Girl on the River

Ep.12 What a joy it was to have Eira Parry on the podcast! A former GB Rowing coach, teacher, founder of High Performance Parenting and stepmother to an Olympic athlete, Eira has seen the life of young athletes from all sides and has so much wisdom to share with anyone involved in the lives of young athletes, whether as coaches or as parents. She has also, excitingly, just been appointed as one of GB Rowing's seven new selectors, a role for which she will be brilliantly suited.
Eira and I had a wonderful chat about:

• Lockdown life and why it's suited her
• Her own early rowing history and how failing to achieve what she wanted has shaped her career
• How the best athletes have come through adversity
• Eira's career history as teacher, rowing coach and coach at the GB Start Programme as a Talent ID coach
• How she came to found High Performance Parenting, supporting parents of young athletes
• How young people benefit from sport - the benefits beyond just the physical and how that can carry through to later life
• What schools can do to engage those children not interested in sport
• Concerns about levels of physical inactivity in lockdown (and the positives in the increase in walking)
• How to make the most of lockdown and turn it into something positive, even if you can't row or do your usual sport

Eira also answered questions from listeners about:

• Coping with the daily demands of being the parent of a young athlete
• Helping your young athlete build resilience and cope with disappointment (and the value of asking the coach for feedback)
• How to help your young athlete build their confidence and deal with competition nerves
• How to get the balance right as a parent between communicating too much and too little with the coach (and how coaches can help with this)
• What to do if your child isn't selected for a crew or team
• What to do if your child wants to give up sport and you think they may live to regret it
• How to help your child juggle all the different demands on their time
• Helping your young athlete to have a healthy attitude towards food and nutrition and body image
• Advice for coaches on helping young athletes to develop a healthy attitude towards winning and goal-setting

RESOURCES
You can find out all about High Performance Parenting and what Eira does here.
You can buy Frances' Houghton's book here. It gets a mention in so many of my interviews - and rightly so - it's brilliant!
The Women's Sport Network Mojo manuals that Eira referred to can be found here.
And looking ahead to next week, you can read all about Race the Thames here.

Ep 9. The more I talk to elite rowers and coxes, the more I understand the importance that sport psychology plays in creating the best performances both on and off the river. That's why I was so delighted when expert in sport psychology, Chris Shambrook, agreed to come on the podcast. We had a fascinating chat, covering:

• Chris's path into sport psychology
• His experiences of working with the GB Rowing Squad
• Whether rowers have unique psychological needs compared with other sports
• How to deal with a personality clash between athletes or between coach and athlete
• The psychology of the Olympic cycle
• Developing a challenge mindset instead of a threat mindset
• Learning to observe your thoughts and emotions
• Chris's work with Planet K2

Chris went on to answer listeners' questions about the following:

• Mind over body on the erg
• Coping with the fear of the erg test - the gold-silver-bronze approach
• Not finishing an erg test
• The connection with mindful meditation and using your fear of failure
• Imposter syndrome and perfectionism
• Helping adult learn-to-rowers
• Dealing with the ageing process as an athlete
• Supporting young rowers with varying growth rates
• What resources are available if you don't have a sports psychologist to hand
• How to cope with the uncertainties of the pandemic as an athlete

The books Chris refers to in the interview are as follows:
Chris's own book, The Mental Game Plan, which can be found here.
The Positive Power of Negative Thinking by Julie Norem

Learnings from Five Olympic Games by Frances Houghton

Mind Games by Annie Vernon

The Long Win by Cath Bishop
The blog posts on the Adidas site Chris talks about are here:
https://www.gameplan-a.com/2020/09/how-to-stay-on-track-when-the-finish-line-is-out-of-sight/

https://www.gameplan-a.com/2020/04/when-goalposts-shift-adapting-to-the-changing-world-around-us/

https://www.gameplan-a.com/2021/01/2021-an-unmissable-opportunity-to-live-the-new/

Other resources referred to by Chris :
The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences

British Psychological Society
Performance Room including covid self-care resources https://www.theperformanceroom.co.uk/category/cov
Believe PerformChris's business, Planet 2KThis week I released a fun, behind the scenes video to Patreon subscribers. To get perks like this plus early access to episode, click on "support the show"!

