February 8, 2008 News British Rowing NewsBritish Rowing EventsRowing CommunityGB Rowing TeamCompetitions and ClubsIndoor RowingPartners#YourStoriesArchive St Pauls Girls School Go Race Indoors Indoor Rowing On Friday 8th February St Pauls Girls School, Edgbaston, Birmingham was host to the first Go-Race indoor rowing competition to be run by the ARA’s Birmingham coaching team. The team included Community Sport Coach Maddie Millichap, Community Sport Coach Stewart Redden and HSCT coach Liv Pembroke. The school had allowed the ARA coaching team to organise a day for 165 girls from Year 8 to receive individual coaching during the morning session whilst also finding time to practice team rowing and their coaching skills on each other, ready for the ‘Big Event’ in the afternoon. ADVERT Showing all 165 how to row on the indoor machine, as well as introductions to the machines and the correct feet positions meant the coaches were operating to very tight time scales (necessary when the next group of 40 were waiting outside)! This situation soon took a positive spin as the coaches encouraged the girls to coach one another which they did willingly. After the technical instruction, each group was then divided into teams and practised their ‘change-overs’ with one coach shouting ‘change’ every thirty seconds or so. At the end of the session the girls were ready and prepared for the afternoon’s racing. The coaching team used C2’s Venue Race programme to link the rowing machine monitors to a laptop and projected this onto a screen on the stage of the school hall, so that everyone not actually racing could see how their team was progressing. This made things very lively and the ARA coaching team decided that microphones are definitely a resource they need for future events! The girls were divided into teams of five, and 33 teams managed to compete in just over an hour. The girls’ response to the racing was fantastic, even those who had been less than enthusiastic in the morning sessions! The winning team, G.A.S, managed an impressive 1111m in five minutes, closely followed by the Fallen Angels at 1105 m. It was a great day for all involved and quite exciting for the coaches and teachers. The next step for St Pauls School is the formation of a link with the Birmingham Schools Rowing Association, where the ARA coaches will help some of the girls try rowing on the water for the first time after Easter. Olivia Pembroke HSCT Coach Birmingham Madeleine Millichap CSC Coach Birmingham Stuart Redden CSC Coach Birmingham Jo Atkinson ARA Team Leader West Midlands ADVERT