Edinburgh University Boat Club - from Beginners to Champions
Racing at Henley Royal Regatta is a privilege for anyone and represents a tangible target for many athletes since taking their first tentative strokes as J14s. However, for a sizeable chunk of athletes competing at Henley Royal Regatta across all events, their first strokes were not taken at their local rowing club or school but at university. As the amount of students taking up the sport increases year on year, one university stands almost alone in both its success and its retention of students into senior rowing and beyond: Edinburgh University Boat Club.
A powerhouse of university rowing even without the advent of beginner rowing as a success, Edinburgh focuses on teaching athletes the basics of small boat sculling, with emphasis placed on boat handling and developing the right training habits to help athletes evolve within their novice year of rowing and beyond. Alongside the normal height requirements, Edinburgh also targets athletes who have backgrounds in performance sports that translate into rowing, such as swimming, cycling and rowing. Grace Dawson was a competitive runner before she took up the sport, and believes that the success and retention of rowers into the senior squads is down to the team-orientated nature of the sport, in addition to the gradual increase in training to help new rowers adapt. “Whilst rowing can be about individual performance, it is fundamentally a team sport,” said Dawson, adding that such team spirit cultivates a “productive motivational environment with no shortage of competition for a place in the boat”.
This Regatta, Grace is one of 20 ex-beginners (five men and 15 women) who will race across each of Edinburgh's seven boats in the Regatta, in particular the three eights entered in The Island Challenge Cup, which are each half made up of former beginners. When Michael Hughes took over as Edinburgh beginner coach, the program was a solid beginner program. Over the past few years, under his tutelage, it has become one of the most successful squads in the country, and has provided a pathway for athletes to reach the highest levels of the sport.
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