Month: August 2013

The first and most important step in accomplishing something is showing up.

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 20, 2013

Hi Kayleigh! So a few days ago, we took some fours out on the water to get a good cool down after summer season, but also to get in a good warm-up for the upcoming fall season. I’ve always been used to fours with the handle on the right side, pointing the handle forward to go to starboard, and pointing the handle backward to go to port. That day, I was put into a four with a completely different steering system that I was not used to at all. There was a handle directly in front of me that jutted out from the top, and I would have to move the handle to port or starboard. I was guessing that you would point the handle in the direction that we wanted to go but we did a lot of straight-course rowing so I didn’t get to experiment as often as I would’ve liked to. My question is, what are the different types of steering in fours? And do the same principles apply (small adjustments, not going too hard on the rudder) to all types of steering? Thanks!

For the most part, yes, the same principles apply to all them. Small adjustments are key except in cases where you’re going around a big turn and need that extra “oomph” to get you around. The only real difference between steering a four vs. an eight is that the four is going to respond faster than the eight will since it’s smaller.

Basically there are three types of steering for the fours, all of which we’ve mentioned.

The strings, which work the same way they do in the eights

The lever that is directly in front of you

The handle (or “steering palm control unit”, as Vespoli calls it) that is beside you

The handle steering isn’t one I’ve used but I think it’s fairly straightforward – to steer to starboard you push it forward and to steer to port you pull it back towards you.

Something I learned after coxing a couple of bow loaders with the lever steering is that occasionally they are set up where the cables are crossed, which is frustrating if you aren’t used to it or, in my case, didn’t know that was even a thing. I coxed a Filippi when I was in Philadelphia and could not figure out why the boat kept going to port when I was clearly steering to starboard. Eventually the coach realized that I had no idea what was going on and he told me that yea, the cables in Filippis are crossed which means the steering is backwards to what I’m used to. I don’t know why some boats are like this but the best way to determine how the steering in your shell works is to play with the rudder a bit before you go out so you can see which direction it moves when you move the lever one way or the other, as well as how big your adjustments need to be.

If the steering cables are too loose you’ll find that when you’re on the water and move the rudder an inch or so you might not actually be doing anything to the rudder even though you think you’re making an adjustment. If you find that the rudder isn’t responding much to you moving the lever, let your coach know so they can tighten the cables.

College Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Harry Parker Memorial

By readyallrow August 19, 2013

In the beginning of the video you hear the commentator talk about the “Rude and Smooth” crew, which was the varsity crew from 1974 and 1975 that went undefeated and were the unofficial national champions. Chapter 7 in The Amateurs is about them. (You can read part of the chapter here. Scroll down just a little more than halfway and you’ll see it.) Sports Illustrated also wrote about them in 1975 and is sometimes credited with giving them the “rude and smooth” nickname, even though it had been around before the article was written. Here’s another good article on them too from The Crimson from 2003.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 19, 2013

I feel like I can’t really relate to any of the other girls on my team. I know that crew itself is really close-knit, but I can’t help but feel like there’s a huge separation from me and the rest of the rest of the team where I don’t really know how to associate with them and they don’t really know how to associate with me just because I’m friends with an entirely different group of people than they are. Any advice?

That’s how I felt in college (which was the exact opposite of how it was in high school). Syracuse had a program called SummerStart where you could start taking classes as a freshman in July, so by the time the actual school year started I’d already built a solid group of friends over the past month and a half. There were a couple people on the team who I became good friends with because we were in the same major and took classes together but for the most part I wasn’t friends with the majority of them. It didn’t really bother me that much but it did play a small part in why I quit. One of my friends on the team told me several times how my roommate would tell the other girls not to invite any of the girls who had non-crew friends to anything (breakfast, parties, etc.) because we didn’t exclusively associate with the other rowers and coxswains, which, if I’d cared to hang out with them in the first place probably would have annoyed me, but at the time the effort they put into excluding us was nothing more than a source of amusement.

Looking back, sure, I’ll take partial responsibility for not making as much of an effort on my end to get to know them, regardless of whether I planned to occasionally hang out with them or invite them to every major life event over the years or not. As teammates who are theoretically going to row together for four years, you should at least know each other on a basic level. Part of the reason why I think the two groups never really approached each other is because our majors were all totally different (which is dumb because in college everyone’s major is most likely totally different from the next person…) so we didn’t know each other that well outside of crew and because no one really knew how to initiate the conversation. It’s actually a little funny and a little sad how different it is trying to “make friends” when you’re 18+ compared to when you’re 5. When you’re little you just want to be friends with whoever has the 64 pack of Crayola crayons.

