Men's head rowing Coach Dave Reischman has has circulated his post-Eastern Sprints race report, including the mention that Tuesday is the day IRA invitations will be announced.
V8 = 14th
JV8 = 11th
3V8 = 12th
4V8 = 4th
I am going to take a different approach for this race report and rather than my usual run down on specific crews just make some general comments on our squad as a whole. I think the results speak for themselves and suffice it to say nobody in our program finds them very satisfying. We may not have the raw physical talent that we did a few years ago but we have not performed up to our potential in very many races this year. We haven’t had that race where you can get off the water and say, “that was it…that was the aggressive rhythm we were looking for.” If there is good news it is the fact that the type of errors we are making on the race course are not due to lack of effort. The guys are putting it all out there.
Let me try to explain that last comment a little better. Rowing, and in particular racing, is a study of contrast between the aggression/raw power needed when the blades are in the water with the finesse/subtlety required when the blades are out of the water. On the drive you are trying to maximize your propulsion and on the recovery you are trying to move in a way that does not slow the boat down and sets up your timing for the next stroke. If you let the finesse of the recovery carry in to the drive you look slick but don’t have the surge and lift of the boat out of the water that you need to generate boat speed. If you carry the aggressiveness of the drive into the recovery phase you take some of the “glide” off the boat and usually slightly mistime the change of direction on the front end. When you get the right balance between the two the boat feels light and lively on the drive and the recovery feels relaxed and easy—like you are literally floating up the slide between strokes. When you get it wrong….well it feels like a lot of hard work for not much boat speed.
Our varsity crew was a good example of both of these yesterday. In the heat we had our best race of the year. A good start and decent rhythm through the middle of the race. It wasn’t perfect but as close as we have been this year. We do not have the raw physical talent of the top crews in our league but if you look at the times from the heats you will see that we were improved relative to margins of crews we raced earlier in the year. (Note: I usually never compare times across heats but the conditions were as equal across the heats in the morning as you can get.) The guys were disappointed to be in the 3rd level final but were in the right frame of mind heading out to the race. They had an awesome warm up…maybe the best of the year…and then when the flag dropped we tried to be ultra aggressive and didn’t find that balance between aggression and subtlety. We worked very hard but did not maximize our speed. The difference is probably about 4 to 5 seconds over a 2000m race but those are a crucial 4 to 5 seconds in our league. Our other crews were struggling with many of the same issues.
We will find out on Tuesday if we did enough to get invited to the IRA and we are all hopeful. I learned long ago as a coach that some years you have better talent than others and whether you are fighting for a spot in a grand final or the 3rd level final your job is to maximize your crew’s potential. We haven’t done that yet and coaches and athletes alike need to accept responsibility for that. If one of us starts to point fingers instead of focusing on what each of us needs to do we are going to be disappointed.
If we get the invite for the IRA our goal is simple: to finish the weekend saying it was our best racing of the year and we maximized every bit of boat speed that we were capable of generating.
I need to give a special thanks to all the parents (those present and those from afar) that helped out with the food tent in Worcester. In particular, Anneliese and Doug Mund who led the efforts with the very capable of assistance of many others. I know our coaching staff sure appreciated the ability to wander over for a breakfast burrito (…and burger….and pulled pork…) and drink to keep us going through out the day. Thanks to you all!
I will keep everyone posted on the IRA.
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