A tale of two coaches

Richard Phelps - Olympic rower and part of the Five Live commentary team - considers contrasting dilemmas facing coaches of two crews in his regular Olympic column for BBC Sport Online.

The British men's eight has delivered what was expected by the world of rowing.

The crew's coaches, Martin McElroy and Harry Mahon, have worked their magic and turned around Monday's sleepy performance to one of ruthless destruction. If repeated on Sunday, they could win gold.

In contrast, Mike Teti, coach of the US eight, and Brian Richardson, coach of the Australian eight, are facing some difficult questions.

The US men's eight has won the world championships for the past three years.

They've dominated this event with annual displays of raw power and naked aggression. But this year it all seems to have gone wrong.

This year it all seems to have gone wrong for the US eight

  Richard Phelps

Whilst the crew maybe the strongest, fittest and best prepared, it struggled to make Sunday's final.

It may not be the most technical crew on the water, but it is no worse this year than before. So what is going wrong?

This is something I'm sure the crew is asking Mr Teti and I'd love to know his response.

"Don't worry guys, it will all be alright in the final" is hardly convincing when they lost their heat and only won their repechage by two hundredths of a second.

Perhaps you would try "Trust me, I know how we can find more speed by Sunday." Well if that is the case, why haven't you found it by now?

The fact of the matter is that Teti gambled by not racing his crew all year believing that going for bigger (i.e. stronger) was better and thereby making gold at the Olympics more certain.

The plan has backfired, but Teti must not let this show.

He must convince the US eight he has an answer and some cunning trick will find them a turn of speed sufficient to put them back in the frame.

Extreme

Meanwhile, Brian Richardson is at the other extreme. His crew qualified directly for the final by winning their heat and beating Great Britain in the process.

But since that race on Monday, they have had nothing to do. No repechage, no final, no focus. They are on top, but can they stay there?

How does a coach keep a crew at such a peak without burning them out physically or psychologically?

Far from having to find answers like Mike Teti, Brian Richardson has to make sure there are no questions - no niggling doubts that can gnaw away at idle minds during five days of rest.

Whether it be convincing triple world champions that they can win gold, or Olympic heat winners that doing nothing for five days was part of the strategy, I don't relish the job of an Olympic rowing coach.