There was thankfully no rain
in sight, though Fran said that had been the best part about Tuesday. The
college bumps were happening downstream, and so the river was closed until
about 8pm. The plan was for the crew to meet and go down to the bumps at 6.30
to watch though only a couple of us got there (Liz and Richard). So we met as a
group at 8pm at the boathouse and watched the first of the college boats come
back just after. Kat the coach had injured her back and so we had Matt’s wife
Maggie to coach but no cox. Ashley put his persuasion skills to use again and
got Greg the resident Kiwi with beer in hand to cox for us.
There was an extra guy called
Martin (I think) who turned up this time – he was the short guy in stroke in a
previous episode. Also, Ewan showed up, though he had made it clear he won’t be
here for the actual races. I asked Richard what he’d seen of the bumps and he
told me. We had a good chat here, and I found out that he’s from Western Australia and is
in agriculture. He’s here on a 2 year working holiday but is finding the
salaries too low. He has quite a broad accent and so when I asked whether he
was from inland he admitted that he’d lived and worked in the country for 3
years. He asked about my situation. He seems like a very nice, intelligent
person. ‘Down-to-earth’ as Fran puts it. He asked me if I was going to novices
on Saturday, and when I said it wasn’t on and I was going to watch the college
bumps with Fran he said he’d come along.
Maggie injected some sense
after the last free-for-all session and had us on the ergs in pairs to check
our technique. Shame Sikander wasn’t there.... Richard and I started off on the ergs. She had
some advice for him but couldn’t seem to find anything wrong with me. The other
pairs had a go and then we got the boat out under Greg’s tutelage.
We had pretty much the same
boat setup except Fran and I swapped – after someone suggested (possibly
incorrectly) that shorter people were better nearer the bow of the boat, but
certainly that it was better to have people of like sizes in pairs. Fran is
much taller than me, so it made sense and I was eager to head off the problems
I’d had on Tuesday before they happened. Martin took Sikander’s stroke seat and
Ewan and Allan did half a session each in 7.
S – Martin
7 – Ewan/Allan
6 – Richard
5 - Fran
4 - Liz
3 - me
2 - Matt
B – Ashley
Greg is well-built though not
terribly bulky but he swore ferociously into the cox box when he tried to fit his
backside into the compact cox’s seat. It was hilarious, particularly with his
silly vowels. I moved my foot stretchers, checked the band-aids on my thumbs
and had a chat to Liz. Once we’d numbered off we pulled out behind a huge barge
and the stern four started rowing (I was now in the bow four). Greg had them do
the drill of arms, then bodies then gradual slides. Then the same with the bow
four. That part of the river is very windy and we had a bit of a clash of
blades with another crew, then got a little close to the barges tied to the
bank (I don’t think it was all down to Greg’s drunk driving). We stopped here
and Maggie gave us some really sensible, constructive criticism. Then we caught
up with the barge which had just stopped in the middle of the river. We crossed
to the other side and got around to find a woman on the front of the barge
roundly abusing someone on the shore. Greg gave us a muttered commentary and
suggested that they work on their boating skills, finding some choice names for
them. Very amusing.
We set off again but with the
stern six this time. Martin’s stroke was fairly good in pace, but Greg zeroed
in immediately on the slide. He had us all thinking about controlling it and
slowing it down. He had a system of counting – one (catch), two (finish), three
(arms out, bodies over), four (slide). That was even too fast for my liking,
but it was still worlds better than Sikander and certainly got the crew
thinking along the same lines. It was a glorious still night with no traffic on
the river that late, and it was so satisfying to not be rowing like the clappers
and having everyone in tune much more. Greg had a great way of swapping pairs
in and out so there were always six people rowing and there was continuous
movement but we were getting rests. I was using my legs, so my back wasn’t
sore, I wasn’t out of breath, I had time to get my hands out and to square my
blade and I could concentrate on my feathering and got a really good snap
happening with it like the college crews do. As a result I didn’t have to look
at my blade to see if was squared, because I could feel it (that’s just a result
of practice I’m sure).
We got to the same point in
the river that we’d turned on Tuesday, turned and pulled in to the bank so
Maggie could talk to us. She gave individual feedback on the stern four, but
didn’t really see us in the bow. I think of that as encouraging, because if
we’d been doing something really bad she would have noticed. Ashley had been
early with his catches which really jolts the boat, but I think he improved by
the end. In fact with a perfect crew, the motion of the boat would probably be
constant, with no jolt at all with the catch (which I’m well used to by now).
Allan jumped out, Ewan jumped in, Greg was handed another beer and we set off
again. We rowed with all eight all the way back. Our start from backstops was
really messy again, and so we tried again and it was better. In balance terms, after
every finish there would be blades skimming the surface and any leaning on the
boat seemed to favour the bow side. I found that my blade was catching
accidentally when I squared, but I worked around this. The lean went to stroke
a few times though – the leaning movement was regular and slow but obviously
still not ideal. Greg kept on about slowing the slide down and the balance got
better. He could actually feel tension in the boat and told us that we had to
relax and expect the balance to go a bit wonky. The effect this had on the
balance was quite magical. Every time he said the word relax, something
changed. In addition, he asked us to add ‘two pips’ to the slide, then ‘three
pips’ and finally as we were nearing the home stretch, there were about three isolated
strokes when there were no blades skimming the surface after the finish,
meaning the balance was perfect. The first one of those was an exciting moment,
and I think everyone felt it.
It was about 9.30 when we
pulled back into the boathouse and we pulled the boat out, then swung it to
heads and it was so much easier because no one was exhausted!! Someone hosed
the boat off and Richard and I wiped it down, having a bit of post mortem. We
put the boat away then all had a chat in the boathouse. Maggie reiterated that
we need to slide together and that we need to square early. She said you should
watch the person in front of you but keep stroke’s blade in the corner of your
eye.
I came out of this session quite
euphoric. I decided there was nothing more satisfying than completing a stroke
as a crew and hearing blissful silence on the recovery. There’s an appeal for
me with this medium similar to playing in tune in an orchestra. I’m hoping that
everyone has learnt something from Greg and his session and will keep Sikander
in check if he stays in the stroke position. It’s vital. I’m sure that Greg
would have got stuck into him had he been there.
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