“We all arrived at RAF High Wycombe for the first day of our course. The first thing we did was introduce ourselves, we were a mixture of all 3 services and abilities, we had a double Olympic gold medallist Heather Stanning to Army Musician Liam Grunsell who has only been rowing for a year at Twickenham Rowing club.
Once we had got to know each other we started the course which was the theory for the Capsize and recovery drill as we were going to spend the afternoon in the pool practising what we were preaching and doing the recovery drills.
Once we got to the pool we were in and out of the water….usually I try not to get wet when it comes to being in a boat.
Once we had finished our drills we came back to High Wycombe to do the theory workshop in Safeguarding and Protecting Children.
Day 2 and we were finally at RAF Danesfield Watersports Centre to get rowing….so I thought.
Today was the introduction to coaching and planning the coaching session, which showed us the different techniques you could use. In the afternoon we did the warm up and warm down sessions and why we do them. Some photos below.
Day 3 and its was a nice to get on the water and learn some new skills and drills. We had to plan and then lead a session with a warm up and a drill on the water.
Day 4 was to develop a session further in the morning. In the afternoon it was checking and setting up the equipment on the boat, I learned information on the boat that I had never touched before and even our Olympian said the same.
Day 5 was taking a session that had a brief, warm up, main training session, warm down and de-brief.
Finished off with the usual feedback and tidying up which was good timing as it started to rain.”
Cpl Ben Kerry
