Skadi Rotterdam brings well-being and performance together

At the Rotterdam student rowing club Skadi, combining elite sport, team spirit and fun is already at the centre. Yet the club noticed something was missing: a simple way to keep structural sight of the well-being of their rowers. That's why Skadi started a pilot with SportMeter.

The pilot focuses on weekly check-ins around mental health, training experience and RPE scores for specific performance groups. By doing this in a way that is both easy and consistent, a valuable source of data emerges that helps coaches see signals faster, guide better and step in on time when needed.

Why a SportMeter pilot

According to Gitta (commissioner of competitive rowing), the need for a tool arose because coaches did have plenty of conversations with their rowers, but the information in them often turned out to be fleeting.

"We noticed we were missing a simple platform where we could do weekly check-ins with the rowers. Coaches regularly talk with them about how things are going, but often they can't look back much further than one week. A program to look back on matched our need well."

With SportMeter, the competitive section gets exactly that: an overview of trends in training experience, stress, fun, mental load and energy levels.

Fun and performance hand in hand

At a student rowing club it's not just about training hard; the social side is at least as important.

Gitta stresses that balance matters:

"Combining elite sport and social life is important. With activities for first-year crews and intermediate groups, we create variety between training and relaxation. We also pay a lot of attention to a strong crew bond. With SportMeter we want to check weekly whether rowers still experience fun and whether they feel stress from their studies or other commitments."

The pilot therefore helps make both physical load and mental well-being measurable — and in a way that adds to the culture Skadi has been building for years.

Why focus on mental health?

In elite sport, mental health is increasingly recognised as a precondition for sustainable performance. At student sports clubs, however, that attention is still often missing.

"To keep rowers motivated, it's important that they experience fun. That's only possible when their mental and physical health is in good shape. There is too little attention for mental health at most student sports clubs. Precisely because we practise sport at the highest level at Skadi, it's important that our rowers feel good."

By structurally asking questions about stress, mood, energy and fun, a more complete picture emerges of the athlete behind the performance.

Together for Fun

With SportMeter, Skadi now has one central place where:

• rowers can indicate every week how they experience trainings, load and their personal situation;
• coaches can spot trends in stress, fun and energy levels;
• performance groups get insight into training load through RPE measurements;
• early signals of overload or loss of motivation become visible.

The pilot shows that small, structural questions can make a big difference — in performance as well as well-being. A culture in which rowers don't just train harder, but above all smarter and with more fun.