British Rowing’s Women’s Training Days

Take your rowing to the next level with British Rowing’s Women’s Training Days

British Rowing’s Performance Talent Team is expanding its commitment to supporting talented women by increasing the number of Women’s Training Days across England and working with talented community coaches for delivery.

Upcoming dates for Women’s Training Days can be found here.

What are Women’s Training Days?

The Performance Talent programme passionately believes in supporting and expanding the ambitions of talented rowers regardless of their background or circumstances, to achieve their ambitions.

The days will focus on education and practical sessions for both rowers and coaches, allowing both to learn from the information and experience to then take away and reflect on their programmes at their home club. By being able to support more women and their coaches in their own club environment the days hope to be able to help them achieve more than they thought possible.

It’s amazing to work with so many talented coaches to spread the reach of the Women’s Training Days

New dates will be announced shortly with each day focusing on one of three areas to help improve performance.

• Movement Patterns: ensuring rowers can move correctly to perform an efficient stroke
• Strength & Conditioning: ensuring rowers know how to correctly increase power output
• Skill Development: ensuring rowers improve their technique, balance and coordination to efficiently move a boat.

James Andrews, Head of Performance Talent at British Rowing, said: “It’s amazing to be working in collaboration with so many talented coaches to spread the reach of the Women’s Training Days. By expanding the project we are able to provide additional support for more women in clubs who may not otherwise have the resources, experience or knowledge to progress.”

“All World Rowing Championships and Olympic and Paralympic Games now have an equal number of events for men and women. Currently, on the pathway we have a lot more men ready to transfer to performance programmes than women.

The Women’s Training Days are an excellent way of showcasing the talent we clearly have in the clubs

“The Women’s Training Days aim to bridge this gap as we are confident that with 50% of women in the 16-23 age group rowing in the clubs, schools and universities the women are out there – but are limited by their location, resources and numbers in their club.”

Lauren Fisher, U23 Performance Coach said: “The Women’s Training Days are an excellent way of encouraging and showcasing the talent we clearly have in the clubs and this will help us to continue to thrive at the U23 age group and beyond.

“The extra resources in the form of coaching and education will help these talented females to make the next step along the pathway.”

Women’s Training Day Coaches

British Rowing’s Performance Talent Team is expanding its commitment to supporting talented women by increasing the number of Women’s Training Days across England and working with talented community coaches for delivery.

Eddie Bryant, Lead Coach (North East)
Rowing as a junior and graduating from university with a degree in Sport and Exercise Science with Physiology, Eddie took up a job as a development coach with British Rowing, involving working as a World Class Start coach with several athletes in Yorkshire. Eddie then moved to Durham School where he is now Director of Rowing and more recently Head of Boys’ Games and Director of Performance. He is a Coach Educator with British Rowing and a mentor and tutor on the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DISE) Programme.

Amy McCarthy, Assistant Coach (North East)
Amy is an assistant coach from the North East. She works for British Rowing at City of Sunderland Rowing Club and assists with coaching at Durham University Boat Club, while studying for a masters in Sport Science at Durham. Amy helps run local and regional indoor rowing competitions and is looking forward to working with both local athletes and coaches on a 1-1 basis and making valuable connections.

Rachel Hooper, Lead Coach (North West)
Rachel Hooper is a former international junior athlete with over 20 years’ experience as a coach and coach educator. A UKCC Level 4 coach, she has recently completed a masters in Professional Practice in Sports Coaching. Rachel holds a number of positions in the North West, including Chair of the Coaching Committee. As regional Women’s Training Days coach, she is particularly looking forward to working with coaches and athletes from some of the smaller programmes in the region to help them reach their full potential.

Liz Harries, Lead Coach (Yorkshire & East Midlands)
Liz started rowing at university in 2006 and continued to coach as a volunteer. In 2014 she returned to university to study for a masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology while coaching junior rowers in Leeds as part of the SCT scholarship programme. Following this, Liz coached the beginner women at Edinburgh University Boat Club. More recently, she has spent a year and a half in Cardiff as a World Class Start coach before moving back to Leeds in May.

Nicole Lamb, Assistant Coach (Yorkshire & East Midlands)
Nicole started rowing at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham before moving to Durham School, Newcastle University and now Sheffield University where she is studying medicine. Nicole has represented Great Britain at various levels including junior and U23 world championships. Last summer, she competed in the women’s development eight at World Rowing Cup III. She is excited about contributing to the Women’s Training Days as having gone through the rowing programme herself, she knows exactly what it is like and how to help.

Ben Wellburn, Lead Coach (West Midlands)
Ben learned to row in 2012 at Northampton Rowing Club. He then went on to study Sport Science at Oxford Brookes University and rowed there until he became injured. Unwilling to give up rowing, he took up a role coaching at Headington School. Upon completion of his degree, he took up a full-time post at Hereford Cathedral School. In the summer of 2019, he was the coordinator and a coach for the Welsh junior men’s squad.

Katie Ball, Lead Coach (Eastern)
Katie started rowing at the age of 13 at Broxbourne Rowing Club in Hertfordshire. She rowed for the junior and senior national squads and spent a year as an apprentice GB coach at the Commonwealth Games. Katie continued her coaching career at Lea Rowing club in East London. She coached the women and men’s squads to wins at Henley Women’s Regatta and Henley Royal, including to a semi-final in the Britannia Challenge Cup. Now Katie has returned to Broxbourne and is coaching the learn to row junior programmes and the women’s squad.

Isabella Mahoney, Assistant Coach (Eastern)
Isabella coaches for three schools in Cambridge and rows for Cantabrigian Rowing Club as part of the senior women’s squad. Isabella is most looking forward to encouraging more female rowers to progress onto the talent ID pathway and helping them develop and grow as athletes.

Jonathan Cheesman, Lead Coach (Upper Thames)
Jonathan is currently splitting his coaching time between Oxford and Dorney, getting to grips with college bumps racing and helping to introduce the youngsters of Slough to rowing. He has been coaching for over 25 years, working with athletes from beginners all the way up to international level, from Bedford to Oxford via Newcastle, London and South Wales, racing all over Europe, North America and Africa.

Gabor Marton, Lead Coach (Lower Thames)
Gabor started rowing at the age of 13, progressing into the Hungarian national team before moving to London and rowing with the Lea RC in Hackney. He is Head of Rowing at a girls’ school in Central London, as well as a Coach Educator and DiSE assessor with British Rowing. Gabor is looking forward to working with talented female athletes who have the aspiration to progress to the international stage, as well as their coaches.

Steve Clarke, Lead Coach (Western)
Steve started rowing at Dartmouth ARC in 2004 before joining Dart Totnes ARC in 2007. Loving the sport, he decided to gain his UKCC Level 2 coaching qualification, studying Sports Coaching and Performance at University as well as gaining qualifications in personal training and strength & conditioning. In 2014, Steve started coaching at the University of Plymouth guiding them to many notable results including a gold medal at BUCS Regatta in 2018. Steve is currently working with student athletes who are aspiring to trial for GB.

Richard Poole, Lead Coach (Hants & Dorset and South East)
As Performance Talent Coach for British Rowing, Richard enjoys supporting ambitious coaches and rowers nationally who are working towards international representation for themselves or their athletes. The coaches and athletes involved over the past two years have been great to work with and the technical development of the Women’s Training Day content continues to be a very interesting project.

The Performance Talent programme is funded by Sport England and you can find out more here.