Coach Thrasher
Wake Analysis
There are some really neat pictures of the predicted wave action of a women's heavyweight 8+ traveling at various speeds at the Cyberiad website.
It's interesting that as speed increases, the rowers near the stern may be catching/releasing in a wave trough or crest. I think this would take more skill to adapt to the variation in waves if you sat in the stern 4. Does that mean we should put more skilled rowers in the stern?
I've always thought that bow pair and stern pair should be the most skilled in the boat since they can impart an axial flex in the boat with bad technique that propogates down the boat until it's dampened out. This isn't to say that the engine room has no skill (hey, I usually row at 6!), but a flop/crab/etc by them seems to affect the boat's set less. So should we put more skill at stern 4, and novice at bow pair to avoid wave action variations?
Posted at 01:33PM Apr 28, 2006 by jason in Rowing | Comments[1]
Rowing Video
Cruising the net, I've found a few other rowing video shots. I really like these since they show newbies what it's like. I sometimes have a hard time telling a football player that rowing will get them into top shape without showing them the movement. I've found that video really helps with the explanation. Anyway, check it out:
Rowing a single (camera fixed to stern deck)
Weybridge Juniors Interviews
Posted at 10:26AM Apr 20, 2006 by jason in Rowing | Comments[0]
Sony Unilink to iPod Hookup
It's regatta season and that means long hours on the road driving to events. It's been frustrating ever since I started using an iPod to listen to audio books because I have no way of hooking my iPod up to my Sony WXC570 car stereo.
After researching available solutions to getting audio from my video iPod into my car stereo, I finally found the "easy" solution: use a Sony XA-300 Unilink based audio selector to choose the AUX audio input. With this gadget, I can hook the iPod up to that AUX input. This has several drawbacks though: there's no hookup to charge the iPod, and I need three wires for this system: RCA cables and Unilink cable that run from the head unit to the XA-300, and a mini-stereo plug to RCA cable to connect the iPod to the XA-300.... and if I want to keep the iPod charged, I'd need an additional wire run from a cigarette plug to the iPod. That's a pain, but the FM-radio based iPod solutions (iTrip) completely failed to do the job.
I ran across something really cool WRT the Sony Unilink setup though: there's a SF project called GNUnilink that has hacked the interface with a PIC microcontroller. I've got all the hardware to program PICs, and I've got a few chips laying around, so if I'm going to go through the trouble of taking my dash apart, I might as well try to add a PC-serial control as well. The hardware setup is quite simple, check it out:
There's also a discussion forum regarding Unilink hacking here: Unilink Discussion Board. Note: this is a hacker site, and not approved by Sony. Be careful not to kill your head unit!
Updated: The finished XA-300 to iPod photos are up.
Posted at 09:23AM Apr 10, 2006 by jason in Hardware | Comments[3]
Regatta Report: Delta Blades vs. Palo Alto, North Bay
Regatta Date: April 8, 2006
Men's Entries: V4+, JV4+a, JV4+b, N8+, N4+, 2x, 1x, Mixed 8
Course: 2000m, straight, 4 lanes
Conditions: calm winds, partly sunny, 65 deg F
Results:
MV4+
1. Palo Alto 7:32.4 (c: Meredith, Tito, Bryce, Reid, Keith)
2. Delta Blades 7:42.2
W2x
1. Delta Blades 8:59.1
2. Palo Alto 9:23.5
3. Palo Alto-B 9:51.7
WN4+
1. Delta Blades 9:03.8
2. North Bay 9:13.0
3. Palo Alto 9:25.2
MJV4+
1. Palo Alto 7:51.0 (c: Meredith, Sam, Alex, Patrick, James)
