Nottingham Rowing Club plays host to British Rowing’s East Midlands GB Performance Development Academy (PDA), which is part of a nationwide scheme designed to identify the sport’s future Olympic athletes.
The PDA looks for athletic individuals with little or no prior rowing experience who have the potential to become Olympic champions and provides them with top-level coaching and support services. The PDA has been incredibly successful so far – most notably, it has produced Olympian Matt Gotrel, Olympian Matt Haywood, Senior GB Rower Kyra Edwards and U23 International Poppy Baker.
The PDA is run by a full-time professional coach who has responsibility for the recruitment and development of athletes – as part of this development, athletes involved in the programme attend regular training & testing camps in the UK and overseas at which their progress is measured.
Further information about the PDA scheme (external link).
The programme links in with Nottingham Rowing Club to take part in regular training sessions both on land and on the water. These include race pieces and weightlifting sessions in the gym.
Although the club is based on the Trent, PDA athletes predominantly do their water-based training on the 2000 m rowing course at the National Water Sports Centre, 10 minutes away from the club. Ergo and weight sessions take place at Nottingham RC’s world-class training centre.
