To learn more about this series and see the topics we plan to cover, please visit the Youth Coaches Corner's index page. Youth coaches are more than welcome to contact row2k to get involved in future columns.

This week, with the Henley Royal Regatta coming up, we caught up with three coaches who have done a Henley trip--or many--on some of the things that go into planning to take a youth team overseas to the UK to race at the Henley Women's or Henley Royal Regattas.

How early do you have to decide to go/start planning?

MEGAN KENNEDY - MOUNT ST JOE'S - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

I always tell people who ask me about Henley "you're starting late!" We generally start making basic logistical arrangements in late fall, before we've made a final decision to go. Many girls do not have passports, so that timing needs to be figured into the planning as well.

Mount St. Joe's at Henley Women's Regatta, 2018

ERIC HOUSTON - KENT SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

It varies from year to year, and now it's earlier and earlier. It used to be that I would go down to our Delaware race at St. Andrews in April. They do a wonderful job of bringing in some very fast crews, so I figure if we go down there and we do well, being probably about two weeks behind those crews, then we have an idea of where we stand. If we do well there and we've got good guys with good character, we start planning. There have been other times in which I knew fairly early, even in the late fall, based upon the performance the year before with certain amount of guys coming back and knowing the guys coming in, when I've said, let's try to put this together and we can always pull the plug later.

The hardest part is the airline tickets. I have a house in Lower Shiplake that have been hosting us for over 20 years. Now they are no longer hosting any crews but will host us, so I have a locked-in residence, which is really helpful.

JOHN MARTIN - BRUNSWICK SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

Our planning for the next trip is sort of always ongoing. We like to go every few years, if possible.

What indicators do you see, as a coach, that you have a Henley Crew in a given year?

JOHN MARTIN - BRUNSWICK SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

In the last 10 years, we have gone to Henley in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022. In three of those four years, our 1st eight won a medal at our regional championships, the NEIRAs, but the trips must be planned before late May. While going to Henley every year is not feasible, we want to bring competitive crews to Henley often.

Brunswick School at Henley Royal, 2022

MEGAN KENNEDY - MOUNT ST JOE'S - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

We take a look at HOCR results to get an idea of how we may stack up in the spring. It's an early look, but generally gives a reasonable estimate of relative speed.

ERIC HOUSTON - KENT SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

Experience, and speed. You have to have speed. It's too long of a trip, and now way too expensive to come knowing that you're going to get knocked out the first day. Of course, you can get knocked out the first day even when you come with a good crew. They could have a bad row, you could have a strong stream, you could have just a bad draw. There's nothing wrong with that but to purposely come with a bad crew, that's pretty tough, unless you want to build the program.

There are times where you say, I have a bunch of young kids, they did pretty well in the season, and let's get them extra experience. For us, since we've historically only done rowing in the spring, I'm essentially getting an entire [extra] season out of Henley. You're doing double sessions for a series of weeks and that's a lot of rowing. I've done that in the past but we'll probably not do that unless it's a really special group.

Do you like to race when you get to the UK? Or train-train-train and focus on main event?

ERIC HOUSTON - KENT SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

A number of years ago, there was sort of a rumbling that the Stewards would like to see something after NEIRAs, after Stotesbury, and it could be a Youth Nats result, but otherwise, you'll probably have to row the qualification race. Just another bit of information. So we started to come over three weeks early and row the Marlow Regatta.

Kent School at Henley Royal, 2017

One of the disadvantages of coming over early is that, in the US, we are so used to being out on the water with the guys. Right beside them, and it's constant coaching and mentoring and everything else. Over here, you have three weeks where you're on a tow path or on the road along Dorney Lake. So you lose that closer contact and it is noticed.

I remember one year we were having an issue with one of the guys and couldn't figure out what he was doing because it was always on the other side. So we rented a boat and went up stream, just so we could see what the heck was going on. We made some rigging changes and it made a big difference, but I do find that's a real tricky part with coming over early. You have to balance the change of food and the fact that you are no longer riding right beside them, and sometimes I think we do lose speed.

MEGAN KENNEDY - MOUNT ST JOE'S - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

When we travel for Henley Women's Regatta, we always compete with some of our team at the Reading Amateur Regatta (the top crew is usually at YNC that same weekend). RAR is a great, well-run, two individual days of side-by-side Thames racing that really gives the girls a flavor of what is to come at HWR. We usually land on the Friday morning prior to RAR, so this also serves as an opportunity to get all the jet-lag out.

JOHN MARTIN - BRUNSWICK SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

We generally do race at Marlow Regatta and Reading Town Regatta leading up to Henley Royal Regatta. We enjoy the variety of those racing experiences.

Mount St. Joe's at Henley Women's Regatta, 2018

Do you make any Henley adjustments on rig or training?

MEGAN KENNEDY - MOUNT ST JOE'S - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

Henley Women's is a 1500m race, so the girls are used to that distance from scholastic racing. We practice on the Henley reach for the week leading up to HWR, with coaching from bikes on the shore, so they get a chance to feel more comfortable with the closeness of the course.

