The development of force and power characteristics is integral to the continued improvement of rowing performance. Due to the concurrent nature of the training year, it is important to organise the training programme to ensure the rowers benefit from optimal adaptations. While force and power characteristics alone will not make the boat go faster, there is no doubt that improvements in these areas specific to rowing will aid performance. However, developing these characteristics in isolation with little regard to the rest of the training process will limit per- formance. Understanding the coaches` philosophy of how they put together a medal winning performance is fundamental. This will allow the S&C coach to align their programme to overall performance plan. Professor Dave Collins, reminded several years ago that the role of S&C is not to make strength and conditioning look good but to make performance good. Judging the success of a training programme solely on weight room performance is futile as this is ultimately not the event. It is important to track changes in weight room performance but when the programme is aligned to boat performance and how a rower achieves this, including the physical characteristics required (and how much), the entire training process is aligned regardless of who delivers it. Without alignment, we deliver in a silo approach with little regard to the rest of the training process. No matter how good the programme is or how well it is coached, without the full alignment to the coaches` philosophy of performance, it will always be limited. The greatest successes achieved and the most enjoyable and fulfilling times has been working within a sport (including rowing) where this has been the norm. It is easy to write a strength training programme, but to truly align the programme to performance - that is the exciting challenge that lies ahead.
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