For us the HOR (Head of the River) began with the boys having a day off school on the Friday. We traveled to Kawana for a row. I decided to catch the boys bus because I did not want to drive. We arrived to find the wonderful Tipperoo squad (Bart and Cameron) had erected the big blue shade tent. We rigged the boats and took to the water. The boys did a couple of laps of the venue and came ashore.
The Gr10 8th Quad rose to the occasion. Two weeks prior we had crawled over the line 200m behind the pack in an excruciating finish that was embarrassing and demoralising. The week before the boys rose to third place in the first race providing a new found realisation that they "could do it". A crew change for the second race as per normal (Bow man had a sore back) and they lined up for their second race. This time a crab at the start saw them begin the race at the tail of the field. By the time they reached the finish line they had rowed through 4 other crews to finish in third place again!. This time they learned that they can come back.
At the HOR, the GR10 8th Quad lined up in the second event of the day as the first BGS crew to race. They passed me watching at the 500m mark and they seemed to be way back and rating low. About then they seemed to galvaise and pick up the pace. As they passed out of view we being a group of coaches and boys raced into the tent to watch the finish on the monitor. With them gaining by the stroke the atmosphere was electric and we broke into a spontaneous cheer as they crossed in second place. Their best ever placing. Things were looking good for BGS.
Unfortunately things did not pan out well for BGS. We managed zero first places. Even the mighty sevenths and seconds who had had several first placings during the year were pipped at the post for second.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE 7THs
Lots of 500m sprints.
Pull in hard at the finish.
WHAT I LEARNED FROM MY CREW
Peak at the HOR. -
Best time keeper at stroke. (Or the most regular stroke at stroke)
Backup stroke at Bow. ie do not put weakest or smallest rower at bow.
If stroke is away or sick, move bow to stroke.
COXES
A good cox is worth the strokes weight in gold.
Get the coxes from the first 8 (say) crews (more than 5) to form a quad.
5 of them train say mon afternoons when their crews do weights and cox their crews in the morning.
Then the 5 that train, row at the regatta. Then rotate bow-2->3->4->cox. That is you cox after you have listened to someone else cox.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
RECRUIT
Imagine we got 5 kids in and they turned out to be top hot rowers and pushed in as the first quad. Then firstly the current first quad becomes the seconds and seconds become the thirds and so on. Maybe we find we go from getting 4th position to first. Depends on the time capabilities of course. The second effect is that the kids in the top few crews are even more motivated to do better. So I suspect that we would do even better. We would need to temper that with a risk that the crews may even out to a lower performance.
Ergo Challenge
Gets non rowers in contact with the rowing community.
Hold it at the school. Not on sliders.
Offer tutorial on technique.
Prize? I doubt if cash is a good prize as these kids are all cashed up. Recognition, A trophy? A boys day out water skiing, drive a hummer, boys and their toys stuff stry to find a parent with the thing we offer. Maybe someone has some land and someone has a boat or 4WD or something.
Motivation for them - Recognition. Cross training makes them stronger, faster, fitter for their sport.
Outcome - Some non rowers may find they are good at it. As a minimum raises the profile of rowing. If we are lucky maybe some good fit boys join rowing.
As a long term thing - have a junior challenge as part of it.
As well as individual challenge, have a year level challenge. GR12 vs GR11 say & GR10 vs GR11. etc
Come and Try day #2
At the shed so as to minimise the support effort.
Quads or Eights. Half the boat pre filled with experienced rowers. Use experienced coxes or even give rowers a go at coxing so as to avoid annoying distractions.
Get to the Boarders
Un tapped resource. How do we make rowing good in the boarding house.
School can shout the first 8 a term of boarding and at the same time run some kind of come and try day just for the boarders - all of them. At the shed. Throw in a good meal. Boarders in may day anyway could always be motivated by edible food.
Rowing Social - Girls
Have a day at the shed where the BGS boys interact with the Girl rowers from other schools. Mixed quads and 8's. 2 races per boat swap the boy and girl seats between the races. ie you might have boy boy girl girl in one race then in the second it would be girl girl boy boy. See whether girl stroke makes a difference. Probably have to do this after the girls season and before things get too serious in the boys season. Say Sep and Oct.
Sell to the parents
Get some stats for example I believe but cant prove that rowers do well academically. If say half of last years first 8 got OP1 then lets shout about it. Maybe a tee shirt mind you have to do it well as it will be easily switched to being an embarrassing joke.
Invite parents into the Tinnies
Invite parents to a one off row ie half the boat is their kids (so it does not tip over) and half is parents.
Pre race Food
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/252635.php
[2] http://www.wired.com/2011/07/how-to-drink-gatorade/
Gargle sugary water
"activation of reward areas that allowed the cyclists to exert maximum performance."[2]
"3-7 percent more effort." [2]
Guest Speakers
Ex BGS champion rowers. Fireside chat format. Video it & send edited version to kids over the Christmas break as a reminder.
