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.