Turning the Stake

Once upon a time the stake race was a staple of American rowing. Local professional rowers entered these races, there was extensive betting, and the sport was as shady and dirty as underground boxing is today. A stake race is started and finished from the same location. Crews race out to a turnaround (the Stake) and then back to where they started from. The turn is of paramount importance in executing a good race.

This weekend we've got several entries in the Head of the Dog (HotDog), a local stake race. There's two prizes at stake (pun entirely intended). First, we want our athletes to have a good head race piece and perform well against the mixed competition made up of masters, juniors, and open entries. To that end we practiced our turns this morning, working on the watermanship required to rapidly reverse direction around the stake. Skills like this increase confidence in boat handling and help crews develop cohesion in how they move together. I'm a great believer in athletes having a well-rounded set of skills and growing past just rowing fast in a straight line.

The second prize is "Best of Breed". Awarded each year by the previous year's winners, the best of breed prize goes to the crew (not individual!) with the best costume. I've been warning our athletes not to take this competition lightly; it's a major prize in the local rowing community and many take it very seriously. I'll have the camera out Saturday and expect some high-quality entertainment.

Wolf Pack vs. the Herd

I had a good conversation with a couple of parents who came to ride in the launch this morning and watch their daughter row; great to have an audience and it's always fun to show off what we're up to. They had just dropped their other daughter off at a large school where she's joining the crew as well; we talked about the differences between small and large programs and how the development of the team proceeds at each.

We're a small team. Truth. This will likely always be the case-- I can see a day when we have about three eights of women and two of men, but I don't anticipate seven or eight. This is neither good nor bad, it simply IS. The truth is you have to choose what you do and play to your strengths. For our program, we focus intensively on development of every athlete both physically and technically. Since we don't have the waiting sea of bodies, we need to get more out of those we have and ensure each and every athlete contributes fully to the speed of our team.

The men used the analogy of the wolf pack last year. A pack of wolves relies tightly on each other, and on their endless endurance, to wear down the herd of deer. Over a short sprint, they'll never win. But in the long run they'll wear their prey down. Rowing is an endurance race. We may not have raw power off the start, but with excellent fitness and perfect technique, we'll wear the opposition down and be there at the end of the race to put our bow in front.

Quote of the Day

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
-Odysseus.

Tuesday Sculling

Sculling; AM Practice 9.22 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

10.4k in a quad & double this AM; wonderful flat water and we got waked exactly once; a great morning to be rowing in Portland. We're continuing to work on teaching some of our folks to scull and developing the skills of those who are already comfortable with that side of the sport. A lot of the confidence with sculling comes from finding connection on the smaller blades; once you do the feel is of a strong connection that hangs directly through the fingers. A very good skill to transfer back into the sweep boat.

Saturday Photo Blog

Our first Saturday practice of the 09-10 season is in the bag, and I thought I'd let the pictures tell the story. This was our first full-team practice, with novice, varsity, men and women all at the boathouse in one big group.



We started out with some hill running to get us going; we divided the group into four heats and ran an Olympic-style FISA progression; heats, repechage, semifinals, and finally A, B, C, and D finals. By the end we'd sorted out the group's speed very well and there was some good racing up the hill.



The eventual winner- looking over his shoulder after getting off to a false start and being called back.



Then out on the water. We had some recent alums join us for the row today and took out bunches of boats. Some of the folks in these boats have been rowing for six or seven years, others have been on the water just five or six days.



The two women's eights did some leapfrog to start out, then we did a couple of one minute racing pieces.



Every year I'm blown away by the ability of new people to pick up on good rowing quickly when surrounded by experienced athletes. It was great to see our experienced rowers teaching the novice and embracing the concept of a full varsity team.



Once racing was over we docked and put everything away. Except one boat; the Charlie Brown '85, the Pocock four we purchased last year, had never been christened in her first season. We were overdue. Three of Charlie's former friends and athletes local to the Portland area came out to help us out; they spoke eloquently about Charlie's legacy, his honor and integrity, and his ability to inspire any athlete to achieve great things. All values we hope to continue with in our program today.



Thanks to Peter Edwards, Morgan Beller, and Paul Vanderwal for joining us to honor their teammate, coach, and friend for his endless contributions to our program. And also thanks to Xan, Meghann, Max, Amanda, Dave, and Gabe for coming out and joining us for a row-- it was great to see some of the old crowd back down at the boathouse.

A great practice and a great day. Rain has returned to Portland and it's time to enjoy a cool, damp Saturday in the fall.

News from the Trenches

Getting into the swing of things now, establishing my rhythm alternating between practices. Mornings with the varsity, afternoons with the novice, morning with the varsity, afternoon with the sculling class, repeat. Waking up is easier, less coffee needed, and the rowing is coming along very nicely.

Today I took the experienced women out all in sculling boats; except for one athlete they all had prior experience. We were able to make some very good progress and soon we'll have them out in doubles frequently-- I foresee a couple mornings a week in doubles, working both sculling skills but more importantly the boat feel and direct drive application that sculling offers.

Yesterday the novice had a very fun day-- cooler, the river traffic was down, windy, so there was some excitement and challenge to stay organized, and more importantly progress; the rowing is getting to the point where we can try to row full boat for short periods of time and that always makes things more exciting. We had a four out that did a great job of teaching themselves how to row together; after a couple of failed attempts to find synchronization they stopped, talked among themselves, and figured out a rhythm. It was cool to back off and watch them teach each other.

