Half Term at Thames
While most young people sleep in during the school holidays, the young LYR athletes at Thames RC have been working hard this half term break. With sessions starting at 8am all this week for the competition and performance athletes, and afternoon training sessions for the novice athletes, the tideway has been a hive of activity for LYR in West London.
With snow on Monday, torrential rain on Tuesday, the blue skies, flat water and (relatively) warm temperatures were a treat for the athletes and coaches on Wednesday morning. The picture shows Phoebe Fisher sculling towards Chiswick Eyot, being coached by Ellen O’Mahony, the new LYR community coach for Wandsworth.
LYR Launches 6th Form Academy
In a bid to unearth the 2016 generation of Olympians from the East End, London Youth Rowing have teamed up with Mossbourne Community Academy in an exciting and groundbreaking initiative.
Both London Youth Rowing and Mossbourne have triumphed where others have failed. In the heart of Hackney, Mossbourne has become ‘a beacon of academic rigour’. London Youth Rowing is an innovative and highly regarded junior community rowing programme.
Starting September 2010, Mossbourne will welcome the first recruits to its elite sixth form rowing programme. This opportunity will only be available to current Year 11 students. Its objective is to identify and develop those individuals with the potential to become champions. London Youth Rowing has worked with thousands of young Londoners through its Row East London (RoEL!) initiative. Mossbourne has the resources and the desire to ‘break the mould’ and ‘show that anything is possible’. Lea Rowing Club will provide the on-water training facility.
No champion can reach the top without help. The successful candidates will enjoy the very best coaching, facilities, academic support and pastoral care. However, with this support comes an expectation of commitment to the programme and its high standards.
No experience in rowing is necessary. Candidates will ideally be tall with a passion for sport and a strong desire for success. Offers will be subject to academic qualification and physiological testing.
- Talent ID testing – March 16th – at the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships, Battersea.
- Open Evenings 23rd and 25th February - at Mossbourne Community Academy, Hackney.
- For more information go to www.londonyouthrowing.com/programmes/row/lyr-6th-form-academy/
NJIRC 2010 – One month to go!
Only 4 weeks to go to NJIRC 2010 and the all important entry deadline is in two weeks!
Eddie Fizpatrick, event organiser said, ‘We are very excited this year to be hosting some very special guests – it’s going to be an incredible day!’
A draft running order has been announced, click here to see it. This may be subject to change depending on entries, so get yours in as soon as possible.
RoEL! Conference 2010
The first RoEL! Annual Conference was held yesterday, Wednesday 27th January, in the London Docklands Museum.
The purpose of the day was to bring together those involved in the project to look back over the first year and plan for the coming months. It was attended by seconday teachers, youth club leaders, and community physical activity coaches.
‘The more sports that are available for young people to try, the more likely they will find something they like and lead a healthier, more active life,’ said Mark Hunter, Olympic Gold Medallist who came to speak to the group.
British Rowing (the National Governing Body) and Concept 2 were also in attendance to show their support for Row East London!
‘The conference has been a great networking event, other club leaders here have shared their ideas and now I know more about running my club!’ said a teacher from Greenwich.
Driving lessons – LYR style
By Nick Tittle (Thames RC)
I’ve rowed for a long time; some say TOO long and even more say not very well. So I know the Tideway, at least facing backwards and pulling an oar…
So when Paddy Ryan and LYR offered me the chance of learning to pilot a launch I thought “YES, a chance to get my own back for all those times I’ve been washed down.” Now it’s Monday night, 7.30pm outside Thames boat house on Putney Embankment. Being November, it’s dark so I’m looking forward to the first session in the classroom, in the warm, maybe with a mug of tea, and a biscuit, watching someone draw pictures on a whiteboard and explain how to do, um, launch type things.
Hang on, why am I putting a lifejacket on? Why are the boat-house doors open and why are we wheeling out a couple of aluminium boats I recognise as those devil coaching launches responsible for spoiling so many morning outings?
To my horror, I realise we are going out on the water… in a launch … NOW. Paddy is saying something about doing figures of eight past the moored boats. Oh heck, best pay attention… I’ve never done this before and I’ve got no idea what to do. Just as well then that Paddy, and his best mate Tom Metcalfe, are systematically talking us through everything we need to know. This is kinaesthetic, learning by doing, the memorable way. By the end of the session I know about 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines, respective fuels and oils, navigation lights and battery packs, how to float the launch off the trailer (with the stream), dropping and lifting the engine, starting it and paddling to the shore when it doesn’t. Also how to drive the thing, in circles and figures of eight: not bad for one session.
Man overboard
Over the next few weeks we progressively build on what we have learnt, repeating the basics to make them second nature, building confidence through familiarity. Not to mention the endless stream of river wisdom from Tom, a tenth generation Thames Waterman and a very fine sculler who’s won Doggets Coat and Badge. You could pay good money for this sort of one to one tuition. Now, Tom’s not stupid – very far from it – so why, on another dark evening in the middle of December, is he jumping off the side of the boat into the Thames? Ah yes, of course, he’s going to be the man overboard so we can practice rescuing him. All we have to do is manoeuvre the boat up to Tom (preferably without running over the top of him and chopping him up with the propeller), knock the engine into neutral, pull him up and over the side into the launch. No problem there, then…
Well, I don’t know how many times Tom jumped in and we fished him out, at least 20, probably more, but every time he went in we learned a bit more; about how to keep control in a strong current, how to prevent the swimmer being swept under the boat, when to knock it into neutral, and not least, the need to keep talking to the person in the water.
