Pacific Rowing Club News: Spring Season Begins

The past week has been one of adjustment for me, as I have changed squads and have been asked to take on more responsibility at the club at the outset of the Spring racing season. After what has been a successful Fall working with the Pacific women (both varsity and novice), I have now been switched over to the men’s side, and have taken on a prominent role with the men’s novice squad in the absence of the Men’s Novice Coach, Becca Stievater (currently on leave). The 6k test at the end of the first week of training following the break provided me with the set of data that I needed to move forward, but unfortunately also showed a lack of intensity of training over the holidays. This is to be expected, to a certain extent, with novices, but I have begun to remedy the problem with a structured plan incorporating more building of the aerobic base while strengthening the core. The core is, at the moment, the Achilles’ heel of the squad, as the novice men currently do not have the abdominal or posterior strength to maintain good posture throughout a training session. This has improved, however, with a great deal of work on the body position at the release. Proper body position is essential for proper sequencing out of the bows, with the hands moving away from the torso, the torso pivoting over the hips, and the legs drawing up to the chest on the way forward to the catch. If proper posture is established at the release, then there is at least the chance that it will be maintained into the catch, allowing for a stronger initial connection and a more accelerated drive sequence. If proper posture is not established at the release, the chances are slim and none that it will be established during the rest of the recovery, resulting in weak body positioning at the catch. This has been the goal of weeks 1 and 2 coming out of the break, along with establishing a greater sense of community and responsibility to one’s teammates — accountability — so that we have the full squad showing up each session and can therefore progress much more rapidly from both a fitness as well as a technical standpoint.
Physiologically, we are entering the transition phase between the 6k and the 2k — I look forward to seeing the improvements that the squad has made in their fitness over the past weeks, as well as to seeing how they react to the new challenge.