Leander opens their doors to all those who are dedicated, talented, and ready to become the best athlete they can be. If you have what it takes to train with the best of the best and succeed, welcome to Leander.
It has been three, long months since my last race with Leander Rowing Club at Henley Royal Regatta. Reflection of the past year has been on my mind and so I thought it was time to make a review of the Leander Gap Year Programme.
Based in the picturesque Henley-on-Thames, Leander is known for their illustrious pink and distinguished Hippo. One of the most prestigious rowing clubs in the world, Leander has been very successful in becoming the steppingstone for getting selected for the Great Britain senior squad.
Both men and women have been equally dominant – their athletes have won 127 Olympic and Paralympic medals since 1908.
Here athletes can develop as rowers and people, engrossing themselves in the inclusive, friendly, and welcoming community, while gaining exceptional experience and coaching through their high-performance training programme.
The ‘gappies’
Leander’s gap year programme for women is small and aimed at those looking for a respite before the chaos of university.
With athletes joining from all over the world, it’s an intensive but constructive programme helping you progress in your rowing career, while also providing helpful tools for you to utilise later in life.
As I had just won a silver medal at the Junior World Championships, they were happy to give me a seat in their gap year programme. I would be joined by five other girls.
As the youngest within the squad, our goals were substantially different to everyone else’s. We were set on getting ready for university and using the year to get fit, meet new people, and experience the Leander way.
Even though there was no pressure on our shoulders, we still had to meet the Leander standards and expectations.
In fact, we had plentiful opportunities to make top boats, with coaches making selections based on boat speed rather than age or experience. As a result, we integrated well with the seniors, our opportunities bountiful as we trained with these exceptional athletes that helped guide our development.
Coming from a smaller junior programme, Leander proved to be an immensely different experience and one that has been critical in my transition into the Harvard University’s Women’s Crew.
It played a role in my development as an athlete and throughout the year, I learnt so much about myself and my ambitions for the future.
But one of the most important lessons I took away from my year-long experience is that rowing is not your life.
Yes, I got to see through the window of being a full-time athlete, which signifies one’s peak in their athletic career. But, through all the pain, wins and losses, I realised that the most important thing is enjoying the little things everyday: your daily coffee with your friend, going for a walk down the river, or even making someone smile.
While I do remember the grind, I remember most prominently the good times, the good laughs, and those moments when the pressure of rowing was forgotten.
Finding the right balance between the mental and physical intensity of rowing and everyday life and relaxation is imperative in the long run.
So, all of you must be curious to know: what is it like to row at Leander?
Training
Training was hard.
It would take place six days a week, Monday through Saturday, from 7am until 1pm, sometimes even later as the season progressed.
With two sessions a day, training was tough not only on the lungs but on your soul. It pushed you to your limits both physically and mentally: ’30r20s’ were consistently repeated every other week; workouts such as ‘4 x 3ks’ at step rates or long 20k paddles on the water.
Mileage was put on top of mileage, but everything was done within reason.
To be the fastest, you had to be the fittest, and this programme helped you go from pulling a 2:08 split for your UT2s down to an easy 2:01 split for an 18k erg.
Sure enough, I became the fittest I had ever been. I was also the strongest I had ever been. So now, what was stopping me from being the fastest I had ever been?
As good as the Leander programme is, there are only two coaches for the large group of women training together.
Sometimes, paddles would become very lonely, with no coach in sight. Sometimes, we would get a snippet of attention, but soon be forgotten as we continued to plough through the session.
It’s a high-performance programme and so understandably coaches prioritised the top boats. But for us youngsters, we were left feeling forgotten and abandoned – quite a jump from our small programmes where we were at the centre spotlight.
Maybe it’s the senior programme, maybe it’s Leander in general. But I know that I could have been rowing faster, if only I’d been told…
Needless to say, we surely did have the best coaches at hand. Ross Hunter, the Women’s head coach, and Richard Chambers, the Women’s assistant head coach, proved to be pivotal parts of our training, knowing exactly how to make a boat go faster with their all-knowing eyes that could spot any anomaly.
It is no wonder Leander boats are acclaimed for their mighty Leander rhythm and technique as Hunter and Chambers surely provide the expertise necessary.
Racing
As racing began, the fight for seats was a long and arduous one.
Every session, every stroke was an opportunity for us to show the coaches what you were capable of and that you deserved that seat in a boat.
Usually, boat orders would change daily. Even though I found this hard at first, it was a good lesson as it taught me to prioritise every session: each one was a chance for me to prove my capabilities.
Moving onto results, this year’s Henley Royal Regatta was one of the most successful performances in the club’s history, with Leander winning a multitude of 8 events, with 60 athletes racing across 15 crews on finals day.
Many would argue that this was due to the highly selective recruitment process but one thing I noticed and thoroughly appreciated was the prosperous culture.
Athletes carried within themselves the all-too-necessary winning attitude that differentiates the winners from everyone else. This exceptionally high-standard mentality that is brought to training every day makes all the difference especially during those days when motivation is low.
It’s inevitable that we’ll experience bad days but, even on those days, we were able to maximise our training as we were consistently reminded that we were there to do one thing and one thing only: be the best we could be.
Final thoughts
Through both the wins and losses, I cherished my friendships and appreciated the tight-knit community.
The rowing was tough, but the impact of this was softened in the knowledge that everyone else, every other athlete at Leander, was going through the same experiences.
We had each other and we rowed for each other and that is what makes Leander the greatest.
And now with their generous new sponsors, the Colgan Foundation, Leander can look to make even more gains within their programme and continue their successful trajectory.
Leander opens their doors to all those who are dedicated, talented and ready to become the best athlete they can be. If you have what it takes to train with the best of the best and succeed, welcome to Leander.
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