2. Delta Blades 8:03.4
3. Palo Alto-B 8:37.2
4. North Bay 8:51.2
Mx2x
1. Delta Blades 8:16.4
2. Delta Blades-B 8:32.2
3. Palo Alto 8:55.0 (Tito, Sarah)
WV8+
1. North Bay 7:55.3
2. Palo Alto 8:04.5
MN8+
1. Delta Blades 7:03.3
2. Palo Alto 7:44.7 (c: Nadav, Andrew Z., Alex, Sam, James, Patrick, Will, Andrew O., Gordy)
3. Delta Blades-B 7:52.0
M2x
1. Delta Blades 8:14.1
2. North Bay 8:30.9
3. Palo Alto 8:41.8 (Reid, Bryce)
WJV4+
1. Delta Blades 8:26.4
2. Palo Alto 9:00.7
3. North Bay 9:08.5
MN4+
1. Delta Blades 7:55.3
2. North Bay 8:11.0
3. Palo Alto 8:18.1 (c: Nadav, Andrew Z., Alex, Will, Gordy)
M1x
1. Delta Blades 8:47.4
2. Palo Alto 9:33.8 (Sam)
WV4+
1. Palo Alto 8:38.3
2. North Bay 8:45.0
Mx8+
1. Delta Blades 7:07.8
2. Palo Alto 7:20.9 (c: Meredith, Andrew, Alex, Reid, Bryce, w, w, w, w)
3. Delta Blades-B 7:39.0
We raced North Bay and Delta at this regatta: two teams that have the same experience to our men's program at Palo Alto. We've all been rowing for two years, so it was an opportunity to gauge our progress against similar teams on a level playing field.
We had all of the varsity/junior varsity guys except for Teddy who had planned to miss this regatta with me nearly 4 months ago. Looking at our 8 varsity/jv guys, we're really two groups: 4 heavyweights, and 4 lightweights. So we split into 4s, and subed Alex (our Hour-of-Power novice leader) into the LT4 (which made it heavy, thus it had to race as a JV4+). Keith moved from the LT4 into the V4 (heavy) to fill Teddy's spot.
This was Delta's first regatta and Joan had put a lot of work into setting up the venue, coordinating with marshals, and coordinating with teams. The only major hickup we had was before the first event: a cement plant moved a barge over the course and we had to delay for ~60 minutes.
Our men's 4s had a much better race this week than previously. Both the V4 and JV4 won their event. On review after the race the guys reported that they could have gone faster if they hadn't lost their focus/adrenaline due to the 60 minute delay. The MV4 was sitting on the water through the delay and didn't know what was going on. My own observation of their race was that we must continue working on catch placement - we're missing water at higher rates.
The N4+ rowed as a JV4+b boat to get some additional racing experience. They did pretty well coming in 3rd of 4 boats considering they're mostly lightweights AND novice.
We've had a few novice rowers missing practice regularly so I've made it a rule that people missing practice will not row at regattas. As a result, we only had 5 eligible novice rowers to row the N8. It was a similar situation for Delta, so we agreed at the coaches meeting that it was ok for JV rowers to row in the novice eights. We used our lightweights: Sam, James, and Patrick to fill in the boat.
On an interesting note: Sam rowed in 3 events: JV4, N8, 1x, and he went out for a quick practice row in the 1x before the regatta started (since it was his second time in the boat). So, he was really tired for the 1x race and was out there to have fun. He reported that the 1x was a very personal race, and that despite the result, it was a lot of fun. He talked with Craig (the Delta 1x) a little on the water after the event, and back on land, and found that that interaction really added a different dimension to rowing.
Thanks again to parents for providing food and support for this event! Being Delta's first hosted event, I thought it went fairly smoothly. Thanks for being such good hosts! Parking was stright forward, there was no traffic, the weather was nice, the water was calm, and all of the North Bay and Delta parents and rowers that I met made some great conversation.