The Brief - Their personal Story. Talk about their life incl time at BGS.
Good to try and include an example where they trained really hard and then failed and then got up and tried again and was successful.
Also if they were involved in other activities Other Sports, Academic, Social - How that all interacted.
Get 2 BGS kids to be their guide / host. Meet their car (Where do they park). These kids take them to the 'green room' give them a cold drink etc then bring them in to the room at the appointed time. After the kids escort them back to their car. Naturally these kids are hopefully going to chat with them and gain some extra personal insights.
Better the wrong decision than indecision. --> Try new coaching ideas, race plans.
People tend to drift toward the average.
Measure- We need to measure boat speed!
"Will it make the boat go faster"
Talk about winning / being first.
Possibility Thinking
Visualising
How would I feel if we were first.
What would we be doing?
What we be saying about our win and what we had to do to win.
What would we be saying to .... that we had to do to win.
Boy it was hard. How hard we worked doesn't count because we won.
GOAL
A clear, simple statement of underlying values or philiosophy... makes planning decisions easier.
May have to have two statements. One for the Adults and One for the boys.
Races are won by rowers who refuse to be beaten <- br="" negative="" note="" subtly="">Adult Worded Goal - Use Rowing to Build Better Young Men
Boys Goal - ?????? "work hard and race hard"
ready to "work hard and race hard"
{
Kennedy space rate speech - economy in the doldrums.
succinct goal.
"not because it is easy....
send
and bring them back safely. "
}
Goal
Win
(but no crash and burn <- do="" goal="" how="" in="" include="" p="" so="" that="" the="" we="">what is the wording for the "and bring them back safely...
EXPECTATION
Team & Coach (2 entities) must both have an expectation of winning.
Mr Hollands Opus - Scene watch several times - Girl plays sunset
here is someone leading someone to a possibility. Get their head into the right space.
Money Ball - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneyball_%28film%29
Look at it from the team side and the business side.
Oakland A's Based near SF. Always a B or C grade team in base ball.
Proposition was thatthe B & C teams would never be compeditive with the A grade teams.
Focus -> Success -> focus -> more success
Chris said "I think rowing is a sport where people say well if I cant win why bother doing it"
INVOLVE
LEARN TO ROW RIGHT SOONER WITH SENIORS
Get Seniors and Gr10's (who have just finished with Quads) to be stroke and 3 for the grade 8 kids in a learn to row program. Also use experienced coxes and take the Gr8 kids and lower gr9 crews out for an intensive style learning workshop. Do this say every 3 weeks. The idea is that the new kids get an idea of the the target sooner and also an idea of the discipline of working as a crew. Need to prep the older kids about being a good example and also decide on a routine. Things like calls, how to wash the boat. Legs bodies arms etc.
MIX THINGS UP - WE GROW THROUGH ADVERSITY
I understand that mixing up and variety are essential to getting better. I guess we have to balance that with any negative outcomes.
Possibly even in the first 4 regattas, take 2 kids from each crew and swap them into another crew. Do this for a week leading up to and including a regatta.
I suspect we need to engineer a degree of adversity or disruption in a way that creates a challenge from which the kids can grow but not so much that they are defeated. It would I assume be a combination of mental and physical growth. It would be interesting to know how BGS whent in the years we were affected by floods. I understand that the 2011 flood was a killer.
ROW THROUGH
Maybe train in a way where we do not go out to win at the first regatta but we go out to row through another crew.
RIDE IN THE TINNY
Get younger kids to come for a ride in a tinny when the older kids train. Observe.
Get older kids to come for a ride with the coach of a young crew and do some coaching.
16-FEB-2014 Update
At the BSHS hosted GPS regatta, BGS did not do so good. The GR10-8th quad got 5th in each race. I think the BGS kids being a bit smaller possibly on average have to have an edge through technique. On Saturday there was a strong headwind that made technique difficult and a consequential loss of performance.
There is some disagreement in the spectator brigade regarding stroke rate. The BGS way is to keep the rate down and try to concentrate on technique.
I am of two minds here. On the one hand, I believe that it is much easier to get good power on resulting in speed if one starts from a good technical base. On the other hand you have to actually do this. You have to put in the muscle.
RACE PLAN REVIEW
I think need to make the plan simpler. Base on the break it into 20 stroke chunks as a effort or focus on 10 and then 10 "off".
For the GR10-8th Quad, My Training plan is as follows:
Catch - Get the blades down at the catch. In THEN drive.
Finish - Legs Bodies Arms. Arms, Bodies, Legs. Accelerate all the way to the finish. Draw up, tap down. Timing out the water.
Drive - In at the catch then Squat jump Power on. Pull all the way through accelerating all the way.
Recovery -
FINISH
Tuesday
5:00 Oars & Tinny.
5:10
On the ERGs. Mirror. All crew, cox & me.
