Indiana University Athletics
Spring Break Stories - Betsy Hibbard
3/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Rowing
March 17, 2006
CLEMSON, S.C. - The Indiana rowing team is currently training in Clemson, S.C, for its spring break training trip from March 12-18. The Hoosiers will write in to IUHOOSIERS.com from time to time to let everyone know how the team is doing. Junior Betsy Hibbard is the fifth to report in from Clemson.
Slight tail wind. Water smooth as glass. All the boats are aligned even, dead still in the water. The starter polls the crews, while the coxswains make small changes to straighten their courses. When all the coxswains are satisfied, the starter will raise the flag. Here come the nerves. Silence. Then the starter will say, "We have Alignment... attention... GO!"
The goal of the start is to get a still boat to move the fastest, the quickest. To do that, think of a bicycle turned upside down. You want the wheel to spin. Grab it and quickly send it off, then start tapping it lighter and lighter. It becomes quicker and easier to keep moving. That's how the start is. Crews take shorter and quicker strokes to get moving. Then crews will lengthen out to a full stroke, but keep the number of strokes higher for a couple hundred meters in order to establish a position with competition. After those high strokes, a crew will most likely lengthen out to a more sustainable rate of strokes per minute. They could range anywhere from 32-38 strokes per minute.
After the start comes the fun part. The start will take a crew maybe 300 meters into a race. There's 1,700 meters left. There are numerous things to focus on to get crews through the finish. A lot of crews try to focus internally on technique, while others use competition for motivation. My job as a coxswain is to figure what works for my boat. Before the race, Steve and I develop ideas on what gets my crew going most effectively down the race course. Perhaps we'll take 10's to focus on different things to work on like slide control, body prep, finishes, catches, etc, or if our competition is sitting two seats up on us (my 7 seat is even with their coxswain), I'll call a move to walk up a seat or two. All these calls are based on my judgment.
I also have a tool to help set the pace for the race, called a speed coach. It's like a speedometer in a car. It tells us how fast we are going per 500 meters. The screen I see is very similar to the screen on an erg. I can use that speed to track when we start to get tired during races. I can also use it to help our sprint, let them know when they are pulling harder and walking up on our competition.
The last part of the race is the sprint. Some start with 500 meters left and other start as late as 250 left. This part can be made complicated. Some crews try to increase the strokes per minute and shorten up their stroke. But really, it's who can pull harder. Like in a running race, you just go faster and empty it out.
As a coxswain for Indiana, there are several things I have to remember. First, a coxswain is really just the eyes, ears and brains for the crew. If a cox just keeps the course straight and the rowers informed, most likely the crew will be happy. Also a good coxswain has to be able to use his or her judgment and awareness to make adjustments to the race plan. If a crew is moving up on mine, I'd let them know and take a huge move to set them back and break them. The last thing I have to remember is that I'm just as responsible for the outcome of the race as the rowers themselves. With all the good judgment calls I've made, there were bad ones. If we lost by a couple seats, I'll try to figure out what we could have done better and carry it over to the next week of practice. As a cox, I need to demand the same intensity and focus on Monday through Thursday as I do on race day. That's my responsibility.
The best thing on race day for me as a coxswain is the adrenaline rush! The drive you get when commanding a race is worth it. Making the calls on the spot, winning by one seat ... it's worth it.
As the end of the week approaches, our Indiana crews are refining our race plans. Only two days left till our first race! Wow. It's really here! GO HOOSIERS!
