Posted November 15, 2013
Row New York Attends Adaptive Sports Workshop with USRowing in Washington D.C.
Recently two of our staff members had the opportunity to attend the 2013 Adaptive Sports Workshop in Washington D.C. hosted by USRowing and the Capital Rowing Club. Matt Logue, our Director of Community Rowing and Denise Aquino, a Coaching Corps member represented Row New York’s adaptive program. The workshop focused on getting feedback from program directors, coaches and trainers on how to develop and integrate adaptive rowing programs on the national level.
Participating in the conference was Tom Darling, the Director of Pararowing for USRowing and Deborah Arenberg, the Adaptive Programs Specialist for USRowing. The feedback and experiences gained from participants will be used by USRowing to develop the National Adaptive Rowing Manual and Para-Rowing Coaches Certification Course.
Our coaches learned a lot from the other participants as well. The conference reinforced the point that even though the sport is new, there is a lot of dedication to its development. Additionally, because of its young age, there is a continual stream of information coming out about everything from teaching methods to specialized equipment. An exciting part of the sport according to Matt is that it has such a large inclusion factor. “It really breaks down the stigma that rowing is exclusively an Ivy League sport. Anyone can get involved and excel at a high level.”
It is because of this inclusion factor that Row New York decided to develop our competitive adaptive program. Since the creation of our adaptive program three years ago, Row New York has developed into a leader in the field and is recognized as a US Olympic Committee certified Paralympic Sport Club. This success has inspired us to expand our adaptive program to include over 100 students of New York City public schools in a six-week school day program which wrapped up this month.
We are excited about the work we’ve been able to do so far in adaptive rowing and look forward to expanding our programs in the future. If you know a potential adaptive athlete, please contact us at info@rownewyork.org!
