Members, greetings,

It's been a busy start to the year. The snow put paid to the Wallingford Eights Head, and the lingering ice caused at least two UTRC members to break bones; nasty - get well soon Martin and Chris.

We've been privileged to have the benefit of Robin Williams helping us out, and Nick Strange will also be coming down to give the men and women his coaching views.

For those of you who don't know Nick, he was a leading member of the GB lightweight team, and at one point he rowed in a pair with Peter Haining, himself an ex-UTRC coach. He now looks after the GB Under 23 squad, winning the gold medal last year.

So UTRC is certainly making some very interesting friends at the moment - all part of the plan to take us to the top of club rowing over the next few years.

Once the snow melted we had the eagerly anticipated visit from Robin. It was great to see such a broad cross section of the club, 8-80+, out in large numbers to hear what he had to say. I trust attendees feel they got something valuable from it.

On technique, Robin talked about the importance of picking up the water effectively, applying pressure correctly through the stroke and taking care to squeeze out every finish. We spend a lot of time on the river so it makes sense to focus in occasionally on how to row well, and there's no better way to learn than to listen to someone of Robin's pedigree.

On Sunday he focused more on coaching ideas, which have been developed over many years at London RC and Cambridge University, and are relevant to both rowers and coaches; this session was particularly good I thought, and I will copy to you the notes he prepared for this.

Robin's coaching contribution made an immediate impact on the men's group. The challenge now is to keep up the level of focus he brought to us, and continue the progress which started back in October.

Following Robin's visit I'm inclined to think we should get a high profile coach down to the club every year, even if just for a weekend, to talk to the membership as a whole - it's a good idea to introduce (even) more high calibre people to UTRC in any case, and it's also beneficial to have a club-wide technical focus occasionally. Surprisingly, it's sometimes difficult for coaches to get around to coaching, because most often time is taken up with organising and managing the athletes and training etc, so this sort of event can be helpful in getting the focus back onto rowing technique.

Over the medium term it's important to attract talent to the club - and having good people about the place will help.

Another subject which is increasingly relevant in my opinion is capacity, as several members have recently remarked. Regulars will recognise there are a few areas where we are operating at (or beyond) full capacity. In fact this is a great problem to have, as it shows how active the club has become. Particular bottlenecks include the car park, racking, and space in the ergo room at peak times. Those of you who come down during the week at off-peak times are helping us all. Some of you even leave the weekends free for the experts, which is much appreciated - thank you.

Consequently we will have to develop further the concept of sharing equipment and facilities if we are to continue expanding throughput (for that is what they call it now). Staggering training and outing times will also become a feature of a more active club. This process will help us to prioritise, which is very important.

We can't afford to have lots of equipment gathering dust, so we want everything to be used as much as possible - the challenge is to achieve this harmoniously. We must focus on maintaining the quality of what we've got, and use it efficiently. We can't just accumulate more and more non-essential stuff. This is why Austen has such a key role at the club. (Please contact him direct for any boat repairs at austendorey@btinternet.com).

A topical example of a bottleneck occurred last Saturday, when I'm pleased to say six crews turned up for an 8am outing. Unfortunately we've only got five 8+s. If one of the coxes hadn't forgotten the outing, I would have been in trouble. Crews should not assume that they have access to their "normal" boat whenever they want it, especially approaching the Head racing season. Organisation is required to avoid the disappointment of sitting in the clubhouse when you should be out on the river, so please let me know your plans, preferably by email (copy me in to crew emails if you like). No one has a right to any boat. Racing crews will generally get priority ahead of casuals, although both can be accommodated with a little planning.

What this means in practice is that re-rigging boats, taking out the wrong blades or making assumptions about boat availability is no longer an option. So I'd ask you to plan ahead and be flexible.

We are introducing a simple new rule which applies to fours and eights - here it is: The only boat alteration now allowed is changing the height. Not spans, not pitches, not seats, not rig layout - we need to standardise for everyone's sake, which prevents wasting time and promotes better rowing in the long run. Rule breakers will be forced to row with the Intermediates until either they repent or go insane, whichever takes longer. Any special rigging requests to JPM or myself please.

We all know the standard of kit at UTRC is very high compared to most clubs, and members have got used to having good quality boats more or less whenever they want them. Despite a handful of boats remaining restricted and unavailable to the general membership, which are marked "restricted" with circular stickers, we still have an ever improving boat fleet. As someone who remembers the contents of the boatshed in the 70s, 80s and 90s, I can assure you our general equipment quality is on a steep upward trajectory, and will continue to be so. These new measures and limits are balanced by our good fortune to have top class facilities in a pre-eminent location.

As an aside, I think we need to buy some pre-owned Empacher fours and eights in the 3-8 year old range. A five year old boat costs 25% of a new one, and I'd rather have four very good boats on the shelf than one pristine one. But we need your help; anyone who can source these items will receive an immediate promotion, so keep your ears to the ground. Eventually I'd like half a dozen of each, but that's much longer term. I have yet to hear anyone saying they don't want to row in an Empacher, which is unique to that particular make.

