During British Rowing Coaching Week 2024, we’re focusing on the Olympic and Paralympic values of Excellence, Friendship, Respect, Determination, Equality, Inspiration and Courage. Our Learning, Education and Development Manager Rachel Hooper spoke to Ciarán Longmore, Head of Rowing at Infinity Boat Club in Stockton on Tees about what courage means in his coaching environment. He also shared the skills and knowledge that he has developed in order to be fearlessly ambitious in changing the face of the sport.
Starting from scratch
Infinity Boat Club was conceived by Love Rowing and a generous private donor to bring ‘limitless possibility’ to the young people of Stockon-on-Tees. Crucially, this means that the outreach programme’s scope includes performance rowing in addition to participation.
‘Anyone can walk through the door and take part in the sport’ says Ciarán, while also highlighting that the club is also going into schools to ensure the opportunity to row is common knowledge for local young people.
The club is now moving into its’ second full season, having ticked off an extensive list of ‘firsts’ through 2023/24. With a small coaching team, along with CEO Keith Brown, and a passionate board of trustees, the club is growing and has run summer camps, raced at the British Rowing Indoor Championships and National Schools’ Regatta, and is already making their mark on the rowing scene.
There are no membership, competition entry, or kit fees
Their location is industrial, and the river has overcome significant pollution thanks to the introduction of a tidal barrage in the early 2000s. ‘I think the river is amazing’ says Ciarán. ‘It’s great for rowing and it’s getting cleaner and nicer every season. The younger generation are increasingly seeing the area as a pleasant place to be active, compared to their parents who knew it as somewhere they actively avoided.
The club’s funding means that it is in the enviable position of being able to provide rowing opportunities with no financial obligation for anyone taking part. There are no membership, competition entry, or kit fees, and the club even provides free swimming lessons for anyone who needs them. Arguably, the only significant barrier anyone faces is trying a sport that is new and unfamiliar! It is here where vital coaching skills which instil courage to try something new are essential.
Building coaching skills that instil courage
Ciarán’s introduction to the sport was at York City Rowing Club, where he also began to develop his coaching skills when injury meant he was unable to compete. A subsequent job at a local Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) helped him to develop the skills and understanding which puts him in such a strong position to engage the young people of Stockton-on-Tees as a coach in his current role.
He reflects that the PRU gave him first hand understanding that opportunities are not equal. He also saw that when a young person is viewed as showing disruptive behaviour, it’s often because they are struggling to understand a new situation. As for his own development, he learned how to take time and watch people to better understand where anxiety or fear was potentially being demonstrated as challenging behaviour.
“Those from the most deprived areas a less likely to take a risk and try something they don’t know anything about”
Ciarán moved on to do some coaching with what was then called British Rowing’s Start programme in Yorkshire, before settling into his first significant coaching job with the Gorse Academies Trust in Leeds. Starting with just 40 rowers, he had grown that programme to around 4,800 at the point he moved on to his role at Infinity Boat Club.
During his time at both Gorse and Infinity, he has been struck by the impact that trying an almost alien sport has on young people. But he doesn’t underestimate the courage needed to build a brand new programme. ”Anecdotally, those from the most deprived areas a less likely to take a risk and try something they don’t know anything about,” says Ciarán. It’s is often about building a group of people who begin to enjoy coming along to sessions, and then talk about ergo scores in school instead of football.
Having drawn in such large numbers of rowers in his previous role, starting from scratch at Infinity may not have been quite as daunting for Ciarán as it would be for some coaches. That said, he recognises that he can’t take it personally if people don’t come back for a second session, even when he’s worked hard to create the best possible start for anyone trying rowing for the first time.
His self-awareness throughout his interview demonstrates just how much thought he puts into creating an environment that gives everyone that psychological ‘nudge’ to think ‘I’m brave enough to try this’.
