Today: relaunch Coach Certification training course
Hello again Reader
This month there has been a lot of behind the scenes work on our coach education services. Two years ago, US Rowing commissioned Faster Masters Rowing to write a Coach Certification program for masters coaches. It helps you learn how to work with older athletes. Key outputs and skills you will get from the course are improved communication, knowing how adults learn, and setting appropriate expectations about what your athletes should be able to do as they age.
The course is re-opened for enrolment now. However, if you want a US Rowing certification, you’ll have to buy it off their website, not ours.
Time teaches us a lot – I vividly recall my first ever coaching session during which I picked up my megaphone to say something. And then thought better of it, put down the megaphone. And again….
With time, we get skilled at pattern recognition – coaches recognise situations and know what we did before. This makes it easier to coach because we know what the “fix” is.
Knowing what to do in many different situations is what underpins a lot of our coaching practice. Likewise, spotting the moment when something dangerous or potentially dangerous is developing is also something we coaches learn over time.
After any safety incident we have to submit a report and the committee reviews it with a view to revising or improving our safety practices.
Thomas Sowell (a professor of Economics) is famous for saying
“There are no solutions only trade-offs”
I love this quote because he concisely frames the challenges we face.
This shows that layered decision-making is key to getting effective outcomes. When you’re round the table with colleagues or your Board, try to see what the trade-offs are inherent in the proposal which is being considered.
Stress-testing a solution can be part of these trade-offs. Fly a kite / set up a straw man and see what reaction you get – when howls of derision follow, you know what a vocal part of your audience think – and if you get stony silence, again you know. What’s key is that if people disagree with you, remember that the “other side” is likely not coming from a place of malice, and remember there is no “perfect policy”.
I am told that the old Air Traffic Control Handbook used to include this message on the opening page.
Nothing in this book is meant to over-rule your common sense. If it doesn’t look safe, don’t do it.
This month – review your own coaching pattern recognition – what can you build on and where could improvements come from?
Rebecca
Mastermind topics
In our coach mastermind this month we discussed:-
When should you do drills in a practice? Should it be at the start, in the warm up, while turning around the boat? We discussed a range of options and circumstances which might lead you to make different choices about when to do drills so that the athletes best learn from the drill you choose.
Insurances – oh, my. The price is going up and up. One coach reported his club budget for insurance increasing by 30% last year – and they expect the same size increase for 2025.
How to make good decisions. Federations, Club Boards and coaching teams have to make a range of decisions in the course of work. From the trivial – when to buy new oarlocks? To the challenging – how many learn to row athletes can we handle? We discussed how game theory allows decision makers to better understand the implications of our choices.
Coaching mixed-gender masters rowing groups is one tool coaches can use to improve the goodwill and common bonds among members. Rowing has a strong reputation as a sport that enables friendships and we know many masters value this aspect of a rowing club.
Anglea Nowland’s crew from River City Womens RC, Brisbane, Australia
Unlike nearly all other rowing, masters is frequently a mixed gender group training together.
As a result, many groups choose to train in sculling boats because it is easier to align a crew when each person has two oars, rather than sweep rowing where they have one oar each.
Aside from the training fitness we gain from rowing, community is a major reason why adults choose rowing as their sport of choice. We make friends, real, lifelong friendships with people we meet at the rowing club.
Match the workout to the social
When organising lineups and workouts, club organisers should be planning in three month blocks. What are the events you have on the calendar which will appeal to your members?
Some will surely want to race – and so crew lineups for single sex and mixed crews who want to race together will suit one constituency of your membership.
Socialising after workouts will also suit these people – can you arrange to have a coffee or breakfast together at weekends after your row?
….. [To read 4 more tools you can use and what to do about cliques forming within your club, click the button].
Will Ruth is a master of explanation and I’ve selected this video in which he explains how to teach your athletes the hip hinge – starting in the gym and then moving on to the erg and the water.
When rowers can use the hip hinge they are able to engage and harness strength from the glute muscles to add to their power.
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