October 12, 2010

We are gearing up for the 2010 Occoquan Chase on Sunday October 17, so our daily practices continue to focus on our fundamental technique in several areas:

First, our catch timing which we address at very low ratings as we warmed up on the reverse pick drill. It's quite analogous to playing a piece of Bach or Beethoven on the piano a tempo, and then trying play the same piece at half tempo: it's easy to gloss over technique at a high rate of speed; but to test if you really know that piece, attempt it at half speed and all the shortcomings of technique become very apparent. Aunt Nancy taught me this over 30 year ago when I played a Bach invention for her on the piano. She then said "That is lovely, Lamb, but can you play it for me again at half that tempo?", whereupon my performance fell apart utterly.

The lesson is that control and mastery come at the slower speed, and that what we perceive as brilliance at the higher speed is in fact a cover-up. In the case of rowing, the cover up comes at the higher rates at the expense of ratio, precision in catch timing and release, and slide control.

Today, the morning was lovely, dark and deep. We rowed upstream through the utter blackness 70 or 80 strokes into what feels like a primal stretch of ancient river untouched by man, though we know that just behind the curtain of trees are highways on the VA side, and fancy homes on the DC side.

To begin, we rowed 6s on the square just up past Three Sisters to warm up and work on catch timing. After a brief pause, our exersise was 2 minutes on pressure at a 28-30 rating, followed by 1 minute off. In terms of balance and timing, I think today was a really good day compared to some other recent practices. There is still some crashing into the catch with the shoulders, and yanking back with the arms and shoulders first rather than driving the legs down first--then bodies swing back to finish.

At our first pause close to Fletcher's Cover, it was still dark, but the most subtle suggestion of daybreak began to assert itself against the blackness of night. Yet still, only the ancient silhouette of treetops could we perceive from our position mid-stream.

At this point, Nancy reminded us that we need to maintain pressure with our feet on the stretchers throughout the drive. That sounds so simple, but it takes a lot of concentration and effort.

After turning around to head back downstream, we had more sequences of 2 minutes on, 1 minute off. I think we did well in each of these pieces and really maintained focus and energy. We still need to work on application of power at the drive, but in general, I did feel this week a lot of improvement on slide control and some of the other basic techniques that are easily forgotten without constant focus.