Rowing coach faces many barriers with Koreans

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 24

Rowing coach faces many barriers with Koreans

JOHN COOK, a Christchurch sculler, visited the world rowing championships in Hazewinkel in Belgium in August where he spoke to Jens Mac Maren about the trials and tribulations of preparing a Korean rowing squad for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Rowing is once again expected to be a medal winner for New Zealand in the next Olympics. But what bf the host country, Korea, a country virtually unknown on the international rowing scene?

Last year the Koreans made' their first major move by signing up a top international coach, Jens Mac Maren. His job is to take Korea out of rowing’s dark ages. It is a formidable task — taking a country that knows absolutely nothing about the sport, and presenting it at the world showcase, the 1988 Olympics, in Seoul.

The United States was the host at Los Angeles in 1984. It lifted its standards to improve from one bronze medal in 1983 at the world championships in West Germany to collect one gold, three silver and a bronze at the Olympics. Will Korea follow suit and display a dramatic improvement? Korea hired Mac Maren to help it prepare.. “Mac,” as he is known to most in the rowing world, faces a difficult task. As a highly experienced international coach who thrives on taking the challenge of developing a new country he : faces major problems. He will have to overcome differences in attitude, culture, nutrition, language barriers and the fact that the Koreans might be preparing themselves only for Athe Olympics, and no morejjjr

"Mac” made his decision to go to Korea at an Olympic solidarity course, where the theme was developing rowing in the entire world. He decided he would like to take the challenge and to go to a country with a different culture and language to start the sport. A highly qualified coach, he began after an accident brought an early end to his active career in the spbrt That was 21 years ago. He was national coach for Sweden between 1956-65, and has been the national trainer for Spain, Holland, and Norway as well.

For the last 15 years he has worked in close relationship with a leading coach of the moment, Thor Nielsson. Just before coming to Korea, “Mac” had a three-month stint coaching in Greece, but he was not overly interested in the position and thought coaching in Korea was a better proposition.

Taking over the helm of Korea is not easy. First, there is no available talent to choose from. He must select people who know nothing about the sport and

develop them. They have never heard of rowing, let alone have an idea what a rowing boat looks like.

He believes he can develop them technically and physically, but cannot touch their mentality. “They are as stubborn as mules,” he said. This was shown in the elimination heats at the world championships, held this year in Hazewinkel, Belgium. The Korean sculler tried to match it over the first 500 metres of the 2000 m race with the “big guns.” By 500 m he had burnt himself out At 1000 m he was 20s behind, and fading fast Instead, he should have evenly paced himself to his best possible time.

He had been injured for three weeks and had only one training scull. But the Korean organisation had paid for him to come, and told him he must go out and prove himself. The hierarchy system presents problems . for “Mac.” To stop him from getting too powerful the administration tries to isolate him. He said they withdrew interpreter be-

cause the relationship was working too well.

The organisation appears poor and divided. Officials listen to what he is saying and bow their heads out of politeness. Then they go away and do not know what kind of message he is trying to communicate. He has to tackle everything, such as transportation and bookings, to make sure it is done correctly. He needed a four-oared boat fbr training. The organisation acquired one with four completely different types of oars, both in shape and length. Even the seats and riggers were different.

“To officials a boat is a boat There is no difference between a finely tuned Empacher (West Germ;ui) and a boat used by Joe Bloggs. “Another factor is that the rowers never seem to come to me with their problems. I never have any warning of what is happening. Facts are put in front of me and I have to cope. Nothing is declared officially.” . ’' , . They have an idea that theory is not necessairy and practice makes perfect.

wanted the squad to train twice a day. It was not improving rapidly, so the rowers went to the hierarchy. More training was suggested, so the oarsmen trained in secret. Mac Maren could not understand how they could be so tired at the start of his training sessions. “They were getting worse. They were run down from overtraining and doing low quality work instead of his training schedule, involving maintaining high quality work over a short time interval. “Personally, I find it difficult to live in a place of completely different culture, language and nutrition. No-one knows anything about rowing. I suffer from a lack of intellectual exchange of ideas and have no-one to air my problems to. This will be partly solved when my wife and children join me. in Korea, but it will be very difficult on them also.

“It is a highly paid job in actual monetary terms, but in personal terms it is underpaid. I remain because my personal ambition is to develop the sport.”

When he arrived MacMaren’s dream was to set up a rowing centre in Seoul, a place where other Asian countries could come to educate themselves in the sport. But the response from the Koreans was limited.