Full Circle

In 1998, I decided that it was too much for me to commute from school to swim practice, so I picked up the sport of rowing. I was swimming club at the time with the Trent Swim Club in Peterborough, as my high school (Lakefield... woot woot) did not have a swim team. After a year and a half of crazy commuting, I was convinced that it might be easier to join a school team, and rowing might be the perfect one to join. Boy was that spot-on. I fell in love with rowing right away and never looked back. (I am now swimming again, but that is neither here nor there!)

It's crazy to look back on those years and see myself now, coaching young adults just like 17-year-old Lindsay who are just picking up a set of blades for the first time. We had our final high school regatta of the season yesterday, and now I take time to reflect on my last two and a half months with the "kids". I have to admit, coaching is NOT as easy as one may be led to believe.

I started out by simply showing up at the Gorge Rowing Center, throwing my athletes in a boat, and teaching them the basics of what I understood as the rowing stroke. I quickly realized that I had forgotten how to use layman's terms. I was throwing "port," "starboard," "let it run" and "leg drive" at these kids and they were looking at me like I had five heads. It became clear that I needed a plan, I needed to get organized, and I had better do it quickly.

Technical jargon is just the beginning, however. The art of coaching, in my opinion, lies in an individual's ability to read one's athletes. You must do your best as a coach to honor the individuals within your team, but also recognize that it is indeed a team that you are working with. Tough stuff... This makes me appreciate all of the coaches I have had to date, starting from my very first swim coach to my present triathlon coach. Managing athletes is not easy, and it takes a very patient and confident individual to rise to the challenge. I am positive I have just scratched the surface of this coaching business, and it has definitely sparked my interest. I think I may stick with this coaching gig for a while yet...

I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to work with these kids. The improvement they have shown over 10 weeks is outstanding. I only hope that they can come to love rowing as much as I have, and in this discover things about themselves that sometimes only competitive sport can teach you. Here's to many more seasons of coaching (and, of course, being coached!!!)