Tuesday and Thursday this week I took on a guest coach role for the Station L rowing club masters men. Peter, their coach, is a past L&C coach and alum and good friend of our program; it was a pleasure to fill in while he was out of town.
The role of guest coach is always interesting. You have two days to work with an established group and try to help them reach their goals in a short time. For these guys in particular the masters regional championships is just a week away; minor technical changes probably are not the answer to helping them find more speed. Instead I worked with them a bit on their competition psychology and how to approach their racing.
Today they did some pieces against the masters women from the same club. One of the primary things we worked on was relating to the fastest crews-- making the choice not just to race the crew closest to you, but to race the crew that is pushing for the lead. I think they made some solid strides with that concept and I got to watch some fun racing. Good times all around.
On another note, on Tuesday we launched with the downtown seawall looking the same as it usually does. By the time we had returned, this guy had shown up. Not something we normally see in downtown Portland. I can testify from up-close examination that this ship is LARGE.
The role of guest coach is always interesting. You have two days to work with an established group and try to help them reach their goals in a short time. For these guys in particular the masters regional championships is just a week away; minor technical changes probably are not the answer to helping them find more speed. Instead I worked with them a bit on their competition psychology and how to approach their racing.
Today they did some pieces against the masters women from the same club. One of the primary things we worked on was relating to the fastest crews-- making the choice not just to race the crew closest to you, but to race the crew that is pushing for the lead. I think they made some solid strides with that concept and I got to watch some fun racing. Good times all around.
On another note, on Tuesday we launched with the downtown seawall looking the same as it usually does. By the time we had returned, this guy had shown up. Not something we normally see in downtown Portland. I can testify from up-close examination that this ship is LARGE.
