Tag: summer

Five Tips for Making the Most of Summer Camps

By readyallrow June 15, 2017

It’s that time of year and I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately on how to make the most of your time at a summer rowing camp. This year will be my third one doing camps so below is a list of tips that I’ve pulled together from several other coaches I’ve worked with and my own observations from the camps I’ve done so far.

You must be an active participant

This means engaging with the coaches, engaging with the other athletes, and taking a lot of notes. All the camps I’ve been too give you a notebook on Day 1 for this exact reason, because we know there’s going to be a lot of information dispensed and you’re not going to remember it all. Don’t wait for coaches to say “you should write this down” either because in most cases, we won’t.

So what should you write down? Any and all questions you want to ask the coaches you’re working with, their responses, feedback you ask for/receive on your individual rowing technique, anything you learn about technique that you might not have known before, any new drills you pick up (and their purpose, how it’s done, what it targets, etc.), any new calls or phrases you learn, post-practice reflections, etc. The opportunities to take notes during camp are endless and it makes it super easy to answer the inevitable “so what you’d do at camp” question your parents will ask on the drive home.

Your experience is a direct reflection of your level of investment and engagement

Have you ever worked on a group project and had that one kid who said nothing, contributed nothing, and made trying to engage with them akin to pulling teeth … and then complained to the teacher after the fact that the other people in their group sucked, they wouldn’t let them do anything, and whatever grade they got isn’t fair? Don’t be that person.

It’s pretty obvious when someone wants to learn and ask questions but is just shy and unsure of how to engage with the coaches or other kids. That’s totally fine and easy to work through. It’s also obvious who’s there just because their parents have the money to spend and want their kid to do something over the summer, even though the kid couldn’t care less about becoming a better rower or coxswain. This one is a lot harder to manage for both the coaches and athletes because … if you don’t want to be there, there’s not gonna be much that convinces you to try and make the best of it.

To quote another coach, “don’t make us pull information or a conversation out of you – it gets exhausting fast and isn’t where we want to put our efforts”. I’ve never worked with a coach who didn’t care about the experience a kid was having. We all want you to have a good time and get something out of being there but the onus can’t be put entirely on the coaches to make that happen. We’ll facilitate it but you’ve gotta work with us and not just sulk in the background whenever the coaches are laying out the plan for the day or trying to create a dialogue. Take ownership of your time at camp and be involved in the process.

Have specific and realistic goals

“Lower my 2k”, “learn about technique”, and “steer straighter” are three of the most common “goals” I’ve seen kids come into camp with and none are specific enough or realistic for a camp that lasts 3-5 days. Coxswains especially, when you say “learn about technique” … what does that mean?? There are umpteen hundred different facets of technique that I can promise you will take longer than our 3-5 90 minute group sessions to go over.

Related: Coxswains and summer camp

The more specific you are about what you want to learn, the better we as coaches will be able to address those things during practice or in group/one-on-one conversations. If the starting point is “I want to become a better coxswain in three days”, it’s like … great! … but how? Break that down into 2-3 things based on stuff that you were working on or struggled with during the previous season. Last summer we had a guy who wanted to pick up some strategies on improving his communication skills because that was something he struggled with throughout the season after unexpectedly getting moved into the varsity eight (as a freshman coxing juniors/seniors). That was a great goal because not only could all the other coxswains contribute their own advice on what’s worked (or hasn’t worked) for them but he also had two opportunities per day for six days to test everyone’s suggestions and find out what worked for him.

We probably weren’t going to see the benefits of the work he was doing at the end of the week but that was never the point … the point was for him to soak up as much information as he could so he could take it home and continue employing and tweaking it throughout the year. He came in with one very specific goal and was able to collect tons of advice from the other coxswains and the coaches (I distinctly remember him asking us about the best/worst coxswains on our team and why they were such) that ultimately paved the way towards him becoming a better coxswain in the long run. That was unlikely to happen though if he’d come in with something more vague and generic.

Come with questions

This goes back to being an active participant. There’s always scheduled opportunities for you to talk with coaches individually and you should take full advantage of that by coming prepared with a list of 5-7 questions that you want to have answered throughout the week. Don’t make them all about recruiting either because nearly every camp has dedicated time where they’ll talk to the entire group about that specifically. This is a good opportunity though to learn more about that specific coach’s program if you’re interested in rowing there but don’t be that guy that goes up to the Cornell lightweight coach to ask about the Harvard lightweight program. Know your audience.

