My 16th fall
Again with apologies with the lengthy delays between posts. It's been a hectic fall and getting back into coaching as a head coach vs. assistant has been like riding a bike without a seat. It's doable, it's not always comfortable.
This post will be a bit of a mind dump.
We're coming off of our first official regatta of the 2021-2022 season and despite getting nearly 10 hours of sleep last night, I'm still beat. It might be the 2 am wake up yesterday. It might be the fact that I'm working 73-78 hours a week with both jobs combined.
Either way, I'm tired.
But there's work to do. The Fall Classic is rapidly approaching. As is Head of the Charles. We have some serious training to do the next week and a half before we head out and I know we'll never get it all in. One of my assistants was running the program last Tuesday and told me afterward that she felt that she could have gotten a little more done.
My response: You always do.
It's my 16th fall not counting college. That's difficult to believe and yet it's something I say each fall. My 10th fall, my 15th fall, etc.
And yet this morning has been spent staring at the computer screen and iPad, sipping coffee and thinking about new workout headphones and a new FitBit. I should be going for something like a Garmin but having finally pulled the plug and purchased my forever waterproof jacket last week, I'm not anxious to open the wallet again. Oh yes. I love it.
I'm not sure how I'm pounding out the hours I am. Thank God I've lost nearly 50 lbs in the last 18 or so months though I do need to look at a gym membership with not having the same flexibility I did before the season truly kicked off. I don't want to balloon up again.
With every season and every new program comes the same frustrations. Putting in 40 hours at the primary job with the benefits, plus 30-35 hours with coaching means nearly 300 hours of work a month. And it's hard not to get frustrated when someone who puts in 20 hours a week with two days off a week, with work starting at 330 pm. Oh buddy. You are privileged.
But let's be serious. How much time you dedicate toward coaching or working or both isn't indicative of the level of detail or care you put into it. Or it is. It goes either way.
I was told over a month ago that I needed to be more flexible and to "get creative" when I temporarily lost my assistant. That was a difficult comment to swallow given I have 34 athletes on the water on any given day, and how unsafe that situation is and how quickly that can become a shitshow. And so after being frustrated with it, I got creative and now I have two assistants: My original and the women's novice coach.
What does that have to do with time and such? The women's novice coach and I have a previous history having been at OSU at the same time. She a coxswain, me a coach. She's in her first year of coaching and I would challenge an outside who wouldn't know that to make that assumption. Meanwhile someone else on the staff with a bit more coaching experience is struggling to stay even a week behind and you can tell when they show up that they haven't thought about that practice until the moment their foot touched the boathouse ramp. You watch them go, and you have no idea where their season is heading. Usually it's clear or somewhat clear but in some cases, in this in particular, you have no idea.
Enough ranting.
For now.
Yesterday was good....but. Always the buts. That's an odd statement. Always the....buts. That's how it is.
Good results, however it's the first race, and we only raced a couple of teams. So you can't nor shouldn't dismiss the results because then it becomes a negative. The athletes simply never feel that they're good enough and that's not challenging, that's demoralizing. I've got a great article on that. Standards high. Expectations higher, but we don't expect a newborn to run a marathon at a World Record pace.
What you want is for the first race to go well so the buy-in continues and gets deeper and more involved, but to not be so good that complacency, the feeling of "We got this" starts. It's fall. It's far too soon for that feeling. In fact I don't believe you should ever feel that way.
We, and when I say we I understand that I'm the head coach, but we refers to myself and my assistants. We entered six boats, and came away with two victories and two second place finishes to our own boats. Another boat raced unopposed so a default win, and the double with two days of practice finished 3rd. Again, solid results, and it was good to see two versions of four lineups do well as well as a more stacked U19 8. But it's easy to get excited about top boats. It's always been my coaching philosophy that I care more about the second and third boats. I've told the guys that depth and numbers are not synonymous but too many programs and coaches mix the two. Numbers are a large team. Depth means a useable team. If you want to say "Next guy up" and mean it, then the lower boats have to be fast as well. And I was happy that the second boats or B boats passed the other teams A boats.
So the Portland Fall Classic is next for the team - the Charles is a team race with everyone supporting the boat but not a focus of mine - and we've got some time to build faster boats and better lineups. We were missing some parts yesterday who will make a difference in boats and we're looking forward to getting them back.
With all that said, it's Sunday and Best Buy is waiting.
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