How much is too much?
As noted in the previous post, I just recently took hold of one of our Empacher boats for my novice eight due to the Vespoli I was using needing some serious TLC to get back into racing shape.
In the last 24 hours I've contacted several different coaching friends who in turn have asked their co-workers or other coaching friends for assistance with rigging and setting this boat. Empachers are one of the boats that I have neither been in nor actually had hands on experience with and all I've really got to go on is what I was told by the program's head coach, "Empachers don't stay set." Basically what he was telling me is that Empacher riggers are notorious for switching settings in practice so just because you go out with 4 degrees of pitch doesn't mean you'll come back with 4 degrees of pitch.
The best reference has been a friend who is a coach at M.I.T who has put me in touch with the program's rigger who said he'd be more than happy to answer any questions that I have.
Here's the problem. I don't have specific questions other than, "I need help," again citing the lack of experience with dealing with an Empacher. So what I've decided to do is tear one of the riggers apart and then write down any and every question that might pop into my head, take pictures using my phone and then send him an e-mail asking for his opinion on rigging.
However, deep into last night/this morning, a thought popped into my head and it's been in the back of my mind ever since.
"Am I over analyzing/over detailing for a high school novice eight?"
Basically am I worrying needlessly over a boat that if it's pitched the same, spread the same it will be more than adequate for my squad? This morning I hacked away on the oars that we've been using and the oars that we might switch to, looking at their loads, the blade sizes etc. I've measured the blade size, considered what type of crew I have this year, their strengths and weaknesses and tried to come up with a game plan that I think would help make us better.
* Let me say that really I haven't a clue of what I'm doing or looking for. I've picked up a lot of information but without any guidance or experience to fall back upon, I've got information that I don't know how to use yet. Despite this, I figure that this is how you learn. Experiment. Play around. Figure things out, what works and what doesn't and write it down. Obviously I don't want to mess up my boat or my riggers but I don't want to simply half hazard my equipment and hope for the best.
In general with the help from my coaching friends and the head coach at this program plus checking with what little I do know, I feel fairly confident that while I may not hit the sweet spot of rigging, I'll get fairly close or at least give my guys something to work with.
In the last 24 hours I've contacted several different coaching friends who in turn have asked their co-workers or other coaching friends for assistance with rigging and setting this boat. Empachers are one of the boats that I have neither been in nor actually had hands on experience with and all I've really got to go on is what I was told by the program's head coach, "Empachers don't stay set." Basically what he was telling me is that Empacher riggers are notorious for switching settings in practice so just because you go out with 4 degrees of pitch doesn't mean you'll come back with 4 degrees of pitch.
The best reference has been a friend who is a coach at M.I.T who has put me in touch with the program's rigger who said he'd be more than happy to answer any questions that I have.
Here's the problem. I don't have specific questions other than, "I need help," again citing the lack of experience with dealing with an Empacher. So what I've decided to do is tear one of the riggers apart and then write down any and every question that might pop into my head, take pictures using my phone and then send him an e-mail asking for his opinion on rigging.
However, deep into last night/this morning, a thought popped into my head and it's been in the back of my mind ever since.
"Am I over analyzing/over detailing for a high school novice eight?"
Basically am I worrying needlessly over a boat that if it's pitched the same, spread the same it will be more than adequate for my squad? This morning I hacked away on the oars that we've been using and the oars that we might switch to, looking at their loads, the blade sizes etc. I've measured the blade size, considered what type of crew I have this year, their strengths and weaknesses and tried to come up with a game plan that I think would help make us better.
* Let me say that really I haven't a clue of what I'm doing or looking for. I've picked up a lot of information but without any guidance or experience to fall back upon, I've got information that I don't know how to use yet. Despite this, I figure that this is how you learn. Experiment. Play around. Figure things out, what works and what doesn't and write it down. Obviously I don't want to mess up my boat or my riggers but I don't want to simply half hazard my equipment and hope for the best.
In general with the help from my coaching friends and the head coach at this program plus checking with what little I do know, I feel fairly confident that while I may not hit the sweet spot of rigging, I'll get fairly close or at least give my guys something to work with.
Comments