Posted at 12:00AM Apr 08, 2006 by jason in Rowing | Comments[0]
Race Report: Sea Otter Classic Circuit Race
Event: Sea Otter Classic Circuit Race
Category: Elite 3
Teammates: Matt, Greg, Ben, Mike, me
Result: OTB, DNF, of 73 starters only 49 finished Official Results
Ugh, my first road race of the season did not go well, but all is not lost! I really wanted to start at the Sea Otter since I've never raced at that event and it's a huge 4-day bike festival with many pro riders attending. So, I registered and headed down to gorgeous Monterey CA for the Circuit Race.
The course is actually -on- the Laguna Seca race track. This really adds to the event since all of the corners are nicely banked, and all of the pavement is really smooth (~2.3 mile circuit). From the start, you climb gradually at first, and then you have to stand, to get up a 200ft elevation gain. There's a screaming decent through the "corkscrew", and some nice tight banked turns and winds around back to the start/finish.
I was well warmed up and stretched for the start. I made it up the hill with the pack easily the first time up. The second time was a little harder and I anticipated this by moving to the front and letting myself drift back as we climbed the hill. The third time up I used the same drift technique but just barely lost contact with the tail of the pack. We were only 15 minutes in to the race though, so I tried to chase back on. I managed to keep from getting lapped for about 46 minutes.
Every minute or so I'd ride past another rider who had been dropped. A few of them worked with me to try to chase back on, but there was really no hope with that hill in the way. What was left of the pack at that point came flying by on the uphill and I pulled out to become a spectator. We only had Ben, Greg, and Mike left in the field.
The last two laps looked fast. The finish came down to a field sprint in which 6 riders were head-to-head to the line. Eric Barlevav from the "Bicycle John's Serious Cycling" team won.
I need to get more miles in to be competitive. Coaching has taken a lot of time this year away from my own training. Realistically, I've got to get 12-16 hours of riding and rowing in per week which likely won't happen until the spring rowing season ends.
Posted at 09:56AM Apr 07, 2006 by jason in Cycling | Comments[0]
Erg-A-Thon Report
Palo Alto Rowing Club held its annual Erg-A-Thon fundraiser on Saturday at Lytton Plaza in downtown Palo Alto. The program holds the event once a year in the spring as a fundraiser and exhibition for the program. Athletes in the program ask friends and family for a small donation to help fund their rowing program. The athletes in turn pledge to row for a full 60 minutes, non-stop, on a Concept II rowing machine - which takes some athletic prowess.
Our goal was for each athlete to get 20 people to donate $50 each to their 60 minute effort. If everyone in the club did that PARC would easily be able to purchase a new 8+ from Hudson with the income. As it is this year, we're debt-servicing our loans for boats purchased from Hudson, but not yet fully owned by PARC. It's like buying a new car - we're not able to pay for it all at once, but over a few years it'll finally be paid off. I think it's a difficult decision to do that given that new rowers next year will have to pay debt-service on equipment that some rowers get to row in, as new, this year. As a new and building program, there's really no alternative short of a large donation from a family or corporation. These boats run nearly $30k US, fully equipped.
So how was it organized to get everyone on our limited equipment? We had around 12 ergs set out under folding tents to keep the sun/rain off. Rowers were assigned a time to start, and we had 5 teams that had to arrive 30 minutes prior to their start to warm-up and stretch. We started at 7am, and finished around 1pm. Transitions between teams lasted about 15 minutes as people gathered themselves up off of the ergs.
We had nearly every member of the program out for the ergathon. Some of the athletes were trying for a PR. One of the novice boys, a freshman named Alex, averaged better than 1:57/500m splits for the whole hour. Go Alex!
I'm happy to say that this year Georgia, my dog, was well fed by many rowers at the event. She especially liked the homemade powerbars from Donna, and the banana bread with blueberries (from who?). The parent and booster volunteers kept a food/information table well stocked with food for people, and information for people passing by on the sidewalk. (I think we picked up a few donations from people that had rowed elsewhere and were happy to see rowing growing out here on the west coast.) The food at this event really keeps people around to cheer on everyone else suffering through their 60 minutes.
Posted at 09:35PM Apr 02, 2006 by jason in Rowing | Comments[4]