Rowers/Parents,

As we closeout the 2017 season and start looking to 2018 it’s important for those planning to return next season that you understand my perspective on fitness and boat/seat placement. I received questions on these topics from both rowers and parents. This is a bit lengthy, but please read this and ask questions if something is not clear.

First fitness …

To compete well in our sport you must be fit … this includes aerobic fitness, strength, and weight appropriate for height. Good fitness cannot be achieved over a short period of time, but instead requires a year-round commitment to staying active and exercising regularly. You can do this through participation in other sports or by committing to ~60 minutes of exercise 5 days a week. For those not involved in another sport, find crew teammates with similar interests and schedule time to run, bike, swim, etc., together. Also, consider attending rowing camps as a way to stay in shape and improve your skills.

Challenge Yourself

We’ll post the body circuit exercises we used in winter conditioning so you can build your own Tabata/body circuit workouts … consider getting a home pull-up bar and see how many pull-ups you can do by the start of the season. Some of you have your own ergs, and we’ll distribute the team ergs to those who would like one. I recommend rowers talk to their coaches about setting fitness goals — keep a journal to track your workouts and your progress … include things like your time for a mile run, number of pushups and pull-ups, 2K and 5K times, etc. …

2K Erg Time

To measure fitness at the start of the season, we’ll use a 2K erg time. Here are the times to be reasonably competitive:

• Open Weight Girls (above 130 lbs) — The average 150lb girl should be around 8:00 minutes (we have some girls at this weight below 8:00). For girls above 150 lbs the expectation is that you’ll be faster to compensate for the extra boat drag.
• Lightweight Girls (130 lbs or less) — Expectations here would be 8:20-8:30, although there are lightweight girls out there who pull below 8:00 (Shannon’s TC  lightweight 2X rowers were both below 8:00).
• Open Weight Boys (above 150 lbs) — The average 175 boy should be 7:00 minutes or better. As with the girls, boys above this weight are expected to be faster.
• Lightweight Boys (150 lbs or less) — Expectations here would be 7:20-7:30.

Boat placement (for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year rowers) …

At the start of our season at Lake Barcroft, we’ll assess fitness and try rowers in various seats/shells to look for good rower combinations to assign to shells. As we move to Sandy Run to get ready for the first regatta, the coaches will start identifying tentative lineups (specific rowers in specific seats). The desire is to create a cohesive boat lineup that can compete well in its category. Sometimes this may require tuning the rigging/oars to the specific rower which highlights the importance of attendance at practice with your boat (in your seat). The factors evaluated when deciding who sits where are fitness, individual rowing technique, and ability to row well with others. At this point in the season, as coaches, we have more ability to influence the technical aspects, so fitness becomes a key discriminator … so going back to the fitness words above, if your erg time is competitive you should expect a shot at being in a competitive lineup; however, if your erg time is slower than the above scores, you can expect to be matched up with rowers with similar scores in what could be viewed as “lower” boats.

Our goal “in season” is to give everyone chances to compete, and we have enough boats/seats to make that possible for 50 rowers/coxswains. However, reality is that absences make getting the full team on the water for every regatta a challenge. If we have an opening in an “upper” boat, we’ll move the next best rower up from a “lower” boat. We’ll continue to enter boats in a regatta until we can no longer make complete combinations … at that point there are often some rowers left who won’t compete that week — these rowers are typically those with the lowest fitness scores. Week-to-week we’ll tradeoff among those who sat out the previous week so everyone gets to compete at some point, but if you have a low erg score you likely won’t get the chance to compete every week (or at States and Stotes).

Speaking to the seniors … there are fewer options with a senior for boat placement because seniors are not eligible to compete in any junior events. Given our program size we don’t have the equipment or numbers to compete in the upper sweep category, so we’ll normally look to our seniors to be in the sculling boats.

We’re wrapping up a season where a number of our boats were successful at Stotes, States, and Nationals. I’d like to see more of our rowers share in that success in 2018 … but it starts with rowers investing time in themselves to be ready physically for the demands of the sport.

Coach Mike