Willingness to learn - Rowing coaches

A second pair of eyes is always good.

Some coaches hate to have others commenting on their athletes, I think its great. First off, you don't have to take the advice to heart but if you don't at least you have things that you might not have seen, or taken to be OK and acceptable where once you would have been on top of it. There are so many different things to keep in mind and watch out for.

 

So many different aspects have to be perfected and honed.

From the warm up and the actual rowing to the stretches and the nutrition so many different aspects have to be taken . I think having more coaching staff and having at bit of a rotation every so often enables unworked on flaws to be found and worked on. The worst thing is that once you know about it the flaw, what ever is it, becomes blatenly apparent and you can't believe you didn't spot it.

As a coach I think you should never think you know it all and shut your self off from a outside opinion. The more you can learn and about all aspects of rowing the faster your crews can go. I don't think anyone knows everything and can be an expert about all aspects to do with rowing as there's is just so much there to know about, and information can change and be updated frequently. This is where larger clubs and national teams have an advantage as they can have people on their team who are specialised in strength and conditioning, stretching, nutrition, psychology, bio-mechanics and more.

Narrow minded coaches

The sad thing is that many coaches are never open to learning as many think they know it all. In countries where the national rowing organisation has published and helped the clubs form a style of technique they benefit in the long run with athletes that come to them already rowing in the style that the use. This can be seen to have worked well with the British rowing team. Again for this to work the local coaches have to be open to receiving, taking on bored this new information and teaching it themselves to their athletes.