Olympic Rowing 2024 | Lessons from The World’s Best Coaches

We’ve all had those tough days where we just want to go back to bed. Perhaps it’s an early morning and you’re too tired, or maybe it’s raining harshly outside. We all go out and make the sacrifices of our time and energy for ourselves and our crew mates. But while we get to pick up the pots, lift the trophy and take home the red box, there’s always the one person who doesn’t get to share the same indescribable feeling: our coaches. They put in the same time and energy we do, face the same tests, the early mornings and harsh weather, and yet push through it all for our reward. They may not get their name engraved on the plaque like we do, but this is our gold medal for the coaches.

The ultimate gold medal – Olympic glory – is one driven by the desire for success, and that drive comes not only from the crew members, but from their coach too. Just like how every club has a coach, someone to steer us in the right direction and give their time to share their knowledge, Olympians are no different. At the pinnacle of our sport, the coaches have the responsibility of leading the best rowers in the world to be better, to guarantee they’ve done the right training and are rowing the right way to get the Olympic success. With this comes immense pressure, and so it takes individuals with immense willingness to step up to the role.

We’ve taken a look at some of the best coaches in our sport today, and distilled their work and philosophies into a series of ‘lessons’.

Lesson one: without passion, there’s nothing

We all know the story: before Rio the Irish national team had never won an Olympic medal in rowing. A couple lads from Skibbereen called Paul and Gary O’Donovan would go on to get worldwide fame. While their wit and strong Irish accent may have been what led them to talk shows, their Olympic silver medal is the backbone of their success. But who took them there? Dominic Casey was the man who coached the O’Donovan brothers through to the Olympics and beyond.

So how did they achieve the biggest result Ireland ever saw at rowing? Dominic would coach the brothers on the afternoons after his day job, devoting his time and effort for the lads. Paul and Gary say he is full of love for the sport, and with such a minimalist setup it had to be love for the sport that would take them to success. Anyone like me who has experienced a volunteer led, small club knows how important those people who come down to run the sessions are. The more they genuinely care, the more you’ll get out of it.

So it’s easy to see why the O’Donovan brothers could train up to achieve something so big from a club so small. They were led by a man who cares. He fitted in with the lads, got along well and so was happy to devote so much time after working a day job to help them get their medal. Red Bull posted a great mini-documentary called ‘the Irish rowing brothers who shocked the world’ which gives a great insight into Skibbereen and what Dominic managed there. It becomes very clear that the relationship between him and the O’Donovans, as well as his willingness to sacrifice time and energy for them, is what drove the brothers to silver.

Lesson two: accept failure and embrace accountability

There’s times that a crew or club may be down, not achieving the success they set out to achieve. Sometimes a fresh perspective and someone new to lead the crew is what’s needed, and that’s shown in Tony O’Connor.

After Rio, the New Zealand men’s eight were out hunting for gold. Big names like Hamish Bond and Mahé Drysdale found their way into the boat. Despite the wealth of talent and experience, there seemed to be that puzzle piece missing that caused them not to see the success they desired. Irish born teacher and rowing coach Tony O’Connor had the call-up to coach them, something not to be taken lightly.

Despite a tough time in the heats, Tokyo saw the crew come out of the repecharge to pick up gold. So what did Tony do they allowed them to achieve this? He took responsibility. He truly cared, asking how the athlete’s lives were and been genuinely interested in listening to them. When the crew didn’t see the desired result, he took ownership and apologised. He helped the crew row better, row more together and get a bigger sense of community in their rowing.

Lockdown showed some difficulties with this, but Tony found ways to keep everyone together and keep the goal in their mind so nobody was aimlessly training. His value as a coach reached beyond what his knowledge and experience he brought, to what he was able to do for the mentality and community of the crew.

Rowing New Zealand produced a great documentary called ‘The Rowing Teacher’ which I would highly recommend anyone watch who cares to see what it is he brought them, both from his perspective as well as the crew members.

Lesson three: aspire for greatness

Building a squad up and achieving new heights is a big task that few can do successfully. But they say that it’s harder to stay at the top than it is to climb up. Sustaining success, especially over a long period of time, takes a special kind of coach. With new talent coming in and out, the constant rotation of athletes brings new challenges and different weaknesses that need to be dealt with in order to hold a winning standard. We simply cannot talk about Olympic coaches without talking about Jurgen Grobler. He is the prime example of this and demonstrated that sustained success is achievable if you’re able to work with the athletes you have and continuously develop your program. Marked as the most successful Olympic coach of all time, he has worked with different generations of rowers in two different countries and gotten enough medals to rival Michael Phelps.

It’s clear he did something right. What we know is that no seats were guaranteed, no matter who you were, and everything had to be earned. Each year the goal for the gold medal potential crew was to produce a time faster than the current world best. In his mind, someone had already gone that fast, and so someone could be as fast or faster, so if they want gold then they must beat it by a clear amount. A tough goal to set out on, but one that set a very clear aim and a point to train hard to achieve. Gold fever is a great documentary to watch, while it focusses on the athletes it highlights their relationship and work with Jurgen well.

In conclusion…

So what can we learn from these legendary coaches? They all have different characters, different styles of coaching and different ways of approaching athletes. I think a great coach is someone who can be both malleable while being themselves. Olympians are the pinnacle of the rowing athlete, but they’re still people with personalities and original thoughts. Much like us, Olympians respond differently to different coaching styles, and the coach has the responsibility of managing the way they communicate and treat the crew to best get their coaching across. Some may love and need the savagery, while others require a more friendly approach.

These coaches found themselves in a place where the people they lead respond well to them and appreciate being taught by them. It’s the mutual respect between the coach and the athlete that determines whether they will get the most out of themselves or let doubt lead them to failure. If anyone wishes to be a better coach, then build the trust. If the crew want to be led by you then they will listen to you with their full intent. While the individual coaches are vastly different in character, their common similarity is their ability to offer the crew just what they need.

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Sam Mitchell

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