Noel Donaldson: 'Oarsome' coach addresses new challenge
Issue: Volume 29 Number 2
'Oarsome Foursome' member and triple Olympic rowing gold medallist James Tomkins regards coach Noel Donaldson as 'the most influential person in my career'.
Donaldson, now the High Performance Director of Rowing Australia, first came across the young Tomkins when he was coach at Melbourne’s Carey Grammar School. The partnership would endure for more than a decade with Donaldson becoming Tomkins’ mentor at Olympic level.
The Oarsome Foursome won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996. Donaldson also coached Tomkins and partner Matthew Long to a bronze medal in the pairs event at the 2000 Olympics.
At Athens, as head coach, he guided the squad to one gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
But it’s the 1996 Oarsome Foursome gold that Donaldson singles out as his most satisfying moment as a coach.
‘When they crossed that line, my inner feeling was that everything had gone exactly to plan. They had rowed to plan, we had set ourselves goals and had taken every step to achieve those goals.
‘Both [1992 and 1996] gold medals created similar feelings but in 1996 it was very much a process oriented experience and it was extremely satisfying that it came to fruition.’
This systematic approach — one of setting goals and moving through each step — is something that recurs during a conversation with Donaldson.
To some it might seem like the 50-year-old is a ‘by the book’ type of coach and administrator. Yet when you drill down into his sporting history, Donaldson reveals that he has found this approach to be most successful only after, [forgive the analogy], rocking the boat on several occasions.
Donaldson has been quoted as saying the role of the coach is that of someone who ‘guides and cajoles, loves them and kicks them into shape when they need it.’
Much of this philosophy may be a product of his early years in the sport as a coxswain.
A coxswain traditionally steers the boat and is responsible for the safety of the crew. However, more than this, coxswains keep rowers motivated and on task and act as an onboard coach and occasional tactician.
Donaldson first became a coxswain at the age of 14. He was a student of Melbourne’s Carey Grammar School (like Tomkins, who he would later coach) and was invited to become coxswain of the school’s first crew. At a school that boasts a sports programme which has produced a number of outstanding sportsmen, participating in sport is considered important for academic balance, and, as Donaldson notes wryly: ‘I wasn’t too great at cricket’.
Rowing wasn’t a completely unfamiliar sport to Donaldson. His grandfather had been an oarsman at Melbourne University, and his brother was also a cox.
Donaldson went on to become a top coxswain for his year and credits much of this time with setting the foundation for future coaching. ‘There are a lot of elements of coaching in being a coxswain so it seemed quite a natural progression.’
His love for the sport grew, as did his success. As coxswain for teams variously representing Monash University, Mercantile Rowing Club and Carey Grammar, Noel competed in, and won nine out of nine races in the prestigious Head of the Yarra.
While still competing, he landed his first ‘real’ coaching position with his alma mater in his first year out of school.
He managed to continue his coaching and competition commitments during this time. In 1979 Donaldson was a member of Australia’s national team when he coxed the men’s eight at the World Championship. In 1980, he tried out for the Moscow Olympics squad but missed the cut. It was then that Donaldson ‘retired’ from competition to concentrate on coaching.
This was what he calls a ‘breakthrough’ year. He began coaching the Carey Grammar Grammar first crew in 1981. Three years later took up a job as coaching master at Brighton Grammar School in Melbourne and was chased to also coach at state and interstate level with the Mercantile Rowing Club where took on the role of Head Coach of lightweight crews in addition to his Brighton Grammar commitments.
This was to cause conflict with his employer, who told him he needed to concentrate on his job at the school and effectively banned Donaldson from club coaching.
The ban riled Donaldson. When he was invited by Mercantile to coach its under-23 squad then later the senior squad — which included a number of members who would later be part of the ‘Oarsome Foursome’ evolution — he couldn’t resist. He managed to hide his club coaching from his employer. Hide it that is, right up until he needed to accompany the Oarsome squad to an overseas event.
‘I had to bite the bullet and front up to my boss. There was no histrionics. I basically said to my boss that other senior staff were supportive of me creating a balance between my academic commitments and my outside life and it seemed fair to be given an opportunity to pursue both,’ Donaldson says. ‘[My boss] reluctantly agreed and that went on for three years until an opportunity for a full-time rowing position came up at the Victorian Institute of Sport as a second tier coach. Brian Richardson, who was then head coach, went to Canada and I stepped in.’
Donaldson has been firmly in the picture during an era that has been described as rowing’s ‘maturing’ as a sport in Australia. The Oarsome Foursome crew was to boost the sport and give Australian rowing an important public profile. This translated into more success for other crews and funding and resourcing boosts that would elevate the elite end of the sport.
The theme of being well resourced and prepared is one that is still central to Donaldson’s coaching philosophy and one he carries even advocates even more since being appointed High Performance Director of rowing in 2004.
‘We [rowing] started a review in October last year. It was the right time to do it between Olympic Games. What has come out of that is that our selection processes have remained fairly constant. There’s no doubt they’ve stood us in good stead, but we’re finding that our competitors overseas are full-time athletes and it’s difficult for our squad members to row full time.
‘We need to maintain our funding levels, we need to have faith in our senior coaching staff and have them in the picture for longer. We know we don’t have as many young kids at elite levels. Those we do have are good, but there’s not the depth there once was. We’re strategically trying to not select crews so early.’
Donaldson says most of the challenges he’s faced in his coaching career fall under the banner of fragmentation.
‘If you lose group camaraderie, you need to bring it back on track. The most important thing I’ve learned that I can pass on to others is the need for a map, a plan or a framework to start with so that you can always come back to it.
‘You must always review how far away you are from what you want to achieve. You need to be systematic and address any problems early on. Don’t let them go on too long. Act straight away.’
When Rowing Australia announced Donaldson’s appointment to the newly created position of High Performance Director in 2004, the sport also announced its vision to 2008 as ‘to be the world’s leading rowing nation in competition, development and governance’.
You get the sense that with his systematic approach, this type of vision may help Donaldson have another ‘breakthrough’ year in 2008.
