Women’s Coaching Conference Returns, Registration Closes Soon
The Women’s Coaching Conference is returning this winter and has expanded to two locations. The WCC serves all female and non-binary rowing coaches, providing attendees with actionable education and community building to maximize their current positions and advance to the next step in their careers.
The Boston WCC takes place on Friday December 13 – Saturday December 14 at the Courtyard Marriott Boston Cambridge, right along the banks of the Charles River. The Seattle WCC is being held Thursday February 6 – Friday February 7, 2025 at the University of Washington’s Conibear Shellhouse. Registration for the Boston WCC closes this Friday, November 15 and the Seattle WCC registration closes Friday, January 10. Childcare of offered on site for both events and along with a discounted hotel room block.
The Boston WCC features the following speakers:
Christal Brown
Chief Visioning Officer, Steps and Stages Coaching
“The Vision Method™”
Join Coach Christal Brown for an empowering keynote on cultivating clarity and resilience through The Vision Method™. With over two decades of experience as a professional artist and visionary coach, Coach Christal has mastered the art of transforming imagination into reality.
Miranda Paris Holder
Founder and Principal Coach, Holder Leadership
“Unlocking Your Inner Compass: Embodied Intelligence for Decisive Leadership”
Learn from expert somatic leadership coach Miranda Paris Holder about how to extend your mind to make better decisions. She’ll help you understand the science behind this approach and give you practical approaches to employing this method in your everyday life. As a recovering overthinker and former head coach, Miranda knows how much time we spend making decisions as coaches and leaders. She’s on a mission to help leaders make better decisions with more clarity, confidence, and ease.
Holly Metcalf
MIT Women’s Head Coach, Founder Survivor Rowing, Olympian, Writer, Musician
“Creating Kinship in Coaching”
How are we as coaches fulfilling ourselves? What’s our “something greater than myself” as a member of the team we’re coaching? The people we yearn ( or “want”) to share kinship with are the people leading the teams we are competing with. The Latin word, “competere”, means to strive with. How do we create “striving with” versus “against” in our community of rowing coaches if rowing itself is about “we”–being as one? How do we create a kinship, like with the survivors who have found Survivor Rowing: “There’s a knowing between them that’s extraordinary and beautiful to be around.”
Ellen Minzner
Para High Performance Director, USRowing
“The Para Perspective”
With a unique perspective working with high-performance Para rowers, Ellen speaks about the role of the coach as problem solver, and viewing each athlete as an experiment of one in the approach to training, rigging, and performance. As USRowing’s Director of Para High Performance, she also will expand coach communication, collaboration and support across coaches where mixed crews are the norm for Paralympic team boats.
Jessica Reo
Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator, Temple University
“Coaching in 2024 & Beyond”
Coaching young people today is a challenge for many reasons, but coupling that with being a female coach is increasingly difficult. There are many pressures and this session will talk about issues facing female coaches from the administrator’s perspective.
Michelle Sechser
Olympian, U.S. Lightweight 2x
“Cultivating Champions”
Where do you begin when setting out to develop a championship team? Which principles can help build a strategic approach to your team’s goals this season? Please join us as two-time Olympian and 11-time US National Team rower Michelle Sechser shares the powerful lessons learned – through both successes and failures – throughout her career as a rower and coach. In her presentation Cultivating Champions, Sechser will discuss key considerations for balancing coachability, competitiveness, camaraderie, trust, and communication on your team.
The Seattle WCC will feature the following speakers, with more to come:
Jen Barnes
Rower and CEO + Founder of Rough & Tumble
Emily Kokenge
Negotiation Expert and Founder of Emily Kokenge Coaching & Consulting
Sara Lopez
Director of Academic Programs for the Center for Leadership in Athletics, University of Washington
Katie Steele
Executive Director, Athletes Mental Health Foundation and co-author of The Price She Pays
Get more information on the WCC website and register here.
