Facing the wrong way

Text C: an original fiction extract.

On his first morning as a rowing-club volunteer, Ravi offered to steer. He had watched boats moving along the river for years. The person facing forwards appeared to have the simplest job: sit, look and tell the others where to go. The rowers had to provide the effort. He expected the coach, Jo, to be pleased that somebody was willing to take the easy position without complaining.

Jo began with the boat secured beside the landing stage. She showed him his seat, the communication arrangements and the club's instructions. No one would leave until she was satisfied with the crew and the conditions. Ravi listened, but kept looking towards the bend where he imagined himself giving a crisp command. The rowers sat facing him, with their backs towards the water ahead. For the first time he understood that he would be describing something they could not check by simply looking past his shoulder.

At the beginning of the supervised practice, he tried to give every useful detail at once. He mentioned the bend, a patch of floating leaves and a dog on the path. His voice rose as the boat approached the place where he wanted it to change direction. One rower asked which instruction they were meant to follow now. Ravi repeated the whole sentence more loudly.

Jo brought the practice back beside the landing stage. She did not ask him to be less nervous. She asked him to say what he needed the crew to understand first. He looked downriver and tried again, separating the immediate instruction from what could wait. The words felt plain compared with the confident speech he had prepared in his head. The crew followed them more readily.

During the next short exercise, a rower named Beth lost the rhythm. Ravi told her she was falling behind. She said she knew. When he began explaining it again, she asked whether he could give the rhythm instead of a description of her mistake. He listened to the crew's agreed timing, then used the words Jo had taught him. Beth settled back into the movement. The boat did not become faster in any way he could measure. It became easier to understand what belonged together.

At the end, the crew helped bring the boat in under Jo's direction. Ravi's legs were stiff although he had barely used them. He had spent the session watching the route, attending to the rowers and deciding which words would help next. Across the river, a person on a bench watched with the relaxed expression he had once brought to the same view.

Beth asked whether he would come again. He nearly answered that he would be better next time. Instead, he asked what had been clearest today. She named the short instruction after the second start. Jo added that knowing when to leave silence mattered as well. Ravi wrote both comments down. From the path, the forwards-facing seat still looked like the place where somebody simply sat. He no longer envied it for the reasons which had made him volunteer.

You are Ravi. A club newsletter interviewer asks about your first supervised session. Write your responses to these three interview questions.

In your response:

• What did you expect, and what surprised you when you began?
• What difficulties did you face, and what helped you respond?
• What did the experience teach you, and what will you work on next?

Base your response on Text C, developing its ideas in your own words. Write about 250 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 10 marks for writing.