Rowing Canada Aviron’s NextGen Hubs
In 2017, Rowing Canada Aviron announced NextGen Hub partnerships with five Canadian universities: The University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, Brock University, Western University, and Trent University/Peterborough Rowing Club. These Hubs have existing targeted Olympic and Paralympic athletes, embedded coaching support, access to elite training facilities and Sport Science and Sport Medicine programming.
The NextGen Hubs offer all-encompassing high performance services to identified NextGen rowers. Hubs provide optimal coach to athlete ratios, extensive performance planning, and enhanced technical coaching capacity. The NextGen program is designed to focus on NextGen rowers trending five to eight years from an Olympic/Paralympic podium performance and to provide monitored, progressive programming for athletes on the High Performance Athlete Development Pathway. Establishing these partnerships is a significant step forward in the overall RCA NextGen Athlete Strategy.
On a functional level NextGen Hub’s are the Daily Training Environment (DTE) of the NextGen Coach, where they work with identified athletes to elevate the quality and quantity of athletes progressing on the podium pathway. This is designed to capture athletes who are based within the Hub host program, athletes within the region in an existing program and available to do additional training, or athletes who are outside the official host program, but the optimal training environment for them is to be aligned with the Hub host for some or all of their training.
The NextGen Hub also hosts monitoring and outreach activities within a particular region. Using a periodized strategy, monitoring camps look to elevate the abilities of identified NextGen athletes on a regional basis against the learning and performance metrics within the Gold Medal Profile. Monitoring camps will occur on a monthly basis.
NextGen Hubs in BC
University of British Columbia
Coach: Maksym Kepskyy
A former UBC athlete, Maksym most recently held a development coach position at the Vancouver Rowing Club. Maksym has a keen interest in Biomechanics and holds a Masters of Kinesiology from UBC.
We asked Maksym what made him most excited about the new NextGen Hub system.
“UBC has a great place and environment for training and to be a HUB location. The program has been very successful and I am just excited to be working with the coaches and to be part of the program. I love working with athletes helping them to achieve their goals and with the new NextGen and HUB system I feel that I can practically apply my knowledge with the new athlete development concept.”
University of Victoria
Head Coach: Scott Swindels
A former UVIC athlete, Scott most recently held the position of Junior Head Coach at the Gorge Narrows Rowing Centre. Scott also played a key role in developing the junior program structure at Victoria City Rowing Club.
Assistant Coach: Sam Heron
A former University of Michigan rower, Samantha most recently worked as an Assistant Coach at Gorge Narrows Rowing Club. Previously she was the Novice Rowing Coach at UVIC.
Para Centres of Excellence
As part of developing inclusive rowing programs across the province, and to support Rowing Canada Aviron’s Next Gen Rowing Hubs, Rowing BC has partnered with two leading rowing clubs in the province to create Para Centres of Excellence. The two centres, at Gorge Narrows Rowing Club and Delta Deas Rowing Club, opened Spring 2018 and will provide a development pathway for para rowing athletes with NextGen potential. Click here for more information about the centres.
Becoming a Hub Athlete
Information for athletes who are interested in the NextGen Hubs and RCA’s High Performance Pathway can be found below.