Club Culture at Nelson Rowing Club

Club Culture is something we discuss a lot on the management and coaching team at Nelson Rowing Club. There are a number of things that we strive to achieve on a daily basis, which form the foundation of our Club Culture:

• Self-Responsibility. It is the responsibility of the athlete to be organized and communicate with their coaches and teammates over attendance and availability.  It is not the responsibility of their caregiver to do this.
• Hard Work. It’s up to each athlete to work to the best of their ability in training and racing. It is not our expectation that everyone can be a National Champion or row for New Zealand. We are one of the few programs in NZ that don’t limit selection to the majority of regattas on performance. We do however expect everybody to apply effort and perform to the best of their ability.
• Team. Part of creating a team culture is every Friday all of the rowers (male, female, junior, senior) in the shed are mixed up and put in crews and compete with one another in what we call Power Strokes. We expect all of the crews to encourage their crewmates to strive harder vocally during these sessions. Very few clubs and coaches around NZ allow this interaction across squads. But its invaluable for the younger athletes to learn how hard they are capable of working. And its great that even the Senior Women for example learn and interact with the Novice Boys.
• Learning. We would be one of the few places where, on a regular (weekly) basis, some of the top nonprofessional athletes in the country are happy to train alongside and in the same boats as second year 15-year-old athletes. They realise the advantages to the entire team of showing the youngsters the art of how to move a boat efficiently. It was done for them by their older peers, and they do it for the group coming through behind them without complaint.
• Standards. We make no secret of the fact that we have high standards. But those standards are focused on self-responsibility, effort, and respect. Performance can only follow once those standards are achieved. Part of that is honest feedback.

These things that we strive for don’t always run smoothly but be rest assured that doesn’t mean we don’t keep trying to be better. Better Coaches. Better Athletes. Better Administrators. Better not perfect.

Empowerment in Sport

Rowing is a fantastic sport for everyone - boys, girls, men and women. 

This video was produced by one of our NRC rowers a few years ago to show how rowing can be particularly great for young women.