Intermediate class

I'm coaching an intermediate class for the club right now. I have five students from my beginner's classes. It's nice to work with them again and see how far they have advanced. I have a couple students who are still struggling with some basic technique. It's hard to know how to approach correcting their technique. Yesterday I tried having just the two of them row for a little bit so I could focus on them and they wouldn't have to keep up with the rest of the boat. It didn't go so well because I didn't have a megaphone so I was trying to stay close to the shell, but then I kept running into the oars. I was getting really frustrated and I had to keep turning the launch around to get away from the shell and then I would get too close again and have to turn around. So basically I didn't get to coach them because of all the trouble with the launch. Maybe I can try to do some focused coaching of them next time when I have a working megaphone and can talk to them easier.

I have been trying to focus on one thing each practice and I think it is working pretty well. One practice we focused on handle height. One we worked on timing. This last one we were working on feather and squaring and rolling up early. I like to do a drill where they feather at the release and then immediately square their blades. That way they are on the square for almost the whole recovery but they still get to feather and roll up and it reinforces an early roll up. Some of them don't actually roll up right away, they roll up closer to the place where I want them to roll up normally. When we were working on handle height I did a drill where they row on the square for five or seven strokes and then row with the feather for five or seven strokes, switching back and forth a few times. The idea is to carry the hands at the same level through both sets. There are so many little pieces it's hard to know which ones to pick.

One thing that continues to be a challenge is getting the people sitting out to properly set the boat. I try to keep on them and remind them to raise or lower their hands if need be. Maybe I should do the drill where they alternate raising and lowering their handles in sync with their side. That might give them a little more awareness of the set and key them into how to correct it. I'd like to do more rowing all eight in the next few practices. Yesterday was our fourth class and it was the first time this group has rowed all eight. Granted the water has been really bad with all the motor boats, and one day we had bad wind.

The motorboats have really made it challenging. We are constantly plagued by wakes and having to stop frequently. I try to have them row through the smaller wakes. Yesterday, though, we were waked from both sides at the same time. Two pretty big motor boats, one on each side of us, started up at the same time and the wakes just crashed right over the gunwales.

Not much going on in my rowing life

So I have not done anything rowing related in multiple weeks now. I haven't rowed in a boat in longer than I can recall, probably a couple months.

But I am going to be coaching a class again starting in August. Maybe I will start to post again when that comes around. I'm looking forward to the class because it will be my first Intermediate class and also some of the rowers I coached in my last class will be taking it.

I definitely should be rowing though, for the sake of my fitness. I just can't get myself down to the boathouse and erging seems impossible for some reason.

Thanks to the people who have checked out the blog in the last few weeks. I will try to give you a little more to read soon.

Learn To Row, Learn To Coach

Week Three of coaching my first Learn To Row class with the club has come to a successful close. Not without a little drama though.

On Tuesday, I was coaching on my own for the first time. Not only that, the club member who I was expecting to come cox the boat couldn't make it, and I had to have a student cox. So I was truly alone.

Here is a brief summary of the various situations that we got into (which I probably should not tell the whole world, but here I am, telling the whole world). To frame all this, the wind was quite a bear and the current seemed nice and swift. We:

1. Came way too close to shore more than once.
2. Came way too close to a bridge.
3. Hit a log near the stern, a pretty huge-looking, mostly submerged log. (The first thing that went through my mind was "There goes the skeg and my coaching reputation." Thank God that the only damage was cosmetic and the skeg was in fine shape.)
4. Ended up rowing without a coxswain while I was in the middle of switching coxswains to avoid drifting toward another bridge.
5. Came way too close to a tug and barge, thankfully they were going pretty slow, and we were already parallel to the wake.
6. Got the boat into the boathouse seven minutes after class was supposed to be over.

All in all, not a bad first time coaching alone with 9 novices. Never was I truly worried about the safety of the students, but, in the moment, I was totally stressed by the experience.

