Coach Thrasher

Regatta Report: Capital Regatta

The Varsity boys were quite excited about the first race of the spring season. There’s such a long period of time from the last head race to the first sprints race that often we lose sight of what we’re training for. This week prior to the regatta was a refocusing time, as everyone tried to get things together for regatta day. Our entries consisted of: MV4+, MJV4+ (racing as a lightweight 4), MLt2x, and M1x.

MV4+, 6th of 6 boats
coxswain: Saskia
stroke: Tito
3: Robert
2: Edward
bow: Colin

This was our first race in this lineup. Tito was leading the boat as a 3-rd year rower. It was Saskia’s first race. Colin, a lightweight, was sitting in for Alex in bow seat. Saskia was getting lots of input from everyone, as this was her first race, and it was a varsity-level event. There are 10^6 things to think about and check, and she seemed to be drinking from the fire hose in stride. The primary goal was to execute the race plan, which Olivia had worked out with her. She was to be the mental voice for the rowers. We all tried telling her what to do, and I became worried about her nervousness as the boat left the PARC tent on it’s way to the starting line.

Off the start, the boys were up a seat or two on everybody in the field. However, within the first 10 strokes there was a problem with the steering. PARC collided with Capital, and had to stop rowing to detangle oars. Tito pushed the bow-deck of the Capital boat away to get clear. After 10 seconds wasted, and adrenaline now pumping stronger than ever, they began again. The race never paused though, and they were now down nearly a length. The second collision suddenly occurred with overcorrected steering, and they had to stop again. Once clear of all of the boats, being off the back, they started again together.

The race plan was now compressed, they had fewer meters to work with, and they just waned to get back in the game. They worked through the middle thousand meters uneventfully, trying to crawl back into contention. As the crew passed the stands, the guys looked okay, technique wise, but we had no idea why they were so far back on the field until we found out about the start later.

The results aren’t representative of the rowers ability. The main thing I would have changed for this race would be to coach the coxswain less. I think we all tried to give her loads of input because we were worried that she wouldn’t be able to handle it. It’s very stressful at the varsity level because some coxswains are in their 4th year, with 3 years of trial-and-error behind them. Saskia has now been thoroughly initiated. At the end of the day, people can do amazing things, we just have to let them do it on their own.

We’ll be working on race starts and steering over the next several weeks. Saskia has demonstrated a lot of skill and a great willingness to learn. The guys like and respect her as a coxswain as well. I’m really looking forward to the next time this boat is on the water.

MJV4+ (lightweight), 3rd of 6 boats
coxswain : Matylda
stroke: Will
3: Keith
2: Andrew
bow: Colin

This boat was entered among many junior-varsity heavyweight 4s. It was the only lightweight boat in the event that I know of. This lineup represents our best hope at a competitive lightweight 4, so I was really excited to see how we would do. Unfortunately Andrew has been sick on and off for most of the season, and the boat had never rowed this lineup. Andrew would have normally been in stroke seat, but with his sicknesses, I had to move him to 2. This was interesting because it allowed us to have Will and Keith as stern pair, which is their same lineup as in their 2x. Having the same lineup lets them work well together as a pair. Colin was again in bow seat with his consistent and predictable rowing style. We had a pinch-hitting coxswain, Matylda, working with us as we were crunched for time and for people to fill that seat. She is a novice coxswain like Saskia, but had raced in the head races last fall.

The boat had a clean start and reported being first off the line. This is actually typical of lightweight boats since there is less mass to accelerate forward. They worked as much of their race plan as they knew. They reported that the speaker system in the boat made it hard to hear their coxswain, and the coxing style was different than they are used to (Matylda hasn’t coxed the boys since last fall).

Generally the technique in the boat was quite good. As the video shows, we were missing water at the catches, and will need to work on this.

I’m really impressed with the results as they are though. Having never rowed this lineup, they did very well with 3rd place of 6 boats. If we can get Andrew out with them more, this boat will go much faster.

MLt2x: 3rd of 6 (heavy), 1st of 3 (light)
stroke: Will
bow: Keith

There were three lightweight boats and three heavyweight boats in this race. The results weren’t split between heavy and lightweight, but we won the lightweight group!

The guys reported a fast start. As the boats started to separate between light and heavy at the 1000m marker, the chase boat started to wake our 2x (and the other lightweight 2x entries). What to do in this situation was unclear, so Keith just kept going straight, which was okay. They did have the option of changing lanes as long as they weren’t cutting off another boat, or in danger of colliding with another boat. As this is a somewhat obscure rule, and based on a judgment call that the rowers have to make while working at 100% exertion (i.e. not necessarily thinking clearly), it’s not always a good idea to take advantage of this rule.

As they progressed by our PARC camp, I was able to get some video of this boat (see the podcast on iTunes). What I can see is some of the best rowing by Will of the season. He made a fundamental change this week, based on input from Renee and Julie (National Team rowers that we visited with last week), and based on a boat lineup change we made this week. He is getting good reach at the catch, which had been missing from his stroke. With this change, Will and Keith are matched very well as a pair.

M1x: 2nd of 6
stroke: Tito

This was Tito’s first sprint race in a single. The single is a very personal race where there’s no one else to push except for you. The goal was to focus on his own race, and race his own plan, without getting distracted by the other boats or officials.

He ended up rowing very well. According to his own race report, he focused on his stroke rate, and the speed-coach, and found that he was faster at a 30 spm, rather than the race-planned 32. It’s great that he made the correct judgment call to change rates in the race. This shows that it was absolutely his own event.

The first place rower is Craig, from Delta Blades. Craig had rowed all of last year in the 1x, and has a considerable amount of experience.

I think that Tito can go faster, but we’ll need to create a good plan to do so. It is a challenge to work up at that level on our team because there isn’t anyone that is nearly as fast as Tito on the erg. This causes him to look inward for motivation at all times. There’s a good interview with Tito’s own words on the event in the podcast here:
PARC Video Podcast
or:
Tito Balsamo Interview

Posted at 02:39PM Mar 11, 2007 by jason in Rowing  |