The Men’s Dev squad as it’s referred to (in the main) consists of rowers having come through the Explore Learn to Row programme or who have rowed in the past and come back to the sport later in life. The age of rowers as of writing this overview ranges from gentlemen in their 20s through to their 60s.
The abilities of our dev squad rowers varies and with this comes challenges for the coaching team. We have novice rowers waiting to win their first competitive race and a number who have won and are eager to win more. We also cater for the rower who just wants to get in a boat with a few good men and row for the fun of it and to get fitter or maintain fitness. Whatever level of rower you are there is always something to gain from a good coaching and technical session that will hopefully transfer into a race event where you make sure competition know they are in a race and hopefully our dev squad crews win!
Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings are Squad water times. With breakfast available on Saturdays. These allow for social interaction and banter and allows for crew learning from each other’s “good” outings and “bad” ones!
So if you feel like this is something you would like to try or return to then please come into the club and discuss the options we have for you. If you are new to rowing we can provide a taster session followed by a more in-depth learning programme in order to get you hooked!
All are catered for with on the water coaching twice a week alongside land training consisting of weekly ergs set by the coach and weekly circuit training over the winter months with use of our boat house gym for weight training all year round. We advise all rowers who wish to row and race to undertake as much extra curriculum training as outlined rather than just the water sessions. Additional water sessions can be had but is down to the individual rowers to schedule this with their crew as applicable and adhere to the club’s and British Rowing’s Health and River Safety guidelines at all times.
So it can be as hard or as easy as you wish – but if you want easy make sure you are with the right rowers. Matching suitable crews from the squad for ability and intentions is down to the squad coach. In the Dev Squad we will try to meet all rowers’ expectations.
But it’s not all about the rowing….No it is all about the rowing!
However we do like to think of our squad as a happy friendly one, willing to help others in the squad and the club as a whole at our Heads and Regattas by volunteering to marshal the course as needed as well as participating in the races themselves.