Adam Stancer

ACS Rowing Founder and Lead Coach

Like so many, Adam began rowing when one of his PE teachers entered him and other tall, sporting school mates for a national competition on the rowing machine. It became apparent that this was something Adam could apply himself to and was later asked by a member of Nottingham Rowing Club if he would like to come to the club and get on the water. This is the moment that rowing took a hold and didn’t let go..

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Canice O Reilly took Adam under his wing and at 15 found himself in the novice men’s squad. They entered a couple of local events and won. Adam was quickly identified and picked up by the Junior coach, Martin kay. Martin was a huge influence on Adam and formed a formidable partnership with an u23 sculler. They won many medals at national and championship events before Adam left to go to Oxford Brookes University to start his U23/Senior rowing under Richard Spratley and Henry Bailhache-Webb. Adam’s time at OBUBC was a fantastic eye opener to the discipline, graft and mental robustness needed to be one of the best at such a competitive sport. Whilst rowing for OBUBC, Adam began coaching local Clubs and schools to help fund his rowing. Coaching came very naturally, and this talent for communicating, managing, motivating, and understanding technical knowledge transformed into results. In Adam’s fourth and final year at University after having been plagued with back injury, decided to fully step away from rowing and commit to his coaching. Adam began coaching at Oxford University (St Peters college) alongside the junior clubs he was already working with and managed to exceed all expectations and his squads quickly climbed the ladder of success at Junior national and championship competitions. Adam's highlight of this period was coaching multiple crew members of the lightweight and reserve Oxford University Boat race crew in addition to coaching one of the United States junior scullers that paid a visit to the UK.

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Upon leaving Oxford, Adam continued his coaching and was fortunate to land a position for Sport Wales leading the programmes for Cardiff University and Llandaff RC. Managing and organising over 150 athletes was an interesting and challenging operation which quickly started to flourish. This was greatly assisted by being able to work alongside great thinking coaches and mentors with years of experience and proven success. Adam saw 8 of his athletes go on to represent Wales at the Holme international regatta and bring home multiple gold and silver medals which was a great way to showcase the success of an upcoming formidable programme. The results achieved during that period was a huge step up for the Welsh clubs and became noticeable upcoming players within the University and Club rowing scene. Further success came in the form of a Semi-final HWR performance and through helping junior athletes to be awarded scholarships to Washington University and Hartpury college in the UK. During this period, Adam was asked by Zimbabwe’s Sculler Steve Cox to help manage and coach him In the lead up to the memorial regatta in Italy, in which Steve made the A final before working toward the World Championships in Sarasota, Florida.

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Upon leaving Wales in 2017, Adam decided to setup ACS Rowing which was designed to enable him to work with multiple clubs, squads, and individuals across a broad spectrum, online and in person. Adam began coaching his full-time squad, Newark Junior squad, which he setup from scratch in late 2017. This squad blossomed remarkably quickly and within the space of 2 years went on to getting Junior women’s crews to Henley Women’s regatta, multiple A finals at Championship events, GB trials, GB Camps and finally supporting athletes through scholarships to the United States.

ACS Rowing recognised that not every club had access to professional coaching and wanted to assist as many rowers as possible through online coaching, online training programmes and hosting our own rowing camps across the UK. Our camps and programmes have proven to be very successful and have now attracted people from across the UK and abroad. We hope to expand our programmes, camps, and influence further afield in Europe. Adam has recently formed partnerships with influential people from other sports to help write programmes and share his expertise on human physiology, performance, biomechanics as well as nutrition expertise.

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Adam has been lucky enough to row for and work alongside some of the best in the sport which he has combined with his own knowledge, experience, and talent to become the backbone of his success.

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We hope to see you at some of our camps or perhaps work with you toward your goals through our training programmes.

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