Knowing what I know now I’d just talk to them like you’d talk to anyone else – ask them about their major (if you’re in college), why they chose it, what they want to do, what colleges they’re looking at (if you’re in HS), what they’re thinking about majoring in, how classes are so far, how was practice, how was their boat, did they go to the game last night, what’d they think of the latest episode of Dexter/Breaking Bad/Top Gear/whatever TV show is applicable, are they going to see Macklemore/Jay Z & JT/Maroon 5/whatever artist is applicable when they come to town, what’d they do over the summer, did they travel anywhere, did they go to Club Nationals, Henley, etc., etc. Unintentional eavesdropping is also a great conversation starter. If you walk by and hear them talking about sloths, ask them if they’ve seen Kristen Bell’s epic meltdown on Ellen (of course they have but who cares, ask anyways) and then proceed to talk about all the sloth videos on YouTube.

Another thing you could do that helped my friends and I in high school get closer was the boat dinners we had every week. Sometimes I’d be coxing a boat with people from two or three different grades in it, meaning we most likely didn’t know each other that well, but through boat dinners the night before a regatta we all became really good friends and really close as a crew. We’d also make t-shirts to wear when we traveled that usually had our nicknames or some inside joke on them, which was also a great way to spend time together. You have no idea the bonding that occurs when you put a group of girls in a car together and send them to Wal-Mart to get puffy paint and plain white t-shirts.

Don’t wait for them to start the conversation and then blame them in the end for not making an effort to get to know you if they don’t. They’re probably thinking the same thing about you. Nobody likes being the awkward person who thinks they come off as trying too hard but sometimes you’ve gotta suck it up and put yourself out there. It very rarely turns out as poorly as people think it will. I think we all think we’re a lot more awkward and weird than we actually are, which is what tends to hold people back from starting conversations because we don’t want other people to notice and judge us on our awkwardness, regardless of whether it’s real or perceived. I’m definitely guilty of that depending on the group of people I’m with. You might not lose anything by not speaking up but you certainly don’t gain anything either.

To answer your question, my advice would be to just strike up a casual conversation, try to keep it going without forcing anything, and just see where things go from there. See if you can find something in common with your teammates (other than crew) and use that as your building block(s).

Masters Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 17, 2013

Hi, OK so I have a strange question. So after many months of my mom always saying how much she wanted to row, she has decided to take a LTR class. She is extremely worried about her lower back hurting while getting in and out of the boat. Do you have any tips to help her maybe try to save her back?

This is actually a pretty common question among adults. They’re not nearly as nimble and spry as we are so squatting down to get in the boat can be a little tricky on the joints. For most adults the issue is their knees or hips, primarily because of arthritis or just the general effects of getting older. Low back concerns surprisingly, at least from what I’ve seen, aren’t as prevalent.

After watching a lot of the adults get in and out when I’ve coached some of the adult learn-to-rows I’ve noticed two ways of doing it. The first is the normal way, just a little bit slower. The second is to sit on the dock parallel to the boat and then just lift your butt onto the seat before swinging your legs in one by one. The adults that are more worried about the boat moving under them, tweaking a muscle, etc. tend to do the second one. The more active-looking adults are keen to do it the normal way simply because it’s part of rowing – that’s how it’s done and if you don’t have any limitations preventing you from doing it that way, that’s how you should do it.

Just like with younger rowers, low backs don’t tend to hurt unless you’re opening up too early, have weak core muscles, and/or you’re disengaging the legs and trying to move the boat with just your upper body strength. Make sure you tell her to really focus on getting the sequencing down properly to avoid any of those issues. As long as she focuses on rowing well right now instead of rowing hard she’ll be fine.

Erg Playlists

Music to erg to, pt. 5

By readyallrow August 16, 2013

Normally I consider Pink Floyd to be sacred and un-coverable but I’m making an exception for Scissor Sister’s cover of Comfortably Numb. It’s just that good.

https://play.spotify.com/user/1241641027/playlist/2JqN4sQaBvATvixMoRQrsQ

College Recruiting

Official vs. Unofficial Visits

By readyallrow August 15, 2013

I’ve gotten a lot of questions asking what the differences are between official and unofficial visits so that’s what today’s post is going to discuss. Official visits have a few rules that have to be followed whereas unofficial visits are a bit more relaxed. Below I’ve detailed some of the major points of each one but I really recommend that you do your own research so you understand what’s permitted and what isn’t.

