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Wellington Rowing Club Newsletter March/April 2021  |
Upcoming dates:
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New Zealand Club Champs Wrap-Up On the 13th February WRC's club rowers departed Wellington to for the South Island and New Zealand Rowing Championships on Lake Ruataniwha. After one day of training, unfortunately the country went into level 2 which placed a lot of uncertainty on the event. Racing was placed on hold until the government announcement that the alert levels would return to normal. While racing was on hold was a bit of a weird feeling being down there with around 840 other athletes, stuck in a small town with no real idea if racing would go ahead. On day one many crews could be seen biking or running loops around the town to get in some exercise or left the town to make the most of the area, taking a trip to Mount Cook and walking the Hooker Valley Track, or escaping to the sun in Wanaka. When racing did resume Rowing NZ ran the regatta at a reduced, 3-day format making the progression a little tougher with no repechages or prelims. The conditions were perfect and the club performed well, making eight A finals and taking home a few medals. Summary of results: Silver Women's Senior Coxless Four Bronze Women's Senior Single Bronze Women's Club Coxed Eight And from our RPC athletes: Gold Women's Premier Draft Quad: Sarah Wootton Gold Women's Premier Draft Eight: Ella Greenslade (cox) Silver Women's Premier Draft Eight: Sarah Wootton |
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Women's Senior Coxless Four Silver Medalists: Abi Watts, Anna Macquarrie, Tracey Bates, Liz Pittman |
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Women's Club Coxed Eight Bronze Medalists: Ange Rogers, Alison Faulls, Eleanor Chichester, Cosi Brown, Elizabeth Rine, Abi Watts, Steph McDermott, Verity Taylor |
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Women's Senior Single Bronze Medalist: Anna Macquarrie |
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Congratulations to our athletes selected for Rowing NZ squads Congratulations to our athletes who have been selected for the Rowing NZ U23 and Winter Training squads: Sarah Wootton, Ella Greenslade and Jamie Hindle-Daniels. Rowing NZ has expanded the U23 campaign to include a winter training squad. This includes athletes that are no longer U23 eligible but are meeting targets putting them in contention for Paris 2024 Olympic selection. These athletes will be selected into a winter training squad and will train alongside the U23 squad to further enable their development. |
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Sarah Wootton after winning the draft women's premier quad |
Spotlight on: Joe O'Neill This month's spotlight on is about our Club Captain, women's coach, and Life Member, Joe O'Neill. Joe has been around coaching novices, university rowers, masters, NZ University Trans-Tasman teams and the club women's squad for the best part of 11 years. As well as this Joe spends the best part of his free time planning out boat allocations, managing boat loads and ensuring the club runs smoothly. We asked him a few questions about his time coaching and what advice he has about what makes a good crew tick. How long have you been coaching and how did you get into it? My first season coaching was 2009-2010 although I coached corporate crews for a couple of years before that. I got into coaching through my daughter, she started rowing at Onslow college and I started following her round to regattas, then her coach persuaded me to get in a boat, which led to me joining up with some ex corporate rowers and forming the “masters” squad. From there, we masters started coaching corporate crews and I asked if I could have a crack at co-coach of the novices. Why do you coach? What motivates you? I enjoy teaching, I enjoy seeing the improvements that the athletes make with my guidance. It may sound cheesy, but it’s satisfying when I can help a crew or athlete do something noticeably better. I really should have been a school teacher. What is your coaching style or philosophy? I have two main philosophies when it comes to coaching. Firstly, I don’t believe the theory that nice guys finish last, I think that nice guys can win, and I encourage my crews to behave that way. I also try to impose a “never make the same mistake once” approach to my coaching. Don’t be lazy, if you see a mistake, stop, and fix it now, don’t let it get ingrained in the stroke. Tell us something about your own sporting background/rowing career? I think I was that guy who was pretty good at most sports, but not excellent at any of them, I played football and rugby at school, to first 11 and first 15 level. In my second to last year at school I injured my knee playing rugby and took up rowing as part of my recovery, in an attempt to make the Hong Kong schools rugby tour of Australia. The rowing did the trick, I made the team and quit rowing immediately. I continued with Rugby and Football throughout my life, not getting back in a boat until 2009. What other sports do you enjoy watching or playing? I watch way too many sports, I’ll stay up all night to watch the Ryder cup, the Ashes, Football (any cup), anything at the Olympics, snooker, darts, you name it. I’m a massive football fan, I had a season ticket at the Arsenal through the 80’s and have followed them the length and breadth of England. I don’t really play any sports any more, my last football game was about 5 years ago for North Wellington, I made a brief comeback at the end of their season to cover for an injured player. What’s one of your (or some of) your best memories from coaching? It would be unfair on all the crews I’ve worked with to have a best memory. I have loads of good memories, my first time on the podium was special, it had taken three seasons to get a crew there. Rowing at Henley was special, but the whole UK trip was fantastic, training out of London rowing club’s shed on the tideway was special. Coaching the NZ Uni crew was a lot of fun, the athletes were at the top of their game and it was just a question of making the team work, it was a different challenge. Hopefully the best memories have yet to come. What do you think makes a successful rower/crew? First and foremost, enjoyment, you’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing, if you don’t love messing about in boats, there’s no point. Most of us aren’t paid, so we’ve got to be having fun, it just makes sense. If you want to win medals, just keep doing it. There’s no secret formula, it’s just about turning up, doing the work, being honest with yourself and your coaches, and just keep going. Michael Jordan took 7 years to win his first Championship, that’s not including the school and college years. There’s no back door, there’s no easy route. The most enjoyable races are the ones you worked hardest for. |
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Corporate Rowing The Corporate Challenge starts soon and the club wants as many crews registered as possible to make this year bigger than ever before! The Corporate Rowing Challenge is a three-month programme designed specifically for adults. People can come along as a pre-formed team, or they can come on their own and they will be put in a team. The programme kicks off with a welcome briefing on Sunday 2 May at the Wellington Rowing Club. This is a great way to find out more about the programme and it would be great for us to meet any keen people, especially if its their first time. The welcome briefing starts at 2.30pm in the Club’s upstairs function rowing. What's involved?
How long does it go for? Three months: 3 May-31 July 2021 What are the costs? Per crew: $1925 per crew of 5 Individuals: $385 Where do we race? Along the waterfront in Wellington! The course is 1000m. How do I sign up? If you like the sound of this or know people who are please contact Maria on 0212107258 or email maria.chandler@xtra.co.nz |
Health & Safety Just a reminder to everyone to fill in the boat log when you take a boat out, and to fill in the "return time" when you get back to the shed! The boat log is by the doors to the singles bay. You also need to take a PFD for each rower if there is no coach boat going out with you. These can be found on top of the yellow cabinet by the women's changing rooms. |
Fundraising The Wellington Rowing Club fundraising committee are doing another run of their food fundraiser to help pay off the recently purchased coxless quad. Decent Rowing Membership Did you know that the club has a membership with Decent Rowing? This website is a really good resource for coaches and rowers alike, with tips and videos on how to row and coach athletes. If you would like the login details please email communication@wellingtonrowing.org.nz |
Sad it's come to an end?Still wanting to find out more about the Wellington Rowing Club? Visit our website or our Facebook Page. |
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