The WCC is made possible by generous support from the following sponsors:
Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association
Concept2
Head of the Hooch
HUDSON
Rowing News
Shimano
USRowing
Vespoli
World Rowing, Concept2 Set Sights on Esports Games
In an effort to make indoor rowing more accessible and engaging for all, World Rowing and Concept2 have furthered their existing partnership with the mission of giving Indoor, ‘Connected’ Rowing a global interest.
“Rowing has evolved in recent years and the inclusion involves costal rowing in LA in 2028 as a strand of World Rowing and indoor rowing is the third strand,” stated Concept2 managing director Alex Dunne. “We as Concept2 are a manufacturer. We’ve always worked with outside bodies to facilitate their events. World Rowing is the governing body. They are responsible for the sport of rowing globally and it’s important for us to work with them to take the best from each party and push the sport forward.”
Indoor Rowing was selected to exhibit at the IOC Esports week in Singapore and both World Rowing and Concept2 have their sights on the Esports Games, as recently announced by the International Olympic Committee.
“There are a number of different sports federations that are bidding to be part of the Olympic Esports Games and World Rowing is working on that at the moment—hoping to get indoor rowing into the event,” said Dunne. “Some elements will be very much traditional gaming, and some will be more physical. Probably the best example is cycling where they do a full indoor championship. Rowing is very much along cycling in that respect. For decades now we’ve all raced on indoor rowers in big championships so taking that model and developing it into something that would suit the Esports Games is a project that’s going on at the moment.”
World Rowing and Concept2 have a longstanding partnership based around the World Rowing Indoor Championships. Concept2 has worked with small clubs hosting erg racing all the way up to the international stage.
“We had a couple of events in the States and we came to Paris in 2020,” recalled Dunne. “Then COVID-19 pandemic happened and in-person events were difficult for a couple of years, so we worked with them on the virtual World Rowing Indoor Championships. That came back to Prague this year as an in-person event. The idea of the partnership is to just work more closely together in general around the sport of indoor rowing to have events indoor events.”
World Rowing along with Concept2 will put on the 2025 World Rowing Indoor Championships across two weekends in February. With this new agreement Concept2 has become a global partner of the governing body and will be the presenting sponsor of the World Rowing and European Rowing Indoor Championships until 2028.
World Rowing Announces 2024 Award Winners
World Rowing held the 2024 World Rowing Awards ceremony on November 9, in Seville, Spain and distinguished awards including Coach of the Year, Para Crew of the Year, Men’s Crew of the Year, and Women’s Crew of the Year were announced.
The Dutch Men’s Quadruple Sculls crew that won gold at the Paris Olympics to defend their title in the event claimed the World Rowing Men’s Crew of the Year. Koen Metsemakers, Tone Wieten, Finn Florijn, and Lennart Van Lierop were honored for their exceptional performance. Wieten and Florijn were welcomed on stage to except the award.
“It’s a very big honor to receive this award considering the other nominees and the crews that received this award before us,” said Tone Wieten in his acceptance speech. “It’s not an award that is only for us. It’s only possible because we have a great team behind us. This award we will share with them. I thank every good thing in my life for rowing.”
Lauren Rowles from the World Rowing Para Crew of the Year winning boat, the great Britain PR2 Mixed Double Sculls accepted the award on behalf of herself and her boatmate Gregg Stevenson. Rowles is the first rower to win three Paralympic titles.
“We’ve had the most incredible two years of my career and something that I will treasure for the rest of my life,” said Lauren Rowles as she accepted the award. “Ten years ago, I took my very first strokes in a boat and that kickstarted a journey in my life that has been the most incredible. Until tonight I’ve dreamt of being up on this stage. For me this is a lifetime achievement award. In Paralympic rowing we hope to go out there and inspire the next generation. We hope to go out there and prove that it’s not about your ability or in our case a disability. Everybody should have the ability to compete on the highest stage in the world no matter who you are. Nothing should hold you back, the sport should be for everybody.”
