Month: April 2017

Apologies for the odd typo, this has been written on the back of the truck under the English channel!!

This was our third year visiting Sabaudia, and thankfully it lived up to previous years experiences and more. I was kindly assisted on the 1300 mile trip by Mr Satchwill and Mr White, neither of which had made the journey before, and in fact Mr White’s only previous experience of towing the boat trailer was a quick trip up the A6 one Saturday morning so he could ‘get his eye in’! I’m pleased to say that we had no problems in either direction!!

I have had previous experience of angry hotel managers shouting at me in Italian after the students have perhaps got a little bit over excited but this year everyone stayed inside the acceptable level of noise and “banter”! I think this was helped by the fact we were being compared to the L.E.H J15 squad who were particularly excitable!

I have spent most of my week coaching the senior squad. I have been extremely pleased with the progress of the 1^st VIII and the W4x, both making some valuable steps forward which will definitely put them in stronger positions when we start racing at the regattas, the first being Wallingford on 30^th April. What has also been extremely pleasing to see is the development of a W2- made up of Emma Dobson and Izzy Donkin. A crew that has never been tried before but immediately seem to find some middle ground and give them both something to work on throughout the rest of the season; hopefully they will not break anymore riggers having already dismantled two whilst on camp!!!

Whilst introducing Will Thornton back into some sweep rowing this had a knock on effect to Sam White who found some form in the single. Again a boat that Sam has not spent lots of time in but within a few KM’s of getting in he was perfecting his square blade roll ups and putting together some promising firm pressure pieces. This gives us another avenue to explore this summer.

The camp has allowed some healthy internal competition to develop also; although there always seems to be one crew in the middle of every battle which is the J15 eight. This has been very pleasing to see as it is not uncommon for J15’s to stay quite within themselves but this lot have taken it upon themselves to race any boat which dares to go near them, taking on both the J16’s and the senior girls! I believe this J15 group have a promising rowing career ahead of them.

With exams coming around quickly the J16 group always have the most pressure at this time of year, and with the presence of Mr White on camp this year I believe the boys felt they had something to prove in the study area as well as on the water. After some gentle nudging initially they all found their stride and settled into a routine of sleep/eat/row/study in various different orders!! They have without a shadow of a doubt made some good steps forward this camp and definitely can put solid performances together; it’s more about making sure we can get them working as a unit to ensure the good performances are as consistent as possible. I believe Mr Ruta is pleased with their progress though.

With the J15 squad not being shy to take any crew on, the WJ15 squad was certainly not going to be shown up by their counter parts. The girls have spent the week taking each other on in both quads and some work in singles. The girls have thoroughly enjoyed the space to sit and do some intense technical sessions, and have certainly not wasted the opportunity of staff being available as Miss Bruce and Miss Mackay spent most evenings going through videos of the girls rowing. The girls clearly have an infectious desire for improvement and perfection; all the girls have made huge steps forward.

This year we have the largest number of students attending which are not in set crews, which did make me nervous that they wouldn’t get good value for money with regards to water time or coaching. The boys have been great though at jumping in any boat going, any crew that needed a sub, or just grabbing a single and going for a paddle. I think Alex Hogben has been in just about every boat going on camp and has made himself a vital member of the week, showing wiliness to cox or row, but mainly just enjoy himself out on the water. It has been a great week for all involved.

Mr White has come into the camp with just about no rowing experience at all, and has left with similar, of course I’m joking. Mr White has offered a lot of feedback to students, not necessarily with the best rowing terminology but we all knew what he meant!!! I wold like to thank him, Mr Honnor and Mr Ruta for running a tight ship in the study room; I would like to think that a lot of the students have made good steps forward in the class room as well as the water.

Moving forward the WJ15 4x+ (A) has been selected for the Inter-Regional Regatta on the 22^nd April, Hannah Cowie and Voirrey Taylor will be racing GB trials on the 23^rd April. Our next squad events consist of Wallingford Regatta on 30^th April for our senior boats and some J16’s, then the ntire Boat Club will hopefully get a run out at Bedford Regatta on the 6^th May, please come along to support!!!

I have thoroughly enjoyed the week; I have got to know some of the younger students more and look forward to them working their way up to the senior boats. I’m extremely pleased with my senior squad as I write a hard programme for this week and they have all exceeded my expectations to the high standard to which they have completed the sessions.

Great week to be part of BMSBC and I’m thoroughly excited to be heading into the regatta season with our current squad.

