Merseyside Youth Rowing (MYR) scheme

On Friday 19th the first group of 10 school children from North Liverpool school, came down to the club to start rowing, as part of the Merseyside Youth Rowing (MYR) scheme.
This is a scheme started 5 years ago at Warrington by Richard Sinnott, it also runs at Northwich RC. It is aimed at 11/12 year olds and targets children from state schools, who would normally be considered unlikely to try out rowing as an activity.
It is supported by Henley Stewards who help towards the cost of training the coaches who run each scheme. The funding for the club for this activity is through the schools’ budgets, the club’s commitment being the use of the boathouse, safety boat and both Explore quads for a 2-hour session per week.
We were pleased to welcome the children down on Friday morning, with their PE teacher- Joe. They had also brought the school photographer with them (his is the prone body on the pontoon)!
The weather was perfect, and they quickly got stuck into getting bouyancy aids on, finding oars and lifting boats.
For their first visit they had a lot to learn about basic body positions and listening to alien words such as, front and back stops and easy oar.
The club hopes for more schools to get involved, the scheme should have begun last year but as with everything else- Covid put a stop to it. Fortunately, as this is an approved school activity it is allowed to take place under current guidelines.
Heather