The sprint season started on a very chilly morning on March 21st with a regatta on Lake Whitehurst. The conditions were rather benign with light winds and by the end of the day the temperature warmed to about 50 degrees. We've never before entered novice crews in this "season opener" regatta, rather choosing to wait a week for additional on-the-water practice time before letting novices race. This year, however, we entered two novice eight crews, the WN8 and a MxdN8. The mixed crew, at the end of the day, ended up winning 3rd place ribbons, placing ahead of Maury's and First Colonial's crews.
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Over all it was a learning experience for everybody. Our coxswains saw the course for the first time and learned how to back into a starting platform. The rowers learned what competition is about. Yes, rowing can be fun, but racing is about pushing your boat longer and harder than the competition. Some of our folks have very good technique (the WV4 was sitting in 2nd place out of 5 halfway down the course) but we still need to improve overall endurance.
It seems that many schools had some problems: (a single rowed into our W2V4 as they were headed to their start, the MxdV8 race, which we weren't in, had to be stopped and restarted after collisions, and coach O'Brien saw a number of instances where boats encroached onto other boat's lanes - see his comment on event 10 below.)
One thing I noticed from the recovery dock is that many crews, including ours, stopped rowing before they crossed the finished line. The video below of our WN8 shows all but Anna stopping 5 seconds before the bow crosses the finish line (when the horn blows.) Coxswains need to watch carefully the finish platform flag and not stop their crews until the flag dips or rises (and usually when the horn blows.)
Coach O'Brien had the opportunity to follow some of the crews down the course and made some notes. Here're are his comments plus some edited video from the gopro. The shots of the MV4 at to top and of the WV4 above were taken by Mrs Shubert from the finish platform. I got the WV8 launch picture from Noah and the shot of the MxdN8 heading out from Mr. Banaag.
Event 10 WN8: Well done for first regatta. Got locked on without much difficulty. Starting strokes not smooth, reflects experience. Coxswain did well correcting for course and staying out of the way of
Event16 WV4 HT A. (I was at
700M and watched as they went by and for majority of race). Start was OK, but
this group has done much more in practice. In 2nd place and staying with leader
through 750M. Then endurance and power got them. I wrote "lost connection
at catch" and "stroke length:-(" I know these rowers could be one of the top
varsity boats in the region (if they want to be). If they are willing to work
on endurance and come together as a unit, they could be awesome. Technique in
early stages of race was solid. They should think about challenging each other
to do some erg as a unit before each practice, and we can give them a different
(and more advanced) practice regime. I'm excited for their potential.
Event 24 W2V4. I didn't see this one,
was coming back from launch dock.
Evt 27 MV4HT B. (Watched from 800M
as they went by). I wrote "power; set; endurance" as areas for focus
in practice. Endurance and intensity needed to match the raw potential in this boat. Good
first outing, but they can do more. They will feel better with more experience
and balance in boat.
Event 32 Mxd4. Didn't see.
Event 34 MxdN8. Good effort. They
show potential. We can help them by continuing to work on fundamentals.
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