Romania coach, Antonio Colamonici, received the World Rowing Coach of the Year designation. In an esteemed field of Heino Zeidler of Germany, Nick Baker of Great Britain, Darren Whiter of Great Britain and Freek Robbers of the Netherlands Colamonici is known for his focus on scientific training methods and team cohesion.
Finally, The Romanian Women’s Eight that won gold at the Paris Olympics was named World Rowing Women’s Crew of the Year. Romania’s gold medal in Paris marked the nation’s tenth medal in the event and ties them for most gold medals in the women’s eight with the United States.
Find the World Rowing release here with all of the 2024 award winners and watch the awards gala here.
Gut Check
The gut, also called the intestinal tract, includes the stomach, intestines, and colon. An amazing number of life-sustaining and performance-enhancing events happen in the gut, including the digestion of the food we eat and the absorption of nutrients that provide energy.
While those of us with well-functioning “cast-iron stomachs” are unlikely to think twice before eating any food that crosses our path, rowers with gastrointestinal issues (irritable bowel, diarrhea, reflux) are more cautious about what they eat.
Good gut health matters
Gut health can change; you don’t want to take it for granted. Instead, you want to feed those 100 trillion beneficial microbes that live in your gut properly; they have a big impact on your overall well-being (hint: microbes like fiber-rich carbs). Improper feeding, including long-term food restriction (anorexia, dieting) and a low-fiber diet can reduce microbial diversity and have a detrimental impact on your health.
A strong array of microbes in your gut enhances your immune system, reduces the risk of allergies, produces vitamins (K, B12), optimizes the absorption of nutrients, sends signals to the brain that make you more resilient to stress, and fosters anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic benefits.
A healthy gut enables athletes to access and utilize the fuels they need to perform longer, recover faster, and heal cells that get damaged during intense exercise. In comparison, athletes with unhealthy guts may spend more time sitting on the sidelines feeling unwell (including traveler’s diarrhea).
Exercise itself is beneficial for gut health. Exercise with a fiber-rich diet (abundant fruits, veggies, beans, grains) is even better. Among elite athletes, those with a fiber-rich diet have a more robust microbiome compared to elite athletes with a lower fiber intake.
Eating for gut health
For rowers who want to feel good, perform optimally, and recover quickly from hard exercise, here are some suggestions about how to eat to optimize your gut health.
• Figure out how to include more fruits and veggies easily in your daily diet. Suggestions:
—Combine fruit with protein, such as banana + peanut butter or apple + cheese. For many rowers, this carb-protein combo is more appealing—and more likely to be consumed—than just a piece of fruit.
—Snack on dried fruit for a sweet treat (instead of candy).
—Buy frozen veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, peas, carrots, etc.) and eat a pile, not just a serving, at dinner. Freezing retains nutrients, so frozen veggies can be more nutrient-rich than fresh veggies that lose nutrients during shipment from, let’s say, California to New England. Frozen veggies are also easier to incorporate into a busy athlete’s sports diet. No prep— and they cost less. Cook extra veggies for leftovers to add to the next day’s breakfast omelet or lunchtime soup.
—Redefine your afternoon snack as a “second lunch” with quality fiber-rich food (peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole wheat bread) instead of snacky foods (chips, sweets). Fiber-rich foods leave you feeling satiated with sustained energy and less evening hunger.
—Boost your intake of fiber-rich grains (bran cereal, oatmeal, Dave’s Killer Bread, popcorn, brown rice), beans (hummus, burritos with refried beans, bean dip), and nuts and seeds (nut butters, almonds, sunflower seeds).
Note: Not all fruits and veggies are fiber-rich. The best options have seeds (raspberries, blackberries, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes) and edible skins (apples, pears, potatoes).
• Enjoy more fermented foods. Snack on yogurt; make a smoothie with kefir. Learn to like kombucha.
Abating exercise-related GI distress
GI complaints are common among athletes and can vary according to sport. Rowers in a bent-over position might suffer from heartburn or reflux. Marathoners with lots of intestinal jostling might experience “runner’s trots.” Gymnasts and ballet dancers fear being bloated with a bulging stomach. You are not alone if you exercise with GI distress.
