My last practice on the Chattahoochee

Granted, this was from two days ago, 5/23/17.  ACRA 2- and 4+ start and settle. 4 first time Kaela stroking.  2- still w/o rudder.



From today, 5/25/2017: Beth and Hannah in the 2-.  Big tailwind, moderate current, roughish water.  Fast time.

2- Weekend before ACRA

Start and 2' race #1.  Yeah, the start was a bit...off.  But the middle is ok.  Catches are good and timed well.  You can advance frame by frame with the comma and period buttons and see the connections are fairly good.



Pre ACRA.  Boat fishtails when Hannah on the steer.  Think this race was a bit more checked than the first.  At 1:37, timing is perfect with connection.







As soon as I said your point was good, you headed for the island.  A few strokes a bit off on timing.

First row pre ACRA

With Liza guest star.  For a first row, this isn't bad.  Bodies moving fairly well together.  Hand heights are a problem, and connection timing.  Match with Rachel, and Rachel make sure you're connecting as early as possible.With Liza guest star.  For a first row, this isn't bad.  Bodies moving fairly well together.  Hand heights are a problem, and connection timing.  Match with Rachel, and Rachel make sure you're connecting as early as possible.



Liza guest star.  Rachel, you can see that I want you to tap down more so you and Mel touch at the same time if the boat is off.  Liza make sure you're tapping down as well.  Renee, you can see the oar come off the lock here.



Back in the pair.  Fairly good boat control.  Make sure the hands come out before the bodies come over.

Monday before Vails 2017

38spm.  Catches have to be precise and blade depth can be a problem getting out clean.  Jo you can see you're just a little off to stbd at the finish.  Mandy a couple bad catches.  Not bad.....



Monday before Vails 2017.  Nice catches port side.  HannahH careful of the finish, a little water in the air.



Started a little shaken as Steph was turning the boat, but smoothed out.

May Day with the Regulator

Guest stars Steph at cox, Kaela at 3, HannahM at bow.  Kaela watch the hand heights.  Match to what Blaze does, even when the boat off set.  Mel, good change on the digging, not seeing it here.



After I stopped shooting, the boat shifted up a bit to 26-28 and found a great rhythm that lasted for about a mile.  I'm not going to pretend this is perfect rowing, but when a crew finds "swing" like this, just hold onto that feeling as long as you can.

A further word on that subject--

My father was an avid golfer.  He loved the game and I had absolutely no understanding of why, until my senior year of high school rowing.  Dad kept souvenirs of "perfect moments" in his golf life.  A hole in one ball, signed by his friends he was with that day, decorated a wall in our home.  A ball he shot a double eagle (in the hole from second shot of a par-5) sat on a little pedestal.  I've heard golf described as chasing perfection.  Players will strive for years and decades for the perfect moment; thousands of swings distill down to one perfect shot, when the player's swing is exactly what they want, contact with the ball is exact and the shot lands exactly where they want.  

In rowing, we strive for the same sort of moment.  It doesn't happen often.  I can count the number of times I've felt that on one hand.  It wasn't always in a race.  I hope the crew in the Regulator got a little taste of that perfect moment.

Weekend Vids

Third race Roz second Reg.  Lulu timing, catch and release.  Reg in general want to see a bit more explosiveness in the drives.  Mandy hanging the catch here.  In the Roz, you can see how the body motion to the stern on the recovery is just as fast as the time on the drive.  Kate, Kelly need to swing through at finish.  Kate connection.



This is better than the Saturday morning vid--Beth's catches are a few feet farther back from Rachel's puddle.  There's still rush and check.  Kelly and Kate, swing through.  Beth and Kat careful of the inside shoulder popping up.  Kaela get the hands out before the body moves.



Settle to 30spm.  Portside timing a little ragged--Mel you can see the dig here and how it might affect your release.  Mandy started hanging the catch a few strokes after the settle.  Renee, you can see the oar coming disconnected from oarlock b/c of your fallaway.