Ask them for advice based on their personal experiences too. Several of the coaches I’ve worked with at these camps have rowed for the national team, been to the Olympics or World Championships, won NCAA/IRA titles (as athletes and coaches), etc. so you should pick their brains and find out what’s worked for them that might also work for you. If you’ve been trying to hit a new PR for awhile but seem to have hit a plateau, ask how they overcame that if/when it happened to them (or their teammates). If your boat had trouble this past season forming a cohesive identity, ask them how they/their coxswains/coaches handled similar situations where there were a lot of strong personalities in the boat who always seemed to be at odds with one another. Trust me when I say rowing coaches have stories that would put your grandparents “back in my day” stories to shame so don’t be afraid to engage with them and ask questions that go beyond “this is my 2k, how recruitable am I”.

For coxswains, one question that should be on your list for every coach you interact with is what’s their best piece of advice for improving communication with your coach. I guarantee every coach will tell you something different based on the experiences they’ve had with their coxswains and everything they tell you will be gold. One question I remember being asked had to do with something I said relating to someone’s technique – the coxswain had honed in on a specific phrase I said and asked how she could incorporate that into her calls because that same issue was something someone in her boat had struggled with the previous season. We spent a couple minutes brainstorming more concise ways of saying the same thing, as well as going over what exactly I was getting at so she understood the background of the technical issue we were working on, how to identify and correct it (using the calls we came up with), and how to tweak those calls based on whether they were doing something like steady state or in a faster-paced environment like a race.

Make mistakes and don’t assume your way is the only way

One of my favorite things that I’ve heard another (coxswain) coach say is that you’re gonna get called out for mistakes at camp because you’re not getting called out for them at home. If you were, you wouldn’t be making them. That applies to your rowing technique, your practice management skills, etc.

Related: Making mistakes

You should go in with a very open mind and be prepared to do things differently than you’re used to doing them … especially if you’ve been doing them wrong. “Suspend all beliefs you have about coxing” was how one coach phrased it last year because if you’ve been taught how to cox by people who have never coxed, you’re in for an eye-opening few days.

If you’ve been to a summer rowing camp (either a week-long one or a longer program like dev or HP camp) in the past, what are your tips for making the most out of your time there?

Image via // @wvllace

Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow June 13, 2017

Hi! I am a recently graduated high school senior that, due to my birth year, has to race U23 this summer. Do you have any tips on how to make the transition from junior to intermediate rowing easier? I will be competing at some major races this summer (IDR, Henley) so any info on how to get into a U23 training mentality would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

I think the best/most important piece of advice is to just go into it with an open mind and be coachable. You’ll definitely be pushed at a level higher than you probably have been thus far so your mentality has to be one of holding yourself accountable to doing the work more than anything else. Don’t overlook the simple stuff either – Wes Ng talked about this at one of the camps I was at last year and it’s all great advice that would definitely apply to your situation. That post is linked below.

One of the things I remember friends in college saying about moving up to U23s (and college rowing in general) was how much more seriously they had to take their recovery. The changes in training were obvious but if you don’t follow that up by adapting how you recover, the training itself will be less effective.

They all also kept pretty detailed training journals but one also kept a separate recovery journal where he detailed the different routines/recovery methods he tried before finding the “sweet spot” of what worked, in addition to laying out his thoughts on how he was feeling mentally about training, what hurdles he was facing and how he overcame them (particularly when it came to hitting new PRs), etc. Ultimately I think that journal (which was a physical notebook compared to an Excel doc for his training journal) proved to be the most useful tool for him simply because of the introspection it allowed. It’s not something that works for everyone, which is fine, but it’s definitely something worth trying to see if it helps you too.

For him (and a lot of other rowers I know), being more in touch with the mental/emotional side of training helped in a lot of different ways (the least of which being able to train smarter) but it all went back to holding himself accountable to keeping those journals in the first place so he could track his progress/mentality throughout the season.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 27, 2016

Do you have any recommendations for summer programs for collegiate coxswains (with 1-2 years of previous experience)? Can you provide several recommendations with varying competitiveness and schedule flexibility? I’d like to cox this summer but I’m also looking at a full-time summer job.