Thursday went significantly better, especially due to the fact that I had an experienced club member coxing. Plus, we only got back two minutes late, an improvement of five minutes. If I can get us back five minutes earlier than that next Tuesday, then I'll have three minutes to spare! Oh, time management. I'm also getting better at driving the launch and talking at the same time. During one drill where I was giving a lot of commands, I was able to switch the throttle between forward and reverse to keep myself in the right position relative to the shell.

One thing I'm really enjoying is watching the rowers improve. There were a few people who caught on to the rowing cycle quickly or had some previous experience, and it has been fun to watch them get it down. What is more satisfying, though, is watching someone who was having a lot of difficulties the first couple of times on the water really start to get comfortable with the motions of the stroke. I have four more classes to watch their skills grow. I just hope I can make it fun for them and give them a taste of the joy of rowing. Maybe even some of them will fall in love with it the way I did back in the fall of 2004.

Coaching: Week 2

Here it is, my second week teaching rowing. Last Thursday was the class' first day on the water and all went well. I was coxing and Erika was in the launch. She and I had a fun time trying to coordinate our instruction and not talk at the same time. Today we should be better at working together on it. I'm going to mention stretching to the class today and maybe do some demo stretching so they know what and how to stretch.

So I'm sitting here at my computer, which is what I've been doing most of the day, and trying to talk myself into going down to the boathouse and erging. I'm just going to get off my butt and do it. I'll report back when I return.
***
Well, I did go erg. I'm glad I did. I put in 50+ minutes of steady-state work. I'm trying to keep up my aerobic work and continue building my aerobic capacity. It's good I was able to motivate myself to go and put in some time; every day I do that is a small step toward better health and better rowing.

Teaching and Rowing

Tonight was the first night of Learn To Row classes for the club. Erika and I were teaching together because we consolidated the M/W class with the T/Th class. It was actually really nice to see her go through all the first day info and be there to help. Later on she won't be able to be there on Tuesdays and Thursdays (which is why she wanted to do the M/W class in the first place) so I will be taking the lead. I had a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the rest of the sessions. After the class I got the same energized feeling I get after a math tutoring session. I really enjoy teaching others about something I really love.

Rowing this morning was quite cold. We had enough guys for two 8+s though, which will probably be a rare occurrence. Pretty much every guy we have right now was there. I got to row starboard, which I really want to get more experience at doing. We did a 2k race, and it took all the concentration I had to try to keep my blade work clean. I have rowed port pretty much my whole time rowing. I only rowed starboard a couple of times at the most at St. John's. I did get to row starboard once this winter, so if I keep on bugging Peter about it, I may get some more experience.

It's kind of amazing that just switching the role of my hands takes so much getting used to. Feathering with my left hand is actually kind of tough for me. My right hand is naturally more dexterous, and now my muscle memory is locked into feathering with my right hand, so I have to fight not to feather with my right when I'm rowing starboard. There is also a change in the way my body pulls on the oar that is switched when rowing the starboard side. My right shoulder and my right hand are higher than my left and my right arm is the dominant pulling arm. I really think rowers should learn on both sides so as not to become lopsided. I hope I can become more balanced as my rowing continues.

Sculling

I got to scull at yesterday's practice in a double. We had a off number of guys, so we put out our San Diego 8+ and the double, and one guy went home. I think I did pretty well considering the last time I sculled was at St. John's, two years ago.

The weather was less than ideal, it rained pretty consistently the whole row, and I got some nice blisters on my left hand, probably because I'm not that great at feathering with my left and I was over gripping as a result. I was glad for the chance to scull though, and I want to get more sculling in this spring and summer.

I feel like sculling gives my body a more balanced workout than sweep rowing. Sculling also feels more graceful for some reason. There's something about coming to the catch with my arms spread wide and then finishing close to the body that feels a bit like I imagine having wings might feel. In addition, I can really feel the boat respond to every stroke when I'm in a small boat, which, when I'm getting good speed and acceleration, feels light and smooth and adds to the flying/floating sensation.