March 2001
Don't rush the novices
I suppose it was bound to happen sometime. Bureaucracy has caused me to get governmental certification as a rowing coach. I will give a full report in April once this is all over, but for now, it will also provoke my topic for this month.
As the ÒpracticalÓ part of my certification, I have been given the following assignment: organize an evening rowing excursion with picnic for a group of fourteen-year-olds who have only rowed about twenty times in their lives.
My initial reaction to this assignment was one of heavy skepticism. This is because I am extremely conservative when it comes to coaching novices, and I do not think that a group of fourteen-year-old novices should be capable of doing such an excursion after only twenty practices. Indeed, with novice collegiate rowers Ð hopefully with more coordination and maturity than the average fourteen-year-old Ð twenty practices is a little over a month, at which time I would have only recently taught such a group to feather and row all eight, and maybe half-pressure rowing by fours. We certainly wouldnÕt be rowing fast or long enough to go on an excursion. So what to do with fourteen-year-olds?
It is my belief that novices need to learn fundamentals before they progress to fast. I literally start rowing by pairs arms only, and make sure that is right before I go further. If bad habits are learned early, they are often hard to undo. Indeed, I do not claim to have novices rowing perfectly by the time they get to full slide all eight. But I think the fundamental concept has to be there.
Taking it slowly can also be exciting for the novices Ð each new step is a big accomplishment. If they row all eight on their very first day, they splash around and can get easily frustrated. And they nevertheless expect to row all eight, and it is hard to explain why they just canÕt all learn that way. If, instead, they learn in little steps, then each step is a big deal Ð and when they row all eight, it is the most exciting day of their lives, as far as they are concerned. Also, they can probably do it, too, which is important.
Meanwhile, a bunch of my former William & Mary rowers are coaching fourteen-year-olds in Northern Virginia this year. One of them wrote me recently with a scenario: given the bizarre league rules in that high school league, the season is unreasonably short. The kids must be ready to race their first race about four weeks after taking to the water for the first time. How is this supposed to happen?
The Northern Virginia high school rowing league is notorious for idiotic rules which rival the NCAA in stupidity. It is the reason that NoVa high school programs just can't compete with high school programs from other regional leagues.
As a result, there is a ÒnoviceÓ category during the racing season, but novices are not allowed on the water until a few weeks beforehand. That means there is almost no time to teach them to row before the first race. My one piece of advice was this: don't even try to make the crew fast. Just try to teach them to row the basics. If they get the basics right, they'll be fast - relatively now, and certainly later. It will be hard to un-teach them badly learned fundamentals, so even if they don't win this year it would be a favor to them to go slowly and make sure they will win in the long-term. Obviously, there is not the luxury of being as conservative with novices as I am, because these novices have to be ready to race very soon. Even so, a coach should not rush more than he has to.
Following on from this, it is critical to remember that the important race is the one at the end of the season. The crew does not have to be up to speed for the first race, so there is no need to teach them everything before the first race. If for the first race they can make it down the length of the course without crabbing and feeling like they have put in some effort, then they've done well. Even if they do crab, at least they can learn from the experience. Like crews at any level, it is important to make sure they peak at the right time - using the races during the season to gain experience. Winning those races is nice, but it is not the important thing. In fact, if they lose early on but see the margins getting smaller each week until they actually win (or at least finish well) at season's end, they will probably come away with a bigger sense of accomplishment than if they pound and flail their way down the course all season long, winning some and losing some, and finishing back in the pack somewhere at the season's end.
Also, in this line, keep the stroke rate LOW. Very low. Higher rates will mean more mistakes. Lower rates mean they can just concentrate on rowing well. Given that every other NoVA crew will also have been on the water for the same small amount of time, rowing well will be to the crewÕs advantage.
When I was in 10th grade (15 years old), in my second year of rowing (and we rowed Fall and Spring seasons), I coxed the Boy's Fifth Eight (we had about eight boys eights at Exeter), which was mostly 10th graders and second-year rowers - i.e. with a lot more experience than a novice school crew from Northern Virginia. Our base stroke rate was 26 and we never lost. We almost lost in our last race, when we tried to rate 30 down the course and just were not doing it well, so I called the rate down to 26 and kept it that low without taking it up for a sprint. The result: we moved through arch-rival St. Paul's in the last 500 and won the race.
This bit of logic does not only apply to NoVa high schools, of course. I note that there has been only limited rowing in Britain this year, due to even more severe floods than normal as well as even worse epidemics than normal. That means that there has been almost no opportunity for British programs to get their novices on the water at all. When the new term starts soon, assuming the water is rowable, many colleges are going to try to rush their novices along to get ready for racing. They will face the same issue as my former rowers in Northern Virginia.
In some cases, the novices will be necessary to fill out the more senior crews. Where this is the case, there will be no choice but to take the most coordinated athletes, get their erg tech down, and stuff them in the boat and tell them to hang on tight. I have myself indeed taught novices in a hurry in this way. Just be ready to slow things down for them in the Fall and review the basics. For the vast majority, however, there is no need to rush. If they wonÕt be sitting in senior boats, then donÕt worry how they do. Just get them out there and teach them to row. However they end up doing, theyÕll be similarly experienced to their opponents. They may win or they may lose. But the important things are that they have fun, get a taste of it all, and not develop any bad habits. Give them those fundamentals and they will be in the sport and contributing to fast crews for many years to come. Forget those fundamentals and they will ultimately get frustrated and not be in a position or have a desire to contribute to the future.