As soon as I heard about Row to Recovery I knew I wanted to talk to Robin Winkels, who founded it. Robin is a rower who, as a result of one phone call in 2014, ended up founding a charity that provides rowing for people who are undergoing or have had treatment for cancer. It's a subject close to Robin's heart after several members of her family had cancer, and she loves seeing the positive impact that rowing has on the participants. Here's what we talked about:

• How Robin got started with rowing and her love for the quad
• The River Corrib in Galway and the wildlife on it
• Robin's own experience of cancer in her family
• How Robin came to start Row to Recovery
• The practicalities of working with women who have had breast surgery
• The importance of being participant-led
• How rowing together diminishes the feeling of powerlessness in the face of cancer
• Being inspired by the participants and what Robin has learned from them
• How rowing makes the participants feel
• Robin's plans to encourage male cancer patients to join Row to Recovery
• Physical and mental benefits of exercising during and after cancer treatment
• How they kept each other going through lockdown
• Fundraising, recent developments and plans for the future
• The benefits of the project to Robin personally
• How to get involved, find the project or donate!

Resources
Find out more about Row to Recovery here.
Click here for their Facebook page. Go to @rowtorecoverygalway to find them on Instagram.
Check out these links to find out more about the benefits of exercise following a diagnosis of cancer, at all stages of treatment and afterwards:
Exercise guidelines for cancer survivors: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31626055/
Impact of exercise on mortality, recurrence and side effects of treatment: https://academic.oup.com/epirev/article/39/1/71/3760392#114725911
Guardian article about the benefits of exercise for cancer patients: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/07/cancer-if-exercise-was-a-pill-it-would-be-prescribed-to-every-patient

Ep 8. Most of us have done a little bit of charity fundraising at some point in our lives - we've maybe run a 5K or given up alcohol for a few weeks or completed an erg challenge. Most of us haven't raised £42 million for charity. My guest this week, the amazing Bernie Hollywood OBE, has done just that alongside an incredibly demanding career as a banker. This extraordinarily driven man has run 150 marathons, trekked to both Poles, crossed deserts, and is now planning to row the Atlantic on his own.
Equally importantly, he's just taken up the position of Foundation Manager of Love Rowing - British Rowing's new charitable foundation aimed at increasing diversity and inclusivity in rowing. I was so delighted when Bernie agreed to come on the show as his values align so much with those of Girl on the River, and I was keen to quiz him about exactly what Love Rowing is all about.
In this episode we discuss:

• What motivates Bernie to be such a prolific fundraiser and how it all began
• Why he always refers to his charity challenges as "adventures"
• Bernie's ethos
• Love Rowing - its aims and objectives and how it will work
• How rowing makes a difference in young people's lives
• Bernie's next adventure - the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic challenge
• The innovations Bernie is introducing to his Atlantic row
• Bernie's ambitions to raise £1 million for Love Rowing and the Samaritans

You can find out all about Love Rowing on its website, here, and on Twitter at @LoveRowing_BRCF. All enquiries about Love Rowing and Bernie's fundraising should be directed to [email protected].
Bernie's website is here.
The British Rowing Inclusive Club Guide that Bernie refers to can be downloaded here.
The artist who is designing the artwork covering Bernie's boat for the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge is Justin Eagleton.
The number for the Samaritans is 116 123 (it's free, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year). They also have a self-help app where you can keep track of how you're feeling, and get recommendations for things you can do to help yourself cope, feel better and stay safe in a crisis.

Ep 7. I wanted to start the year with a really special guest, and my goodness, that's what I've got for you! Frances Houghton MBE has represented GB in rowing at five Olympic Games. She has won three Olympic silver medals, four World Championship gold medals and one European title. She's also an incredibly thoughtful person who's collected an amazing amount of wisdom over the years and has distilled it into a brilliant book called Learnings from Five Olympic Games, which you can buy here.
Frances was an absolutely brilliant guest and, in common with other Olympians I've interviewed, incredibly and not remotely starry. We talk about:

• Her life in Cornwall - walking, sea swimming, gig rowing and surfing
• Whether she has any unfinished business, looking back at her rowing career
• The change in mindset she adopted after Beijing and how it enabled her to return to rowing
• Togetherness and the Rio 8+ (plus the challenges they went through when the crew was dismantled and seat-raced)
• Honesty and cohesion in crews
• The Olympic training regime
• Periods and hormones
• Whether she was able to retain the joy of rowing despite the tough regime
• Frances' relationship with the ergo and her tips for erg tests
• Whether you ever actually enjoy a race
• What it feels like on the start (and the weird thing about vinegar)
• Olympic Village life and the differences between the five Games
• The post-Olympic crash
• Learning not to be the expert in the crew
• Sports psychology
• Cooking and training as a chef and the Ballymaloe Cookery School.

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Thanks again for being part of Girl on the River. I'd love to hear from you - let me know what you think of the podcast, who you'd like to see guesting on it, what you'd like me to talk about. You can find my blog at Girl on the River and do come and say hi on social media at @girlontheriver on all channels.