Demo the stroke.
Push down. Feel it under the knees.
Then lean back.
Then pull in with the arms
Tap down
Arms away.
Then Bodies
Then release the knees.
Practice for 5 minutes.
ON WATER
5:20 Warmup (Firm pressure)
5:30 Technical Exercises
Tap downs.
Body & Arms only ala warm up
1/4 slide rowing
Strike Rock Roll.
(T2) 2x 20' R@ 18 - 22, 5' rest between each
Thursday
We will review the Tuesday session.
Continue focus on finish.
(T2/4) – 3x {5x(1'on/1'off)} R@ 28 – 32, 4’ rest between each;
finish with starts
===========================================================
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n-G91HGegQ#t=75
Proposes - slow hands, gentle rock, slow break slide, accelerate into catch
http://www.rowingnsw.asn.au/development/youth-training.html
Note
....Under these circumstances, and up to the end of puberty, high intensity training should have a low priority compared with low and medium level work which will better prepare the athlete for future high load requirements. Put simply, skill based work over long duration at low intensity should dominate the training plan for all up to the age of say 14 or 15....
Accordingly it is advisable for rowers in the 12/13 to 14/15 years development stages to concentrate mainly on sculling and accompany this with resistance training using body weight or circuit work as well as....
A survey of last weeks junior races showed.
32 strokes / 250m
22 strokes / 250m
21strokes / 250m
22 strokes / 250m
A race plan for GR10 quad over 1500m
Start
3/4 1/2 3/4 Full.
15 strokes. Full pressure. Go hard get ahead. Stroke Stroke Stroke
5 strokes. Settle. Rating down to 28 (OK if it only gets to 30)
250m
Next 10 strokes Focus on length. Long and strong. Legs Bodies Arms Get the rhythm. Don't rush.
10 strokes no cox talk.
Coming up to 500m
10 strokes. Focus on catch. Get it in THEN drive. Fast catches. Don't pause, Don't row air. Square early. Straight in at the catch. Make every stroke count. If you are early fix it on the next stroke by control the slide.
10 strokes to settle
750 Half way
10 Effort of 10. Drive hard with the legs. Feel it on the balls of your feet. Push extra hard. Don't rush the slide. Just push hard with the legs.
10 strokes
500m mark
10 For the next 10 focus on your finish. Pull up. Smooth round the turn. Finish the stroke. Don't come out early
EXERCISE LEVELS
http://adelaidehumanperformance.com.au/training-load/
http://adelaidehumanperformance.com.au/training-zones/
Training zone % maximum HR % maximum aerobic power output
T1 (Recovery) 60-70% 50-65%
T2 (Light) 70-80% 65-75%
T3 (Moderate) 80-90% 75-85%
T4 (Hard) 90-95% 85-95%
T5 (Maximal) 95-100% 95-100%
PM - (T2) 3x 8' R@ 18/20/22/24 (plus 10x str racing between each rate change), 5' rest between each
3 x 8 minutes
Rate 18 2 min
Rate 20 2 min
Rate 22 2 minutes
Rate 24 2 minutes
=========================================================
GR10 8th Quad - My Plan 11-2-2014
At the shed - Put down motor boat and oars and then get on the ergs
On the Ergos
Go through the stroke technique. Legs bodies arms arms bodies legs. Light work focus on timing.
Steady up the slide.
Use the mirror.
Then get on the water.
Warmup in pairs. Firm pressure (Not light) Arms only, Arms & Body, 1/4 slide, 1/2 slide, 3/4 slide, full slide. feathering, Full pressure.
In pairs so we do not have to worry about balance to start with -
Tap outs.
Tap out & roll up
Firm pressure
TELEMETRY
http://www.smartoar.com
http://www.rowinginmotion.com/coach-app/
i-phone. There is a free and a $100 paid version. The paid version sends real time wifi data to iphone / ipad application for the coach.
CREW ORDER - SELECTING STROKE
Methods & Ideas
1) 50m swimming race - winner is stroke - no one knows why.
2) Rotate the crew through the boat. Ask the crew who had the easiest stroke to follow. (I think put #2 person in bow and swap them into stroke if stroke is sick)
3) Look for natural leaders
4) Look for rythm
5) Look for self control.
COACHING - When to talk
Some coaches talk a lot when the boat is stationary.
Some do most of their talking when the boat is in motion.
I prefer the latter.
COXES
Put the coxes of the first 5 quads in a boat that is the 9th Quad. Rotate them each row. Maybe theu only get 1 on water session per week but they would learn what makes a good cox.
IN WITH EXPERIENCE
In 4th term, when the juniors are just getting into it, get some grade 11's and put them back in Quads. as 3 & stroke. Put the inexperienced juniors in as Bow & 2. Do this say three times a few weeks apart toward the end of the year.
PLAN TO WIN
The 7ths were apparently doing lots of 500m sprints.
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