Top rowing coach shares his thoughts

Tonks with son Archie

The conference room is packed with rowing coaches waiting in respectful silence. Standing at the front is Richard Tonks, head coach of New Zealand Rowing and 2005 FISA Coach of the Year. He is speaking at the US Rowing Convention and expectations are high. The coaches want to find out how one small nation produced four gold medal crews all at the one World Rowing Championships.

Tonks opens with a black and white grainy photo of two British rowers in a double.

?I don't think there's anything new in rowing,? he says looking at the 1936 photo as an example of good technique. ?We have this big heavy thing stuck in the water. We just need to flow it along.?

The 1936 photo stays on the screen for most of the remaining two hours as Tonks goes through his view of the stroke. Maybe there is nothing new, but features about Tonks the coach do emerge.

The first one is his use of mental imagery. Tonks describes how as a young rower he learned to put a picture in his head. One of his favourites was imagining his blades going into the water parallel to the boat to make the stroke feel long. As a coach Tonks uses imagery to help the athletes understand. His description of the blade moving through the water goes like this: ?There's no big ripping noise. You want it to sound like biting into a nice crisp apple.? The catch is about searching for a slot: ?Imagine rowing through concrete. The slot in the concrete is only big enough for the blade.?

Tonks is also a keen follower of all different sports and calls on them to help understand and rowing including new ways to create mental images. Shot-put, tennis, weightlifting, running, swimming and cycling all get a mention. ?I watch all other sports. I learn from all of them.? Tonks likes to read sports biographies, especially on cycling, and currently he has got his rowing squad doing twice weekly bunch rides and time trials.

Animated actions regularly illustrate Tonks' words. Any description comes with the use of appropriate movements. In the coaching launch he is just as animated, using actions to describe what his words are saying. The word ?flow' regularly appears in his dialogue and is always accompanied by fitting hand motions.

Tonks is an observer. He watches his athletes intently. Their moods, their level of fatigue, their attention to detail, their enthusiasm. He then instructs with fewer, rather than many, words pointing out that successful Harvard University coach Harry Parker is well-known for his limited comments while coaching.

When looking at technique issues Tonks instructs, ?Don't always look at the obvious things.? He cites one of his former athletes, gold medal Olympian Rob Waddell. ?He was accused of being a rough sculler, but look closely. Technically his blade work was superb. His blades never touched the water.? Tonks continues. ?Take Kathrin Boron, she breaks her arms early in the drive. But look at her legs. She has a great leg drive.?

Tonks started rowing in high school as a 13 year old. His father was a rower. He always assumed he was going to row. Eight years later he won silver at the 1972 Olympics.

After becoming a coach Tonks fitted his factory job around huge hours as a volunteer coach in his hometown of Wanganui. This was the norm for Tonks for years and in that time he coached the women's double of Brenda Lawson and Philippa Baker to World Championship gold then brought Rob Waddell through to Olympic gold in the men's single. Following Waddell's win at the Sydney Olympics Tonks joined the growing professionalism of rowing as the fully paid, full time head coach of New Zealand Rowing.

?Rowing has changed. It's a job for people. It's a whole different culture. It's a lot to get used to for people of my generation,? says Tonks. ?I thought if I became a paid coach then it'd become work. Then you risk losing it and there's more pressure. Every coach is waiting to be sacked.?

But Tonks has found that nothing is different. ?Once you're on the water you forget all of that.?

Some thoughts from Tonks:

Favourite sayings: ?Sit back. Let it run.? ?Miles makes champions.?

Philosophy: ?Don't look at the little things. Look at the whole dynamics. Always look for an easy way to do it. Imagine you're the weakest rower in the world.?

Indoor rowing machine: ?You can use it as a fitness thing. But why go erging if you can go rowing??

Tonks the rower:?I did big miles. I gave up school rowing because I was fed up with mucking about. I just enjoyed getting out and spinning along in the single. The single taught me the most, the feel.?

Best session: ?I enjoy watching long slow rows. You can really see what's going on. I find it hard to watch 36 rating.?

Related Links
FISA coach of the year

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