The Road to Henley

The Start Line

A month ago, I sat down with the senior boys to outline the season ahead. We mapped out the key races and regattas, dates of test ergs and camp. Looking out across the summer, to the state championships and on to the nationals.

Then came the most exciting part of the meeting. We looked further than the summer, into the autumn and winter, across the globe. We are looking to Henley Royal Regatta. The boys looked at us in a stunned silence. Then the grins erupted.

We have the strongest squad of senior boys in school memory, and we’re coming off the back of an incredibly successful season last year, punching well above the weight of such a small rowing programme. If we make it to the start line at Henley, it will be the single biggest sporting achievement in school history.

For us, the road to Henley will be full of obstacles and challenges. We will need to fundraise for international travel and boat rental in the UK, and we need to have a successful enough national championships in March to qualify from overseas. This requires that we medal in the quad, we don’t have the squad size or depth to look at the P.E. We will also be relying on international borders being open for travel by next June. Running such a small squad is also a double-edged sword, we have the advantage that we can give each athlete plenty of coaching and support, but if any one individual gets significantly ill or injured it could bring the Henley dream crashing down.

To make it to the start line on Wednesday of next year will be a dream come true for us all.

In the Shadow of the Island

Since we announced the Henley campaign to the boys, and as the seasons began to change, we have been in and out of three lockdowns, seriously inhibiting training. We were able to give each of them an erg to take home, and despite everyone giving their best-efforts training became patchy and lacklustre. It became a challenge for us on the coaching team to motivate the squad, as the uncertainty of when we would be allowed back on the water began to chip away at our mental health.

It wasn’t all bad – I was pleasantly surprised on several occasions to see that the boys had organised a zoom erg together off their own backs and using our online training management software we were able to keep an eye on the progress that everyone was making. The bottom line is that progress was still being made, splits were coming down, and in the brief interludes that allowed us back on the water the mood was high, and the boat was moving well. We aren’t quite where we wanted to be at this point in the season, but we’re proud of the boys for the way in which they kept moving forward.

After a session recently I had a chat with one of the boys in contention for the final seat in the quad – I asked him what motivated him during the long hours on the machine. He told me that there’s one thing that plays over in his head, the thought of all the races he’s done before that he hadn’t given 100% in. I smiled at him, he smiled back and shrugged. He said “Hey, at this point it’s anything to stop it being boring”.

Thankfully, restrictions are beginning to ease now, and we’ve been able to get out on the water and start putting the miles in again. The rhythm is picking up and it feels like progress may be getting faster. Now we’re in the school holidays for two weeks, and we’ve still seen most of the squad down at the river every day, looking to catch up on the miles we missed whilst locked down. Looking forwards to next few months, we should have a race or two, finally! A chance to get out and show what we’re capable of, a tangible milestone to work for.

After a stuttered, spluttered start, it feels like things may be looking up for us.

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