Playing catch up
I've never coached in the northeast where the rivers are frozen over and "water time" is measured by the amount of time spent in the tank. I consider myself lucky that the worst I've had to deal with weather-wise out here is freezing rain and cold but not too cold temperatures.
All that being said, it feels as though I'm in catch mode right now. With the weather being a crap shoot last week and the water being deceptively calm but extremely swift - even more swift when the dam opens up in the afternoon - we've not had much water time. In fact we've been limited to two days, both cut short both circumstances out of our control. With the first regatta of the season breathing down our necks, we are definitely all systems go.
To try and alleviate the stress of the start of spring and to keep the guys on target I've made it clear to the guys that the goal of the first race is to get through the first race. It's Green Lake's 1k sprints so there's not a lot of strategy that needs to go into that. We're spending our time getting back up to speed, knocking the rust off and working on technique. I'm almost 100% certain that this puts us behind other teams in terms of speed but I believe that the sacrifices made now will pay off handsomely when it matters the most.
Still you're never quite sure how the squad is going to react to the first race, especially since you can't predict the outcome. My first race at UPS, I was very concerned with how my 2nd novice eight would make out, fearing that a heavy loss would demoralize the boat and send them into a tailspin for the rest of the season. All that boat did was run through the regular season undefeated, knocking off their main rival all four times we raced and brought home a medal at WIRAs. It goes to show how much or truly how little I know or understand psychology and the make up of each team and boat.
I'm looking forward to the next few weeks, working on refining our technique, putting the new guys through their paces and hopefully putting together some very competitive boats in the end.
All that being said, it feels as though I'm in catch mode right now. With the weather being a crap shoot last week and the water being deceptively calm but extremely swift - even more swift when the dam opens up in the afternoon - we've not had much water time. In fact we've been limited to two days, both cut short both circumstances out of our control. With the first regatta of the season breathing down our necks, we are definitely all systems go.
To try and alleviate the stress of the start of spring and to keep the guys on target I've made it clear to the guys that the goal of the first race is to get through the first race. It's Green Lake's 1k sprints so there's not a lot of strategy that needs to go into that. We're spending our time getting back up to speed, knocking the rust off and working on technique. I'm almost 100% certain that this puts us behind other teams in terms of speed but I believe that the sacrifices made now will pay off handsomely when it matters the most.
Still you're never quite sure how the squad is going to react to the first race, especially since you can't predict the outcome. My first race at UPS, I was very concerned with how my 2nd novice eight would make out, fearing that a heavy loss would demoralize the boat and send them into a tailspin for the rest of the season. All that boat did was run through the regular season undefeated, knocking off their main rival all four times we raced and brought home a medal at WIRAs. It goes to show how much or truly how little I know or understand psychology and the make up of each team and boat.
I'm looking forward to the next few weeks, working on refining our technique, putting the new guys through their paces and hopefully putting together some very competitive boats in the end.
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