The most noticeable difference between official and unofficial visits is that during official visits the university covers the expenses of the student-athletes. They’re allowed to pay for transportation to and from the university for you but not your parents, meaning they’ll have to pay their own way if they accompany you. If you stay off campus with your parents then the university can cover your hotel and up to three meals per day but if you stay on campus with a team member then the university will not pay for hotel and food for your parents.

In addition to transportation, hotels, and food, the university can also provide you with up to three tickets for home athletic events. If you can manage it, I highly recommend going during football or basketball season and seeing if you can get tickets to one of the big rivalry games. It’s a great way to see what the atmosphere on campus is like, in addition to having a chance to interact with the general student body in a more realistic setting.

When you go on official visits they’re limited to only 48 hours, which extends from the time you arrive on campus to the time you leave. If your stay is longer than 48 hours then the university can’t cover the cost of your travel home. During this time you’ll attend a few classes with your host and go out on the water to observe a practice, amongst other things.

You’re allowed to take five total visits but you’re only allowed to make one official visit to each school you go to, meaning that of those five each one must be at a different school. You can visit as many times as you want but the university will only cover your expenses one time. Keep in mind that the number of visits is five combined, meaning you can go to three D1 schools and two D2 schools or five to D1 schools or five to D2 schools, but you can’t go to five D1 schools and five D2 schools.

Unofficial visits, like I said earlier, are much more lax in terms of rules. While you’re responsible for covering all of your expenses, you’re allowed to visit campus as many times as you want in addition to there being no limits on how many schools you can visit across all the divisions. You can also go at any time during your high school career. The last thing is that, like with official visits, you can’t visit campus during dead periods.

That covers just about all of it but for more info on recruiting and to see some questions other people have asked, be sure to check out the “recruiting” and “official visit” tags.

Image via // KUOW

You’re happy with 50%? You’re happy because you’re successful. You’re happy for now. But what is happiness? A moment before you need more happiness. I won’t settle for 50% of anything. I want 100%. You don’t want most of it. You want all of it.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 13, 2013

I heard that you should just steer whilst the blades are in the water to reduce drag and maintain the set. Does that mean I only move the strings when the blades are in, or do I return them to the straight position during the recovery? The latter doesn’t seem like it would turn the boat much.

During the recovery yes, unless you’re going around a really sharp curve, you would go back to having the rudder straight and the strings even. In my opinion the whole “steering while the blades are in the water” thing only truly applies to when you’re racing, especially during sprint races, because you don’t want to be steering much to begin with and, obviously, you don’t want to slow it down by creating drag from the rudder. During practice it’s not as big of a deal but the same idea still applies.

Like you said, going back and forth between having the rudder turned and having it straight won’t turn the boat as much as just holding it in the direction you want to go, but the “con” of that is that it’ll affect the set of the boat (more or less depending on the skill level of the rowers you’re coxing). You should only hold it to the side like that though if you’re trying to get around a big curve or a sharp turn. In cases like this, just tell your rowers that you’re steering to port/starboard (you should do this regardless), and have them adjust their handle heights as necessary. (Don’t forget to tell the when you’re off the rudder too so they can readjust their hands.)

So, to answer your question, when you’re going straight or going around very slight curves, you should make small adjustments as necessary and go back to having the strings straight on the recovery. I usually steer for a stroke, take a stroke or two off, and then make another adjustment if I have to. If you’re going around a larger turn just hold the rudder to the side you’re trying to go and have the rowers adjust their handle heights until you’re finished steering.

College High School Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 13, 2013

How much contact is too much contact for juniors? Are we allowed to pop in and visit quickly whilst touring? Or no personal contact at all?

I would at least email them first to say you’re coming to tour the campus and to see if they’re available, but meeting with them isn’t usually a big deal. It’s considered an unofficial visit but if you’re already going to be on campus it’s definitely worth seeing if you can meet up with them to save yourself an additional trip later on. Plus your parents will most likely be with you so they can ask the coach any questions they have too. I wouldn’t just go straight to their office with no prior warning though because that’s a little … weird, especially if you haven’t had much contact or interaction prior to that. I don’t think the NCAA has a definition of “too much contact”, at least from your end, but you should be able to use your common sense to determine how much is too much.