News

Posted: 22 January, 2019

One of the first events of the year with Scottish Rowing has already taken place and what a day it was.

Forty “old and new” race umpires travelled to host venue Stirling Rowing Club to take part in the annual national umpires training day led by National Lead Umpire Neil MacFarlane. Focussing on key areas of umpiring development, the day was enhanced by guest speakers and break out facilitators.

The day started with Neil MacFarlane setting the scene on how umpiring is changing from the traditional model that we have been used to and how as an organisation we need to think in a variety of different ways to continue to provide a fantastic experience for all our volunteer umpires and to offer the support that is required for each individual to continue to enjoy being an umpire and the opportunities that can come along with this.

Amanda Cobb, Scottish Rowing’s Chief Operating Officer started off the morning presentations on Scottish Rowing’s new Strategic Whole of Rowing Plan and gave an overview on how our new plan connects everyone in our sport and how as a SGB we can best support the development of our key people through a new strategic way of thinking and delivering in partnership with our clubs, people and stakeholders.

Our guest speaker for the day was Jamie McBrearty from YMINDSET who really challenged the groups thinking around what we are good at and what we are not so good at yet! Bringing alive the work from Professor Carol Dweck on developing a growth mindset Jamie was blown away by the response from the group, Jamie said “I had a great time, and it was an absolute pleasure to meet such a wonderful group of people in the umpires, the passion and enthusiasm honestly blew me away. I wanted to become an umpire myself after the session.”

Neil was also really enthused by our guest speaker and said “Not only was the session itself valuable in terms of what we learned and of the ideas which came out of it, but it set the tone for a very positive and constructive day”

Following a nice lunch provided by the Secret Chef’s the umpires were then placed into 5 break out groups which would then allow them to be involved in 5 key development areas and discussion groups that would focus on and be delivered by the following umpire team;

1. Andy Barton on Cold Water Immersion.
2. Amanda Cobb on Scottish Rowing Values
3. Neil MacFarlane on Table Top Starts.
4. Gary Bain and Ailie Ord on Racing Incidents.
5. Amy Watson and Graeme Duff on the management of Head Races.

Stevie Baxter, Scottish Rowing’s National Workforce Development Manager stated that “This has been a fantastic day of development and with the close working relationship that I have with Neil MacFarlane, the development of our people is crucial to providing the best experience for everyone involved and keeping the flame burning inside of all of our volunteers to be the best they can be. This is the first of many opportunities for us to work together and bring today alive in a different format and delivery style and I look forward creating many more learning days like this for our umpires.”

On Sunday some of our new umpires passed the umpire training programme exam and it is great to see new umpires being involved and enjoying what umpiring has to offer them.

If you would like to find out more about umpiring then please feel free to get in touch with Stevie Baxter via steven.baxter@scottish-rowing.org.uk