believe that I have begun to understand the trials and stresses that high-performance athletes face during their rowing careers, at least to a minor degree. My brief peek behind the curtain on high-performance rowing has given me a greater appreciation for rowing, and after watching the recent Olympics I have been left wondering about how high-performance rowing may have changed in the last 20 years or so.
Has it got harder to row for your country?
More people are rowing today than ever before, with rising participation being seen worldwide. More people competing for medals, more people entering events. However, the amount of international competition has not increased – certainly not with the slow removal of lightweight boat classes. It would make sense then, that with all these extra rowers, there are more people rowing than ever before with a desire to compete on the international stage. This means that competition for a seat on the national rowing team has become fierce for most countries, and athletes that would have made the exceptional standard generations ago just don’t cut it today. An advantage of this perhaps is that boats are moving faster and faster all the time, world and Olympic best times are continually being broken and by bigger margins than weather and equipment can account for.
The wonderful thing about the increased rowing population is that rowing is slowly becoming a less elitist sport, with more clubs now than ever, rowing is not just a sport for private school children and Oxbridge students. There are more clubs in less affluent areas, providing opportunities for people that simply weren’t there 20 years ago. These clubs provide a way into the sport for new groups and start them on the high-performance pathway to international representation.
Despite the greater access to high performance pathways in the rowing community today, I think that the factor with the greatest impact on international success in the sport is the volume of people competing for seats. It is also worth noting that the greatest rowing resources, both in terms of fleet and coaching staff, are most found at the clubs with the best funding, generally private schools and universities. It is fantastic that more people than ever can start a rowing journey at the wide range of clubs, but a great many people will be facing an uphill battle to international success against people who have been lucky enough to attend a well-resourced club.
Is high-performance rowing keeping up with physiological developements and greater mental health awareness?
There have been great strides of development in the rowing world, in our understanding of the mind, body and the equipment we use. We now know far more about the physiology of rowing than ever before, enabling coaches to write training programmes targeted to the goals of the squad, and know the best ways to achieve the required physiological development. Examples of this are seen all over the rowing world, by coaches that have a specific goal or race in mind. Take the boat race crews for example, they will spend their season doing a great deal of lower intensity aerobic base work and threshold pieces to prepare for the long-distance boat race on the tideway but will do less full-on sprint work than crews in training for a summer of 2km racing.
In addition to the increased understanding of physiology, there has been a great surge of awareness around mental health issues, coaches and athletes are becoming increasingly aware of how they can support and protect themselves in a high-pressure environment. This awareness has been driven by factors outside of rowing and is a result of a broader societal change towards focus on wellbeing of individuals. Great initiatives such as RTHM – Rowing Together for Healthy Minds -are leading the way in this sector for many rowers by raising awareness, and many clubs have introduced the position of a welfare officer to support their rowers.
Following the personnel changes in British Rowing, it is plain to me that they are looking to create a more supportive atmosphere for the athletes. It seems that they are prioritising athlete wellbeing and mental health. Following some of the divisive comments from squad members regarding ex head coach Jurgen Grobler, I get the impression that he was responsible for an atmosphere that the directors of British Rowing no longer wanted to support.
Rowing on the international stage requires a herculean amount of effort, huge amounts of dedication and sacrifice to the sport in order to put yourself in a position where you still may not succeed. Knowing the incredible pressure and challenges that exist in rowing at the highest level, is it possible to encourage mental health in the athletes whilst also demanding high performance from them? I’m not sure that there is a simple answer to this question. It is simply not possible to be competitive at a high level without making serious commitments and sacrifices, and it is natural that these choices risk having an impact upon mental health. Perhaps the risk of these issues is an inherent part of high-performance training. If that is the case, then it is imperative that all coaching and support staff are sufficiently educated to deal with it.
What will the future hold?
Rowing as a sport and high-performance rowing are evolving, along with the expectations that we have of them. I certainly will be fascinated to continue to watch how the sport develops over the coming years. There is certainly more to be done in terms of access to the high-performance pathways, but it is already far better today than it was years ago. It will be very interesting to see if a balance is able to be struck between medals and mental health. I can’t wait to see what happens
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