THE TRAINING PROGRAMME, EXPLAINED
Written by Chris Bartley, RUBC Performance Coach and programme coordinator.
Prospective students often ask us questions like ‘What sort of training do you do?‘, ‘How many sessions do you do?’, ‘Will I be able to trial for GB?’ Hopefully this short article will answer some of those questions.
Training and racing with your RUBC teammates and friends is at the very core of our club. The shared experiences, tough times and racing highs we hope leave our students both as accomplished scullers, but also with great memories of their time at RUBC. The programme itself aims to enhance our athletes’ performances, but also enable the social aspects of the club that create a great university experience, too.
RUBC rowers train eleven times each week. This sounds a lot, but the session times and durations are designed to fit around a busy University schedule. We have water sessions before lectures in the morning on Monday, Friday and Saturday, with two water sessions on a Wednesday afternoon. These sessions bring the whole club together on the water.
Monday afternoon, and before lectures on Tuesday and Thursday mornings we have Strength and Conditioning sessions, two of which are with our dedicated S & C coach, Roddy Slater. The S & C programme takes into account our general training phase, will be periodised to match the racing calendar, and can also be individualised based on specific requirements.
Tuesday, Thursday, and second session on Saturday we offer several ergo sign up slots throughout the day. These should help you fit the training in around lectures or work, but there’ll always be someone to train with in your ergo slot too.
At RUBC, we focus on quality rather than quantity when it comes to the training. We want every session to be valuable, and justifiable - there’ll be reasons for each session on the programme, with training effects alongside weekly programme goals. The training needs to be challenging and physically effective, but also mentally stimulating and enjoyable. We aim to balance the programme to tick each of these boxes. Enjoyment and team spirit are as important in your performance as the split you see on the ergo.
Total training time each week will usually be a maximum of fifteen hours, with about four hours of that time being Strength and Conditioning. 80-90% of the rowing and erging will be low to mid level aerobic training, and the remaining 10-20% ergo and water pieces. The programme will progressively build through the first term, with Fresher athletes modified in terms of volume and intensity until they are ready to join the full programme.
We aim to build the programme from consistent sessions that are the same each week (to help track progress) and sessions that alter each week (to maintain stimulus, adaptation, mental freshness, and avoid boredom and physiological plateaus). We’ll test on the ergo and the water up to six times each year. Our focus races are the Fuller’s Head of the River Fours race, BUCS Head and Regatta, both Women’s Henley and Royal Henley, and the GB trialing process where appropriate.
If you’re looking at RUBC, you’ll know the squad is smaller than some universities. We pride ourselves on the family feel of the club, and this enables us to look at programmes on an individual basis. We’ve had great success modifying the above framework to suit those wishing to trial, who may need to do more, or those in full time employment who may need session timing and content altering.
Chloe Knight on GB Trials
‘For some of us who choose to trial, the programme is modified a bit into the lead up. We usually have extra singles sessions and mock trials weekend a few weeks before. For example before November trials we do a practise 2k on the Saturday and a 5k water piece on the Sunday. This prepares us really well for what to expect when it comes around. I also find this fills us with confidence and generally helps us perform on the day. In general leading up to events like these the coaches are really flexible about changing aspects of the programme to help us with things we feel we need more work on.’
Lucy Ryan on placements and rowing for RUBC:
‘One of the main reasons I stayed at Reading to do my PGCE after completing my undergrad was to being able to continue rowing with RUBC. I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning of my PGCE course as I knew it required me to essentially work a full time job whilst on placement (which is most of the academic year), and I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage training around it. However, Chris was really supportive, and after a short meeting he had planned an adapted programme for me where I’d still be able to get the same benefits from the training and row with the rest of the squad as much as possible, but I was able to meet the needs of my course too. I wasn’t able to fit any water sessions in before school, so we swapped that out for a long higher intensity ergo on a Monday evening, and a long steady ergo on a Friday afternoon. When it was getting dark in the afternoon, we’d swap the water pieces for ergo pieces on a Wednesday. As it got lighter and we were building up to BUCS head, my crew would train slightly later, and the coaches would come back out on a launch so I’d be able to slot into my crew for some pieces. Chris has been great at adapting the programme for my needs with a demanding course, with no detriment to my performance. In fact I have continued to improve and I managed to get a 5k ergo PB in the middle of term and was in the BUCS head championship gold medal winning quad whilst working from 8-4 through the week.’
If you have any further questions about the programme or rowing at RUBC, email us at rowing@reading.ac.uk