Captain's summary of the season - 1997/8

"I would just like to take this opportunity to share a few of my thoughts from my first year as Captain, and my aspirations for 1999.

I went into the year with three main aims for the club that I saw as not only to bring the best out of each athlete but also to underpin the future of the club.

The first was the development of each athlete to his maximum potential physically, technicaly and mentally. I ran this section as an experiment but with the knowledge of 15 seasons rowing behind me. I was aware that some things had worked in the past and others not but the one thing I was sure of was that there was absolutely no substitute for hard work! At Bedford we are extremely lucky to have the range of training facilities that we do and I believe I made full use of these. The benefit of the trailers and towing vehicles was especially valuable as it allowed us to travel to longer stretches of water and increase our water mileage considerably over previous years. Training camps were also valuable and allowed concentrated effort as well as a good club spirit to develop. I hope this training 'experiment' will continue in 1999 to drive people further towards their ultimate performances.

The second aim was the development of a club structure. I could see that there are a group of people at the high senior rowing end of the scale but very litle underneath. I felt for the sake of the future and to increase the competitive edge within the squad it was vital to progress people both from novice into the senior squad and the new seniors into more experienced oarspersons. This process has begun extremely well but it is vital that it continues into next year and beyond.

Finally - so to not lose sight that we do actually do this as well as work - I felt it was important to encourage the club spirit. That is both a spirit of fun socially and a spirit of success and self respect whilst training. This has begun to happen and I have been impressed by the professional approach of the athletes to training. Hopefully we will also be able to encourage more social events as a rowing club in the coming year but please get involved and help this to happen!

Highlights of 1997/8

70 wins at all levels through the season
Positive Progression of Mens and Womens Eights at the HoRRs
Winners of the Veteran B Mens (Third Time) and Womens (Sarah Reay) Eights
Representation at Mens and Womens Henley
13 Novice Wins (the highest for 8 years)
Elite Wins at Bedford Quarts and Peterborough Regattas
Representation at the Nat Champs In Strathclyde and medals for Caroline Kirman
Club training camps at York (Autumn) and Henley (Easter)
Visit of King Edward VII School from South Africa.
Representation at the Masters World Champs in Munich

What About 1999?

	There are some simple messages for success in the future:
	*'Persistance Yields Success'*
	Very few sportsmen and women are talented enough to reach their ultimate goal in a year or even two. Most of our Olympic teams are involved in a three to four year build up to reach their goal. The message for current oarspersons is 'stick at it'! Our success will come through building teams of people that have been rowing and training in a certain style together. I believe no-one in the Bedford squad has plateaued in their skill yet and success can come if you continually strive for this improvement.
	*'Youth Policy'*
	Probably the majority of successful oarspersons have been home-grown talent. It is important for us being between two large centres of rowing in Nottingham and London to grow AND progress our own talent. Probably the single best achievement of the year is the progression of so many novices into the senior ranks but we need to do this ever year if we are to be successful.It is also important that the novices that do filter through see their progression in the future and I see it as one of my main challenges to give them that training over the next year.
	*'Self Belief'*
	Finally I believe this quality is one that must be instilled in every Bedford oarsperson. It comes from hard work. Just think of Pinsent and Redgraves' Atlanta Olympic final: was anyone going to take that away from them? This belief is built over a number of seasons and is a measure of your desire to win!

Thank-yous

	My final thought is to thank a lot of people that have helped me through the year and I urge you to please stay involved as I really need your help this year too. I would especially like to state my thanks to the following:
	Laurie Eaton (Ladies Captain) Blaine Castle and Jon Lemon (Mens Vice Captains) Steve Breed (BRC Boatman) Johnathon Fearnhead and Richard Laidlow (Ladies Squad) Richard Fearnhead, Andy MacCartney, John Smith and Bill Sadler (Mens Squad) Dave Powell, Sarah Reay and John Mingay (Novice Coaches) (and recently Ian Pendall and Tim Crow)

Finally, thanks to all at BRC for their encouragement through the year and hopefully we will go from strength to strength in 1998.

Alex 'Nobby' Aldred
Captain
Bedford Rowing Club

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	"I would just like to take this opportunity to share a few of my thoughts from my first year as Captain, and my aspirations for 1999.
	I went into the year with three main aims for the club that I saw as not only to bring the best out of each athlete but also to underpin the future of the club.
	The first was the development of each athlete to his maximum potential physically, technicaly and mentally. I ran this section as an experiment but with the knowledge of 15 seasons rowing behind me. I was aware that some things had worked in the past and others not but the one thing I was sure of was that there was absolutely no substitute for hard work! At Bedford we are extremely lucky to have the range of training facilities that we do and I believe I made full use of these. The benefit of the trailers and towing vehicles was especially valuable as it allowed us to travel to longer stretches of water and increase our water mileage considerably over previous years. Training camps were also valuable and allowed concentrated effort as well as a good club spirit to develop. I hope this training 'experiment' will continue in 1999 to drive people further towards their ultimate performances.
	The second aim was the development of a club structure. I could see that there are a group of people at the high senior rowing end of the scale but very litle underneath. I felt for the sake of the future and to increase the competitive edge within the squad it was vital to progress people both from novice into the senior squad and the new seniors into more experienced oarspersons. This process has begun extremely well but it is vital that it continues into next year and beyond.
	Finally - so to not lose sight that we do actually do this as well as work - I felt it was important to encourage the club spirit. That is both a spirit of fun socially and a spirit of success and self respect whilst training. This has begun to happen and I have been impressed by the professional approach of the athletes to training. Hopefully we will also be able to encourage more social events as a rowing club in the coming year but please get involved and help this to happen!