ARA Inter-School Indoor Rowing Competition model

Overview
Indoor Rowing competitions between schools have been running successfully since 2002 when they were trialed in the Peterborough LEA. They now take place annually in locations up and down the UK. These events run on a league basis providing motivation and encouraging competitive interest in Indoor Rowing which is now developing nationally as a sport in its own right. The system, which has been modified through experience and use, is now being advocated as a model for leagues throughout the UK.

The following gives detail of how the competitions are organised. Please use the model as you see fit - new ideas, constructive criticism and comments are invited, in order to continually improve.

Format
To enable schools to enter with teams of various ages/sexes, the individuals' achievements are measured against the 'ARA Olympic Gold Medal standard times', and expressed as a percentage of that time.

The best overall Schools trophy will be given to the school with the top 6 percentages across the year groups.

Racing Format:

• Individual races will follow the below categories, (preferably each school will send up 4 per year group, 2 girls, 2 boys if a mixed school, as 12 is an ideal number for bring in a mini bus)

SCORING
To reflect the different levels of fitness and endurance ability the standard times require different duration pieces for different age groups with different expected distances between the sexes.
E.g. a year 7 boy will row for 2 minutes and their distance achieved compared with the standard (510m) and expressed as a percentage score.
Distance achieved_______/target distance_________x100 = __________%

ARA Olympic Gold Medal standard times
YEAR TIME BOYS TARGET GIRLS TARGET
7 2 Mins 510m 490m
8 3 Mins 810m 750m
9 4 Mins 1125m 1020m

TEAM EVENT “Go-Race Indoors – TEAM2012m Challenge’’

• School challenge - up to 4 people in each year group, to compete 2012m, on 1 machine – fastest school wins (Each school can enter up to 3 teams one per each year group.)

Results
An 'Excel' spreadsheet as a template, for running on a laptop, is available and can be used for entries and calculating results. As races are run the scores can be updated and a final result calculated by the software. This is usually undertaken by a member of staff or older student. Points can be allocated to the teams depending on finishing positions and can be added to give running totals and league positions, the exact format of this depends on the number of schools and matches run during a season. The wealth of data available means individuals progress can be tracked throughout the event and statistics accumulated.

The event will be followed by a prize giving.
Individual prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd for both girls and boys from each year.
Team2012 challenge prizes for the best year 7, 8 and 9 teams.
And Overall a trophy for the overall best performing school.

The top individuals 4 individual from each year group will then form a partnership team to enter the Hampshire Schools Indoor Championships.