ROYLEROW PERFORMANCE TRAINING PROGRAMS

Rowing Coach: Marlene Royle, OTR

Article excerpts from:

Jennifer Bank Charts New Course On Golden Pond

By Dave Morse, The Hardwick Gazette, Vermont, 20 September 2000

CRAFTSBURY- A bio-chemist by training, Jennifer Bank gets perplexed at charting a course in retirement (as so many of us do, I guess). Always an athlete- that's where the problem begins. Which one to pursue when you are 61 and gifted.

Bank came to teach tennis at Windridge camp this summer. She found Marlene Royle at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center to guide her on the water and the huge tests world-class competition puts on an athlete. 

(Royle herself took part in [preparing for] the U.S. trials for the Sydney Olympics...)

It didn't take long for Bank, over 6 feet tall and graceful, to know she was hooked on rowing- despite the daily...workouts from May on until early this month on Big Hosmer (the training pool for many international teams). "I'm going to stick with rowing," says Bank, always competitive in golf, tennis, basketball, or whatever she tries, after overcoming a collapsed lung 25 years ago." This has been a thrill. I had no idea I would like it so much."

So much, Bank will return another season to prepare for the U.S. Masters and the FISA [Masters] World Championships. But that is getting ahead of the story.

First off, Bank experienced the hospitality of the area staying with Hazel and Ken Brown of Hardwick-"they are very special to me"-to ease the burden of trying to finance her dreams.

Then there is Royle. "Her guidance has made it possible for me to stay on track," Bank continues. "I have moved up to another level since I have had this experience."

That level, after only one year includes competing in the Southeast Masters Regionals, where she won a silver and a bronze, followed by the indoor regionals, and two golds.

Bank's goals are as much to give back as to compete. "My focus is to motivate people- kids as well as elders," said Bank. "This is my time, getting into what's dear to us."

Bank took a break from her Vermont training to take part in the nationals in Oakland, Calif., and was invited to [guest] row with the U.S. [Women's Olympic] Quad Rowing Team.

Bank has returned to her winter home in Sarasota, Fla., where she can get on the water, but rows on a Concept II machine for the so-called "CRASH-B's" in Boston during February 2001.

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