Places that host U23 programs like NYAC, Penn AC, Vesper, Riverside, etc. are probably gonna be your best options because they (as far as I know) practice early in the morning and later in the afternoon/early evening to accommodate the schedules of athletes that are working or interning at the same time. Those clubs also tend to be the upper tier of competitiveness too. I don’t know much about the competitiveness of other Boathouse Row clubs or ones like TBC or Potomac but if you’re looking for jobs in the DC area, those two would also be worth looking at.

I think for next year’s camp spreadsheet I’ll try to reach out to these clubs to get some information on scheduling, how they work with athletes who will be working/interning, as well as what their coxswain selection procedures are (roughly) like. I get questions about this, especially the latter, a lot but tend to default to whatever’s online, which admittedly isn’t much. If any college coxswains (or rowers, but mainly coxswains) have rowed with a club over the summer and have some insights on this, hit me up (or if you can put me in touch with the coaches you worked with, that’d be even better).

Coxing

Why you should go to a summer camp (and what to do/not to do)

By readyallrow March 24, 2016

On Sunday I posted the 2016 Summer Camps list that includes many options for rowers and coxswains if you’re looking to stay active over the summer. The benefits of going to a camp are obvious for rowers but are sometimes less so for coxswains, particularly if there isn’t any coxswain-specific instruction built into the camp, so below I’ve listed some reasons why you should consider attending one and things you should do (and not do) to make the most of the experience.

Reasons to attend a camp

Unlike for rowers, camps give coxswains the opportunity to make substantial improvements in nearly every aspect of coxing in a relatively short period of time. Your steering isn’t going to go from 0 to 100 in five days but you do have roughly 20 hours (two hour practices x two practices a day x 5 days) in just about the most low-key environment you’ll ever be in to try something different so you’d be foolish to not take full advantage of that. That doesn’t just apply to steering either, it applies to every single aspect of your coxing – calls, practice management, communication … all of it. If you are at a camp where there are coxswains on staff or there’s coxswain-specific instruction built into the program, ask questions about the things you want/need to improve on and then pick two or three to implement and work on throughout the week. Keep trying new things until you find something that works and then once you’ve found whatever it is, go all in on working towards making the change stick.

If you primarily cox bowloaded fours be prepared to spend the majority of your time in eights at just about any camp you attend. This gives you a chance to actually see the blades and make the necessary connections between what the coaches are saying and what the blades are doing and how they look.

The last day of the camp typically involves some kind of “racing”, whether it’s a head race-style time trial or your typical spring season side-by-side pieces. You can never have enough practice doing either of these and since this is, again, the most low key, no repercussions environment you could possibly be in, this is a good time to work on getting comfortable steering next to other crews, working and communicating with other coxswains, your time management skills (i.e. you launch at this time, you need to be at the line at this time, and it’s your job to effectively manage the time in between so you’re not too early or late), etc.

Things to do

Get. over. yourself.

At every camp I’ve coached at there have been multiple coxswains come in thinking that they’re hot shit because they cox their team’s top boat and they quickly learn that “good” is a subjective word. You should come into these camps with a humble attitude and be open to receiving feedback on how you’re doing, things you could/should do better, etc. Don’t be that guy/girl who argues with people more experienced than yourselves just because you cox the 1V. Congrats, we all coxed the 1V … that argument means nothing to us.

Be proactive

Go on Google Maps and look at the body of water you’ll be on before you get there. See if you can find a course map that shows what the traffic pattern is, if there are any bridges, etc. Can’t find one online? Email and ask if they can send you one. Bring your recorder and take it on the water every time you go out. This applies during the school year too but there is literally no excuse to not record yourself every day. If you end up not doing anything worth listening to then you can delete it but that’s better than coming off the water after a really solid day and wishing you’d recorded yourself so you could get feedback on it later. Have a notebook as well for all the reasons I talk about on here ad nauseam and also because there will likely be talks and one-on-one sessions offered by the coaches on a variety of topics that you’ll want to take notes on. Also arrive with specific and attainable goals that are reasonably achievable in the given time frame. Don’t try to cram “2 month-long summer program” goals into a 5 day camp.

