Just watched myself (well a glimpse of myself) on BBC's Bang Goes The Thoery. Very exciting stuff! I took part in a day's filming a few weeks ago where the team rowed the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race course to demonstrate what a calorie is. If you missed it catch it on iPlayer (I come on around the 20 minute mark) -  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=bang%20goes%20the%20theory

Following on from my decision a couple of weeks ago to pull out of  GB Trials this season, I found out a couple of hours ago that I have a Labrum Tear in my hip socket. I’m now awaiting a date for a Consultation with a Hip Surgeon and carrying on my rehab until then. All focus on 2011-2012!

So I’ve just coming back from a long but very interesting day at the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust 3^rd National Conference.

It was great to get together at network with other athletes already working with the Trust, and attend high quality session led by experts in their field such as Bev James an entrepreneur who set up the Entrepreneurs Business Academy with the Dragon – James Khan.

I also got to find out more about the National Citizen Service which I will be taking part in over the summer as an elite athlete mentor.

Essentially, this flagship programme is run under the government's Big Society scheme. The project will prepare young people for adult life through a personal development programme and re-engagement with their local community.

Delivered in partnership with v, the project will aim to inspire many young people to volunteer in ways that connect with their lives. The summer-long programme will demand the young people complete thirty hours of volunteering in their local community, along with two 5-night residentials.

I’m excited to be at the forefront of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ and look forward to see the results of this scheme in action.

Today I got to sample the DKH Legacy Trust’s new project first hand at Sandon School in Stoke.

Funded by the Transformation Trust, Aspiring Minds aims to focus on the attitudes and skills required for personal success in the modern world.

The day was made up of a variety of fun activities and sessions designed to increase confidence and self-belief in young people through a variety of tasks looking at self-improvement. The sessions, led by By Design, were massively diverse and interactive, allowing the young people to experience a range of fresh challenges throughout the day.

One session, which involved the good old rowing machine, demonstrated the importance of information and teamwork to maximising potential.

Another session, perhaps the best-received workshop of the day, focused on setting and meeting targets in a range of activities that the young people had never tried before. Their reactions were tested on the Batak (Google it!), which Jenson Button currently holds the world record (77!) for – my stubborn pb is 56...

All in all, a lot of fun, and another great project day for all involved!

I've just got back from my first ever school visit at James Hornsby High School in Laindon, Essex - a school massively excited by the upcoming Olympics Games. I went in to do some motivational inspirational talks with “Show and Tells” and a Q&A session.

The talks were with year 6 students from a local Primary schools whose aspirations I was challenged to raise leading into their SATs, various year 7 classes for a brief 10 minute short burst inspirational motivational chat, and a select group of disengaged year 11 students who needed some positive guidance in preparation for their GCSEs.

It was very intense(!) and very challenging, but a great experience and I really hope I made a difference.

Today I was at the University of Kent in Canterbury doing a follow-up with the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust for the session last year.

There were a select group of about 30 aspiring athletes as well as their parents and coaches. The sessions were based around Being In The Mental Zone To Perform delivered by Anna Hemmings, 6-time World Champion in Kayaking and Sports Massage, stressing the importance of looking after your body through self-massage in order to keep your body in shape by. We also did a small group mentoring session where we set development goals for the future.

It was a huge amount of fun, always is when athletes get together!

So Monday and Tuesday this week I was on a Residential for the ‘Inspiring Lives’ Future Jobs Fund project with the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust.

This project, supported by the National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure, mentors 100 young adults on Jobseeker’s Allowance through a six-month internship with Premier Sport in coaching. Last year’s programme lead to a number of interns opening up their own franchises, and are now employing some interns themselves. Hopefully we'll have a few potential leaders in this year’s group!

The Residential, which took place at the Premier Sport offices in Norfolk, was a 5-day training week where the young adults on the programme would come away with qualifications ranging from First Aid to Level 2s in Dodgeball and Football.

