Rowing Ahead
Congratulations to RGS Worcester’s new Rowing Captains, Phoebe Ellis-Tait and Daniel Hall.
The second lockdown has given the two new Captains the opportunity to show leadership skills via the internet. Both have been instrumental in encouraging rowers to take part in the virtual Rowing challenges over the spring and summer, as well as competing themselves.
“The past few months have been very tough,” said Head of Rowing, Mrs Jane Sullivan. “Our training time has been cut which has meant we have had to be quite creative! Daniel and Phoebe have taken the lead in attending our virtual training sessions and in encouraging others to take part. They are also working with the Vice-captains, Freddie Davies and Lottie Bond, to come up with ideas for challenges and fund-raising ideas for the rest of the year. I have been very impressed with their cheerfulness and positive attitude – they have taken on board the rowing mantra of ‘Control the Controllables!’” says Mrs Sullivan.
During ‘lockdown 2.0’ the rowers have been training on Saturday mornings via Google Meet, replacing their usual Saturday river training. The sessions, led by Mrs Sullivan, are suitable for rowing machines or exercise bikes and have attracted rowers from Year Nine to the Upper Sixth.
“We have about 12 rowers joining the live session, with others who don’t have Wi-Fi near their machines sending their scores in too. It has been great to get the rowers together via Google Meet. I set a 30-minute session which is suitable for all ages and we row or cycle together – including me! There’s no pressure to achieve a certain score as I was keen that we keep the sessions open to all.”
In addition, the Senior Rowers take part in the annual ‘Row to Henley Challenge’ logging all their mileage on the water, rowing machines, bikes, running and walking. “Rowing requires a lot of winter training and the ‘Row to Henley Challenge’ helps to focus on the fact that training at this time of year brings its results in the summer.” says Mrs Sullivan. So far this term the Senior Rowers have logged 3,271,224 metres. Mrs Sullivan adds “I have set the Seniors the target of hitting five million metres by the end of term and I think they will do it!”
To encourage team spirit in the run up to Christmas the Rowing coaches have set a Rowing Christmas Cracker Challenge open to all pupils and staff. The challenge is to row 1000 metres on the rowing machine as fast as possible.
“We are running the challenge in all our Games sessions and at the Lower School Rowing Club, and the Sports department are also helping out to get as many people rowing as possible,” says Mrs Sullivan. “We have some great interdepartmental rivalry amongst the staff and I have been inundated with requests for training tips! By the time we get to the end of term I think we can say we have made the best of a difficult situation and look forward to when we can resume our normal training patterns.”
Mrs Jane Sullivan
Head of Rowing