Seek out coaches yourself and talk to them

We’re not going to come find you. This is your chance to pick our brains about what they look for in recruited coxswains, what being a coxswain on a college team is like, what they like about their current coxswains, how could you improve your coxswain-coach communication skills based off the practices you’ve had together so far, etc. Most of these coaches have decades of experience and when asked the right questions, they’ll be able to give you some really great feedback and advice.

Things not to do

One of the first things I remember Marcus saying at the Sparks coxswain camp was that everyone should be prepared to accept that some, if not all, of what they’ve learned up to this point will be dispelled (such as motivation being the most important job a coxswain has since that’s what lazy coaches tell you so they don’t have to do any work – FACT). This means you’ll probably be asked to do things you’re not used to doing or things that might not make sense right off the bat. Don’t come back with “this isn’t what we do on my team” or “that’s not what my coach said”. There’s an appropriate way to have that conversation and none of them start with either of those two sentences.

Do not – do NOT – complain about what you’re doing or being asked to do. If you’re new to coxing (hell, even if you’re not) and you spend more time complaining about coxing eights when you’re used to being in fours or coxing women when you’re used to coxing men than you do learning how to handle new situations then you might want to reconsider what you’re doing there. This probably isn’t the sport for you if you can’t commit to something as low-key as a summer camp when opportunities to learn and get better are being handed to you left and right. If you’re just going to rebuff everything … well, it must be nice having that kind of money to just throw away.

Camps are what you make of them so whatever you take away is more often than not going to be a direct result of how prepared you were coming into the camp, how present you were each day, and how committed you were to going outside your comfort zone in order to get better.

Image via // New York Times

College High School Rowing

2016 Summer Camps

By readyallrow March 20, 2016

The 2016 camps spreadsheet is up – click here to check it out.

Similar to last year, you can see all the camps on the first tab, arranged by what area of the country they’re located in. Highlighted camps in each section indicate that they’re aimed at college rowers and coxswains (everything else is for juniors). I’ll try to keep this updated throughout the spring but if you know of any camps that I haven’t included that have their 2016 info up, feel free to send me an email.

College High School Rowing

2015 Summer Camps

By readyallrow March 3, 2015

So I did things a bit differently this year and posted everything in a spreadsheet in an attempt to keep it all a bit more organized and easier to find/read. You can find it here. There are a few programs not on there yet because they haven’t posted their 2015 stuff but when they do I’ll update the spreadsheet and link to it here.

A couple quick notes…

Camps are color-coded and divided into the regions where they’re located, that way it’s easier to see what camps are offered near where you live. All the camps I have info on so far are listed on the first tab titled “2015 SUMMER CAMPS”. The individual tabs that follow include the location, dates, cost, website, any social media links belonging to the hosting team/program, and any reviews that I got from you guys.

“Experienced” in the context of these camps implies that you’ve been rowing for at least one full year. Doing a learn to row camp in the spring but not actually training and racing does not make you an experienced rower/coxswain. If your school only has a spring season or that’s the only time you can participate due to playing another sport in the fall then you should be OK but you can always email the camp directors to make sure.

A lot of the camps are not cheap but you shouldn’t let that deter you from reaching out to the coaches and inquiring about whether or not they offer some kind of financial assistance if you’re interested in attending but aren’t sure if you can afford it.

There are a couple programs in here for college-aged rowers (Thompson Boat Club’s open men/women and Penn AC’s U23 team) so if you’re looking to row over the summer check out those two programs.

Keep in mind that some of these camps require rowing resumes, erg scores, letters of recommendation from your coaches, etc. to be submitted when you apply. Make sure you’re aware of which programs ask for that so you don’t send in an incomplete registration.

I hope all that helps you start narrowing down your plans for this summer. Let me know if you have any questions or know of a camp that hasn’t been added yet. Also, feel free to email me if you’ve been to one of the camps that doesn’t have any reviews as I’d really like to get something posted for each one.

Click here to view the 2015 Summer Camps spreadsheet.

College Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 29, 2014

Hey! I really want to row for a U23 program such as Vesper or Penn AC this summer. I am a sophomore this year and my erg scores are right around what they are asking for. I’m planning on filling out applications once they open up, however I was wondering if it would be beneficial to go visit, introduce myself etc. or would that be weird? Thanks!