I got a little close at the start, then had to catch up.  RachelB out early on that first stroke. Everyone check where you head is at release--make sure you're on the centerline.  Jo, get that tap down so you're not touching right at release.  Mel, you can see your depth get better by the end of this race. Be more confident to the body at the finish--tall and strong.

New coaching platform

Perfect for shallow water operations.

Saturday Vids

So after today's row being scrubbed and me spending all weekend in various gyms all over northeast Atlanta, I finally got a chance to get these vids up.  Unfortunately, I never got a chance to get vid of the 4.



Notice that better catches make the boat more stable as the finishes are together as well.  When rowing on the square, make sure you don't cut the body swing off.  HannahH better tapdown, Kate and Stacks swing the finish.



HannahH, I think you've been hitting water a bit much and don't have enough room for clean tapdown.  Let's add to your height.  Kaela make sure you're getting to full compression at the catch.



I think this was on the paddle--looks a bit sloppy and low power.



Ran out of gas midway through this.  Checked a lot--look how the hull is dipping fore and aft.  That needs to be smoother at the higher rates.    Kate, Kelly, need longer finishes with body swing.  Too upright and not using your length.



Early in your row.  Mandy just a bit behind Blaze.  Still learning the steering.



Finishes aren't timed well, prob due to boat being a bit too high out of water.  Timing is better here than the other vid.  As you can see, being that high makes both of you miss a bit of water at the catch.

A nice evening with the Regulator

I'm just tossing these up with out much review.....gotta get up early soon.



1st race 6x2'.  All four stbds with a bit of a sky.  Mel, you can see the dig here. Tera late a bit, Lulu early.



2nd 6x2'.  Quicker entries, Blaze, Renee and Allison.  Happy with RachelB's.  Port side timing better than first race.  Lulu sometimes still early.  Want stronger finish and send from Mel.  Tera need more length at catch.



Let's go slo mo.  Timing nice here on port.  But you can also see how the finish can be a little longer--the blades are still going to stern with totally out of the water.



Nice work on the digging, Mel.  It's better here, not totally fixed but better than the beginning of the night.




Not bad on timing, finishes could be longer, would like to see a bit more altitude control on stbd. Occasional catch hang by Mandy when the rate increased.

Redemption

I'm not gonna re-post the video here.  By now everyone has seen or heard "don't hit the post, Lopa." That happened a little over a year ago, at spring break.

But since then, Lopa has been the consummate teammate.  Open with her coaches about her anxieties and riding the launch non stop through the fall to better learn her craft, Lopa refused to hide, refused to quit and worked to get better.  She talked with Steph and Sarah about coxing.  She talked to me and Rodd.  She studied.

When Sarah's shoulder failed her again at spring break this year, Lopa was there.  She had come to spring break with no expectation of getting a boat.  To repeat: she didn't expect to get a boat this spring but came to training anyway, giving up her vacation to get better.  I'll admit I was a little worried and I know she was too, returning to the scene of the accident from a year before.

And she did great.  It became less and less necessary to direct her steering during practices.  She found me before every row to go over what we were trying to accomplish each session.  She earned my trust and the trust of her crew.

In another wonderful team-first attitude, Allison scheduled her surgery the earliest she could and even got an airplane ticket halfway through spring break so she could attend as many practices as possible.  She could have stayed home, but she wanted to row with her boat.  When we had to turn that boat around to get Allison on the dock in time for her flight, Rodd and I trusted Lopa without hesitation to get the crew back from the bridge alone.

Lopa coxed a lightweight 4 at FIRA that had never practiced together.  It was a second (or third) entry for everyone in that crew.  Lopa got the crew on the start without drama, kept a great point into a strong crosswind and got them off the line in good order.  I had the great opportunity to follow that event in my car and watched as they put on a beautiful race.  From 3/4 of a length down at the 700m mark, the lightweights stopped the other crew's momentum, walked back through and broke them at the 1500.  A race like that takes all five people in the crew, because the athletes must believe the cox and the cox must trust the athletes.  If that bond isn't there, that crew falls apart when the opposition gets that far ahead.

They threw her in.  It was perfect.  It was redemption.