At Row New York, it’s not just our student-athletes who are always learning. We make sure to keep on top of new coaching techniques, and love exchanging ideas and experiences with our peers. Which is why several of us attended the Saratoga Rowing Association’s youth conference last weekend. This annual event brings together some of the most knowledgeable and experienced youth athletes and coaches to share information about how to develop and improve youth rowing programs.
Five of Row New York’s coaches and staff attended this year: Matt Logue, our director of community rowing; Mike Eichler, varsity program director in Queens; Jennie Trayes, our director of programs and operations; and Denise Aquino and Eva Campbell, two of our Coaching Corps members—and they all brought back new knowledge and techniques to help us improve our youth programs.
Saratoga was Denise and Eva’s first rowing conference experience. With so much to learn they attended as many panels as possible and especially enjoyed talks by former Community Rowing Head Coach Ethan Curren and former collegiate coach and Olympian Larry Gluckman.
Absorbing information on periodization, recruiting, preparing students for the college process, using the erg efficiently, and how to create a team culture/tradition of excellence, Denise and Eva developed a repertoire of lessons to implement with their athletes.
Upon returning to Row New York, Denise revealed
“The most important lesson I learned was that there’s no secret to success. It’s all hard work and dedication. As coaches of adolescents, it’s our job to create an environment that facilitates opportunities and challenges to empower them. Yeah, a gold medal or standing on the podium is an appealing goal to a growing adult, but it’s the process not the product that we coaches must emphasize.”
Row New York is very excited to implement what we have learned with our kids and support our Coaching Corps members as they further develop their personalized coaching styles.