Eh, I don’t think it’d be weird but unless you already go to school in Philadelphia and have a really solid personal contact at either of the clubs, I don’t think it’s worth the effort. The boathouses on Boathouse Row aren’t like your typical boathouses – they aren’t just open and available for anyone to walk into. Even when we were there for Penn AC we had to pretty much hope that there was someone there to let us in every day because all the doors have code-locks or key cards or something. I would just fill out the application and wait until they get in contact with you (which, if you’ve got good enough scores, they will).

Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 15, 2014

Hi! I am a junior and I row for my high school team and cox/coach for a rec team (for breast cancer survivors). I have a lot of different experiences with the sport at this point and I plan on coxing in college. However, I would like more opportunity to compete at a higher level, since I feel rather dead-ended by my small high school team (I would cox but they need me as a rower). Besides the Jr. National Team, do you know of any good opportunities, preferably in the summer? Thanks so much!

You should look into the various summer camps hosted by college programs, as well as some of the full-summer high performance programs like the ones offered at Penn AC, Vesper, CRI, etc. The programs that run all summer can get pretty pricey but they’re always worth considering if you have a good resume, provided the cost isn’t an issue. The camps that are run at the universities are typically one week camps and most involve staying on campus in the dorms (which is usually where the bulk of the cost comes from) but they’re a great way to get some experience in a different environment and interact with the coaches from those programs.

Coxing Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 31, 2013

As the summer comes to an end and fall season comes up, I’ve been a little rusty on my coxing. While there have been some rowers that go to the local aquatic center and have been rowing, I’ve realized that I’ve been spending my summer primarily on school work and I haven’t been able to get out there and practice. But now that the summer is ending and in the last few weeks there are rowers planning on going over to the AC to take out some eights, I was thinking about joining them. My only fear is that this is my first year on varsity and I’m a tad nervous. I want to practice my steering but I’m afraid that if I’m getting rowers that have been rowing all summer long in my boat, that they’ll want me to throw in technical calls and whatnot. Any advice?

I was talking about this same topic through email with a coxswain the other day – a collegiate coxswain, actually. They just finished their first season and will also be coxing with their team’s varsity program in the fall. Here’s what I said to them:

” … Your expectations of yourself should be realistic as well – don’t overwhelm yourself trying to impress everyone or prove you should be there. Just go out there, do what you did in the spring, and let your actions speak for themselves. Coxing is like riding a bike, once you get in the groove of it you never forget how it’s done. There’s no real way to “fall behind” or anything, especially because so much of what makes coxing what it is is based on inherent stuff, like your personality, drive, intelligence, etc. Other than continuing to educate yourself and learn about the sport, there’s not much to do in the summer. Not everyone has access to a boathouse or anything when school’s not in session so it’s OK if you take a couple months off. I think it’s important to do that anyways just so you don’t get burned out.”

If you’re going out with rowers that have been rowing over the summer, chances are they probably have a list of things that they’ve been working on with their own technique, which means they should ideally be able to give you a list of things that they’d like you to focus your calls on. Have your notebook on hand and ask them individually if they’d mind giving you a couple things things that they’d like you to watch for with them, such as washing out, their timing, etc. Whatever they’ve been working on this summer should be the stuff you try and focus on because that’s where they’ve been focusing their efforts, thus getting feedback on it is pretty important. Take that information home and start thinking of what calls you can associate with each thing. I’d say have at least three different calls for each thing that way you can vary what you’re saying and keep the rowers engaged instead of just saying the same thing over and over and having it lose it’s effect.

Tell them also that you want to practice your steering so that’s going to be your technical focus while you’re out. They’ve got theirs, you’ve got yours. The best time to practice your steering is during longer pieces, not drills, for obvious reasons, so tell them ahead of time that for the first few minutes you want them to internalize their strokes, think about their seat, feeling the boat move, etc. and then after that you’ll start bringing it all together, making some technical adjustments, bringing up the power, and taking some harder strokes. So for example, if you do a 10 minute piece you can break it down like this:

0-3:00 || No talking, just rowing. To keep things interesting you could have them row eyes closed, feet out, or eyes closed and feet out. During this time you should be focusing on your steering, since that’s your “thing”, while at the same time paying attention to the bladework. Remember – you want to make minimal adjustments with the rudder. Small changes when necessary but that’s all. Pick a point and every 3-5 strokes check where you are. Eventually you want to get to the point where steering is an auto-pilot response so pay attention to where you are and where you’re going but don’t focus 99.9% of your brainpower on it.

