Navigating Finn Butcher towards the podium
That’s the strategy of New Zealand Olympic Canoe Slalom coach Aaron Osborne as he works to help Paris Kayak Cross gold medallist Finn Butcher in his quest to repeat his winning performance at LA28.
Using his HPSNZ Prime Minister’s Coach Scholarship, Aaron is working with Craig Morris, the highly successful British Canoe Slalom Podium Technical Coach, to gain new technical skills and challenge his own current view on coaching the discipline.
Aaron’s relationship with Finn goes back many years. “I’ve known Finn through the sport from the early days but it wasn’t until March 2024 that he asked if I’d coach him to help qualify for Paris,” says Aaron.
Although initially reluctant to step into the coaching role and continuing to wear his other ‘hat’ as a Project Manager for Canoe Racing NZ, the support of HPSNZ’s Coaching Consultant, Tristan Collins, encouraged Aaron to continue as Finn’s coach to LA28.
“A key part of Tristan’s support was to help with my Prime Minister’s Scholarship application as I need to acquire critical technical skills if I am to help Finn achieve his goal of retaining his Olympic title.”
New Zealand is very isolated in terms of Canoe Slalom and the new discipline of Kayak Cross which, as a relatively new sport, is changing rapidly. “Innovation and change are constants in Kayak Cross and I wanted someone to be a mentor but more importantly to critique and challenge what I’m doing and how I plan to achieve our goals.”
Craig was the obvious ‘go to’ technical expert for Aaron to reach out to using his Scholarship funding. “He is regarded as one of the world’s leading Canoe Slalom coaches, with over 30 years’ experience in canoe slalom coaching including personal coach to 15 individual senior Olympic, World and European podium kayakers. His real forte is as a skills acquisition specialist and his coaching style is similar to mine but different enough to challenge my thinking.”
Aaron Osborne and Finn Butcher Credit: NZ Team, NZOC
In the early days of the relationship, Aaron caught up with Craig on a weekly basis. “That has now pushed out to monthly but it’s totally flexible based on my needs. We also spent two days together in New Zealand sharing and discussing insights into where the sport is going and what we will need to do to win in four years.”
Aaron has had several other scholarships in the past however he says the Prime Minister’s Coach Scholarship is very important moving forward and particularly this year, at the beginning of the LA28 cycle.
“Because of the rapid evolution of Kayak Cross, doing the same thing as we did for Paris won’t work. We need to evolve just as rapidly but retain what worked. The thing about a new sport like Kayak Cross is that you don’t know what you don’t know. What we are doing for, say, the upcoming World Champs in Sydney will not necessarily be what we need to do to take gold in LA.”
Canoe Slalom NZ General Manager, Pandora Fruean, says the opportunity for Aaron to be mentored by Craig will be highly beneficial to gain technical insights that will support Finn’s campaign to repeat medal winning performances in LA and will also be of benefit to the wider canoe slalom programme.