It was a great opportunity to get to know the group, and especially the adults I'll be mentoring through the remainder of the programme. Whilst their backgrounds varied a lot, from wanting to enter the army, having done sports courses at college/university or just weekend football players, they all had a passion for coaching young school children. Our role there as mentors was mainly to explain how we would support them through the experience with Premier Sport, and then just get in, assisting on courses where we could and imparting our knowledge and skills on working with young children.  

The two days were a lot of fun, and Neil Danns and Mike Mullen were excellent mentors to have alongside me. I’m really looking forward to mentoring my guys through to May and seeing them in action running their own sessions.

Today was so much fun! I was teaching some complete beginners how to row, the Presenters of the programme Bang Goes The Theory, which was an experience! They we really normal and down to earth despite being presenters and absolute geniuses! http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang/the_team/

I did a bit of work in front of the camera, then we did some dry land and water work with them, and then onto the real thing. Hopefully we put them through their paces!

Can’t really say any more, it was great fun, and I’m looking forward to watching the programme in its entirety. Apparently it will be on air around the time of the Boat Race.

What a very busy two days!

Yesterday (Sunday) I was in Kent as part of the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust’s Backing Talent event which aims to give aspiring young sports performers the skills they need to achieve their potential. In attendance was Dame Kelly Holmes herself and Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sport and the Olympics!

I was the Team Leader for a mixed group of 16-21 year olds from a variety of sports including Cricket and Trampolining. The timetable was action packed with sessions on Sports Psychology, Communication Skills, Nutrition and a Circuit Training session run by Kelly. I really hope they got as much out of the experience and my learnings as I did from them.

It seemed as if hardly any time had passed before we were back in the Sports Hall preparing to say our goodbyes. It's always rewarding to hear what performers get out of the day and to listen to the impact on parents, coaches and carers too. 

Today (Monday) I was at the investment bank and Trust sponsor, UBS, fundraising for the charity’s upcoming ‘Get On Track’ programme aimed at disadvantaged young people currently not in employment, education or training (NEETs).

The fundraising event, saw 11 of the investment bank’s teams battle it out against each other in a fierce multi-sports challenge (including a live rowing race) to fundraise £1500 each. The top athletes of the day ended up raced me and Bill Lucas on the rowing machine too which was... interesting! J

Nearly all the teams surpassed their targets and fundraised over £25,000.

Since leaving the Trust I feel like I have really grown and developed not only as a coach and mentor, but also as an athlete thanks to the courses I have attended. Following on from the support I received at the Trust, I have really thrown myself into every personal development opportunity that has been put in front of me.

Whilst at the Trust I was given the opportunity to take part in a Level 3 Mentoring Qualification, which amongst other things helped me learn about: the different learning styles people have, my own learning style and strengths/weaknesses, self-evaluation and session planning.

The main thing I took away from the qualification is that coaching/mentoring sessions should really be athlete focussed, which helped me massively when I went on to work in my new coaching role at Putney High School. It helped me evaluate the coaching I received as an athlete which was quite ‘tell’, and helped me realise that I want to empower my athletes and get them thinking for themselves. As a result, I work to ensure that the techniques I used encompass all learning styles, that the athletes really feel what changes they make, that I constantly check for understanding and learning. So far I have received positive comments on my coaching not only from the girls at the school, but also from adults on learner courses. It’s great to know that I am able to apply the skills and knowledge I have of being an elite performer into being a good coach.

As a result of the coaching I have been doing and my rowing background I was asked to be a main speaker at an annual dinner. It was my first ever speech, which I delivered in front of 150 guests for 20 minutes. Rather than being nervous I was actually really excited, and I (hopefully!) made sure that my presentation appealed to all learning styles, the different age groups in the room and had a clear message. It was a huge challenge for me, but I massively enjoyed the experience, and felt honoured to be asked!

On Tuesday, I came back from a Making Headway project in Birmingham which was excellent. I did my first ever assembly (in front of 300 students!) in the morning before the session started. The teachers said I was an inspiration to the children, and 100% on message with what the school has been telling them. There are obviously areas I want to improve on, but for my first one I don’t feel like I could have done much better than that.

So what’s the message behind this blog? Well get stuck in every single development opportunity you can get your hands on; you never know where it might get you.

