Five years ago the Amateur Rowing Association formulated its plans for Project Oarsome. This was to be a radical new approach to recruitment of children into rowing from schools in the public sector.
Research was commissioned into the approach to be taken and a structured approach to recruitment and skills was developed. A Child Protection Procedure was developed and Coaching and Development Officers were appointed to support the required improvements in coach education that a 2 million initiative supported by public money from the National Lottery would require. Many of these ideas were launched at the ARAs annual coaching conference which was held at Lilleshall and workshops were given by coaches and teachers already working with children from Year 7 upwards. The topic of child protection was debated at length and coaches from Avon County came away with a vision of what could be achieved from the package on offer. Avon determined to take up the challenge of Project Oarsome and set about several tasks:
- Establishing a strong relationship with Oldfield school the local Specialist Sports College
- Developing a team of ARA qualified coaches
- Introducing the ARA structured approach to teaching sculling
- Undertaking a programme of Club Development with the support of the Bath and North and Somerset Council.
- Fund-raising the £11,000 share of costs to be contributed by Avon.
So what happened?
We raised the money and Project Oarsome was formally launched nearly 3 years ago although the PO approach had been in place at Avon since 1997. We received 7 boats suitable for small people and sculling blades and buoyancy aids to match. We did need to augment the fleet with beginner boats and on starter days up to 6 club boats become quad sculls to accommodate all the children. The equipment is available for all the Junior members of Avon drawn from a wide range of schools in the local area. We have developed an extremely strong relationship with both Oldfield (Bath) and Wellsway (Keynsham) Schools with scores of pupils being introduced to the sport in year 7 and some children achieving significant success in the sport (of which more later). Both sculling clubs at the schools have been assisted by ACRC members to apply for National Lottery Awards for All grants that have led to the purchase of beginner sculling boats, additional sculling blades, cox boxes, a single racing scull and contributions to coaching courses.
Avon County now has a large team (over 20) qualified coaches headed by two Silver Coaches including Junior Co-ordinator, Penny Senior. All sections of the Club have benefited from this expertise, with senior members representing England at both Commonwealth and Home Countries Regatta since 1999.
All members benefit from a uniform approach to teaching sculling and rowing. There are regular coaches meetings to develop our ideas and approach. The club has just come to the end of a 5 year planning cycle and has just completed its Forward Plan for 2002-2006. This forms a part of the way we manage the club and is essential if we are to continue to receive grant aid.
And what have we learnt? Project Oarsome and the Go Row programme developed by the ARA have been a major success at Avon. A number of the small year-sevens who have started in the sport over the years have progressed and pupils from both schools now regularly race and win from J12 upwards. We attend Oarsome events put on by other clubs and have ourselves developed a range of events for youngsters (and more recently their parents). Wellsway school pupils had a series of Oarsome and open junior wins at J13 and J14 during September and a number of Oldfield Girls have raced and in some cases won this year. Our biggest success?
The first group of Year 7 girls from Oldfield school included Victoria and Charlotte Land. Now at the Royal High the two girls have become National Champions (WJ15 2x in 2001) and members of the GB Junior Womens Sculling Team. Charlotte was selected for the 2002 Coupe de la Jeunesse where she collected 2 bronze medals in the 4x. Vicky was selected as the spare W1x for the Coupe (where she won both spares races) and as the W1x for the GB/ France match held in Nantes where she won both races (over 1500m and 500m). Both performances helped the GB womens team to collect their respective team trophies. And the girls are now also finding time around their heavy training schedules to help coach the latest batch of our ducklings (as the year 7s are affectionately called by the older members of the squad).
Our thanks to all those bodies and groups who have supported our Juniors at all levels this includes significant contributions from the Monkton Bluefriars Charitable Trust.
Chris Hopper - Captain A.C.R.C.