3:01 – 6:00 || Technique – what did you notice during the first three minutes? Talk to each rower equally and individually, point out something they’re doing well and something they can work on. Give each rower at least 5 strokes so before moving on to the next person.

6:01 – 8:00 || Once you’re through each individual look at the whole package. What do you see? How does the boat feel? Are you getting a good amount of run or is there some check happening? How’s the rhythm? Talk to your stroke about this – communication with them is crucial, for on-the-water and off-the-water purposes.

8:01-9:00 || You’ve spent a good amount of time working on finesse stuff, now it’s time to start putting some power behind the blade. If you were rowing at 75% pressure, take it up to 90%. Low stroke rate (20spm or so), powerful drives. Less calls about technique, more about power now. Leg drive, connection, posture, etc.

9:01-10:00 || You’ve got technique and power, now add in speed. Every 20 seconds take the stroke rate up 2 beats while maintaining the same good rowing you’ve held for the last nine minutes. There should be a shift in intensity here, both with their strokes and your calls. Remind them to move the boat, not the water.

This entire time you should have been focusing on steering and holding your point. Doing pieces like this where there’s a “focus” throughout it forces you to multi-task and learn how to juggle doing two, three, four, five very important things all at the same time. Don’t let it overwhelm you, just go with it. To improve with something as finicky as steering you’ve got to push yourself out of your comfort zone a little. In the end it’s always worth it though.

Don’t be nervous. Easier said than done, I know, but you truthfully have no reason to be nervous. The summer is the best time to make mistakes because there’s zero pressure from anyone. Go out there confidently, communicate with the rowers, have goals for yourself, execute everything to the best of your abilities, and reflect on every practice once you’re off the water. What went well, what did you improve on, how did that improvement happen, what do you need to do to maintain that change and make it a habit going forward, and what do you want to keep working on in the future? Keep a notebook handy so you can write all of this down.

Don’t think that just because you’ll be with the varsity in the fall that you’ve got to start commanding them now like you will be in two months. Stay relaxed and have a good time. You’ll have plenty of time to be super disciplined in the fall. For now, just enjoy the water and getting to know the guys you’re rowing with.

High School Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow June 11, 2013

My parents are guilting me about the cost of my summer rowing program, despite it being far cheaper than any camp my brother has ever done (sorry personal rant point right there haha). I feel bad about doing it but mad at my parents for giving me crap about it as well. We’re going to Club Nats and Canadian Henley and I was SO excited for it but not so much anymore, even though this is really important to me. How do I get my parents to see that this is worth it?

I totally get what you’re saying. Being really excited about something and then having someone be negative towards it or you is so frustrating. I understand why the money thing can be an issue too but it’s definitely not something worth being guilt-tripped over, especially if you’ve shown a serious interest and commitment towards rowing and isn’t something you’re just going to give up in a year.

Why did they think the camps were worth it for your brother? Explain to them how those reasons apply to you too. If you’re looking at rowing or coxing in college, explain to them why participating in a summer program, as well as being competitive at Club Nationals and Canadian Henley, can help you stand out with college coaches. Above all else, it shows commitment and dedication, two things coaches at any level appreciate. If paying for it is a real issue, offer to help cover part of the costs. If you can’t pay for it upfront, offer to pay them back 1/4 of the cost (or whatever you both decide is reasonable) at the end of the summer after you’ve had time to make some money.

Why do you want to do it? Why is it important to you? Why is racing over the summer something you want to do? What are you goals/what do you hope to accomplish? How is this summer program, the coaches, etc. going to help you achieve them? Saying that you just really love rowing and traveling to the regattas will be fun isn’t going to cut it in this case. You can tell them that but you’ve also got to tell them about how improving your technique is a goal so that right off the bat in the fall you can be in the mix of people being considered for the “A” boat that’s going to Head of the Charles. Make sense?

Maybe your parents just aren’t sure of your reasons for wanting to do it, which is why they’re apprehensive about paying all this money. Hopefully it’s not their intentions to be buzzkills but it’s possible they’ll change their tune once you talk to them and make it clear what your intentions are.