Big team practice planned for Saturday-- stay tuned!

Eh?

Two days ago, when I logged in, my counter was at ~5500, about where I left it the day before.

Yesterday we hit 12,000 views.

Can anyone give me any explanation of that one? If you're a most welcome new viewer, from whence did you arrive?

Day One

First practice this morning, and I'd forgotten how much the coffee is needed to get through the transition week. Going from a 7:30 wakeup to a 5:15, and tomorrow to 4:40, has its challenges. I'm working on my 4th cup of the day to get ready for the sculling class this afternoon.

The women had a good first erg workout today, and it was great fun to introduce the novice and experienced athletes for the first time. I see some serious potential in the group and there's an undercurrent of both excitement and nervousness about what this sport holds for folks-- that's a good thing! Word has it that the men had an excellent row as well with awesome water to start the year.

Excellent talk after practice, highlighting how individual contributions create great team dynamics. I also spoke to the team about the importance of taking care of all the little things-- being on time, sharing the load, staying on top of academics and rest-- so we can have excellent focus when we have time together as a team.

Final point; I brought out one of my favorite quotes when talking to the women about goals and how to achieve them. Yoda said it best:

A friend of the program just moved into a riverside apartment on the 15th floor of one of the South Waterfront buildings. A perfect vantage point to get this shot of one of our beginning rowing eights and me in the new wakeless launch this afternoon. Way cool.

Boat Feel

On the eve of our first team practices (women will be on the ergs at 6 AM tomorrow, men headed for the water first thing) I remembered this video of the British lightweight double that won gold in Beijing. They've got great feel for the boat and I hope we can work to create something similar with our athletes. Looking forward to getting started tomorrow; most of all to introducing the novice and experienced athletes and creating this year's foundation for a strong rowing community here at Lewis & Clark.

Much Rowing

Wow, another week done and almost no media to show for it. Each day I go to the boathouse and mean to take pictures or video to show off what we're doing but each practice has been so busy, fun, and fast paced that the thought has completely cleared my mind. With the start of our official team practices next week I'll look to do better.

The beginning rowing class has been on the water both Wednesday and Friday now; good rows both days with lots of excitement. Especially today, as 90 degree plus weather and what was probably the last hot Friday of this fall made for some. . . well, let's just say bouncy river conditions. I think folks handled it well and despite the challenge we're seeing some great potential among the class. Many of these folks are pursuing the opportunity of joining our team and I'm looking forward to showing them the competitive side of the sport!

The sculling class went out Thursday for flip tests; I REALLY wanted to take video of this but promised I wouldn't. I can assure you all it was entertaining, but more importantly it's an great confidence building step on the way to being comfortable in small boats. By not being afraid of the eventuality of flipping, athletes are able to focus more completely on their rowing and achieve a greater level of skill.

Looking forward to a glorious September Portland weekend; some good bike rides and social events planned and then straight into our team practices and the true kickoff of the Pioneer Crew 2009-2010 season!

The first rowing of the 2009-10 school year; out in a quad getting to know our intermediate sculling class. Our beginning rowing group hits the water this afternoon; this is always an exciting, hectic, and a little bit wild day. As I've been telling people, we're going to push you off the dock, then spend about an hour teaching you to row well enough to get back on time. It's lots of fun every year!

Pio Fair to Rowing Day 1

Been a little while since the last post-- last week was spent pretty frantically, trying to stay ahead of everything that needed doing. I feel mostly caught up now but that's only after a very restful Labor Day weekend that came just at the right time.

Ending last week we participated in the full on Pio Fair, now in its 4th year at Lewis & Clark. All of the sports were asked to come up with a fun activity that everyone could participate in. So we figured, what's more fun then racing 100 meters all out on an erg?



Everyone was invited to come sit down next to a current rower and race the hundred all out. Beat a current rower, win a t-shirt, and maybe get talked to just a bit about the opportunities available in rowing.



I think most everyone had a good time.

Today is rowing day one-- the first day out on the water for the fall semester. The Beginning Rowing course is headed out today; we'll look to do some pretty easy rowing in the quad to start things off, just getting a feel for people's experience.

September 1st Roundup

Busy busy busy. . . suddenly the campus is hopping and there's lots to do.

-> HUGE PROPS to Abby Broughton, newly crowned bronze medalist in the lightweight women's quad at the 2009 World Championships. This is a Lewis & Clark first-- Abby is the first graduate to win a medal at a world championships. It's also auspicious to note that Abby started rowing at this very school!

--> That's auspicious because we spent the afternoon yesterday hanging out on campus and recruiting freshman! Had some great conversations and then kicked things off with day one of our beginning rowing class; a fun group that's likely to grow, evolve, and develop into a strong part of our team and rowing community. We obviously look to get a lot of these folks into a racing role on our squad, but a big part of the fun is also reaching out with the sport and drawing non-competitive folks into the rowing world.

---> September 1st marks the first day of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance bike commute challenge; Lewis & Clark has finished well in the past. Last year I missed one day for a 96-0dd percent commute rate; this year the goal is to ride every day in September.

----> Continuing to see returning athletes, talk about where we're going, and get fired up for on-the-water fun starting next week with the classes and the week after with the team.