A Rant on The Rowing Situation

              I finished up the last brick project and am going to call it quits for a bit. September looks to be a horribly busy month for me. Our cool July is turning into a hot and humid August. I had hoped to get my upstairs fixed up enough to rent out for gameday weekends, but life got in the way along with my dread for cleaning. Maybe next year….

What a difference 17 years makes: 1996

I tried to duplicate the same camera angle: 2013

We had our last learn to row class Friday night. It was stressfull to say the least. I’m using my journal as a platform to vent. I have such respect and admiration for teachers. I’m not cut out to be a teacher or coach. These people who have come through the past few LTR’s are just so clueless. One boy showed to for the first instruction on the water wearing blue jeans. There was a pair of baggy shorts in his dads car he was able to change into. A bit of an improvement over jeans, but really not much as the loose fabric can easily be entrapped into the wheels on the seat track.

Laurie and I were the only experienced rowers for this LTR in the 8 & 7 seats. I was on starboard so it was my responsibility to keep us off the shore. It was a draining experience, physically and mentally. I can tell these new rowers don’t have the enthusiasm and drive to push themselves. At the end of the practice I feel like it is just a waste of my time and positive energy.

Saturday morning I got an E-mail from we will say Steve, one of the rowers and founders of the club who has been putting together a rowing program for high school kids. This has been a pet project of his which he has not really shared details.

Steve’s E-mail to me & the club:

 

I need a big favor. Next week, Rowyourpantsoff, the club created for high school students, will have their first LTR. I need six adult rowers and two coxswains for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights, from 5:30 pm until 7:00 pm. Even if you are only available for one or two nights that would be a great help.

Please help me get the next generation of rowers on track for a life time of having fun rowing and staying healthy.

 

Thanks,

This is such a nightmare in so many ways. I guarantee these kids will not have the strength to get the boats to the river and into the water. The adult rowers are barely able to move the boat as it is. These kids will be using our equipment which if if something happens could leave us stranded as a club boat wise. 

<p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;
margin-left:0in;text-indent:.5in”>My reply:

 

 

Good Morning 

Your E-mail requesting rowers for another learn to row took me completely by surprise. Working these last two learn to rows has me totally burned out. I’m not cut out to be a teacher and the frustration I suffer from these endeavors works my last good nerve. There is no enthusiasm to erg or work to get stronger. I have begged and offered to work with these new rowers on the Concept 2’s and all I hear back is crickets. We took the four out this morning. Nancy, Me, Rebecca, Barbara, and Mark coxed. I never broke into a sweat. The entire row was pretty much basic instruction and paddle pressure rowing. 

I know it is a Catch 22 situation, but for the work-out I want to accomplish, it would have been time better spent to have just Erged at the "Y".

I know this is late in regards to the Racing line ups you proposed, but I can’t commit to racing. My September Schedule is booked up pretty much every weekend for the entire month. 

I’ll help out Wednesday & Thursday as a cox or rower….

 

The way Steve promotes the club is so far away from what a real rowing club should be. He touts the health benefit of rowing the boat and how much fun rowing is.

The past few years we have been only getting rowers who want to have “fun” which equates to paddling on the river and looking at the scenery. You don’t get any real lasting “health benefit” from this kind of workout. Don’t get me wrong, any kind of exercise is good, but to imply that paddling on the river two or three times a week will give you the same kind of health benefit of a rower in training is a lie.

The “fun” for me in a rowing practice is to push myself into anaerobic mode  so by the time we dock the endomorphins are flying. In the normal context this is not “fun”. You are pushing yourself to the furthest physical limits of your body. A practice done right you should soaking wet from sweat, physically drained, and barely be able to get out of the boat.  The number of rowing practices in the past few years this reaction had occurred I can count on one hand with too many fingers left over. These rowers don’t want to be pushed, and sadly there are only a very few rowers left in the club with the strength or skill for such a practice now. 

        In the AquaticCenter on campus in the room where the varsity crew works out, our first coach Alison posted this posted on the wall:

 

 The athlete’s anaerobic threshold is the point at which the body’s muscles have exhausted their oxygen store and start burning other fuel. For regular folks, reaching that threshold is quitting time; anaerobic work is 19 times harder than aerobic work. But rowing is all about harder. Elite rowers fire off the start at sprint speed — 53 strokes per minute. With 95 pounds of force on the blade end, each stroke is a weight lifter’s power clean. Rowers cross their anaerobic threshold with that first stroke. Then there are 225 more to the finish line.

I doubt there will soon (or ever) be the skillset to even contemplate such practices for the master rowers. It was painful to write this out, but I feel better now.</sp

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