ROWING: Liam Gormanhears from the coach to Ireland's lightweight four about the challenge of restoring confidence and form within a talented squad

THE BUILDERS are in. As John Holland talks of his hopes, his plans and his methods, in the background the banging goes on. The craftsmen are pulling apart, preparatory to raising it anew, an old part of the hotel in which we meet. It proves an apt accompaniment to our conversation.

Holland has shouldered the responsibility of leading Ireland's humbled lightweight rowers back to the position of prominence that made them contenders for medals in two of the last three Olympiads.

The lightweight four, medallists in the World Championships in 2005 and 2006, failed to finish in the top 11 at the World Championships in Munich last year and so lost out on automatic qualification for Beijing.

Holland certainly didn't need the job. When he was approached was sitting pretty in his recently acquired position of head coach of UCD and had nothing to prove - he is already the most successful Irish rowing coach, having guided an Ireland lightweight four to fourth in the 1996 Olympics and coached the Greek lightweight double scull to a first Olympic medal for the country in rowing, in 2004.

"Why did I come back now? That's a very good question."

He laughs, and takes time to think, before adopting a serious mien. "I felt for the crew, the four, that didn't make qualification in Munich last year. I felt how could we get to the situation where lightweight rowing, which had been so strong, is now absolutely rock bottom.

"The athletes were there. When I was asked to do it - basically I'm doing it for the athletes. They deserve to achieve their goal. If I can be instrumental in their making it, that's basically my motivation."

There may be a more visceral reason. In Munich a chance meeting saw him looking at the performance of the Ireland lightweights with something like dismay.

"I was angry then. I was very angry. I felt like, 'How could lightweight rowing be destroyed in such a short period?' That was my feeling at the time."

That might be seen as a criticism of Harald Jahrling, the head coach in charge of the Ireland lightweights last season.

Holland exhales.

"I suppose it will. I don't know whether it is or it isn't. Things were not working out in the system. I didn't know. I had no contact whatsoever with the system. I had no idea what was going on within it."

Holland's two spells with the Irish system, from 1981 to 1988 and from late 1990 to 1999, ended in disenchantment with the authorities here. But he says the sport is being run professionally now "for the first time". He also has a professional working relationship with Jahrling.

"He has offered his help and services. From that point of view there is no animosity or anything like that. He's supportive of anything I want or what we have been doing."

The German has built up a successful heavyweight four, which qualified for the Olympics in Munich, and may also have a top-class pair come the Olympic Qualifiers in June. But the lightweights were at a low ebb by the end of last season. Holland says he has put in a lot of work in building their mental strength.

"That was a huge area I had to work on. I mean these boys were coming from a very depressed position. Maybe that's wrong, but they were very, very down.

"One of my goals coming into the thing is that the athletes have to be enjoying what they are doing. Because if they are not enjoying what they are doing, no matter how hard they bloody-well train they are not going to deliver.

"So we addressed a lot of the issues. . . that could help them perform; could help them achieve their goals for the Olympics."

He is bringing in a professional sports psychologist, but he has devoted much time personally to working with the athletes on their mental strength. He lists some of the things he sees as important: "Commitment; commitment to each other; confidence building; visualisation; concentration levels; relaxation."

He does not see himself as a controlling influence.

"My approach to all that is that they are adults. They must act responsibly. They must accept responsibility for what they do, whether it is their own thing when they are not training or when they are racing. I mean they are the people responsible for their performance. I am the facilitator."

This approach carries through to goal setting.

"We all know we want Olympic qualification and a performance in the Olympics. So there's no question about what the goal is. But what I did is (to have) them set out their goals to achieve that. So they each have their own individual goals.

"I gave them the techniques of how they set out these goals; of how they should deal with them; how they should measure them; how they should not have everything finalising in June (the Olympic Qualifier) or in August (the Olympic Games) - there must be goals all the way through. So you tick off the boxes: what have I achieved?; what is my personal best?; should I be achieving that in this area - should I be breaking it?

"They were all personal goals and I told them they needed to have up to eight invidual goals. And they've got to be referring to them constantly. That is the process.

"I don't know what these guys wrote down. It's none of my business. These are the goals that for them will give them an indication that they are on target to achieve what we all want. That's how I set out the goal-setting process for them.

"Even down to individual training sessions - I said they must have a goal. They must say, 'What do I want to achieve here?' Not just go out and put in the time."

