Destruction and poor rowing

Brian coxed this session and Maggie coached.

The whole thing started well when Matt’s seat broke after about 10 strokes. Maggie rode back to get another one and the bow four took over.

Allan had to go early and so we only went as far as the Plough, witnessing a nasty incident on the way where a sculler tried to dart through the gap between us and another eight. One of the rowers on the other eight had to pull her blade in so far that the handle ended up in the air and the spoon under the boat, resulting in the blade snapping with a nasty crunch. To balance that, we heard a kid on the bank call out ‘the one in the bow’s gorgeous’. Go Fran!

I didn’t row too well in this session - I was horrified to realise that I’d rowed about 3/4 of the session without sitting up properly. And I ended up very tired with messy feathering probably because I didn’t eat anything before the session. The balance was quite bad and I was a bit embarrassed that Brian didn’t see us at our best.

Maggie went around and said perceptive things about everyone afterwards. Funnily, she said that Fran needed more confidence (again!). She got to me and all she could say was I needed to get my hands away quicker (which I already knew). She again used me as the example of the height differences in the boat, and so I asked her how I should be making up for the fact that my drive and reach are shorter than everyone else’s. She said that it’s better to get the catch and finish together with everyone and perhaps not push as hard.