Just a few snaps of the 1st VIII warming up followed by the crew pics from the senior squad.

We all woke this morning feeling very lethargic after several days of concentrated lactic acid building in our muscles, which was now beginning to affect our bodies – but not our minds!!

To quote a wise man “if you can move, you can row.”

We were on session one, which was a gruelling 10×1 minute sprint with only 30 seconds rest between, to be completed TWICE!! The J16’s put their tender bodies on the line fighting the pain, putting all other crews to shame! (Apparently!)

The J15 boys eight had another productive day, working with the Senior Girls this morning. Both boats worked well through the work, and have developed a great little battle between each other throughout the week. As you can imagine, there is plenty riding on the results of tomorrow’s racing!

The WJ15 squad have made huge improvements, and despite the odd niggle, have really shown true BMS resilience to support each other through the testing times. Great progress by all these girls!!

The afternoon brought with it some kinder water, and an enjoyable penultimate session for all involved. The weather has been faultless all week, and some of us are looking like we have been on a beach holiday rather than a training camp, I guess our blisters will show that we haven’t had an easy time!!

Tomorrow brings the last day of camp, where all crews will complete a final 2km race, where the coaches can compare the times between the crews, and the targets set. The lions will be revealed amongst the sheep; the men will be separated from the boys.

Watch out all…

Another great day, slightly more wind, but great sessions completed.

The day started with Dobby falling asleep in her porridge, we have hit the point in the week where days merge into one, people smash their phones (Izzy Donkin) and people break their riggers, she says it was because she was pulling hard, we believe otherwise (Dobby Dobson). After our defeat against the J15 boys 8 earlier in the week due to certain circumstances (aka cheating) we were set for a rematch this morning. We effortlessly bought the score up to 1 all after taking them within the first 500m, no foul play required. Better luck next time boys… 
After another game of ‘guess the meat’ for lunch and removing any unnecessary sticks from the food, seniors headed to the basement to continue revising, possibly involving an innovative game with a tennis ball to spice up the revision. Second session started with a cheeky singsong of Bohemian Rhapsody on the walk down to the lake to see how much we could fit in, and boats involving Toby Harris and Ella Monaghan in their elite double as they practise for Tokyo 2020. Ella has commented that Toby should work on his steering before this, luckily there is still time. 
Hannah and Voz went out in their trials pair (the elite double may have crashed into them at one point), Izzy Glanvill subbed into the J15 boys 8 and clearly made the boat move faster, not as fast as the girls senior quad however. The boys went in a coxless 4 and a quad – Toby and Ella pulling away from all boats (apparently). 

We are now refuelled with some more interesting and questionable food and a late night ice cream. 
Josh Dogra let’s leave chatting up the LEH girls out of your window for another night, some of us need to sleep. And Lauren Burchell let’s keep all furniture in one piece tonight please. 
XOXO
Senior Girls Squad 

Another rather enjoyable morning, J15 Girls leading the way, spot the super sub…

This fine morning a silky and smooth mist covered the clean, smooth water of Lake Sabaudia. As some men strolled into breakfast, the frolleni (Italian biscuits) were calling. As Sam White tried to bulk, everyone got a bit of munch on board.

The usual stroll to the lake took its toll on some boiz, leaving us a bit blown, especially the usual suspects. When we saw Mr Bavington, we decided to give him some chat to stop him roasting us with 3 x 2k’s and thankfully he had already decided, conveniently, it would be better for us to do some battle paddling with the J16 and J15 men. With the most honourable performance coming from the 15’s, holding off the 16’s. We rowed 16km as a group pushing each other hard and successfully finished the session with no casualties.

Lunch improved, since there was no fish to try and get down, and the Toby vs Glen show down is still at a draw; both currently have finished every meal. With the guest of honour at the senior table being Sam Szeto, we departed again to the lake for another session.

At the river, suddenly Mr Bav turned into Iain Weir (Rowing Photography), getting artsy with the camera, #angles. After drifting the whole session the men made their way into the gym to get the largest pump on that this earth has ever seen, we threw some tin around and got some “naughty” footage for our camp film. Next up was press up time, after Toby’s strong show of press ups throughout the week, he was starting to fall behind the pace with Kav and Alex knocking out the big ones.

With another unsuccessful search for pizza completed the senior squad relaxed this afternoon in anticipation of a harder day tomorrow. Mr White, Mr Honnor and Mr Ruta have worked us hard today in the revision room, with Yr11-13 all having a solid 2 hours in complete silence!

#TeamBMS