Fall Comes to an End
It's been a long road to get here and one that has had many obstacles. But here we are and with the final race of the fall season complete, we can turn our attention to winter training.
A quick recap.
We raced at three regattas which I take as a success given the fluctuation of Covid restrictions and developments.
We got off the year with a scrimmage against our local rival, the always excellent Rose City. Weather could have cooperated a bit more but both the men's head coach and I felt that we saw what we needed to see over six 700 meter pieces with various lineups. The overall impression? We row with decent technique but could do better (honestly has any coach ever walked away feeling that they couldn't row better) and the realization that fitness was going to be our biggest obstacle going forward.
Our first official regatta was at Dexter Lake against Rogue and South Eugene. The boys did well in the first attempt at stacking lineups with a near sweep of both programs in the eights and fours. It was also the first time I was able to watch the HOCR lineup run. While it is nice to see the top boats perform, I was happier that the B boats clawed their way through the A boats of the other programs. As I told the athletes, A boats are always fast, but B and C boats tell you the health and culture of any program and to see B boats beat A boats is always a good sign.
Head of the Charles was next. To be honest, I wasn't sold on attending. It's my first fall with the program, I hadn't seen the speed I was hoping for on the tests even with the athletes going hard, and frankly felt that we were a year premature in our bid to attend.
With that said, the lineup did well. They started 69th out of 84, and fought their way to finish 21st, securing the bid for fall 2022. The coxswain I selected with the help of the women's staff (Siri and Des) as well as my assistant did an excellent job. His line was aggressive, and he avoided any hang up at Eliot Bridge that plagues other programs and rookie coxswains. Overall, despite my initial hesitations I felt that the trip paid off and was ultimately worth it.
We finished the fall with the Portland Fall Classic up at Vancouver Lake. The results weren't as good as they had been at the scrimmage or the Dexter regatta but they were the results I was hoping for. I'd been telling coaching friends all fall that we seem to churn out these results and I was growing concerned that we were building confidence based on a poor foundation. I didn't want our teeth kicked in because overly harsh results can demoralize a team but at the same time, I was searching for a bit of reality.
Consider that delivered as Rose City, Lakeside and Sammamish all showed true speed and depth for the fall. The V8 finished 4th out of 5, the JV finished 3rd out of 5, and the 3V8 finished 4th out of 5.
The takeaway was that our technique is improving, but our fitness will continue to hold us back until we understand what hard work truly feels like. Again, the results could have been demoralizing but all the athletes I spoke with understood where they were and that spring is an open book. They can make significant progress over winter if they choose to or they can rest on the couple of medals they won this fall.
That is the biggest challenge in coaching juniors. Results can swing wildly throughout a season, and even if you've lost or won against someone, the next race might change everything and you're back to square one. Or you're not. The spring isn't decided during fall though, and winter training is my favorite time of year. I feel that we lose the distraction of the water and are able to focus on the erg and monitors. We're able to stripe away what doesn't matter and fixate on what does. I truly feel that a good well run winter training, while not necessarily a "fix all" does make a world of difference come spring. And the same for a lackluster winter.
Where we sit now is at a time when we can digest the fall, use this week to slow down and think and work through the PFC results and then have a sit down with each athlete and talk about where they are heading into winter, where they want to be, where I see them currently and what happens next.
For now, it's my turn to take some time off.
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