Month: January 2013

Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By

Our coach had the novice 8+ row with two varsity 8s today. Coach focused on the two varsity boats and paid no attention to our novice boat. My rowers were really frustrated because she told them they can’t mix with varsity rowing until they know how to row but they feel like if there’s no direction and if they can’t row with the varsity they won’t learn anything. My opinion is that the coach wants them to know what it feels like to do the varsity workouts 1st. From a coach’s point of view, what do you think?

Interesting situation. I get what your coach is saying but I don’t understand why she’d take you out with the varsity and then completely ignore you. That seems counter-productive. Based on their frustration, it sounds like a chat with your coach might be in order. As their coxswain, it’s your job to act as the go-to person between the boat and your coach, so I’d talk to her either before or after practice and explain that the rowers are frustrated/confused/whatever emotion best describes them because they felt like they were totally ignored when they went out with the varsity boats and they feel like when they’re not getting any instruction, their rowing isn’t improving. Hopefully she’ll be able to give you some insight into her thought process.

I’d also ask her if there are days when she wants you to go out with the other boats but knows that her focus will be on the varsity, can she give you a workout to do on your own and then she can come check up on you intermittently throughout practice. That way the rowers can still feel like they’re accomplishing something without the coach being around. That would also make you look good too – every coach loves a coxswain who takes initiative.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By

What is your opinion on crew relationships? I feel like if they work out that it’s great, but if they end it’s extremely awkward because you’re at crew EVERY SINGLE DAY. I ask this because I like a guy at my rowing club, who liked my best friend. Liked being the keyword: she never had feelings for him that way and friendzoned him. Yes, I know you aren’t a matchmaker or anything like that but you know a lot about crew!

As long as you’re mature about it and can separate your relationship from crew, then you’ll be fine. Problems arise when you bring your relationship into the boat with you or let it affect your performance. If you come to practice crying, fighting, or just in an overall shitty mood because of something that happened between the two of you, that’s when you need to start re-evaluating things. It can be awkward if/when it ends, especially if you went out for awhile or got friend-zoned like the guy you know did, but you really just have to be mature about it and move on.

Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By

Are lightweight rowers expected to be taller? I always see a ton of heavies on the shorter side, but I’m 5’9″ and a lightweight so would I probably need to gain some weight?

Lightweights are actually shorter than most heavy/openweight rowers simply because it’s harder to be that tall and maintain a lightweight’s body weight (130lbs or 160lbs). If you aren’t struggling to maintain your weight, are healthy, and the weight you’re at now is fairly natural for you, I wouldn’t worry about it. The most important thing is that you aren’t taking any extraordinary measures to be at or below the lightweight max. When lightweights are borderline and finally decide that they don’t want to keep trying to maintain 130 or 160lbs, I equate it to their body exhaling a sigh of relief. They’ll gain some weight but it’ll mostly be without any extra effort on their part. Their body essentially does all the work in order to get them up to the weight that is natural for them.

Looking at the lightweights that were on this year’s Olympic team, on the men’s side in the LWT 4- their height ranged from 5’11” to 6’2″ (tall yes, but short in comparison to the heavies who were all 6’5″ and taller). The women only competed in the LWT 2x and both of them were 5’6″.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By

How much would you say rowing kit, lifejacket, cox box weighs on top of your usual body weight?

I’ve never actually measured any of this so this is all guesstimating. Depending on how many layers I’m wearing, my clothes can probably add anywhere from 3-8ish lbs. A lifejacket probably weighs two pounds, and a cox box is probably another pound. So on a normal day where I’m not wearing every layer I own, I’d say all that probably adds maybe 6-7lbs to my weight. Like I said though, I’ve never actually weighed myself with all of that (and I’ve never had to wear a life jacket while on the water) so this is purely speculation.

Related: How does getting weighed in work during the spring season? I’m a coxswain for a collegiate men’s team where the weight minimum is 125. I’m naturally under 110, so what’s going to happen? Sand bags? Will it be a problem?

I feel compelled to throw this out there now … if you’re a coxswain and you’re weighing in at a regatta, you can’t use outside stuff to add to your weight if you’re under the limit. Usually you have to weigh in wearing what the rowers wear – i.e. your uni or whatever you wear when you race. When I was a novice we had to weigh in before a regatta and at the time I didn’t know I couldn’t wear all my layers when I did it, so I ended up taking everything but my long spandex pants and long sleeve spandex shirt off. Other than the obvious reason, they can also ask you to wear just your spandex so they can make sure you aren’t loading your pockets with wrenches, weight plates of your own, etc. to try and cheat the scale.

What to wear: Coxswains (Men)

Coxing

What to wear: Coxswains (Men)

By

Previously: What to wear: Coxswains (women)

In part one I talked a lot about the importance of wearing the proper clothes while out on the water, especially in the winter. For coxswains this is especially important since we are stationary for the majority of practice, which causes us to get colder much faster than everyone else. Like I mentioned in the last post, if you’ve got a survival suit that you can throw over these layers when it starts getting cold, definitely do it.

Women are usually pretty good about wearing the right clothes, it’s the guys that tend to learn the hard way. “Tough guy points” as they’re known around the boathouse are voided if/when you develop hypothermia. I can’t stress the importance of wind and waterproof/resistant layers enough. Coxing when you’re cold is hard and makes it tough to focus so do yourself a favor and make sure you’ve got the right gear on when you go out.

