Mike Spracklen

Mike Spracklen (born 15 September 1937) is an international rowing coach who has led teams from Great Britain, USA, Canada to success at the Olympic games and Rowing World Championships, including the early Olympic successes of Steven Redgrave. In 2002 he was named the International Rowing Federation coach of the year.^[1]

Spracklen was also part of the coaching team that brought Oxford University success in the annual Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Mike's youngest son Adrian is a former British international lightweight oarsman and now coaches rowing at Mercyhurst College, Pennsylvania.^[2]

Life and career

Spracklen was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England. Spracklen's first major success was in coaching the Great Britain double scull to silver in the Montreal Olympic Games 1976. In 1984 he coached the coxed four to victory at the Los Angeles Olympics It was the first gold since 1948. From that crew he took Steve Redgrave and Andy Holmes to a further Olympic gold in the coxless pair (and bronze in the coxed pair) in Seoul in 1988, before moving to Canada as head coach in 1989 and becoming a full-time professional coach.

The Canadian men's eight took gold at the 1992 Olympics under his tutelage, and Spracklen moved on to coach the USA squad.^[3] He inaugurated the rowing venue at the new Chula Vista Olympic Training Center. After a disappointing finishing position of fifth in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic eights, he returned to Great Britain as the Women's national coach.

In 1998 the British women achieved their first heavyweight Gold at a World Championship, in the double sculls. After the 2000 Olympics, where the British women took silver in the quad sculls, the first Olympic medal for British women, Spracklen's contract was not renewed, with the BBC reporting discontent in the squad over his methods.^[4] The silver medal in the women's quad launched a successful four-Olympic medal career for Katherine Grainger.

Since 2000 Spracklen has been coaching the Canadian men's squad, winning the Gold medal for eights at the 2002, 2003 and 2007 World Championships^[5] and at the 2008 Olympics.

After leading Canada's men's eight to a gold medal in Beijing in 2008 and a silver at the 2012 London Olympics, Rowing Canada announced in the fall of 2012 that it was moving forward without Spracklen on its coaching team.

Coaching style

Spracklen's coaching revolves around finding a balance between the factors that affect the speed of the boat: Power (the effort per stroke), Length of Stroke, Rate (number of strokes taken each minute) and Technique.^[6]

Spracklen's ability to get athletes to commit fully to his program has been considered his greatest asset. A Spracklen athlete is expected have a balanced life but to prioriterize rowing above other aspects of their lives. His program revolves around creating a core group of athletes which may or may not have previous experience on the world stage, and getting them to win. This core group then can be used to inspire a larger group to commit to the Spracklen program. Training runs in all seasons, with little to no cross-training and potentially 2 weeks off after a world championship or Olympic event. Training centers seldom require an invitation but rather allow anyone to participate in the training regime with the top athletes. That being said resources, including his time, are devoted to athletes and boats which are gold medal contenders.^[7]

Coaching titles

Honours

• 1998 UK and England Coach of the Year by the National Coaching Foundation^[8]
• 2002 International Rowing Federation coach of the year.
• 2004 Spirit of Sport Foundation coach of the year^[9]
• 2007 Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award^[10]

References