Pictures from Saturday

Practice today was around ~16-17 k with plenty of 3' pieces.





This eight lineup made huge strides and took some risks in terms of pushing the limits of their current fitness. Adaptation grows out of challenge. They'll gain the benefits of this work leading into the next few weeks.


The whole novice team was down with the varsity for the first time this morning. It was very good to introduce the two groups of athletes. Here's the novice women, who looked pretty decent today.







Downtime between pieces-- good time for a joke. The four found the camera very funny.








Cooling down, headed for the dock.



Novice men on the dock.



All finished up, ready for Brunch.

Very good row today, fantastic water and perfect mid-50's weather. Early fall is a really nice time of year out here.

Quick Friday Update

Not a lot of posting the last few days; as the season has hit its stride things have been very busy.

The team has had a few good rows since the challenges of Tuesday's practice; we've done a lot of work on acceleration, connection, and posture. The goal is to build a foundation of set that we can then use to work on other, more detailed aspects of technique.

Looking to take a bunch of pictures at practice tomorrow; stay tuned.

Dealing with Challenges

The row this morning was . . . OK. Honestly, not our best work, and a step back from what we had from the end of last week. We spoke about it when we got in, and the key thing is to refocus on what we gain out of this situation.

Not every practice will be perfect, nor every race. The challenges today were to be found in timing, set, and getting flow. I was also less then 'on' today, and when the coach is feeling out of it while the crews are struggling it's hard to change the momentum of the practice.

The positive today is that despite the challenges we got a fairly effective workout in. It was also good to see that the team stayed focused and we did see improvement throughout; the rowing at the end of practice was significantly better then at the start. The goal we set for tomorrow is to come back and start off better then we finished today.

Most often success starts with a challenge.

Saturday 9-20

Saturday practice means longer rows, daylight, and racing pieces. The pictures can do the talking but this was a very nice session-- great weather, boats clicked well, and the racing showed off a good development of intensity from the beginning of the week.

Hello, Novice!

The sculling class rowed past the novice team out on their first day on the water.

They all said hello.



I'm very impressed with the athleticism of our novice this fall; this was my first opportunity to spend some time observing the group and they're looking fit and seem to be learning quickly. They're going to add a lot to the team over the coming weeks, months, and years.

12.5k

Three years ago, my first at Lewis & Clark, it took us three or four weeks into the fall season before I felt like we could do effective workouts.

The last two years have been a little bit better, but this year takes the cake by far. We did 32 minutes of solid work today, rowed a total of 12.5 kilometers, and accomplished a very challenging workout, all during just our third water practice.

The primary thing that's changed this year is the quality of our base technique; boats are set (mostly), catches are good (pretty good), and we're accelerating and sending the shells well. Having these basics down allows us to get work done instead of just teaching the stroke. By no means are we done with technical work-- we still have a lot of that to do as well-- but being able to develop the physical and the technical alongside each other is a huge asset and one which will serve us well in a short fall season.

The Novice team made their way down to the boathouse for the first time yesterday, carrying boats and learning all the basics (how to get in & out, how to set stretchers, how to hold the blade). I'm looking forward to seeing these guys get out in a boat today.

Practice #1 of 98

Day one on the water, impressions.



Several people (about half the group) swapped sides before the row today. We had a very nice improvement curve from the beginning to the end of practice

Good to see people making changes, and listening too and absorbing coaching. A thing to remember is that I only kind of know what I'm talking about; a big part of my job is helping the athletes to try something new and it's up to them to implement the change.

I love rowing and coaching on the Willamette. This time of year, early fall, it's fairly warm, still lush with life, and wonderful still water. A really excellent place to row.

Got to catch up with some other coaches today. The community was out in force on a Tuesday morning.

Women were out in an eight & four, men out in pairs today. The pairs looked great and I'm excited to get to use them more. One of our freshman only sculled in high school and he took his first sweep strokes today in a pair; by the end of practice it was pretty good.

Everyone, coaches included, is very happy to be back too it. Rowing is what we're here for; it's nice to see us out getting strokes in again.

We're not quite ready to take on the world, but we've taken the first steps.