SURC Training Camp at Dart Totnes RC

Swansea University Rowing Club’s 2018/19 season training camp saw all four squads returning to Totnes in South Devon for the second time.

The squads arrived at Dart Totnes Rowing Club, who kindly played host for the week, on the afternoon of Sunday 27th January.

Only the unpopular chore of unloading the trailer and re-rigging boats stood in the way of the incredibly productive week it would turn out to be for all club members!

For the Senior squads, the week in Devon was a fantastic opportunity to intensify training and really nail and fine-tune the smaller technical points, whilst making important steps in the right direction with overall squad fitness. Both of the Senior teams made significant visible progress in these areas and benefitted hugely from access to expert coaching from Ray, their assigned coach for the week. Ellie of the Senior Women’s squad summarised training camp as “a challenging week that brought the squads and club together.” She added that a highlight for her was “feeling like a Nordic warrior rowing off to battle during the windiest of outings.”

The Novice squads also made substantial improvements in their rowing technique, possibly benefitting even more than the Seniors from the intense nature of the week, which also enabled them to gain a better understanding for the sport as a whole. Caleb of the Novice Men's squad said of the week; "the skill development within our squad over just 4 days of training was clear to see.” The Novices have both Ray and Nick to thank for all of the progress they made throughout the course of the week.

All members of the club did very well in persevering and getting on with the task at hand, despite the polar conditions they were presented with!

The week culminated with a cross-club scratch regatta, with five eights battling it out over 300m to be crowned champions and put their new skills to the test. Unfortunately, there can only be one winner, and the best eight won - despite significant debate from our club president, who was on the receiving end of this philosophy! He had to say of this “I don’t even care anyway.”

The week was a great success for all, thanks to fantastic coaching provided by Dart Totnes Rowing Club. Credit is also due to the devoted captains, and committee members, that organised the whole week and made it happen!