SPORT Passion for rowing rekindled
A three-month sabbatical working with Rowing New Zealand to help prepare the New Zealand Junior Rowing Team for the World Rowing Junior Championships has re-energised Tony O’Connor’s passion for coaching at a national level.
After his stint up at Lake Karapiro Tony is looking forward to the start of the next rowing season. He works closely with fellow coaches Henry Smith, Malcolm McIntyre and Andrew Taylor to train some experienced, some new, but all up- and-coming College rowers. Tony says time on the water, working with weights, good nutrition and flexibility are key factors in the development of top rowers, but perspiration and stubbornness are equally important. “Rowing is a technical sport. You’ve got to be a ballet dancer and weight lifter at the same time, graceful and strong. Really good rowers achieve synchronicity and make it look easy. It’s not. Rowing is a sport for people who’re willing to find out what they’re made of deep down – and sometimes you only discover things
Tony had particular responsibility for the junior men’s four and pair, but says there was a positive sense of cooperation and collaboration between all coaches and all crews. “I had six athletes directly under my control, but as coaches we all worked together, drawing on our individual strengths and spending time with each other’s crews. It was a really good team effort.” The four went on to gain a silver medal and the pair came 5th in their respective finals at the championships, which were held in Trakai, Lithuania, in August. Tony started rowing as a teenager. His skill and determination earned him a place on the national team in his native Ireland and he competed at nine world championships and two Summer Olympics – Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000. After he stopped competitive rowing, Tony became a coach for Ireland, accompanying Irish teams to several more world championships and Athens 2004. “It was a wonderful lifestyle, but after all that I just wanted a real job. I wanted to settle down.” Tony and his family chose to settle Down Under, and he started at College in 2005, where he is currently Condell’s Housemaster, a Mathematics teacher and rowing coach.
like that through pushing yourself to the limit. It can be hard, lonely, difficult, but if you can rise to the challenge you’re setting yourself, you can learn and do so much. It’s the ultimate individual sport, but with individuals that make up a team.” Tony sees strong parallels between the skills required to be a good rowing coach and a good teacher. “I think there are many similarities: communication skills, building relationships, understanding what makes people tick, being able to get ideas across in a multitude of different ways. Whether in the classroom or on the water, my philosophy is to teach the athlete – or student – to find their own way, give them the tools to teach themselves and, when they’re ready, hand over responsibility and watch them go.”
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College Issue 33 2017
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