1 A few definitions that are used through out the presentation. A - PDF document

Welcome to the online presentation of the New Competition Framework and how it relates to the tradition heads and regattas. It is presented by Phillip Clements, Deputy Chairman of the National Competition Committee and a member of the New Competition Framework Working Group. He has been involved in rowing since school and have been on the organising committees of many events from small learn to row regattas through to World Cup events. The purpose of this presentation is to explain how the new framework is expected to work, how crews are arranged into races and the effects on hard pressed event organiser 1

A few definitions that are used through out the presentation. A Regatta is side ‐ by ‐ side racing where a knock ‐ out or round ‐ robin style of competition is used to determine the winner. A Head is a set of processional events where everyone is timed over a course and the fastest crew wins. An Event is a set of races (or a time trial) which are used to determine the winner and possibly the ranking of all the crews Currently we have a system from Elite through Senior, Intermediate down to Novice and other groupings by age, for example Masters A,B,C, U23, Junior 18, Junior 16, etc. With the change of concept of crews entering an event to crews entering a competition and being seeding according to their Ranking Index (more on which later) a Band is how the crews are split into events at the close of entry. More on this later as this is the basis of the new framework. A Championship event is the top event at your Regatta or Head. This means that the top crews at the Metropolitan regatta are the international and crews trying to be selected from Henley Royal regatta, whilst at the Ball Cup Regatta, the Championship crews are the J18 crews in the 4+ event. 2

So what are the overriding principles of the new Competition Framework system? The main aim is to create a system where crews are raced in such a way as to give close and exciting racing at all levels of experience and ability. The poor experience of an slower crew being 100’s metres behind the winners should also be reduced. The experience of the effect of the time trials over the last few years and large multi ‐ lane regattas has shown that the F Finals are as fiercely fought as the A Finals. Crews don’t go to a 6 ‐ lane course just to have a head race to determine who they are racing in the side ‐ by ‐ side races, or even to be eliminated at that stage. Sculling and Rowing will be kept separate as in the current system as most club rowers either row or scull, but sometimes want to compete in the other discipline. 3

So how do we propose to rank crews in the new system? In the current system, there are 12 levels separating a new beginner rower and an Olympian. Although there have been many tweaks to the number of points needed for the different levels and how many crews are needs for 1 or 2 points. The distribution of points is still very much in the 0 ‐ 4 points area. In some regions there are less than 20 rowers with 12 points, and most of those have never regressed their points which they were entitled to do. Also the current system, points are only awarded to the winner of an event and do not take into account for crews racing experience. The new system will look at the experience of crews and not just their wining performances. This means that how well a crew does in an event will determine the number of Ranking Points (making up a ranking Index) are received. Also Heads will be brought into the system. If you ask an rowing if he is competing at a head or just training, they will always respond that they are competing. Also clubs train for heads as much as they train for regattas. Of course, you also need to take into account the number of crews that are competing. The current system tries to take this into account by giving two points for events with 9 or more crews, whereas this system will be far more refined. Another issue is multiple entries of a competitor on the same day. This is how regattas make most of their money by crews entered two more events on a day. This has other problems which I will discuss later and how this can be resolved. This system proposes that the Current Ranking Index (the CRI) only increases by the highest number of RPs of the day. Whilst the Lifetime Ranking Index (the LRI) includes all events entered. The LRI will be an indication of how good a rower or sculler is over his or her career. For example if a rower gains 5 ranking points in the coxless pairs event and 10 ranking points in the coxed fours, then his CRI will increase by 10 RPs whilst the LRI will increase by 15RPs. 4

One of the criticisms of the current system, is that is relatively easy to gain points, but very difficult to regress points, because if you win in a year, then you cannot regress and that you have to contact British Rowing HQ to have the point removed. It is proposed that all CRIs are automatically regressed or reduced on the 31 st December. Why the 31 st December, rather than at the beginning or end of the regatta season. Many years ago, there was a definite distinction between the head season and the regatta season, however nowadays there is a significant overlap between the two. Around the new year there is a two/three week window where there are very few heads and so the regression can be implemented for the new year. The CRI will be reduced by a 1/3 and rounded up, so that a 100 CRI would be reduced to 67. This means that after 3 years, the CRI would be about 20% of the original, providing no more events were entered! The LRI would not be reduced as this is an indication of a rowers career. Finally Novice status could not be returned to, as rowers do attach a lot of sentiment to “winning their novices!” This concept gives a very fast rise and fade to the Ranking Index of a rower. This hopefully reflects the rise and fade of rowers through life and takes into account the effects of life has on a rower. A rower who takes a break in his rowing due to his career or family will be introduced back into racing at about the right level. 5

Obviously this is a slightly more complex system that the current points system, although that does has the ability to throw major spanners into regatta planning when a crew rings up on a Monday morning, saying that they won on Saturday and so are no longer novices but are now IM3 status. Please could the regatta completely redraw the day so that they can race at the correct level. Being an regatta organiser myself, I know the problems that this causes and so we have looked at ways of helping regatta (and in future head) organisers. The first thing to help, is that a the Current Ranking Index of a crew (which is the sum of the CRIs of the individuals in the crew) is at 7 days before the official close of entries. Ie If the entries are closed at 1pm on Sunday, then the CRIs as at midnight the previous Saturday are used. The benefits of this are: 1. The competition can form bands of events, which I cover later, knowing the entry. 2. There is no need to have “Winner Previous” crews which are generally not taken up, and mean crews will know what time they need to race A side ‐ effect is that a competitor may be able to win more than one Novice event before they are no longer allowed to race in novice events. (ie enter and win Novice on the weekend of the entries closing and again at this regatta). This is no different from the old 4 crews to qualify rule. But there is an advantage as they will be gaining CRIs in the novice category so will be racing against other crews of similar ability the following week. The substitution rule needs to be changed slightly to take into account this wish not to change crew’s band. So it is proposed that Subsitutions will not change a crews CRI from the originally declared crew, but there will be a limit in the increase in CRI in a crew of 25%. Ie a crews CRI can increase from 100 to 125 and still be allowed to race. If it changes to 126 then the crew is not able to race in a regatta. The 50% change in a crew would still apply. 6

I have been talking quite happily about bands of events and groupings of crews, so what does this mean in reality? First of all, Senior events will not longer be classified as Elite, Senior, IM1 etc, but will be grouped in other ways. The U19, U23, Light ‐ weight categories remain However Juniors and Masters will retain their age groupings, but competitions will be able to use the CRIs to groups crews in different ways. As I said earlier, due to the attachment competitors have to winning their novices, this remains as a category. 7

So if we get rid of all of the current categories how will regattas and head sort out the crews? First of all they can group crews in whatever way they want. For example: Local Clubs, All comers, Colleges Morning 8s, Lunchtime 4s, Afternoon 8s On Current Ranking Index – Mixing fast Juniors with fast Senior crews. Time in sport (Beginners) New Juniors/ Masters (use CRI not age bands) Experienced Juniors/ Masters And within these groups, crews can be banded, which I will explain later. At the end of the day, the regattas and heads know their clientele and who they are aiming to attract to their event. This concludes th first part of the presentation, and in the next part I will talk in more detail about how heads and regattas can be organised. 8