Expectations. A Year-Round Commitment.

We had a great season, and I wanted to recap with you the expectations for the team and share what you need to know to get started for next season.

Like any sports team, our goal is to prepare athletes physically, mentally, and technically to compete well. Remember, being competitive on the water is not all about winning. There are many lessons you can take away from crew without winning … but for a race you still want to be in the fight with a shot at placing. And to compete well you must be physically fit … this includes aerobic fitness as well as strength.

Good fitness is not a short-term goal.

It requires a year-round commitment to being active and working out regularly. During the summer you can do this by participating in other sports or by committing to working out for about 45-60 minutes five days a week. I want you to set your summer (and even longer-term) fitness goals and 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 4K times, etc.

I recommend you find crew teammates with similar interests and schedule time to run, bike, swim, lift or play a sport together. Our website http://justicerowing.org/team/workout-plan/ has body circuit exercises to build your own workouts. Consider getting a home pull-up bar and see how many pull-ups you can do by the start of the season. Use your ergs and if you don’t have one, let me know–we will loan out the team ergs in the coming week. Coach Rob put together the Stuart Crew Lifting Summer 2018 (click for automatic download) which we’ll discuss more next week.

Workout Plan | JEB STUART CREW This webpage contains some background info to support team off-season workout efforts. If possible, try to get together in groups for mutual support.

A key measure of rowing fitness is a 2000 meter (2K) erg time.

Here are times considered reasonably competitive to shoot for:

Open Weight Girls (above 130 lbs) – Average 150-lb girl should be able to achieve about 8:00 minutes or better. Girls above 150 lbs should be even faster to compensate for the extra boat drag.
Lightweight Girls (130 lbs or less) – Shoot for about 8:20 minutes or better, although there are lightweight girls out there who pull below 8:00.
Open Weight Boys (above 150 lbs) – Average 175-lb boy should do about 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 about 7:20 or better.

Now if you aspire to win at the upper level or be state champions remember the necessary steps displayed inside the Alexandria boathouse for TC Williams rowers:

Decide what you want to accomplish
Calculate the cost
Pay the price

The first step speaks to setting goals, the second step speaks to establishing a plan to achieve your goals, and the last step speaks to the commitment needed to achieve your goals—if you do want to win at an upper level you have to be willing to pay the price.

On the topic of Boat placement for rowers returning next season …

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 and 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. To do this right we need you to regularly practice with your boat in your seat (i.e. come to practice).

The factors evaluated when deciding who sits where are fitness, individual rowing technique, and ability to row well with others. As coaches can influence the technical aspects, it’s generally best to focus on fitness during the offseason when you won’t be working with a coach. Remember, 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, expect to be matched up with rowers with similar scores in what could be viewed as “lower” boats.

Need another reason to work on your erg time this summer?

When the season hits we will be filling the boats for each regatta until we can no longer make complete combinations … at that point rowers left out are those with the lowest fitness scores. Week-to-week we’ll trade off among those who sat out the previous week so everyone gets to compete at some point, but if you have a slow erg score you likely won’t get the chance to compete as often as someone with a more competitive erg.

Note to seniors …

There are fewer options with a senior for boat placement. 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.

As we’re wrapping up a season, it’s been great seeing a number of our boats successful at States and Nationals. I’d like to see more of our rowers share in that success in 2019. Pay the price! Rowers who invest time in themselves and are ready physically for the demands of the sport succeed.

Coach Mike