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.
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.
