Gaps in the Wind

The weather has huffed and puffed over the past few weeks. Some nights you'd wonder what the impact of a night's storm was going to be when you left the house in the morning. All of us in the HP team were a bit apprehensive about last weekend. We had a development camp scheduled for our top Junior, Under 23 and Senior athletes but ironically, in spite of all the bad weather, we had a great weekend. Take a look at the pictures on our Facebook page. It was cold but we had little rain or wind.

Looking at the juniors, boys and girls, sculling and rowing over the weekend, it's very clear that there is an incremental improvement year on year in terms of the numbers that are achieving higher standards. I've no doubt that the results achieved by Holly, Paul, and the other junior athletes over the past few years are inspiring younger athletes in clubs around the country to set about achieving their own dreams. Increasingly, we're seeing more clubs contributing athletes and more coaches getting involved. Last weekend we saw Cathal Moynihan and Sean Casey, both previous Olympians, getting involved in coaching young athletes. There was a really good atmosphere amongst athletes and coaches and a nice mix of performance measurement through timed pieces segued with coaching opportunties and video sessions.

There was also a group of under 23 athletes attending and it was very encouraging to see some crew boats containing some big guys out on the lake. The HP coaching team is a small team including Adrian, Rob, Derek, and Nathan. We've spent a lot of time to put some clear frameworks in place and it never feels anything but busy, but there is now a clear sense of being able to involve more people and expand some of our programmes. We have a long, long way to go and I'm sure we'll meet many challenges along the way, but weekends like last weekend give a real sense of encouragement and optimism.