The Accelerated Adoption of Virtual Training Part III: Outsourcing Your Training Program

It’s been over a year and a half since the two-part article on the Accelerated Adoption of Virtual Training (Part I, Part II) was published. In those articles I discussed the rise of structured training sessions and programs distributed and executed virtually, adopted as a forced necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented social distancing protocols.?

Now, twenty months since the rise of COVID-19, most clubs are getting athletes back to the boathouse, and engaging in regular group training sessions on the water and off.?

Should we now cast aside what was learned when virtual training (VT) was a necessity? I will argue that virtual training should continue to be a part of any club’s portfolio of programs, and how you can even outsource this training option efficiently and effectively.?

Let’s first review why a VT program is critical. The first benefit is of course flexibility. The option for any member to continue to train on their own, when mitigating circumstances prevent them from getting to the boathouse, allows them to demonstrate intent, execute the prescribed training, and encourage further participation. VT also offers flexibility to coaching staff. This article details how important it is for staff retention, that clubs allow coaches the flexibility to work from home. If a coach can run a training session from home, either live or record and upload it for later distribution, that is fewer early mornings or missed family dinners. VT can encourage a club to expand its membership base beyond the surrounding community. For those potential members who see the boathouse as a once-a-week kind of drive, this creates even more accessibility. The club also has the potential to create an entire micro-community within your club of just VT members. They follow the training, but rarely come to the boathouse. They pay reduced fees in return for reduced impact on equipment and the facility. Finally, when the pandemic hit, many clubs started hemorrhaging members as people no longer saw the value in paying for a service they could not use. VT offers a contingency not just for the next global pandemic, but for anytime the boathouse/water becomes inaccessible.??

Sometimes the challenge with a VT program is not having the coach bandwidth to provide any additional training programs, even virtual ones. Especially in these days of limited coach availability, what if your club has only a few coaches, and they just can’t provide both supervised water sessions and VT. What if you are one of those clubs who can’t find ANY coaches? What do you do then?

This is a scenario where a club might consider adding a virtual coaching service. These services have been around for a number of years, but offer increasing efficacy due to better technology, demand and experience. The benefits of these services are multiple:?

• A VT coaching service mitigates many of the overhead costs/challenges associated with having an in-house coach.?
• A VT coaching service not only offers team-based training for the entire club, but is usually available for one-on-one coaching/training relationships with individual members. Many in-house coaches would not have the time for that kind of “extra” relationship.?
• A VT coaching service not only has more experience from the start in providing VT, the service will invariably improve as a hub of training for a broad spectrum of rowing organizations. Your in-house coach only knows what they know and learn within your club. A VT coaching service learns and improves from a broader exposure to the entire rowing community via its portfolio of clients, and a committed intent to focus on the ever-improving delivery of a valuable VT service.????

One specific service I would recommend to any rowing organization considering the addition of a VT service to their programs is Faster Masters Rowing. This company has been offering VT services for masters rowers for almost five years, has a deep library of resources (ebooks, podcasts, & videos ready to share) and an experienced bench of coaches that have been honing and perfecting this service for some time. What makes their service truly unique however, is a deliberate focus on programs for entire teams and clubs. The majority of VT services out there focus almost exclusively on individual athletes. Faster Masters Rowing can work with individual athletes, but is the only service I am aware of that also provides team-wide training plans and sessions. In addition, they work internationally and can offer these services to any rowing organization in any country. For a rowing organization that is looking to add VT to their portfolio of membership options, Faster Masters Rowing presents a turn-key solution.

The rowing community has always prided itself on the application of cutting edge and innovative ideas to improve and enhance the rowing experience. We have spent the last 18-20 months learning how to effectively train virtually; why let that experience and insight fall to the wayside in our (understandable) exuberance to get back to the boathouse and on the water? With virtual training, any rowing organization will have a complete service offering, and ultimately be prepared for any contingency.