The following tips might help resolve current gut issues and reduce future digestive problems that could impact your sports performance:
• Train your gut (not just your heart, lungs, and muscles).
Being afraid to eat before you work out because you fear experiencing nausea, stomach cramps, or diarrhea is a questionable excuse for avoiding pre-exercise food (particularly for endurance athletes and those who train more than 60 to 90 minutes a day).
The gut is trainable and can learn to tolerate fuel consumed before and during exercise. You want at least to fuel your body appropriately for the work you’ll be doing. Training on empty will do nothing to help you compete against a better-fueled athlete.
Instead of insisting you can’t eat before you exercise, be curious. What bad happens if you nibble on 25 to 50 calories of a simple low-fiber grain, such as a pretzel, vanilla wafer, or half slice of white toast? Likely nothing. Next, build up to 50 to 75 calories, then 75 to 100. The goal is to consume around 200 calories in the hour or so before you train. The benefits will be more energy and a better workout.
During extended exercise, you want to build up to consuming 200 to 300 calories per hour after the first hour. Learn from each experiment and tweak your choices.
• Some commercial sports foods lead quickly to GI distress, so test different products during training, not on the day of the event.
A product might have too much caffeine or a type of carbohydrate that your body is not used to consuming. You might need to replace gels and chomps with honey and maple syrup. Both are available is single-serve packets for athletes.
Conclusion: Emerging evidence suggests strongly that fiber-rich plant-based foods offer gut-health benefits that translate into overall health not seen with highly processed low-fiber foods. Good gut health invites less inflammation, better recovery, and better overall well-being.
Bailey-Greene Named Toledo’s First Head Women’s Rowing Coach
The University of Toledo added women’s rowing as a varsity sport this past summer and the institution has named Chris Bailey-Greene as the programs first head coach.
Bailey-Greene will lead the Rockets with their first competition season being the fall of 2025. Most recently he served as the associate head coach at Washington State University and has over 13 years of coaching experience. In order to create a team of passionate, invested student-athletes Bailey-Greene has been working from his first day on campus to assemble a core group of interested individuals.
“We have to get walk on athletes involved as soon as possible. I’m a very educational, developmental focused coach. I focus a lot on the fine details–making sure culture is supportive. I believe in the cultivating holistic athletes. We will set realistic expectations and tangible goals and build it the right way.”
In addition to focusing heavily on sparking current students’ interest in joining the team, Bailey-Greene’s coaching and recruiting experience will serve him as he begins recruiting efforts.
“The recruiting side will be just as vital and that’s what I have a lot of experience in is making sure we’re reaching out and telling youth programs around the country who we are and what we represent. The administration at Toledo has been very supportive so far to assist as much as they can.”
Bailey-Greene started coaching right out of college while he was perusing a master’s degree at the University of Cincinnati. He reached out to the club he rowed for, before his college racing career at Brown University, Cincinnati Jr Rowing Club.
“I never thought it would be my life path. I was studying criminology,” remembered Bailey-Greene. “I also ended up getting a masters in clinical psychology so I took a three-year break from coaching. When I moved back to Cincinnati in 2014, I started doing therapy work and then shifted gears and decided I wanted to do both. Rowing just kind of took over and I got a full-time coaching gig in Ohio at Row America and just kept elevating.”
Prior to Washington State Bailey-Greene spent time as an assistant for the women’s rowing team at Gonzaga, the Oregon State men’s rowing team, and the Yale’s men’s rowing team.
Georgia Tech, Clemson, UVA, Texas top competition in weekend racing
The Head of the South, the Rivanna Romp and the Waco Rowing Regatta all concluded last weekend with Georgia Tech, Clemson, UVA, and Texas topping the field at their respective events.
