Month: April 2015

After the J16 squad tackled a blowy Nottingham on Saturday, it was the turn of the Senior boys on Sunday for the next stage of the Great Britain trials process.

The two pairs we had entered, William White and Ollie Clarke alongside Jake Wilson and Kieran Smith, raced this morning in a time trial format to determine which semi final they would race in. With only a small number of pairs being selected to go forward onto Final Trials in July, the stakes were high for all rowers involved.

Both pairs had a good race in the time trial, coming off of the water feeling as though they had done everything possible to qualify for either the A/B or C/D semi finals. Unfortunately despite improving on their results from the last trials both pairs ended up the E/F semi final; where they both raced well to qualify for the E final. To put it in perspective of how close the times were, if one of ours pairs had gone 15 seconds quicker they would have been 3rd, not 26th!!

The boys kept their heads up and performed well in the E final, coming home in 4th and 6th, but had spells of the race where they were contesting for the lead. The day has given the boys much experience of racing amongst the best juniors in the country which I’m sure they will bring back to the squad as we prepare for Wallingford Regatta.

A few of the boys and girls j16 squad had the opportunity to race for Team Eastern at Inter-Regionals in Nottingham yesterday. As per usual it was a very windy day and a strong head wind none the less- a rowers most dreaded conditions. The day began with time trials which then set the placement for A and B finals.
The J16 double (Alex Ventisei and Sam Kavanagh) raced their time trial first and put in a competitive performance. They had a tough race ahead of them in the final but were able to beat a boat that lead them to the line in the time trial. They attacked the race from the beginning, with a good start which allowed them to settle into a nice racing rhythm. They finished in 7th place, a fairly good result considering the field of competitors.
The girls J16 coxless, comprised of Hannah Cowie, Izzy Glanvill, Natalie Graham and Georgia Goddard was up next. After only being out in this boat once this year they put in a very impressive performance on the time trial finishing a comfortable 7seconds in front of the next boat. They were the leaders into the final but approached it with poise, knowing they would have to fight to maintain the leading position. They had a clean start, to nudging ahead from the first stroke. Even in the head winds they were able to row long and stayed connected, which enabled the girls to built on their lead to cross the line first place 6:16, over 5seconds ahead of second. A fantastic results.
The boys J16 coxed four of Will Tillitt, Callum McIntyre, Toby Harris, Dom Pickett, EJ Schwar (cox) wrapped up the time trials and finals. They performed well in the time trial in a very tough field, unfortunately they just missed out on the A finals by 0.2secs. Even so they boys had a great attitude and were ready to attack their last race if the day to finish in a high. They came 7th over in a very strong field.
All in all BMS had a successful day helping the Eastern team finish 3rd overall in the Inter-Regional Regatta.

Friday was the last full day of training camp. It began with another early start at breakfast for all of the squads. The senior and J16 boys hit the water first for a session of high rate starts, the session consisted of pieces ranging from six to sixty six strokes and was a tough ask after a long week of training. The J15 boys session also consisted of some shorter pieces, racing 1km three times. In the afternoon both the J15 and J16 girls stepped up to the mark and completed the same session that the senior squad had found so challenging earlier in the morning. However, this was not before they had found the time to enjoy a leisurely stroll to the beach to enjoy the fantastic coastline.

The winners of the previous nights quiz had the wonderful opportunity to race the formidable, spontaneous and prestigious staff eight (Mr Kempsell, Henley Royal Regatta winner 2012). In light of the strength of the staff eight the student eight pulled it out the bag to win by a verdict of one foot.

Overall I think it would be fair to say that all squads have had a thoroughly productive and enjoyable camp. Highlights have included the whole group trip to the beach on Wednesday afternoon, the quiz on Thursday and the food every night. With such excellent work from every member of the boathouse it was difficult to single out individuals, however, the coaches did their best to select the most improved rowers in each squad.

Most improved:
J16 girls: Georgia Goddard
J15 girls: Aliyah Zaman
J15 boys: Sam Hodgkiss
J16 boys: Callum McIntyre
Senior Boys: Jamie Rogers

All in all we have had a fantastic week. Thank you to all of the coaching staff who have given up there time to be here this week.