Today I was out supporting, congratulating, handing out medals and presenting prizes for some fantastic performances at the SUSO Open Water Triathlon at Dorney Lake home of the London 2012 Rowing and Kayaking events! 

The weather was gorgeous and it was a great day. With events ranging from the cutest under 7s Scootathon, a multi discipline event of scooting, biking and running. To high performance selection for U17 Boys and Girls.

Hi, I thought I'd send you over another little update on how I'm doing...

So the weekend before last I got my first win of the season at Henley Women's Regatta in the Elite Single Scull. Whilst didn't row exactly as I wanted because Henley is a very bouncy course (thanks to all the yachts, narrow boats, etc) I raced well and won nearly every race by 3 or 4 lengths (of a boat) My semi was the hardest race, which I won by a length. I have a couple of pics up in my gallery of my trophy and win if you're interested.

This weekend just gone I was at an international regatta in Amsterdam. I came 4th in the B final so 10th overall out of 21. Karsten (2 x Olympic Champion and 5 x World Champion) won, Knapkova (World Championship Silver medallist and 2009 World Cup winner) came 2nd and Levina (World Cup Silver medallist two weeks ago) came 3rd which just shows the calibre of racing at the event! Am pretty happy with how I raced although was in second position to the 1000m marker in the B Final having gone out hard to keep with the pace, so that's a bit annoying. But it shows that I've got good international pace on me and I rowed as I wanted for 3/4 of the race. So I'm pretty happy!

With regards to Henley Royal Regatta, I'm not doing that anymore. Qualifiers were on Friday and I was in Amsterdam. My club tried to explain the situation but no such luck. One of the girls I beat at Henley Womens qualified too! But I'll be there looking forward to watching some good international racing and my boyfriend race.

In terms of my training I'm kind of on an interim 2 weeks before a 5 day break then back on winter training. Will have another break in November which will be more like a training camp as I’m going away to a hotel with a gym!

I'm also going to be doing a DKH Legacy Trust 'Inspiring Lives' Making Headway project in Birmingham in a couple of weeks and a ‘give back’ day for them at a Children's Triathlon event at Dorney Lake which is all quite exciting.

Well I think that's everything... Bye!

I thought I'd give you guys an update on what I'm up to at the moment seeing as it's been nearly two months since I left the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust.

So in terms of rowing, April Trials didn't quite work out as a result of not having spent enough time in the boat, but things have moved on leaps and bounds since then. I'm training with the Seniors and Development group in Caversham, Reading on Wednesday which I'm really enjoying. Means an early start but the training environment is great and I enjoy having the opportunity to race against the Seniors.

I wasn't getting enough coaching so I signed on the help of another coach at the club. He was really keen to take me on as a project and spoke to all the Senior coaches to find out what they thought I needed to work on, etc and came back to me with an action plan for what technical and core changes I needed to make. He's a really good coach. I've already made some big changes which quite a few coaches have reflected on positively which us good!

My rib is pretty good. It hasn't gone but it's just like a bit of static in the background on the radio. Not really a problem but annoying at times. I think we're getting there with it though.

I've got a race coming up in 2 or so weeks at Dorney Lake which also happens to be the Commonwealth trial. Whilst I wasn't planning on doing it, it's international racing experience at senior level which is invaluable and it's in Canada so that should be nice. Quite a lot of the girls that train at Caversham will be racing at Met (the regatta) so it should be a good race and an opportunity to show that I've stepped on since trials.

Work's going really well. I'm loving coaching so much - who'da thunk it?! I've landed myself another fabulous boss into personal development, and I've been giving the top boat to coach to the Nationals so that's nice. I really enjoy seeing people learn and improve. And I enjoy making sessions fun (for the younger ones) so that work hard without realising! I'm also instilling good discipline (only two days ago I made a girl do 25 press ups/sit ups/burpees/squat jumps for hiding behind a bush on a run!)

And other... Well I don't have much time for anything else around training and coaching but I saw La Roux in concert two weekends ago - they were fab!! I'm muchly looking forward to getting my new Filippi too (thank you so much Dame Kelly!) 6 weeks and counting... =D