Understanding where courage is needed
“It has to be scary for it to be courageous,” says Ciarán. He highlights that it is often nothing to do with actually getting out in a rowing boat that people are afraid of. Rather, It is a multi-faceted fear of the unknown. This could include how to get to the club, the location, the people, and the culture. These make even coming along for a taster session a brave step. So what strategies he has put in place to try and placate some of these potential anxieties?
First and foremost, Ciarán points out that “things are a lot less scary when you can give it a try with your mates”. One of the first things he learned when promoting Infinity within schools was rather than encouraging young people by identifying their potential from physiological traits or an ergo score, the likelihood of them being willing to head down to the boathouse was increased if they are able to do it with a group of friends. So this is the approach the club takes in welcoming everyone through their doors. They encourage teachers to keep friendship groups together, and it automatically becomes less intimidating.
The boats are rigged to avoid overlap of blades so beginners don’t hit their hands.
At the first few sessions, the Infinity coaches strongly emphasise that making mistakes and forgetting something from one session to the next is part of the process. “There is so much to remember such as which way to put in a blade, or the huge amount of terminology, so we just use the right questions to check understanding and if you forget next time, that’s absolutely fine,” Ciarán explains.
Using suitable equipment can also help with confidence levels for both rowers and coaches. They therefore attach rigger floats for the first few sessions to make boats more stable. Equally, the boats are rigged to avoid overlap of blades so beginners don’t hit their hands. All this “just makes it all a bit easier to begin with”.
Far from being a fair weather rower, Ciarán also reflects that when people are making their first tentative steps into the sport, it’s just not enjoyable to be out in the pouring rain. Building resilience doesn’t simply come from getting cold and wet. “We have a lot of fun with our indoor sessions as well, although we fully recognise that to be competitive we need to work towards braving some of those cold, wet sessions next season with the more experienced group.”
Understanding what can create fear
One of the biggest learning experiences of last season was the first time the club went away overnight to compete at National Schools’ Regatta. Racing on the multi-lane course at Dorney was an adventure in itself, but before they went it became apparent just how unfamiliar this kind of trip would be to some of the group. Once again drawing on his early career, Ciarán was able to identify sources of potential anxiety and explain new concepts such as staying in a hotel, and what travelling to a different part of the country involved.
There is also a real pride in being unafraid to be ‘different’
“There is real value in just putting people into new situations, but keeping everyone informed and being open to questions you haven’t even considered is vital to help everyone feel more comfortable,” explains Ciarán. There is also a real pride in being unafraid to be ‘different’, which is embedded into the culture of the club.
He admits that rowing fashions are something that Infinity Boat Club juniors have had limited exposure to thus far, but is enjoying seeing the slow evolution to sunglasses and Lycra!
A values-based club that builds courage
Building a club from scratch is in some ways a luxury. You create the culture, the values and the behaviours without having to undo any historic ways of working. While it is still early days, one of the constant references is to “ignore the nay-sayers” and it is evident in every aspect of the club so far. This starts with how they introduce people to the sport, through to their performance-focused vision. Ciarán laughs as he says that there may well be some similarities between the way they work at Infinity and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Seven Rules for Life, (clear vision, big thinking, hard work, direct communication, resilient problem-solving, open-minded curiosity, and a commitment to giving back), but they clearly have a legitimate confidence in what they’re doing.
It is also clear that the courage being instilled in both rowers and coaches at Infinity is based on putting the person at the centre of the culture. This is combined with a willingness to just try new things. Understanding each individual, and supporting them through any challenges as and when they encounter them is making the sport more accessible.
Conclusion
After talking to Ciarán, I reflected on how those small changes to coaching behaviours can really help to engage young people who may not openly admit to being fearful of taking a risk and trying something new.
We know that getting to the top takes discipline, but at every level it also needs to be enjoyable. Something as simple as understanding that being disciplined doesn’t mean everything has to be done in silence can make a training session feel less daunting. Let people enjoy learning a new skill with their friends, and all that entails. As Infinity enter a new season and builds their age groups, they will undoubtedly show their courage and put the club name firmly on the map.
