Coaching

Roger Silk

Roger was invited to become Head Coach of CUWBC in 1984, and proceeded to put in place a system that has yielded incredible success for CUWBC oarswomen, both in the Boat Races, and on the international stage. Roger returned to the squad in 2003 and immediately set about rebuilding the system that had provided so many Cambridge wins. The fruits of his labours have started to be realised already, with the Blue Boat winning in 2005.

Boatman at Lady Margaret for 40 years before retiring in 2002, Roger had also been a driving force in a long era of LMBC rowing, producing several of our most famous internationals during that era: Annamarie Phelps, Mike Sweeney, Guy Pooley, David Sturge, Jamie McLeod and Neil Christie, to name but a few.

Roger is always keen to bring his skills as a designer and craftsman to help the squad, and this is reflected in many of the new and innovative pieces of equipment that have been introduced through CUWBC over the years. Of particular note are his low drag catamarans (not only used by CUWBC, but also to be seen in support of the GB rowing team), and sweep oar attachments for Concept 2 Ergometers.

Ron Needs

Ron came to CUWBC in 1989, joining Roger in the role of joint Head Coach. Ron brings an almost unrivalled knowledge of technical, physiological and biomechanical information to the squad, enabling the training programme to bring the absolute best out of each and every athlete.

Ron is a familiar face on the international scene, having been involved in coaching the British Squad for many years. He is currently involved in the women’s eight group, which surpassed all expectations at the 2005 World Championships in Gifu, Japan by coming 5th, only 3 seconds behind the winners, Australia.

Among numerous distinctions, Ron earned one of the early ARA Gold Coaching awards, then received the ARA Medal of Honour in 1987. Ron was made a Steward of Henley Royal Regatta in 1989. This year, Ron was greatly honoured to receive the Mussabini medal, one of the most prestigious awards that can be presented to a sports coach in the United Kingdom.

Kat Astley

A product of the CUWBC system, Kat noviced at Queens’ College and proceeded to win three Boat Races, stroking Blondie in 1996, the Blue Boat in 1997 and finally the Blue Boat again as President in 1998. Kat joined us in a coaching capacity in 2004 since when she has demonstrated her capabilities, notably as finishing coach of the Lightweight crew, sharing in their recent victories.

In 2006 Kat became Boatman of Christ’s College, where her enthusiastic style and belief in everyone’s ability has swelled the rowing numbers and produced some notable wins. She is proud that all her college crews are rising in the Bumps tables, and of the wins that have been secured in Fairbairns by both novices and seniors. In 2008 her women’s 1st VIII beat Osiris B to reach the semi-finals of the Intermediate Eights at Women’s Henley, losing by just 1¼ lengths to Osiris A. She continues to row (whilst dabbling in triathlons and mountain marathons!), winning the Women’s Eights Head of the River Race in 2005 with Leander Club, and her Lightweight age-group race at BIRC in 2007, and more recently coming 28th with Cambridge City Rowing Club in the 2009 WeHORR. The perspective of a current high-level athlete is invaluable to the squad

Nick Acock

Nick joined the coaching team of CUWBC for the 2003-04 season, having been
cox of Blondie 2003. Since then he has been progressively more involved
each year, normally coaching Blondie and being their finishing coach for
2008 and 2009. In addition to this Nick is now the squad’s coxing advisor
and works to ensure that our coxes meet his own high standards and benefit
from his many years experience.

In 2005 Nick was appointed Head Coach/Boatman for Clare College and his
efforts here are begining to show through; the women’s first eight
acheived its only ever Lent Bumps Headship in 2006 and the first men’s
eight is now at it’s highest position in the Lent’s since 1986. Still an
active cox with local club Cantabrigian RC, Nick regularly competes at a
high level around the country and has several wins at S1 level under his
belt, but most notably he reached the quarter finals of The Britannia
Challenge Cup at Henley Royal in 2007. This continued success and
immersion in the rowing world proves invaluable in feeding back the
experience into CUWBC

Rob Milner

Having been a guest coach for CUWBC for the 5 previous years, in September 2008 he increased his coaching role and has been coaching continually ever since. Rob learnt to row as an undergraduate at LMBC and moved on to row at Cantabs where as well as rowing competitively until the summer of 2008, also was mens captain and club captain. After leaving university Rob worked within a small group of engineers at Peach Innovations building a rowing instrumentation system which is now used by many national squads including the GB squad. He continues to work developing systems for sports and medical applications.

Adam Lister

Adam started coxing in 1995, initially with various veteran men’s crews and then moving to work with both senior women’s and men’s crews with a variety of Cambridge town clubs. Alongside his coxing he started coaching novice crews, joining the Selwyn College coaching team in 2002 and working with the college through to 2006. During this time he gained the ARA’s Instructors Award. Over the past ten years he has had success with a number of senior women’s crews, both college and town clubs, on and off the Cam.

He joined the CUWBC in 2007 where he is an integral part of the coaching team and having worked as a boat builder for a number of years before joining the University’s Engineering Department, his engineering skills enable him to provide additional support as Boatman to the crews.