By the end of the sessions, I felt much more confident about everything, particularly controlling the boat. Don’t get me wrong, I need practice, and lots of it, but I can do things now I couldn’t six weeks ago and it’s given me the confidence to go out on the water and learn to do even more, like how NOT to wash scullers down. Also it’s taken me a long way towards my Level 2 Safety qualification. This seems to be the LYR way, to learn by doing and, by doing, learn to do more. I like it. By the way Paddy, is there actually a classroom and whiteboard at Thames?
Many thanks to LYR for the opportunity and to Paddy, Tom and Steve Salter for making it happen.
Big Screen Tryathlon
North and South face off at Tryathlon '09
We held this year’s Big Screen Tryathlon in Tower Hamlets at Attlee Youth Centre, a fantastic youth club with amazing facilities, including a brand new adventure playground with zip wire.
North and South face off at Tryathlon '09
Two large teams faced off from north and south of the river. Westminster House brought a massive team all the way from Peckham in South London. This was their third year at BST – so they were keen to win. North London Muslim community centre also brought a team from Hackney. Some of the boys had used the rowing machines at school but had not seen them link to a big screen before and were suitably impressed in the run up to the competition.
Attlee YC members arrived last. Still, that’s the host club’s privilege… They loved our rowing machines and begged their youth leader to get hold of some for their club.
Unfortunately electronic gremlins meant we were unable to get the bikes or the Wii working so decided to use the rowing machines for all three events: relay race, individual race and 10 stroke challenge – to cover maximum distance using just ten strokes (a lot trickier than you might think!).
To finish off the day we challenged all three clubs to a mega relay race of 20 minutes with all club members racing against a composite team made up of London Youth staff, LYR staff and youth leaders from the clubs. The noise level was almost unbearable – especially when one young member from Attlee decided he was going to MC the whole race. Everyone had fun and all winners received our Big Screen Try-athlon yellow Winners T shirts.
Hopefully next year we will find bikes that work!
(Penny Cuthbert, LYR Development Officer)
LYR at Hornchurch
Taiwo Sodey and Barbara Couperthwaite flew the flag for LYR at Hornchurch Indoor Active Sports Day on November 8th. This was a family affair where the emphasis was on healthy living and an active lifestyle .
The whole thing was planned and hosted by the Havering Sports Development and Healthy Lifestyle team, who were on hand to help run the event along with volunteers from the Healthy Lifestyle for Disabled Participants steering group.
Families were encouraged to come along and try a range of different sports including archery, polybat, table-tennis, basketball, soccer, trampoline and bowls – and indoor rowing, of course. Everyone who tried indoor rowing ended up coming back a second time and they all enjoyed it – especially the comfy adaptive seat!
Awards
All the sports were also set-up for disabled participants to take part and more than 70 of them did so. Each participant was given an ‘active passport’ upon entry where they could tick off each different sport they had tried. Anyone who managed to tick off all the different sports would qualify for an award from the Sport Development team at a later date.
Parents and children alike were made aware of the different sports they could try to keep fit and active, whether disabled or not. The event was also an effective way to pass on information about the nearest public locations and contact details to try these sports and general information about health and fitness.
WoodROW weekend
Woodrow High House, Amersham
LYR team piled the race kit in the van and headed off to leafy Buckinghamshire: destination Woodrow High House, a sprawling 17th Century manor house, owned and run by London Youth. The house is reputedly haunted but we we saw no Green Lady – only a great bunch of young people eager to try their hand at a range of different sports.
London Youth were hosting a Sports Weekend as part of their Getting Ready project for 56 young people invited from affiliated clubs. As well as the obligatory football, thewy would be trying out wheelchair basketball, streetdance, and orienteering in the dark, and of course indoor rowing.
All the youngsters took part in our evening session, in which four competting groups were given a rowing machine, flip chart, coloured pens and five minutes to think of a team name and design a logo. Under pressure, they came up with some fab names: Legends, Teem X treem, NIKE s.n.m., and Fast Oyster Furious Card!
Midnight Challenge
After demonstrations and games to develop good technique, we got into racing, challenging each team member to 60 second races. Before long the teams were itching to get on the machines for longer distances so we set them the night’s big challenge: The Midnight Rowing Team Relay. There was only one rule – everyone must row! With the music turned up high, the racing began and the passion poured out as each team competed to be the winner.
The race finished but everyone was eager for more, so we did it all over again, but faster this time. At the end, the teams were happy – but definitely flagging and ready for bed.
Next day at breakfast we sat and chatted to some of the young rowers who had taken part. They loved the racing but some were hesitant about getting in a boat… the fact that it was teeming with rain outside might have had something to do with it…
Still, most seemed up for the following week’s Big Screen Try-athlon.
Weybridge Small Boats Head
In late October, Lea RC and Thames RC took 16 juniors to Weybridge to compete in the small boats head (formally known as the Silver Sculls). The Lea RC came away with two wins: Ruth Courtney winning the WJ16 1x and Lottie Hudson winning the WJ18 1x. These were coupled with some other good results from the other squad members. In particular, Liam Downs sculled the third fastest junior single of the day.
One more mention must go to the girls who represented their club in their first ever race in the WJ14 4x+ (Ellie Bailey, Katie Jessop, Hannah Peacock, Manya Eversley and Elizabeth Johnson) and in the WJ16 2x (Frances Cusack and Katie Wingrove) both crews finding out firsthand how long head races actually are!
Well done to all that competed.