Image via // @theboatsmancompany

College Q&A Recruiting Rowing

Question of the Day

By

So you told that other anon that height is what stops good rowers. I’m 5′ 7” and one of the better people on my team, though one of the shortest. I think I may grow just another inch, give or take. My coach always tells me, “you’re shorter than I think you would be from your scores.” Is that good or bad? And is it not possible for me to get recruited for a D1 college if I’m too short? What is “too short?” Sorry that’s a lot of questions. Thanks!

Well, it doesn’t necessarily “stop” them, per se, the national teams just have specific requirements that only a specific group of people meet. It makes sense, to be honest. Taller rowers typically have a longer reach and can generate more power so it’s understandable that those would be the type of people they’d be looking for. On the other hand it’s a little unfortunate since there are many great rowers out there who don’t meet the height requirements.

If I’m reading that correctly, I’d definitely take it as a compliment. I think what he’s saying is that looking at you, it doesn’t seem, based on whatever factors, that you’d be able to pull the times that you do, so to see you pulling times that are comparable with the taller people is really impressive.

I don’t think it limits you from being recruited at all. I’ve said in a couple other responses that if being a lightweight is something you can do (in a healthy way), it’s worth considering since lightweight programs were created for people of “normal height” but being 5’7″ – 5’8″ definitely doesn’t rule you out of openweight programs. As I’ve said before, there are a lot of factors that go into recruiting an athlete and one’s height is probably not the biggest one when compared to other things like erg times, academics, etc., mainly because it’s something you don’t have any control over.

Ergs Q&A Racing Technique Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By

During 2k tests, I have the most difficulty sprinting. I’m generally better at long distance pieces (both running and erging) and can usually work with that to my advantage but I think that if I worked on my sprint I could chop off a second or two. Basically what’s your advice about sprinting in general? Where should I start the sprint? How many splits lower should it be than the rest of the 2k? Sorry there’s a lot of questions within this, sprinting is just one big clusterfuck for me

Sprinting is the definition of controlled chaos. By the time you reach that point, your body has entered a whole new circle of hell and you have no choice but to keep it together and continue rowing. It’s definitely something that takes practice and a lot of mental stamina to be able to execute effectively.

When I’m coxing I typically call 5 to build at 350m and then at 300m(ish), we go. When I see most people doing a 2k, that’s about where they start their sprint too. Any more than that tends to be too long and unsustainable and any less is usually not enough to produce any measurable gains. As your stamina and strength increases you’ll be able to start your sprint sooner but 250m is usually a good starting spot. The difference between your “sprint splits” and your average split time will depend on you, really. The goal of sprinting is to empty the tanks and go all out, as fast as you can, and even harder than you thought you could. As your body gets stronger and more used to rowing at those higher rates, your splits will fall. I’d say 2ish seconds below your average 2k split would probably be a good.

Related: On a lot of rowing blogs I hear people mention “negative splits”, especially when discussing 2k’s. What exactly are they and can it be beneficial to know how to properly use them?

Before you try and jump straight into an all-out sprint though, practice. Don’t practice when you’re alert and have a full tank of gas in your system either, practice it when you’re tired.  Practice keeping your head in the game – close your eyes, take a few deep breaths – and controlling your body. Sit up tall, relax your shoulders, tighten your core … these are all things you might think you’re already doing until you actually do them and realize you weren’t. Also, have someone watch and/or record you for a few strokes so you can watch the footage later and see how you looked.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By

If you could give one piece of advice to any coxswain, what would it be?

One piece? I could never give just one piece of advice…

After thinking about this for awhile I think I’m gonna keep it simple – be confident in yourself and your abilities and always, always trust your instincts.

Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By

I’m trying to go down from heavyweight to lightweight. Since the beginning of our training trip, I’ve gained three pounds (137 to 140 lbs) even though I’m basically eating fruits, veggies, limited carbs, no artificial sugars, protein, and quite a bit of water. I’ve been doing two a days (OTW/ergs) and then additional cardio and core work. What suggestions do you have for losing weight? I’d love to go down to 130 by end of Feb. Thanks!

I doubt you’ve actually gained three pounds given how many calories you’re burning right now. It’s most likely just water weight – don’t worry too much about it.

As far as going from heavyweight to lightweight, definitely continue eating healthy. Don’t limit your carbs too much – people jump on bandwagons and assume carbs are bad for you but the right ones aren’t. Once you get back to your normal routine (without the two-a-days), try and do some form of cardio at least 3-4 times a week for 45ish minutes a session. Keep doing your core work 2-3x a week in addition to your cardio. Also, don’t forget to add in some strength training…

Remember that as you work out, you’re inevitably building muscle. Muscle is denser than fat, so if the scale reads a higher number than what you normally weight, don’t automatically attribute it to doing everything wrong. Obviously you’re not gonna build that much muscle in such a short period of time … I’m talking more long term here.) Some bodies aren’t meant to go below a certain weight though so don’t try and force it. Make healthy decisions when it comes to eating right and working out. It seems like you have a good thing going with your diet and workouts right now so try and maintain what you’re doing and go from there.