07/11/2025
Keeping it Simple is a full time job. Luckily, Muhammad Saloojee is up for the challenge:
The weather is warming up beautifully, VLC is getting busier in the afternoons, and Roodeplaat is gaining a few more visitors over weekends. Walking through schools, you can hear the hum of the ergo and the music turned all the way up, thumping into the distance like some type of fitness rave.
It's an exciting time for coaches – getting to know your new rowers while reacquainting yourself with others you've coached before. The ol’ faithful start-of-season team-talks being dusted off: "Boys, this year is a clean slate...." followed swiftly by some variation of "This year we're just going to focus on doing x right." In the last few years, I’ve realised that we, as coaches, need to have that chat with ourselves, and I’ll be the first to admit that getting The Basics right is my definite focus this season...
..For me, “world-class basics” means being on time, no breakages, no missed races. It also means making sure we're improving throughout the season, not just our crews but ourselves as well. Evaluating after every session and asking the question: "Did I get better today?", "Did I help someone improve today?" and if we do that, I think we'll all find things go a lot smoother.
Zak Wood and Sam Hudson bring us even more non-rowing venues that tolerate rowers, from which I took the lesson: do NOT miss the safety talk.
Catch up on issue 3, link in bio🔗
And keep your eyes and ears open 👂👁👁👂for issue 4's pre-orders opening later today!
Favourite issue so far?
