Rowing at C.A.I

For link to COBRA rowing website which contains up to date information on the latest with our school crews and of the exploits of our Old Boys Alan Campbell, Richard Chambers and Richard Archibald click http://www.cobrarowing.com

Rowing is one of the most successful sports at C.A.I. It has been quoted as the “ultimate team sport” and requires a lot of determination and endurance to succeed in.

The Rowing Club is run by Bobbie Platt MBE who has many years of experience of coaching young oarsmen. The club trains five days a week at the River Pavilion, which is situated below the rugby changing rooms. The club is well situated on the banks of the River Bann, which provides a Twelve Kilometre stretch of river, which is perfect for Rowing on. The club is provided with donations and support from C.O.B.R.A (Coleraine Old Boys Rowing Association) who provide vital support to keep the club “afloat”.

C.O.B.R.A contains many well-known oarsmen including the likes of Alan Campbell and Richard Archibald, who competed for Great Britain and Ireland respectively at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

The rowing club itself has had a lot of success in the last few years. In 2004 and 2005, the club won the Craig Cup (which is the equivalent of the Schools Cup in rugby). The Men’s Junior 16 Quad went undefeated in 2005 and 2006 in all Regattas and Head Races. They were included in the fleet of crews that travelled to the Irish Championships at Inniscarra, Cork in the summer of 2006.

There are many different races throughout the course of the year including Head races and Regattas. Head races are usually raced over a distance of 5 kilometres, and these races are competed on courses that require a good coxswain to navigate the course in the fastest way possible.

Regattas are Sprint Races, which can be raced on courses which vary in distance from 500 metres to 2000 metres.
There are a handful of other schools and clubs that row competitively in Ireland. Crews from C.A.I would sometimes travel over to Henley Royal Regatta or to the Schools Head in London. Obviously the competition on the mainland is a lot harder but our crews always seem to do very well in those events.

The Club is very grateful to Dr G Hull for his support, Bobbie Platt for his many years of coaching, and to C.O.B.R.A for their support in providing new boats, oars, and extra coaching on a Saturday.

Calum McBurney

UBIARU Training Afternoon 24th January 2008

On the 24th of January, Keith Bailey, the Talent Development Coach for the Ulster Branch of the IARU travelled to CAI to coach the J15 and J16 oarsmen of the school. He started off with a classroom session, in which he talked about the need for good nutrition and a good night’s sleep before any training session- something that was a new idea to some of the boys. He then showed us some videos of good and bad oarsmen, to point out good and bad points of their technique, so that we could take into account some things that we may need to think about ourselves. He also showed us a structure of what the IARU wanted to happen to Junior rowers in the country, by organising training camps for talented oarsmen to reinforce the Irish way of rowing. We then all had erg (rowing machine) tests to do, and our heights and weights were recorded, so that our power-to-weight ratios could be calculated, which is important in rowing. After this, the 10 boys went to the rowing club to take to the water and try to see if we could put into practice what Keith had been trying to get through to us. He got us to do still boat drills- which are a lot harder than they sound- to build up what our technique should be like through the stroke. After one or two...minor mishaps the whole group of rowers (now dwindled to nine) were ready to be video recorded while we rowed so that we could be shown in which ways our technique was flawed. This was then taken back up to Dr Hull’s room where each individual rower, whether they were in a single or double scull, was analysed for strength of their technique. This was useful as we could see where we were going wrong even if we usually argued with the coaches that we’re rowing perfectly! An enjoyable afternoon was had by (nearly) all who attended and the promising young rowers in the J15 category presented themselves professionally and represented the school in an excellent manner. The J16 rowers, who are all vying for a place in the IARU sculling camps, showed that they have enough talent and strength to make it far in their rowing careers. The Junior rowers would like to thank Keith Bailey for giving up his time to come down and coach us, and our gratitude is also again owed to Dr Hull, Jason Taggart and the Senior members of the Boat Club for organising the event and for being on hand in the motorboats to pluck wet, cold, and slightly embarrassed oarsmen from the water!

Calum McBurney