What backup?

I was in the middle of my post workout routine - green tea, oatmeal, seriously considering a nap - when I read this article by Julie Foudy, former athlete for the US Women's national soccer team.  

The article discusses Hope Solo, and the issue with experienced depth at keeper - goalie - heading into the World Cup this summer in Canada.  

I found this article interesting because one of the continued conversations we've been having at my internship is comparing "depth" to "useable depth," and the differences between the two.  

First, depth.  To me, depth in rowing will vary per division - not going to include club programs.  I am also only referencing varsity athletes.  In my opinion, novice depth can vary too greatly, but I will briefly address it.  In general, I believe that good depth, with numbers alone being the deciding factor, an extra eight or so of athletes is a good thing to have.

DIII - 3 eights (1V, 2V, 3V):  2 eights for NCAA Championship as team, 1 eight for at large.

DII - 3 eights (1V, 2V, 3V):  1 eight, 1 four for NCAA Championship as team, 1 eight for at large.

DI - 4 eights+ (1V, 2V, 3V, 4V, spares):  2 eights, 1 four for NCAA Championship as team, and at large.

I'll quickly cover novice depth here.  I believe that solid novice depth is around 2 eights of athletes regardless of the level.  More eights are fine provided you have the staff - will address this shortly.

Those are the numbers of athletes that I would feel comfortable with heading into the spring season.  The extra eight athletes gives me some injury cushioning, and allows for more flexibility in lineups, and gives me an opportunity to help improve my assistant coaches - that's why they are your assistants, and why they come work for you.  

These numbers are also the number of eights that I believe you can have on the water with a smaller staff - 2 to 3 coaches total - so that each boat has one coach or gets more 1-on-1 time.  The more you spread out, the less coaching each athlete gets.  

This number is also manageable in terms of equipment use, travel budget, gear distribution, etc. without having to start making difficult decisions.  

Staff size can predicate how many boats you keep around.  A staff of 2 can only be stretched so far, and I believe that more than 2 eights means that you're not being effective with your coaching time.  Your athletes are not going to progress at a rate you're going to be happy with.  Can you get away with it?  Yes.  I have seen some programs running with small staffs that are successful - PRC varsity men had three coaches and 4 eights plus spares.  Ideally you'll be able to assign one coach to one boat and have them work with them throughout the practice, but two eights is still manageable.  

You can also have volunteer coaches - my current position - helping out as needed to spread out the coaching staff over a larger number of athletes.  

A solid number of athletes including novices range between 45 and 60 individuals give or take.  I think that 60 is a great number, and anything below 45 or over 60 can start to give you problems.

Now comes the follow up to depth; useable depth.  

I define useable depth as athletes who can be inserted into a lineup without causing havoc.  They may not be as fast as the athlete they are replacing due to injury, illness, what have you, but their technique and fitness is solid enough that they can come in with little to no disruption in a lineup.  

These athletes will typically slide into the lower boats - 3V, 4V - as you move athletes in these boats up to fill in spots as needed.  I am not a big fan of sending athletes down to fill in spots if I have the depth, but I will do it if I believe it will help.  My reasoning for not wanting to send a 1V athlete down to the 3V is that while they can improve the rowing of the 3V, there is the question of what value they are getting out of it.  For a tech workout, I'm fine with it.  For a speed workout, I'd like to fill in from below and keep my 1V with the 1V.  Again, my opinion, but that's how I like to work the depth on the team.

In figuring out useable depth, I take staff size, equipment, and time constraints into consideration.  Quality and quantity matter, but when those two items are on the table, I will reach for quality every time.  I want better athletes rather than carrying many athletes.  60 is my ideal size for a program, but if I don't have the coaches to run that, if I don't have the equipment to do this effectively, then it becomes of question of diminishing returns where I'm carrying depth at the expense of quality.  I ran into this issue while I was working my first collegiate job.  At one point I was running two 1.5 hour sessions in the fall because I had 5 eights of athletes with at least 4 eights worth showing up daily.  It reached a point where I wasn't able to cover enough in one session and still turn around and get in a second group without compromising somewhere.  Attrition took care of the numbers issue, but it was a beast to handle up front.

I believe your coaching philosophy will dictate where you go when considering depth or team size.  When it comes to useable depth, the number of athletes you keep in order to maintain depth could begin to compromise how many of those athletes are useable or interchangeable into your competitive lineups.