During that week, many foreign crews of all levels are practicing, so many on-the-fly side by side pieces can be done as well. It's so good to share the water and boat staging area with some of the best women's crews, and for the girls to see that rowers are the same, if you are a high school 5 seat or an NCAA champion. Everyone has good and bad rows, everyone gets nervous, everyone loves racing.

JOHN MARTIN - BRUNSWICK SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

We certainly must adjust some things as we go from racing 1500m to racing 2112m upstream, in addition to the equipment and other adjustments that need to be made on such a trip.

ERIC HOUSTON - KENT SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

I don't change a lot on the rig, other than the fact that typically you're in a boat that you haven't rowed before, so there are going to be some tweaks. Because even if you're rowing the same make of shell, it may not be quite the same model and the same specs.

Training-wise, if I know that I'm going to have a boat that is Henley-bound, I'm going to train in the US differently. Every Tuesday--I call it 2k Tuesday--we'll go out and do a 2k and then we do a series of shorter pieces afterwards. It's a killer day, but I just want them to get the feeling of what a longer race is all about. I say, "that's rowing 1500 meters, don't do that type of training. You're going to Henley. That's a long race against the stream." So the training changes quite a bit.

Winter Park High School at Henley Royal, 2022

Tips on feeding/housing a crew over there?

ERIC HOUSTON - KENT SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

If we come early, for Marlow, I used to stay in Shiplake and we'd spend the full three weeks there, commuting to Dorney, and that was brutal. It was also way too long in one house. So then we did an AirBnB near Dorney instead, which was fantastic.

If you stay with the host, most of the time they'll have breakfast for you. Lunches can vary. You can get something at the Sainsbury supermarket and bring it over. What I've done more recently that has worked out really well is to use Leander and get a training table. We can do our lunch and sometimes dinner there, or we break it up and do a restaurant for dinner. But you just can't do the same stuff the whole trip.

For those who don't have access to Leander, find a local restaurant early, like The Anchor, and they're more than happy to put together a meal plan for you.

The key is, they're always hungry. So make sure that wherever you go, they realize that these are athletes and they're going to chow. And then you get snacks. You always have snacks in the back of the bus, because these kids? Their furnace is burning constantly.

MEGAN KENNEDY - MOUNT ST JOE'S - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

I think a really important part of the experience is really living in another country and experiencing their culture. We work hard to get the girls into 1 or 2 homes, where they live with host families. And it works both ways: one of our long-time host families now has a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup addiction thanks to our girls!

It is also great to stay with families who host crews year after year--the girls love to look through a "crews memory book" or at a carved kitchen table with all the crews who have lived there before them. I can't thank the families in Henley enough for their hospitality.

JOHN MARTIN - BRUNSWICK SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

We have always enjoyed staying in homestays in Henley where there are a lot of great food options from the supermarkets to the restaurants.

Jackson-Reed High School at Henley Royal, 2022

Trickiest part of the trip?

MEGAN KENNEDY - MOUNT ST JOE'S - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

Figuring out all the logistics: lodging, ground transport, ensuring the crew has the same equipment in Henley that they are used to, etc.

I have to always remember that not everyone has traveled, or traveled internationally, before this trip, girls and parents included, so you can't take for granted that everyone will be comfortable with things like taking the bus from Henley to Reading. Great chaperones are also key: you need an adult presence in the houses with the girls, but that presence needs to be balanced with a semi-hands-off approach. Twenty high school girls in tight quarters for that length of time can be tricky. I've found that dads make the best chaperones.

JOHN MARTIN - BRUNSWICK SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

Traveling in large groups can be tricky, but we had a great experience in Henley.

ERIC HOUSTON - KENT SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

Logistics are the hardest part. This is where you do a cost-benefit analysis: do you stay in the town, where they can walk but it's really hectic, with a lot of distractions. Do you stay out of town, where there are less distractions, but that means you have to get a van. And driving around here in a bigger van is tricky. So the logistics are the hardest: organizing the practice times, the meal times, whether you need transport, where you're staying, all those things come into play.

Redwood Scullers at Henley Royal, 2022

Trickiest part of the racing?

ERIC HOUSTON - KENT SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

The Draw.

JOHN MARTIN - BRUNSWICK SCHOOL - MEN'S HEAD COACH

The racing is always tough but well-run. We come over for the best scholastic competition in the world.

MEGAN KENNEDY - MOUNT ST JOE'S - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

Just like any race, steering needs to be spot on...steering trouble at Henley can result in the end of your racing, before you've even really started the race. We've raced at HWR with no current, and with so much current that the possibility of cancelling was real. There's nothing like shoving perpendicular into a fast-running Thames.

Maintaining internal focus is also tough in the Henley environment: it is so easy to be distracted, but I think the approach of facing the challenge early in the week, naming it, and agreeing on calls that get the crew to re-focus works well. Channeling the extra adrenaline of racing--at Henley--into the drive can allow for exceptional performances. With elimination a possible outcome every race, you have to be ready to have that "great race" every time you line up. But this is why we row...at Henley!

Green Lake at Henley Royal, 2022