london youth rowing

S3 Ep.4  If you heard my interview with Andy Triggs Hodge last year you may remember him talking about the brilliant charity, London Youth Rowing, which does fantastic work changing young people's lives through rowing. I was keen to get one of their coaches on the podcast to talk in a bit more detail about their work. So step forward Lawrence Farquarson.
Lawrence has been a coach at LYR since 2012. In this interview we talk about:

• How Lawrence got involved in LYR
• NJIRC (National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships) and why they're so great
• What LYR does
• A day in the life
• Why avoiding rowing jargon is helpful
• Why the young people in the LYR programmes aren't expected to row on water unless they want to
• The biggest misconceptions about rowing
• The perceptions about rowing among working class kids
• Expansion of LYR into Yorkshire
• The difference that rowing makes to young people
• The importance of promoting exercise because of how it makes you feel, not how it makes you look
• Whether there's a difference of approach between male and female rowers
• How you can support London Youth Rowing
• Race the Thames 2022

You can find more about London Youth Rowing here
The email for enquiries that Lawrence mentioned is admin@londonyouthrowing.com
If you'd like to get involved in Race the Thames (and I strongly recommend it), the link is here
Find out more about NJIRC here

Ep.13 I'm still pinching myself that yet another rowing legend has come on the podcast. This time it was my honour to welcome Andrew Triggs Hodge - three-time Olympic champion, multiple World Champion and Boat Race winner.
Despite his incredible rowing prowess, Andy is ridiculously modest (and really good fun) and we had a great chat. We talked about:

• His undistinguished sporting career at school - always the last to be picked!
• His journey into elite rowing
• Why he's not the easiest team mate
• The dynamic with Pete Reed
• The challenge of retiring
• The demands that high performance sport puts on your body
• The work done by London Youth Rowing
• The benefits of rowing and how it can change lives
• Race the Thames - what it is and how you can get involved
• Dressing up as Snow White (no, really!)
• The Tideway Tunnel project and Regatta London
• What we as rowers can do for the environment

Resources
Andy's interview with Martin Cross's on his YouTube podcast, Crossy's Corner, is here.
You can find him on the Broken Oars podcast here.
You can find out more about London Youth Rowing here.
Details for Race the Thames are here.
You can read more about the Tideway Tunnel Project here.

And if anyone has a photo of Andy dressed as Snow White, I think we all should see it!

Other episodes you may enjoy:

Sir Matthew Pinsent, 4 X Olympic champion, on being an Olympian, life after rowing, the Boat Race, the rowing community and Celebrity Masterchef

Zoe de Toledo - cox, Olympic silver medalist, World Champion, medic, mince pie expert

Frances Houghton MBE on being a five-time Olympian and other life lessons