Back to capacity issues though, which I'd like to illustrate further with reference to our neighbours at Leander. By showing our differences I think we can see more clearly our strengths, and show why we shouldn't try to emulate their model of operation too closely (although we should build links with them where possible, indeed many of us are members and supporters, and I wouldn't mind some of their success on the water).

At Leander they have spent millions developing their facilities, and they now have the benefit of a comfortable bar, an expanded dining room and a large kitchen, backed up with chefs, waiters and bar staff. They largely restrict boat use to their serious athletes and they operate a more exclusive membership policy than us. They have guest accommodation, a massive car park, and display cabinets containing solid silver trophies an other interesting treasures. They run as a business under a Chief Executive, and their rowing operations benefit from an extensive professional coaching team plugged directly into the National Squad system. Their many near full-time athletes are drawn from the ranks of other UK clubs like ours, and support of various kinds is made available to them. Their first rate gym is spacious and well run. The club is rightly considered to be a centre of excellence, and well done to them for achieving what they have. It's a great place, and they are friendly towards UTRC.

At a club like Leander there isn't the same pressure to share equipment and facilities as there is at our place. Their active rowing membership is only a small percentage of their overall club membership. Their structure is a heavy pyramid model, where the many at the base support the few at the apex, a bit like the way NASA put men on the moon.

At UTRC we do things differently. We don't have staff as such, or a membership base of thousands, some of whom live a long way from Henley. Every level and section of our club is of similar size and equal importance. Our model should be based on high efficiency, upward mobility and greater equality - geometrically speaking more of a cylinder than a pyramid.

The point I am trying to make is that we need to focus on "quality over quantity". Our strength lies in the quality of our location, inclusivity, diversity, scale, friendliness, coaching for anyone that wants it, superior equipment, a gym which should become the best in GB club rowing, and, of course, free coffee. We don't need loads of non-rowing extras to achieve our rowing goals.

As an overdue expression of this esprit de cours, I am officially changing the name of "The Intermediates" (originally "The Leftovers") to "Club rowers". As club rowers we instinctively understand that if God had meant us all to be high flyers then he wouldn't have invented the ground. Nevertheless the term "Intermediates" has served its purpose and we can let it go now - RIP.

The club rowers will be competing at the Reading and Putney Heads in March, and the Henley Fours and Eights Head in February. They have already started serious training, despite the race being almost three weeks hence - now that's commitment. We owe thanks to Neil, Dom and Jonathan for whipping them into shape, and organising them generally.

Another group which is going from strength to strength is the women's squad, under the leadership of Alex Cavell, who has come in and galvanised people in a very short space of time. Nikki has also taken charge of emailing everyone and making life much easier, and it's working. We have had to be pragmatic, experimenting with what works best, and now I'm confident we've got the right formula. Thanks to Alex we can look forward to some good results over the coming months, starting with the Women's Head in March. We've got the opportunity of producing our best ever result which is exciting.

We've been deprived of competition due to river conditions, but at some point this will change and we want to be ready. For those of you who want to race at some point, don't fall into the trap of thinking your opposition is not training because of the weather / post-Christmas-lapse / skiing holiday etc. Now is the time to really go for it, when it's easier not to.

We'll try to run another sticky bun morning in the next few weeks - I'll let you know when exactly in due course. If you haven't managed to make one of the previous events I'd urge you to get involved. In December the plum pudding races provided the intra-club excitement. Many thanks to all involved for making it a success.

A couple of honourable mentions; Jon Mottram and David Church have been doing a heck of a lot on our behalf in sorting out various issues re: the clubhouse. You won't realise how much work is involved, but take it from me it's more than you think. Many thanks to them for their continued efforts, which are making a big difference.

Two last pleas: Can people kindly ensure space is maximised in the car park at weekends by parking in rows facing the river and not along the clubhouse / boathouse axis. There is enough room for 4 rows of cars parked thus, and this configuration optimises space. Anyone dropping off will be thanked (metaphorically) for not taking up a space which could be used by a rowing member or coach / helper. Also, I'd ask you to remain vigilant about non-members (or outright strangers) just walking into the club and using the toilets. On a couple of recent occasions persons unknown have been observed wandering around, and this is not to be encouraged - a polite "Can I help you?" might be in order in these circumstances. Only this week a purse went missing from the women's changing room.

So, lots going on. Gurus, broken bones, restricted space, sharing, more rules, equipment wishlist, quality over quantity, pyramids, cylinders, car parking and strangers in the toilets - all of life is here. Ultimately, though, we're just here to enjoy ourselves - and there's no better way of doing that than winning races, which, when all's said and done, is my number one priority.

Apologies for the sermon. I'll await your feedback, especially any comments on capacity issues, but all observations welcome.

Wishing you all the best for 2010,

Justin