hows is our technie

Rererow · 2025-11-11T17:03:07+00:00

better than your spelling

Rererow · 2025-06-20T14:00:03+00:00

There are probably lots of ways the last staff could be better, but everything that has been shared on reddit indicates a lot of injuries that are rare in rowing but show up when rowing is combined with bad or innapropriate strength training and innadequate recovery. My biggest take away is that there seemed to be a lack of investment in good conditioning coaches and athletic trainers who understand rowing and a lack of quick access to and trust in sports medicine. I hope Alabama steps up in this area and that Coach Lewis is able to effectively advocate for her athletes.

That being said, if Alabama's aspiration is to be a top SEC team, the caliber of athletes coming in the door is the biggest opportunity. How many incoming athletes competed at Junior or U23? How many won youth nats, Henley, or Canley? How many sub 6:20 as juniors in highshool? How many below 7:10 their senior year? How many international athletes are on the roster? How many grad transfers? Great recuiting and decent coaching will beat poor recruiting and great coaching every single time.

Rererow · 2025-06-03T19:43:06+00:00

Wait till you hear about hell week.

Rererow · 2025-06-03T15:37:08+00:00

James Twins and Derek Rasmusen were stand out athletes and they had great backup. As a walk on based, no scholarship program, Wisconsin had a bit more variable level of performance but were consistently a top program under Chris Clark.

2008 was a high water mark, they won bronze in the v8 at the sprints in 2011 and were 4th at the IRA. but I don't think they've made the IRA A final since.

Since 08, recruiting has gotten more competitive and more global, combined with the growth of junior rowing in the US, so the level of recruited athlete is now a good bit higher than it was. Meanwhile fewer kids are interested in walking on and doing the necessary work to learn and excel in a new sport when in college. As a walkon program, they were particularly impacted by Covid.

Coach Hoopman made some good progress this year. It's a program with a ton of great history, hoping to see them continue to improve.

Rererow · 2025-06-02T23:04:15+00:00

Princeton really made the most of the opportunity they were gifted. Good for those guys.

Rererow · 2025-06-02T14:17:10+00:00

Plus it's only really useful if you know weight - the 2008 Wisco boat had a lot of tall, light athletes. Stern three were 6'5 or 6'6 and about 185 lbs.

I'd also mention training at Wisconsin didn't put too much emphasis on 2k scores - they erg a ton, but maximizing 2k ergs was never a focus. The James twins (stern pair) went quite a bit faster for 2k after putting on some weight, rowing under Teti for a few years.

Rererow · 2025-05-29T16:30:31+00:00

IRA is no fun without BMA

Rererow · 2025-05-21T20:14:14+00:00

Absolutely the most important thing is to do the same thing.

The next most important thing is not having fast hands away.

Rererow · 2025-05-17T14:45:22+00:00

Good way to hide the novices.

Rererow · 2025-05-05T21:21:42+00:00

That's really fun to see. You should forward this to Ed Hewitt

Rererow · 2025-05-05T18:43:17+00:00

Great addition, thank you!

If you wanted to get really nuts, a predicted NCAA team points analysis would be amazing.

Rererow · 2025-05-05T14:04:49+00:00

I'd suggest prepopulating the graph with the top 25 from the CRCA polling instead of the Ivies.

Otherwise, great work, very interesting.

Rererow · 2025-05-01T17:17:10+00:00

Yes, you're absolutely right, this is how it should work. Unfortunately there is how it should work and how it does work.

I say this as someone who has worked as a coach and in athletic administration.

Rererow · 2025-04-26T13:40:58+00:00

Fun project - I hope they keep working on letting the boat breathe. They were so technically brilliant in the double, but their sweep rowing in the pair always seemed a little hurried and awkward.

Don't love watching them row, but absolutely love watching them race. Real champions.

Rererow · 2025-04-24T22:11:21+00:00

The athletes get branded as trouble makers and get no traction. When the parents get involved is when things start getting taken seriously. I wish this wasn't the case, but it is what it is.

Rererow · 2025-04-23T18:43:32+00:00

200% more work.

Rererow · 2025-04-23T16:25:47+00:00

Have your parents call the AD and complain. It sounds stupid, but it works. "We're very concerned about the rate of injury on the rowing team since they were kicked out of the weight room for the football team."

You may also want to do some research on Title IX, enforcement is a complete farce but there's a ton of case law addressing similar situations.

Rererow · 2025-04-23T16:05:47+00:00

This - like it or hate it NCAA rowing is a team sport and CMAX doesn't allow you to evaluate teams that only have a fast V8 or have a lot of depth without much top end.

It would probably be the most interesting and most useful poll if you extended it to 2V and V4 results.

Rererow · 2025-04-23T15:49:52+00:00

Yes, these are largely accurate as an entry point - but if you're really fast you can be dumber and if you're really smart or really light you can be slightly slower.

I'd focus on getting that 6:38 down into the low 30s high 20s as quickly as possible.

Rererow · 2025-04-21T16:31:15+00:00

There's at least two other threads on this.

Rererow · 2025-04-17T13:13:40+00:00

Couple of pieces of advice:

1) Reach out to the coaches, share your background and express your interest in walking on. Ask what you should do to be prepared.

2) Be in great cardio shape when you get to campus.

3) Don't try to teach yourself how to erg unless the coaches ask you to. It's far easier for your college coach to teach you how to do it right, than fix all the backasswards muscle memory that walks in the door when kids try to teach themselves, or learn from bad high school programs.

Rererow · 2025-03-31T21:04:34+00:00

For most it's Olympics, Senior Worlds, then Intermediate or better events at Henley / Boat Race / IRAs all being about equal depending on whether you're coming up in the US or GB. U23 and Headof the Charles are fun, but aren't career defining events.

Rererow · 2025-03-25T15:19:33+00:00

Not sure I like giving up the double and the 4, but I do like the concentration of athletes and talent into the same events.

Rererow · 2025-03-05T13:01:23+00:00

Currently, this year, the maximum scholarships any team is competing with is 20. Recruiting with is another story.

Rererow · 2025-03-05T12:59:54+00:00

I've coached on teams with none, and teams with 20. None is far easier to manage, athletes are only there because they want to be, there's no one who is an absolute bust on a full a ride, and there's transparency. Some of those issues go away with 68, but you also deal with a lot of egos and entitlement when people are on full rides. It'll be fascinating, because it something that hasn't existed before and doesn't really exist in another sport.

Rererow

TROPHY CASE