Posted January 3, 2014
The 21st Annual Joy of Sculling Conference- Yes It Does Make Us Joyful!
The 21st annual Joy of Sculling Coaches Conference is an annual conference conceptualized by Jim Joy for coaches and program directors from around the country. The theme of the conference changes yearly to touch on new and hot topics in the sport of rowing but always aims to provide coaches with the tools to further their athletes and programs. Four of our coaches attended this year’s conference: Tom Eichler, Mike Eichler, Breanne Fitzsimmons and Sasha Bailey. They brought back many tools and techniques to implement with our student athletes.
Crew is often thought of as an intensely physical sport. What most people do not realize is how much of the physical component is dependent on the mental. That is why the theme of this years conference was mental training, how to get your athletes in tune with themselves and their coaches, and fostering an environment that promotes a strong and healthy mentality for teams.
Our coaches were especially impressed with August Leming’s presentation on attention and mindfulness. August, a personal trainer and executive coach, discussed how to get student athletes to focus- not only in their athletic programs but also in life. His talk highlighted the concepts of suffering and joy, explaining that you must experience suffering to accomplish joy. Our coaches look forward to highlighting this concept during tough practices!
Another mental concept, periodization, was also talked about at large. Periodization is the idea that athletes should be thinking about different things at each level of the sport. Just like an athlete’s physical capabilities grow with experience, so do their mental aptitudes. It’s important for coaches to focus their athletes on what they should be thinking about at each level- middle school, novice, varsity and college.
In addition to the larger sessions, our Queens Varsity Coach Mike Eichler was able to get individualized insight into successful coaching through his membership in the Joy of Sculling Apprenticeship Program. This highly selective two-year program pairs apprentice coaches with master coaches to help them develop their knowledge and coaching technique.
This year Mike was paired with Dr. Volker Nolte who in addition to having a PhD in Biomechanics and Kinesiology is the head coach of the University of Western Ontario. Throughout the weekend they met to discuss selection, periodization, philosophies of coaching and mental training philosophies. Mike plans to put some of the information he has learned into immediate practice and looks forward to his next meetings in the program.
All of our coaches are thankful for the work and insight of the conference directors, presenters and participants and are excited to put the tools they learned to good use!
