Eira Parry on how to help young athletes to thrive

02/10/21 • 71 min

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.

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

Previous Episode

Rui De Sousa Stayton on the mental health crisis in young men and how rowing helped him through a family tragedy

*Trigger warning * this episode contains discussion of mental health problems and suicide.

This is by far the most significant episode I've broadcast to date. Not because my guest is a household name - in fact you probably haven't heard of him. Nor because he's had a stellar career - he's a 17-year-old school student (although he has wisdom and insight way beyond his years). No, the reason why this episode matters is because it addresses one of the most worrying problems facing our society - mental health problems amongst young people and teenage suicide.
In April 2019, Rui's brother, JJ, took his own life. He was 19 years old. Since then Rui has raised many thousands of pounds for the mental health charity, Mind. In this interview we talk about:

Lockdown life and what it's like doing school from home
JJ - who he was, his character and interests and how Rui likes to remember him
JJ's relaxed approach to rowing and the joy of paddling for the sake of paddling
Being Captain of Boats
How and when things went wrong for JJ
The aftermath of JJ's death and how rowing (and music) helped Rui through
The fundraising Rui has done
What schools and universities could do better to support troubled students
The importance of talking about our feelings
What we can do for loved ones if we're concerned
Why anyone struggling with their mental health shouldn't suffer alone
Rui's hopes for the summer of 2021 and his quest for the seven seat (#RuifortheSevenSeat)

Resources mentioned on the show
The fundraising page set up by Rui's family in memory of JJ is here.
You can find out more about Time to Talk Day here.
Rowing Together for Healthy Minds is most active on Instagram, here.
Check out the mental health charity, Mind, for all sorts of resources and support.
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.

Next Episode

Andrew Triggs Hodge OBE on being the last to be picked for the team, life after rowing and Race the Thames

Ep.13 I'm still pinching myself that yet another rowing legend has come on the podcast. This time it was my honour to welcome Andrew Triggs Hodge - three-time Olympic champion, multiple World Champion and Boat Race winner.
Despite his incredible rowing prowess, Andy is ridiculously modest (and really good fun) and we had a great chat. We talked about:

His undistinguished sporting career at school - always the last to be picked!
His journey into elite rowing
Why he's not the easiest team mate
The dynamic with Pete Reed
The challenge of retiring
The demands that high performance sport puts on your body
The work done by London Youth Rowing
The benefits of rowing and how it can change lives
Race the Thames - what it is and how you can get involved
Dressing up as Snow White (no, really!)
The Tideway Tunnel project and Regatta London
What we as rowers can do for the environment

Resources
Andy's interview with Martin Cross's on his YouTube podcast, Crossy's Corner, is here.
You can find him on the Broken Oars podcast here.You can find out more about London Youth Rowing here.
Details for Race the Thames are here.
You can read more about the Tideway Tunnel Project here.
And if anyone has a photo of Andy dressed as Snow White, I think we all should see it!
Other episodes you may enjoy:
Sir Matthew Pinsent, 4 X Olympic champion, on being an Olympian, life after rowing, the Boat Race, the rowing community and Celebrity Masterchef

Zoe de Toledo - cox, Olympic silver medalist, World Champion, medic, mince pie expertFrances Houghton MBE on being a five-time Olympian and other life lessons

Girl on the River - Eira Parry on how to help young athletes to thrive

Transcript

Patricia Carswell00:00:08.220

This is Girl on the River, the Podcast. Whole crew, come forward to row. Hello and welcome back to Girl on the River the Podcast for Episode 12. Before I introduce you to this week's guest, I just want to say a massive congratulations to everyone who participated in the Endurow Challenge this weekend. Whether you completed the full four hours, or were part of a team, we had everyone from Dame Katherine Grainger herself to ordinary club ro