Ollie and Will

Today started with a pretty tough session for all squads. The sun was red hot like Dom Pickett’s newly dyed red hair. We took a majority of the boats out on the water for some cheeky practise starts. Two sets of 10x one minute bursts with 30 seconds rest left all crews climbing out of the boats being barely able to walk.

Next was lunch, great as usual, but a few of the J16 crew took to the town to scout out the local pizzeria for some extra carbs (after some intense revision). Half of the senior squad then enjoyed a more pleasant session on the water in smaller boats consisting of fours, pairs and doubles, while the other half laboured through a sweaty gym session, led by the gym master Mr. Ruta.

The evening was headlined with the annual training camp quiz, after a slight incident with a certain Toby Harris and Alex Ventisei, managing to break a lift of weight capacity 370 kilos (obviously because they were too massive). The quiz went well, with the winning team now preparing for the head to head race against the coaches eight tomorrow, coxed by Toby Harris, after he won the interesting cox audition, involving lots of shouting.

One day left and we are looking to get the best out of tomorrow’s sessions before the departure on Saturday.

Regard, Callum and thr rest of the crew!

We were greeted today by a slightly different scene as warm sunshine was replaced by a shroud of cloud and a reason to wear our new hoodies. Despite the change in weather, we were all keen to get some milage done. The senior squad; consisting of the 1st and 2nd 8’s as well as a coxless 4 with the wolf at the helm got out and decided that the only part of the race that matters is the first 500. Thus the session consisted of starts practise which led into interval training against each other. Much speed was gained as well as many of the crew not being able walk as they got off the water. The J15 boys did a similar session with equal intensity but a back injury from a certain big lad 💪 caused the session to end short. This however did not stop the determination of the squad and so they finished the session on the ergos. The J16 girls split the eight in half which became 2 4’s as they powered some huge 2ks down the lake with them swapping seats each piece. The J15 girls got out and did 4 8 minute rate builds to help build up cardio and endurance whilst keeping the technique good. An all round good morning and a well deserved lunch for everyone (it was lots of cheese, omnomnomnom).

Later on that day saw a deviation from the normal rowing as we asked Jamie Rogers where the beach was and his gargantuan biceps directed us just behind the lake to the Mediterranean Sea. A nice walk over there and some tactical avoidance of the Italian military led us to a nice stretch of beach where the fun and games commenced. The first activity of the evening was some “heavily supervised” wrestling in which people of similar size and weight battle to see who watched too much WWE. We later engaged in some bulldog (non contact obviously) as well as some free time consisting of football and burying Adam Cook in the sand. A quick wash down at the boating area ended a very nice day.

The day kicked off with another early start. With a full stomach we were all ready to head to the lake apart the j15 boys who had a more chilled morning resting and having a video analysis session while the rest of the crews had a tough session on the undisturbed water.

All crews who watched the video analysis found it very helpful, being able to watch our stroke frame by frame and being given constructive criticism to make improvements. With lunch time around the corner all crews were reunited for lunch which was a tasty risotto and scrumptious chicken.

After lunch with much determination the J15’s headed out to the water with a new insight to each individual’s stroke. The crews found the video analysis an eye opener and have progressed rapidly in one day. The coaches have noticed considerable improvement throughout the age groups and we will hopefully see more development in the next following days.

Lots of love Tommy and Glen x

We had an early start this morning starting at 7am for breakfast. After breakfast, we made our way down to the lake for our morning training. This started at 8am for the senior boats and we all rowed around 16km. We developed our technique in this training session and we benefited from the stability of the calm water. The session ended two hours later, when the boats were all ready for the J15’s to swap in. The sun was already giving people Lycra tan lines and it was a good session where we were worked hard.

We spent our late morning with some free time revising in the sun and discovering the town. In the town, we met some interesting  locals who tried their English out,  as we tried to understand it.

After lunch we had our afternoon session which was resistance work, using a bungee wrapped around the boat to disturb the stream line. Again, we did about 16km, half the boat at a time would do power strokes working on using their legs to carry the rest of the crew and the boat along, whilst racing against Senior boys boats. The real work came when we had to land, it took us around 5 attempts to land.

This summed up our day of training, we ate lots, enjoyed the sun lots and interacted with the locals. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s training, even though our legs and hands are quite sore.