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.
Tag: harvard university
Video of the Week: The Social Network
In honor of the Royal Henley Regatta that takes place later this week, I give you this Armie Hammer appreciation post.
Also, somewhat related, check out these posts by Dan Boyne, coach of Harvard’s recreational rowing program, on the making of the rowing scenes from the movie, including the Henley scene. It didn’t actually hit me until I read this several months ago that the rowing scenes from the beginning are from that stretch between N. Beacon Street and the sandbar (if you’re familiar with the river by CRI). There are nine parts and some are a little lengthy but they’re well worth the read.
Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7 || Part 8 || Part 9
Question of the Day
What is Radcliffe? Is that another rowing team? I’ve heard they also row under Harvard’s team?
Radcliffe doesn’t row under Harvard’s team, they are one of Harvard’s teams. They’re the women’s program that rows out of Weld Boathouse, which is on the Cambridge side of the river beside the Anderson bridge.
They’re called “Radcliffe” instead of “Harvard” because in the 1880s (I think) Radcliffe College was established, which was the female counterpart to the men’s Harvard College. Sometime in the mid-70s Harvard’s athletic department took over the Radcliffe athletics program and all the women’s teams took a vote as to whether or not they should become “Harvard” or remain “Radcliffe”. Only women’s rowing decided to not change their name which is why they aren’t known as “Harvard” and still have black and white colors instead of crimson.
College Racing Video of the Week
Video of the Week: The 148th Harvard-Yale Regatta
In case you don’t know about the Harvard-Yale Regatta, it is the oldest intercollegiate sporting event in the United States. They started racing each other in 1852 which, for those of you who know your US History, was before the Civil War began. With the exception of not racing during times of war when the US was fighting, the race – “The Race” – has been run every year since 1859. Initially it was rowed on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire but it’s more permanent home is on the Thames River in New London, CT. (Unlike the river that runs through London, England, this one is not pronounced “Tems”. It is in fact pronounced just as it’s spelled.)
There are two campsites along the river that act as the training grounds for each team and where they bunker down for a week or more to prepare to race each other. Yale is at Gales Ferry and Harvard is at Red Top. There are four races all together – the varsity (4 miles), junior varsity (3 miles), freshman (2 miles), and combination (2 miles), which is a boat comprised of rowers from the 3V8+ and 2F8+. The winners of the combination race earn the right to paint their team’s colors on the rock at Bartlett’s Cove the next day, which also happens to be the most popular spot to watch the races as they come down the river.
Harvard is currently sitting atop the leader boards with an impressive 94-54 record, having won the varsity race for the last six consecutive years and 13 of the last 14.
College Coxing Racing Video of the Week
Video of the Week: Harvard, Penn, and Navy
This week’s video is a good opportunity for coxswains to learn what to do when there’s two separate pieces happening within one race. You’ll notice that after Mass Ave. Harvard’s got a solid length’s lead on the other two crews. If you’re the Navy or Penn coxswain, what do you do? You obviously don’t want to keep telling your crew that you’re a length or more down on Harvard and continue the increasingly futile attempts at chasing them down, so at that point you have to, in a sense, concede that race and focus on the one you can still win, which in this case would be the one between Navy and Penn.
Basically what I’m saying is that you have to recognize when you’re racing for first and when you’re racing for second. First place was established about 500m into the race but 2nd is still up for grabs, so the focus should shift towards the crew you still have a chance at beating. There’s some psychology behind this that you’ve got to wrestle with but ultimately you’ve got to recognize the situation and understand that you lost this battle but you can still win this other one, and then in the midst of all of the racing you’ve got to get your crew to buy into that within the span of 3-5 strokes.
In that same vein, if you’re the Harvard coxswain, what do you do? You’re not racing anyone anymore, so how do you keep your crew from getting complacent? Just as you have to work hard to keep them engaged when you’re a boat length down, you also have to work hard to keep them engaged when you’re a length up.
In one situation, you’re behind and you’ve got to claw your way back to the top. The rowers can’t see anyone behind you so they know they’re behind and that creeping feeling of “shit, we’re losing” is taking over. The bodies aren’t quitting yet but the minds are. You as the coxswain have to shut that voice up, eight, sometimes nine, times over. In the other situation, you’re ahead and the rowers can clearly see they’re ahead. This gives them an opportunity to think “well, we’re ahead, we clearly have the lead … let’s back off a bit, save some energy, and coast through the finish line”.
At regattas where you’re part of a progression and you’ve got to go through heats and semis before reaching the finals and you’ve established a solid lead during your heat, yea, you can back off a little. That’s on your call though, not theirs. Make sure that is established ahead of time. You want to save your energy and your best rowing for the final so backing off a bit in the heat once you’ve secured a spot in the semis or finals is fine. When you’re in a finals-only race like this one between Harvard, Penn, and Navy though, you should be going all out from start to finish. At the very least, it’s good practice.
If mid-race you find yourselves in a one-crew race you’ve got to assess the situation and figure out what you can do to still make the piece worth something. Yea you might win but what else did you get out of it? If you race all the way across the line instead of coasting across it, that gives you the opportunity to push your bodies so that when you are racing all the way to the end your bodies don’t prematurely give out with 200m to go because you haven’t been tested all season.