(A Ridiculously Belated) Congratulations to Cambridge University Boat Club!!
We’d like to take this opportunity to say a massive ‘congratulations!’ to the winners of the 2010 Xchanging Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race – Cambridge!
(If you’re – quite rightly! – wondering what took us so long to post this, the 2009-10 “wash up” meeting was held today, which is the first time that everyone’s back in the same place after the race, and the first opportunity for us to grab photos! =)
We’ve been involved in the Strength & Conditioning for Cambridge University Boat Club for three seasons now, but this last year was the first time we have had the opportunity to design and implement a complete year-round programme…
In actual fact the day was a double victory for Cambridge Boat Club as Goldie (which is kinda sort of a ‘2nd boat’) won their race too versus Oxford’s “Isis” boat.
What made the Blue boat’s victory extra special for us was the fact that it was a win from middlesex station – which means that the crew has to be strong enough to hold on for the middle 2/3rds of the race on the outside of Surrey bend before launching the attack to win.
We believe another key factor was that there were some of the guys in both crews who we have worked on our S&C programme over three years – which means that their physicality is a result of the structure that’s been put in place to graduate them to that point. (Despite popular myths to the contrary, athleticism doesn’t happen overnight!)
Chris Nilsson, Chief Coach, Cambridge University Boat Club, said “Supplementing Core Cambridge’s S&C coaching into CUBC’s on-water training was a key part of the 2010 Boat Race wins. By integrating our on-water coaching with their land-based S&C training we produced stronger, fitter, injury free athletes who went on to win the races.”
“Many thanks for your support and hard work to help us achieve all of the above. All of our guys appreciate it and know they were all the better for your programme.”
Here’s to 2011!
All of the above photos are copyright Getty Images.
