Golden Girls

In pursuit of an Olympic medal, rowers regularly train 20 to 25 hours a week. Getting the balance right between training for peak performance and recovery is very difficult and often requires intuitive guesswork.

Over the past two and a half years the British Lightweight Women’s Double has used Firstbeat SPORTS software to take away some of the guesswork. The ability to determine how the athletes are responding  to the stress of training and how they are recovering on a daily basis, has not only improved significantly our understanding what normal fatigue looks like, but has also allowed us to push right up the limit of what is possible without overreaching. In competition, analysis of recovery, allowed for a fine tuning of post- race practices, enabling the crew to maintain a higher level of performance in subsequent races.

Without doubt our use of the First beat SPORTS software contributed to the achievement of a career best performance from the crew at Eton Dorney in The Olympics.

Paul Reedy Coach Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland