Getting it Right

Practice 4-29 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

With the skeg fixed on the women's 8 we spent most of practice today working on the rhythm. Good rhythm depends on two things; a strong drive to get the boat running and flow and connection in the crew on the recovery to keep it there. After some warm up feet out and some drills working on the first part of the drive, we built into some eight minute sections at 3/4 pressure and built the rate through each one.

These last couple practice before the final race of the year are interesting. There's a temptation to say, 'oh, the work is done' and just go do a few pieces. Over the years I've become more of the school that it's both possible and good to keep focused in on technical changes, ask for better rowing, and challenge the crew to find new ways to produce speed. Because of the relatively short spring season in Division III I still think there's gains to be made on the rowing side even while we let the athletes relax a bit and get rest so they're ready to perform on race day.

The other big thing for me is to back off and make sure I don't spend my time trying to change every little problem. It's important to get the focus onto one or two things and not let myself get wound up while ignoring the fundamentals at the end of the year. It's a simple sport. Put the blade in, push your legs really hard, take the blade out, repeat until the horn sounds.

Tomorrow a short row with a few race pieces, then we load the trailer and drive south. I'll try to post a couple updates from Sacramento but if nothing goes up here check the athletics webpage for results.

BANG!

"Ease a little left".

BANG!

I guess that wasn't such a small stick after all. Bad call on my part, and too little, too late. Lucky for us skegs are easy to replace and the hit came in the last of three pieces; we missed out only a little bit of work. Not a huge deal. Got some good work done with starts and strides and had two 1500m pieces with very good rhythm. The goal this week is entirely around shell run and rhythm; get the boat to run between the strokes, have patience on the recovery even at a high rate, and trust in the training to provide the power we need.

Lasting Commitment

Saturday 4.25 Racing from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Video from Saturday morning; did a nice piece with the Women's 8 vs. the Men's Varsity 4 and Freshman 4. Some excellent racing. The main focus this week is going to be hitting our stride and getting a sense of rhythm at racing pace. Saturday was spent in the first stages of this. Partially it's a physical thing, partially it's a mental thing. It takes a lot of confidence to drop the rate when your competition is right next to you; having the Men's fours out has been a good learning process for us.

Directly after practice I got on the road and went up to my old haunts for my alma matter's annual rowing alumni get-together. It was great to connect with lots of old friends and get to talk to them both about what they're doing now and the times we spent together 'back then'. It's an amazing thing to see so many people involved in what I think of as giving back professions; education, health care, social work. It also got me thinking about the nature of lasting commitment to a program and the friendships and bonds that are created. A good crew requires so much shared trust amongst the athletes; over time this creates true friendships that continue well past graduation.

One of the things I like to talk to prospects about is the experience of college rowing; certainly I hope that rowing with this program will be a lasting experience that defines our athletes values, commitment, work ethic, and joy. It was very gratifying to me to hear from athletes I coached a few years back that this was true for them; I hope it will continue to be true for the generations to come.

Run

Seat racing completed, the fours are back on the rack, and we went out today for an easy row in the eight working run on the slide and ensuring good send every time. It's a game of inches; if we get an extra inch on every stroke, with 240 strokes in a race, it adds up to around twenty feet at the end. This oversimplifies things but gets the concept across well; rowing is a sport where small details can make a dramatic difference.

Made some nice gains on the row and were on our way back in when one of the hundreds of fishermen on the river made a direct beeline from the Willamette Park boat ramp straight towards our two boats at around 50 mph. Waving of arms and yelling on the megaphone got him to stop with about twenty feet to spare. He looked completely clueless as to the danger he was putting us in as he idled by. We're fortunate to have the option of training behind Ross Island in the back channel this time of year; otherwise the river is incredibly hazardous with the number of seemingly careless boat drivers in massively overpowered and over-sized fishing boats.

How many horsepower does it take to catch a salmon? The median answer around here seems to be 250 or so. I'm a big fan of the guy in the small boat with a 5-horse electric motor who seem to catch the same fish.

End of Rant.

Bring the Work

Short post as I've got to run to a staff meeting. Did 3 x 5', 2 x 4' with the Women's fours this morning, switching between every piece. Seven rowers swapped seats today-- only one stayed in the same place she started. Lots of good stuff. Mostly what I'm struck by is how complete the result is if everyone locks in together from the beginning-- we only achieved true separation between the boats (more then one length) on one piece. The level of commitment required by everyone today was high; it was great to see teammates deliver on that demand and produce results we can trust as a result.

Back to Work

Men's V4 4-14 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

The last two days have been fantastic weather and this morning was the same; low 50's, clear skies, no fisherman, flat water. The men took out two fours and did pieces, the women took out two fours and did steady state with some lineup changes throughout to keep things interesting.

Some of the coaches went sans survival suit this morning-- the first time in a morning practice since fall.

We heard from another prospective student, now a incoming freshman, who has committed to Lewis & Clark. It's interesting at this point looking at both the short term of the next regatta and the long term of next year and beyond. Both shape up well and as always we'll be out on the river enjoying the great water and doing some solid racing.

Post Conference

And now, a day later.

Our Men's team had an excellent day, went for the win with all guns blazing, and with only eight rowers and one cox tied Western Washington for 2nd. The tie-breaker is the finish of the Varsity 8, where they also finished behind Western, so we earned a hard-fought 3rd place. Six of the eight raced three times and the team medaled in every event entered. A really gutsy and excellent performance.

The Women's team had a more challenging outing. We never hit our stride and aside from a few bright spots (a win in the pair, a really solid fifth-place outing for a novice four that's been through a heck of a lot this year) the finishes were well short of what we expected. What do you say? We talked afterward about owning it. You have to look the bad races in the face, no excuses and no regrets, learn from it, and move forward. We'll be back on the erg for the last time Monday and fully intend to go to WIRA with the intent to better represent what we believe we can do than our finishes yesterday showed.

Today was good therapy to soothe a tired coach; a really nice bike ride in ~70 degree weather, nice lunch at a new sandwitch place, and now realaxing at home. Whatever the race result I'm very fortunate to do what I do and work with these atheltes and coaches.

No excuses, no regrets.

Conference Eve

Just finished up in the office with all my travel preparations, getting ready to head off to Costco and taking a short moment to reflect. Conference always seems to come very quickly each year. It's a great regatta that these seven schools have built up over the last six or seven years, and it has certainly become one of the best small-college races in the country. I love the fact that we've got a championship that rewards both depth of team and also requires excellent performances across many boats to win.

We're looking at some probable good finishes tomorrow, some challenging races, and some races where our athletes may be in over their heads. Each scenario is part of the whole experience. As coaches our work is largely now done and it's just up to us to make sure each boat gets to the starting line ready to go. The combination of pride in the work we've done and the sense of letting go as each crew leaves the dock is one of the things I love and loathe about coaching.

However it works out results wise tomorrow is going to be a good day.

Men V. Women

There are no better pieces then the ones we do between the men's 4's and women's 8's. It gets both squads fired up and provides a competitive pressure cooker the equal of any big race. Today, with both squads well rested and ready to rumble, we did full a race warm-up and met up at the top of Ross Island for three piceces off a start, three minutes long with the option of extention to four in the case of especially competitive situations.

The last one was the best; the men's freshman four and women's varsity eight got into a bow-to-bow battle by the middle of the piece and Lincoln, who had the call, extended to four, and then extended to four-and-a-half minutes. Both boats dug very deep to the well and neither gave an inch-- I think we could have kept it going for another minute or two before anyone would have cracked (perhaps for the best, there was an obstacle that led us to stop the piece). One learns a great deal of truth about yourself in the moment you're bow-to-bow and discover you have one extra minute left to row. I think both boats were happy with what they found.

Here's forty seconds of that piece, earlier on. I got too excited to film about halfway through.


Women's Varsity 8 vs. Men's Fours from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Slow Down to Get Fast

Took out two Women's fours today, the JV4 and Varsity 4, and took things real slow. Started off with a relaxed warm-up with pause drills and then went into a 3x10' steady state workout with rates in the 18-22 range. The result was excellent. Hit some really good rhythm and made some significant breakthroughs in both timing and letting the boat run. After our final spin we did about 1500m of leapfrog up to racing pace and it was very cool to see the relaxed flow of the steady state translate into increased run and better timing at the racing rate.

As a coach it can be hard to slow down, especially when a big race is on the line just a few days away. It was very worth it today. The athletes came away from practice better rested and I hope with a sense of technical acomplishment that should translate directly into better speed over the full course Saturday. It was good reminder to me that going faster and harder is not always the best option.

Race Prep Tuesday

With the conference championships just four days away this mornings practice was devoted to race preparations. The men's team took out two even fours and threw down some intense four minute pieces; Lincoln was making switches throughout to keep the guys on their toes. Interesting results, good racing, and the constant challenge of adaptation looks to have the guys ready for their racing Saturday.

The women's 8 went out for a grueling workout; three sets of twenty on, 10 off, times six. The on was above race pace. We were working on both the physical aspect of developing quickness and power off the front end, as well as the psycological challenge of going to maximum pressure each time we started a new twenty and trusting in the boat to go together. A hard day but a good one.

We spun just upstream of the railroad bridge near Lake Oswego and were treated to quite a show; a Steller Sea Lion had just captured a large salmon. It was tearing the fish to pieces and chomping them down. It was an incredible display of power and not terribly appetizing; raw salmon for breakfast is not my thing.

Video of both the row and a poor shot of fifteen seconds of Sea Lion is below.


Tuesday 4-14 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Props to Abby!

2005 Lewis & Clark Graduate Abby Broughton had a pretty good weekend. Abby, part of the Pocock Elite racing squad out of Seattle, won all of her races at the Spring Speed Order event this weekend. She won the Lightweight time trial, the A Final for the ligthweight single, and then won the Lightweight double on Sunday.

Not a bad weekend. I didn't coach Abby personally but the crews I coached raced her often-- she was a tenacious and serious competitor and it looks like she's carried that through into her post-collegiate career. She made the 2006 World Championships team in the Lightweight Quad and with results like these I suspect she'll be on the line in 2009 as well.

Bravo Abby, well done!

Covered Bridge

We're terribly confused.

The Covered Bridge Regatta is held on Dexter Lake, about twenty five minutes east of Eugene. It's a beautiful spot; tucked up in the foothills of the Cascades and very scenic. The club there (Oregon Association of Rowers) has done a great job organizing the regatta and putting the money earned back into their racecourse; this year they debuted a full six-lane racecourse and it looks fantastic.

The confusion results from this; for the ten to twelve years we've either been going to this regatta or known people who have gone there has been rain. Often this rain has been relentless and continuous throughout the day. This is natural; up against the mountains in Oregon during April it's supposed to rain. It is the way of the spring. The trees get leaves, the flowers come up, Covered Bridge is very wet.

A year ago we started getting confused; it was 85 and brilliantly sunny. This year, our confusion increases: partially sunny, no rain, and completely calm water make for excellent racing conditions. It's a good confusion, and we like it, but at the same time our sense of trust in nature has been disturbed.

A good day for us yesterday with three wins, most all crews placing in the top three, and lots of work done during the day. Results are up and a full report will follow our website. Lots of people were taking pictures; I'm looking for some of them and will work on putting up a photo post Monday.

The Goose is Loose

The picture at the top of this blog was taken at the Covered Bridge regatta in 2007; it's one of my favorite shots. We're headed back there tomorrow (Lincoln & I take the trailer down tonight) and looking forward to a good race.

Typical pre-regatta day; we had a short but very effective row working on rhythm, then spending a few minutes working starts. I'm very impressed with the women's 8 and their stride strokes; the transition from the high starting sprint into our base rhythm is working well in practice right now. I wish I could follow the race tomorrow; it'd be nice to see that on the course. Speedcoach data will have to be a stand-in.

Post row goes like this; all boats on slings and de-rigged, load them on the trailer plus oars, riggers, and big piles of assorted tools and parts ready to go in the truck this afternoon. Back home, quick breakfast, up to campus, in the office for about two hours to try to stay on top of paperwork for this trip and take care of my duties as confrence president looking towards next weekend. Off to the hardware store, the bank, fill up the truck, then to Costco for everyone's eating during the day (budget: $200, spent: $199.22!). Side note; I wish we could tally the total number of calories purchased in one of these Costco trips. Back home now for lunch and to pack, then off to the boathouse this afternoon to pack up the truck, hitch up, and head out around 3:30.

Line of the day; for some inexpliciable reason we've run out of straps. We had 20+ extra last spring but seem to be short now. The last boat on was one of our pairs, the Snow Goose. So we were one strap short. Meghann came over and, with an absolute straight face, informed me:

"The Goose is Loose."

3000+

We've had over 3000 views of the blog since I started keeping track sometime in December. . . Very cool.

Of course, I bet 50% of those consist of me checking the counter and my parents.

But thanks for reading!

Wednesday Racing

Good water today and the Tuesday/Wednesday closure of the river to the salmon fishermen left us with some great conditions for racing this morning. We boated a pair, our novice four, and a JV4 and headed out to do some pieces.

