The Scottish Rowing Performance Programme aims to deliver a sustainable pathway to support the transition of more Scottish athletes onto the centralised GB Rowing Team Senior Programme. Scottish Rowing works closely with British Rowing to support the long-term development of identified athletes over a number of years ensuring that they have access to high quality coaching and training environments to better prepare them to compete on the world stage. Elite Performance Programme
The Elite Performance Programme is Scottish Rowing’s top tier of support for Scottish athletes who are genuine contenders for selection by Team GB / Paralympics GB at Tokyo 2021 as evidenced by their selection to the British Rowing World Class Performance Programme.
These athletes will normally be training full-time at Caversham on the centralised GB Rowing Team Senior Programme although as a result of the improving performance landscape in Scotland, it is becoming increasingly more common for the leading Scottish athletes to be living and training in Scotland, often whilst at university.
Support available to athletes on the Elite Performance Programme includes:
Performance Development Programme
The Performance Development Programme is Scottish Rowing’s package of support for Scottish athletes on the GB performance pathway targeting selection by Team GB / Paralympics GB at Paris 2024 and / or Los Angeles 2028.
They will often be GB internationals at junior / under 23 world level or athletes demonstrating significant long-term potential in the sport.
This programme is targeted at athletes living in Scotland and training in a Scottish Rowing affiliated club under the guidance of a qualified coach or coaching team.
Support available to athletes on the Performance Development Programme includes:
Winning Students
Winning Students is Scotland’s national sports scholarship programme supporting student athletes. As one of the core sports within Winning Students, the Scottish Rowing High Performance Group nominates eligible athletes on an annual basis for one of the rowing scholarships which are normally valued at up to £3,000 per annum.
The scholarship provides support in a number of areas including living expenses, travel and accommodation for national level competition and training camps. Over the past couple of years Winning Students support has enabled Scottish Rowing to run a training camp in the lead up to the GB Rowing Team 'final trials' in April.
sportscotland institute of sport
The sportscotland institute of sport works alongside Scottish Rowing to provide high performance expertise to athletes and coaches on the Scottish Rowing Performance Programme.
Lead practitioners in physical preparation, exercise physiology, physiotherapy, performance lifestyle and sports nutrition are assigned to the Scottish Rowing Performance Programme to develop cutting edge strategies to help improve performance in the leading Scottish athletes.
University Partner Programmes
Since 2010, Scottish Rowing has worked hard to establish key strategic partnerships with university rowing programmes across Scotland. Backed by Scottish Rowing investment, this approach has been successful in enabling the release of additional local resources through the Director of Sport at each university which has resulted in a significant increase in the number of professional coaches working in the sector.
Currently seven full-time coaches, supported by volunteer coaches, have helped to create the right type of environment for developing young athletes. In 2019, five students from the University of Edinburgh represented Great Britain at the World Under 23 Championships returning with four Gold medals.
Scottish Rowing is currently supporting this approach for the Tokyo cycle and will recognise and support those university rowing programmes where there is a track record of developing Scottish rowers to an international level and who are committed to supporting the vision for performance rowing in Scotland.
For the 2020/21 season, the following university rowing programmes will be recognised by Scottish Rowing and support will be provided to the local coaching team:
For more information about the rowing programmes at any of these universities please speak to the respective Head Coach – contact details are available on the Scottish Rowing website.
Student athletes at other institutions in Scotland and non-student athletes can benefit from different aspects of the Scottish Rowing Performance Programme and can contact the Scottish Rowing Head of Performance Pathway, lee.boucher@scottish-rowing.org.uk should they require any individual advice or support.
