Rowing has been part
of my life since I started as a helmsman (Steuermann is the
German word for it) in my brother's team that consisted of
him and his friend Michael. I think it was between 1988-90
when I started as a helmsman. I went to the 'Maschsee' with
my brother once or twice a week. My first excursion has been to the "Mecklemburgische Seenplatte" together with the AHV of the RVH (which were the non-students of the school team like my brother).
Round about the 12th grade I preferred training younger children in the group and joined some training camps of our school rowing team as a physio. In 1998 I became the youth leader of the German Rowing Club, the club our school cooperated with. I overtook the youth group of the DRC and carried on with the training. In 2000 I got my official license as a coach. Later I enlarged the group, because the kids brought their friends with them. The children where at the age of 10 to 17 years and I coached them up to 5 times a week, took part in races, did many extra things in my free-time with the group. It has been a time I will never forget. At the end the group had about 40 children, beginners and advancer. Everything went fine for a long time, we had many big successes and a lot of fun together. I have been supported by Verena, Roland and the headchoach Uli but unfortunatlely I didn't get enough support from the leaders of the club. The last weekend with races in 2001 we won 12 races in two days. However the problems with the club became bigger and bigger so I finally had to make that hard step and left the club and the group. It became one of the biggest decisions I made in my life up to that point it has not been easy at all for me, for the children and even for some parents, but it was the right thing to do.
Some memories from the beginning of my carreer as a coach at the "Jung-DRC":
After
leaving my old club (DRC) I felt free and delivered from the
pressure. After a short break and looking for other jobs where
I could continue taking care of children besides rowing, I realised
that rowing has again to become part of my life. I introduced
myself to some other rowing-clubs in my hometown. The old RVL-Jugend Page
can still be seen through my
new
... After I finished my work for the RVL in 2006 or better say: had to finish it almost all (more than 30) kids left the club or did no longer attend the training. In 2008 I got a second chance to continue my work.First of all I got into touch with Jan-Georg again and we soon became friends again. Jan-Georg supported me a lot with my trouble I had with my second van, an old T3. So it wasn't a long time until Arnim, the treasurer of the RVL, realized that Jan-Georg and I had some beer in the pub of the club. He wanted me to almost immediatly start with a new group for them. There already were some kids interested in rowing and we started during the summer vacances. The group soon grew up to almost 10 kids (between 8 and 13 years old) and it started making a lot of fun being on the water again like in good old days. So let's the team be back again with a new face and position in the club!
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