Two pieces off a start (five minutes, then four minutes) provided some excellent opportunities to learn about being aggressive while seeking to find a rhythm that's sustainable. In the first piece the novice four was super aggressive and stayed very close to our JV4, holding them at the gap we started the piece with. In the 2nd piece their aggression cost them a bit while the JV4 used their experience to relax a bit and took a big lead. It was nice breakthrough for this crew and I'm hoping it translates into excellent racing in both the four and the eight this weekend.

We then did three by three minutes on the way back to the dock with paddle recovery. One of the areas where I still see room for improvements is in allowing the boat to run with small energy expenditures; this was clear on our paddle rest. Our pair, two of our more experienced athletes, would take a few lengths on the paddle and still get rest, while the JV4 let the boat slow down too much and left themselves with lots to do. As crews gain experience, they learn to let the boat run and slow down less. The advantage in this, of course, is that there's much more speed to be had in adding power if the boat is running better to begin with.

There's education to be had in all of this, and in the end it all relates back to good racing speed.

(Disclaimer: the above picture is not of our river. It looked a lot like that this morning, though.)

Props to our Novice

Both of our novice fours were recognized by the athletic department for their performances this weekend and named PAC Athletes of the Week.

The Novice Men's four, of course, was recognized for their excellent and dominant win of 20+ seconds. These guys are fired up and I expect we'll see plenty more from them in the future.

The Novice Woman's four was recognized for an awesome team performance on Saturday; they showed a lot of tenacity working to get through their heat after snapping off 3-seat's handle. Watching bow pair go deep into the well to try to beat the 3rd place crew-- and almost succeeding-- was a highlight of the weekend.

Congrats to all of these athletes. And it's worth mentioning that one individual, our stalwart novice coxswain, got to experience both races and got her first traditional coxswain toss this weekend.

This is what this team is all about; the highs that come with excellent performance and confronting the challenges that arise with audacity and fearless action.

NCRC Invitational

So one more NCRC Invitational is in the bag. This one went more smoothly from a regatta management standpoint then any of our prior versions; certainly benign conditions (for most of the day) contributed to this for us but our coaching staff especially and all of our volenteers as well were tremendous. Being surround by folks like these make my job as a regatta director very easy.

A full race recap will be posted on our website soon; race results are already up. We even got some mainstream media coverage in The Columbian newspaper; Jim got some good quotes even if the piece is a little intersting (sinewy shoulders?).

Our days started out with the above scene; a two-hour fog delay got us started. I could see this coming from a few days away. Once things lifited the water was fantastic (until the last four races) and the sun got us all warmed up very quickly.

While our athletes raced and relaxed in the sun our coaches drove launches, directed volenteers, rigged boats, and at the end of the day pulled up the course and drove five launches back to Portland (BIG thanks to Willamette for bringing one and saving us a 2nd round trip!).

Not to make our athletes sound lazy; two strong wins and one 2nd place, as well as some first class teamwork highlighted the day. I'll let the race recap tell the full story but there were two major highlights for me.

The first came when our Women's Varsity lost their skeg during the warmup and the whole men's team got the Men's V8 rigged in about six or seven minutes so we could get them back on the water and up to the start on time. Very awesome.

The second was watching our Novice women's four come THIS CLOSE to getting through to the final after three-seat tore out her handle as they were leading the heat with 500 meters to go. The bow pair went to the well to get them accross and they very nearly pipped the 3rd place boat in a 2 vs 4 battle. Just awesome.

I'm deeply exhausted today and I'm sure the team and coaches feel the same. It's all worth it. I'm a very fortunate to get to work with these people, and seeing our athletes be so selfless in their support of each other, passionate about their team, and aggressive in their racing is worth every challenge we face through the year.

Happy April Fools!

My favorite bit of April foolery today is this, because I can identify with it personally.

Race preparations go very well, although I was stymied for a bit by some computer problems first at home, then at work. Quick message to all of our prospects: My work computer has me locked out so I can't pull your e-mails. CONGRATS! to all who've been admitted. You'll be hearing from us early next week but don't hesitate to e-mail or call if you have questions at the moment.

Good practice this morning in less-then-wonderful conditions. The breakthrough glimpsed yesterday started to crack through. . . we made some nice progress in the run on the shell, in staying in control while applying power, and in holding onto the leg drive all the way to the release. The team is tired from three solid workouts this week but we'll back off a bit tomorrow and Friday and get ready to rip it up Saturday.