While he has sometimes had to point out to athletes they have not been performing, overall he is happy with the progress so far.

"I'm very pleased. We've just come out of our winter training and I feel we have had a very, very good winter."

He feels lightweights and heavyweights have to train differently. His programmes have short periods of high-intensity work he feels are necessary to provide the stimulus for lightweights, who, he says, do not have the same muscle structure or reserves of glycogen as heavyweights.

He was employed for the season primarily for the lightweight four, but he has cast his net wider.

"The priority boat is the four, without question. That's why I was brought into the system. But I decided, rather than close down the shop, let's see are there other boats that can go to qualification and so on."

The four he settled on were the crew that took silver at the 2005 World Championships, albeit Eugene Coakley, Gearóid Towey, Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin have been given a new configuration, with Coakley in the bow.

The two other men he has been coaching, Richard Coakley and Cathal Moynihan, impressed when put together in training as a lightweight double scull, as did two lightweight women, Orlagh Duddy and Niamh Ní Chéilleachair.

Holland learnt much from the recent international regatta in Piediluco, Italy. The lightweight four took silver in the first set of finals and gold in the second - when Moynihan stepped up to the mark after being taken out of his bed to fill in for Coakley, who got injured in the hours before the race. It went some way to backing up Holland's contention that he is dealing with "a lightweight six".

The lightweight doubles were off the pace in Italy, and Holland will work with his squad in training in Ireland before the whole show moves on to the World Cup in Munich, on the second weekend in May. The big test of the summer, the Olympic Qualifier in Poznan, Poland, looms in mid-June.

He guided the Ireland lightweight four through the qualifiers in 1996. So what is the trick? He chuckles, describing it as an "awful, awful" test. "It's just a horrible experience. And I would hope the experience that I have is going to help them to be less tense when it comes to the situation."

Will his lightweight four get through? "I'm happy that we're on target," he says.

Indeed, he is very positive about the prospects of the crew scoring big time come August.

"I think these guys have the capacity to get a medal." He pauses. "They're experienced athletes and that has to be part of why I believe this. I think they are are building; their confidence is coming back because of the winter training programme; because of what we have been doing up to now. Their confidence is building - their own individual confidence and also their confidence in one another.

"All this combined should lead us to being able to be in the picture for getting a medal. But I don't know, we have to wait and see."

A medal at Beijing would be a huge transformation from their form last season. But Holland accentuates the positive.

"These guys got a silver medal in 2005, a bronze medal in 2006. You don't become a bad athlete overnight. If we get our preparations all the way right, I mean that's the level you're at. And I suppose that's my job: to make sure the preparation is right and they are going into competition as well prepared as they can be."

As we go outdoors, into a windy Irish day, I ask whether it ever gets miserable out on the water, watching, watching, watching.

He laughs. He has never lost the hunger. "I've never thought 'why am I here'," he says. "I still get a buzz out of seeing people perform."

And off he goes. To build some more.

HEAVYWEIGHT MEN

Coach: Harald Jahrling

Ireland already has one boat qualified for Beijing, the heavyweight four. The crew will be chosen from six: Alan Martin, Cormac Folan, Seán Casey, Seán O'Neill, Jonno Devlin and James Wall. A heavyweight pair may contest the Olympic Qualifier in Poznan, Poland, in June.

Devlin, who was part of the British system until the middle of last year and needs clearance for Beijing, teamed up with Casey and impressed in an early-season test in Seville. If they qualify they must remain as the crew for Beijing.

Seán Jacob will also compete in the Olympic Qualifier in a heavyweight single scull.

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN

Coach: John Holland

The lightweight four of Gearóid Towey, Eugene Coakley, Richard Archibald and Paul Griffin may contend for a medal in Beijing - if they get through the Qualifiers.

Cathal Moynihan and Richard Coakley may go to the qualifiers as a lightweight double scull, or either could come into the lightweight four.

LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN

Coach: John Holland (right)

Niamh Ní Chéilleachair and Orlagh Duddy have been forming a lightweight double scull that could go to the Olympic qualifier.

HEAVYWEIGHT WOMEN

Sinead Jennings, a world champion in the lightweight single scull in 2001, and Caroline Ryan, who represented Ireland at the World Cup and World Championships, are in contention for a place in the heavyweight single scull. If either proves herself she will go on to the Olympic qualifier.