Today’s post is some audio of a talk that former Penn coxswain Lou Lombardi gave during the Sparks camp that Penn hosted back in August. He talked about his experience as a coxswain, his lowest point in the sport, what he took away from that experience (namely that he didn’t set himself up to succeed and the changes he made as a result), and what he learned as part of the coxed pair that placed 5th at this year’s world championships . He offers up a lot of great advice in here, especially for coxswains, so definitely give it a listen. It’s a little over 11 minutes long.
Videos
Video of the Week: “So long, Huskies!”
I didn’t know who Alan Shealy was before I watched this video but the fact that it started with Patton’s Speech and ended with an interview with Harry Parker (that was shot just a few weeks before he died) got me interested in who he was and what his relationship with rowing was. After some Googling I found out that he’s a seven-time national team member, a two-time Olympian, and a three-time IRA national champion, in addition to being the stroke of the infamous “Rude and Smooth” crew in 1974 and 1975.
This paragraph from this article in Sports Illustrated made me laugh too. I can’t imagine anyone being able to get away with this nowadays…
“And the familiar cocky voice was that of Harvard’s Alan Shealy—brilliant at stroke, profane (though less so than last year) and Washington’s pet hate. To the forlorn Huskies, the posh trappings of Harvard rowing and the abrasive Shealy were symbols of decadence that had been fuel for the fire that possessed them. All week they had taken turns stoking the blaze.
And Shealy, enjoying himself, played them like a puppet master. Two days before the big race, during a coxswains’ race, he sat aboard a moving launch and manned Harvard’s funnelator, a powerful sling devised for launching water balloons, and one of them squarely hit a Husky cox.”
Or this (from this New York Times article)…
“The Huskies from Washington know Shealy well. In a dual regatta at Seattle last June, Shealy yelled out, “So long, Huskies,” as Harvard took command at 500 meters and rowed away.”
Video of the Week: Behind the scenes of “The Boys of ’36”
Back in August PBS aired their documentary on the crew from The Boys in the Boat that they shot in Seattle with some of the UW guys. This video is a quick behind-the-scenes clip that shows the guys talking about what it was like rowing in a wooden hull with the spoon blades and in the much shorter half-slide style that was common back then.
Coxing Racing Video of the Week
Video of the Week: That time a boat sank at HOCR
Legend has it that the coxswain of this eight (from a university in China) got held up at customs and wasn’t allowed into the United States. None of the rowers spoke English which meant not only did they have to find a coxswain, they had to find one that spoke Mandarin. Luckily they found someone at MIT who spoke Mandarin and could cox but they later found out (too late, of course) that she and the rowers spoke different dialects of Mandarin which meant they could barely understand each other. This proved particularly problematic when they collided with another boat and eventually sank two miles later. It also produced what is probably one of the greatest photos of a coxswain ever. Good luck this weekend!
Taking the Weeks turn with the Carl Douglas “AeRowFin”
I posted a clip of this on the team’s Instagram earlier but wanted to share the full video to highlight the new fin on our Empacher. If you’ve emailed me at any point in the last four years about not being able to take tight turns with your normal Resolute or Empacher fins, have your coach check out the Carl Douglas “AeRowFin”.
Not to take away from Riker’s steering here because he did a great job but compared to what Weeks looks like with the normal Empacher rudder, this was so much tighter and smoother. Before, even with the rudder all the way over and one side powered down, the turn would take longer and you could still end up on the opposite side of the river which was obviously super frustrating for both the coxswains and the coaches. This Carl Douglas fin though is magical. Definitely recommend checking it out.
Related: HOCR: Weeks, Lowell House, and “The Turning Tree”
Some context for the video – we were doing 3′-2′-1′ steady state at 18-20-24spm through the Powerhouse and then built to 30spm at full pressure for 20ish strokes through the bridge.
Shout out to the Radcliffe coach in the launch at the end too.
Video of the Week: HOCR River Operations Timelapse
You can’t see it from this angle but from our balcony we have the best view of the skyline, which is why I’ll never tire of watching the sunrise from our boathouse.
Video of the Week: “Our reasons to row differ but the sport remains the same…”
“Rowing is a sport where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and teamwork is embedded in our soul.”
Video of the Week: What It Costs To Send A Team To Rio
Pretty interesting video on the breakdown of costs per athlete that raced in Rio. As a raw number $4.1 million doesn’t sound too bad either … until you realize GB’s funding totaled nearly $44 million (£32 million) and Canada’s was around $17 million.
Update: Better numbers for comparison – thanks Pete!
Video of the Week: Boat strapping failure
This deserves a place in the vault that houses all the classic rowing videos. I posted this a few years ago as part of a post on how to strap boats to the trailer so if you haven’t read that yet, you can check it out below.
Related: How to strap a boat down
There are two good videos in there that show how it’s done, as well as some other pieces of advice that are hopefully all common sense … but if they’re not, well, now you know.
Ergs Technique Video of the Week
Video of the Week: Rowing posture
This is a good video for coxswains to watch so you know what to look for when the rowers are on the ergs.