In Augusta, Georgia, the Head of the South welcomed over 40 teams and 1,100 rowers to at 5,000-meter course on the Savannah River. The Clemson club team claimed wins in women’s club eight, the women’s club four, the men’s collegiate and club novice eight and the women’s collegiate and club novice four. Georgia Tech’s club was at the top as well with first place finishes in the men’s club pair, the men’s club four, the men’s lightweight four, the men’s championship four, the men’s collegiate and club novice four and the men’s club eight.
“The race has some good challenges,” said race director Kirsten Aylward. “We have four different bridges that the rowers have to navigate. We also have some river obstacles—a couple of weed beds and old bridge abutments that make the course interesting. They go under a very old railroad trestle bridge and that’s one of the elements you see on our logo.”
In addition to the usual obstacles this year the regatta was forced to make some alterations to the course to damage from Hurricane Helene.
“They start up at the Hammond’s Ferry dock in North Augusta and the finish line is in the RiverNorth community,” stated Aylward. “Hurricane Helene moved some things around on us in the river. It flooded pretty high. Our finish line this year was about 150 meters up stream with a new dock because the dock that we had been using is now on dry land. It’s been a bit of a challenge with the hurricane, but we’ve had a lot of good partners from the community who’ve helped us get ready.”
In addition to the Head of the South, the Rivanna Romp took place on Sunday, November 10, and the UVA women’s rowing team swept the varsity eight, varsity four and novice eight outperforming Duke, Minnesota and North Carolina to cap off their fall season. The varsity eight crossed the 4,000-meter racecourse finish line with a winning time of 13:26.6.
The Texas Longhorns women’s rowing team had five entries in the women’s collegiate eight at the Waco Rowing Regatta on the Brazos River. With some exciting intersquad racing the “B” entry earned the fastest 5K time in 16:47.2.
Finn Hamill Reflects on Fall Success, Sets Sights on 2028 Olympics
Finn Hamill of Waikato Rowing Club in Tauranga, New Zealand has had an incredible fall racing season stateside, winning the Head of the Housatonic in the Open Men’s Single, Head of the Charles in the Men’s Championship Single, and the Redgrave Challenge Men’s Championship Single at Head of the Schuylkill.
“It was great to be able to come and race at the Schuylkill following the Charles,” noted Hamill. “Managing to win all three of these regattas in the single was quite cool. A massive thank you to Dan Schley from New Haven Rowing Club who basically organized everything for me while I was in America, and also allowed me to use his personal single for these races. I had originally only come to America to race at the Charles, but because of Dan, I got to see and do so much more than I ever could’ve anticipated.”
Hamill capped off his racing in the United States this fall with an outstanding showing at Head of the Schuylkill. Not only did he win the men’s championship single, he teamed up with Justin Schmidt, winner of the lightweight men’s single at both HOCR and HOSR, in the men’s double for another first place finish. Hamill finished off the day with a mixed double sculls win with Karolien Florijn, the Paris Olympic women’s single sculls gold medalist.
“From here I head back to New Zealand where I will resume training. I’ll be looking to compete internationally again next year, with sights set on LA 2028.”
Emma Twigg, Paris Olympic silver medalist and Tokyo gold medalist in the women’s single, actually helped Hamill to have the opportunity to race in the United States this fall as a mentor and friend.
“A year ago we sponsored Emma Twigg and Thomas Macintosh in the head of the Charles,” said Daniel Schley from New Haven Rowing Club. “This year the head coach of New Zealand asked us if we would host Emma again and she in turn asked us if we would host a friend of hers. At the time he was an unknown, although he’d just won the world costal championship in the men’s single. We had a marvelous time hosting Finn. He stayed with us for two weeks and went from being a total unknown to being a celebrity.”
Finn Hamill has only just begun to make a name for himself after such extensive success as he starts his journey training for the next Olympic cycle.
“It’s one of the most remarkable stories in the history of Head of the Charles,” stated Schley. “His first ever head race was the Head of the Housatonic. He’d never rowed on the Charles before that weekend, and he crushed it.”
