During the Easter holidays, the Shiplake College Boat Club travelled to Temple Sur Lot in the South of France for a week of intensive coaching ahead of the English regatta season. Mr Currie provided the following account of very successful trip.
45 students attended the camp with the sole purpose being: to get better at rowing! Rowers attended from the girls squad, J15 VIII, J16 VIII, 2nd VIII and the 1st VIII. Forming crews for the upcoming regatta season was a focus, with The National Schools' Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta being at the forefront of the coaches’ minds.
The camp consisted of 3 to 4 training sessions daily, from gym work to water sessions. The middle of the day was set aside for important study time ahead of exams in the summer term. We were extremely lucky to have fantastic weather which gave us perfect water on the Lot river. This enabled our brilliant coaching team to spend quality time perfecting crews’ technical skills on the water.
In the middle of the week the boat club took part in its annual mountain bike 3km hill climb time trial, which was won by Year 11 pupil, A Hunt. To add to our committed coaching team, Headmaster Mr Davies came and joined the camp for a couple of days to observe and see the good work in action.
On the last day of camp all the crews did a Club 2km race to see the improvement they had made during the week. The 1st VIII were fortunate to be able to race Thames Rowing Club side by side, which was a great way to end the camp for them. The 2nd VIII and J 16s also had an exciting race down the course with the 2nd VIII taking the win.
Coaches Mr Mackworth-Praed, Mr Lee, Mr Settle, Dr Prata, Mr Jenkins and Mr Morgan must be thanked for giving up a week of their holiday to coach their crews. This sacrifice is much appreciated.
