Blair Crew Occoquan Regatta

Today, Montgomery Blair Crew had four boats race in the Head of the Occoquan Regatta (HOTO) at the Occoquan Reservoir. The team raced a Men's Varsity 4, Men's Varsity 8, and two Women's Varsity 8s.

The Men's Varsity 8, comprised mostly of first year Varsity members, did fairly well. They placed 22nd out of 26, which isn't too good, but, compared to their last season where they placed last every race save one, this race is a major improvement. (See all of the race results here).

Some reasons for this less-than-prime performance are that the best Men's Rowers were put into the Men's Varsity 4, in an attempt to create one great race lineup, and one OK race lineup. In addition  the Men's Varsity 8 rowed with two freshman novice rowers, who were not as experienced  nor as physically tall and big as other Varsity rowers.

Even though the Blair Men's Varsity 8 went into the race with suboptimal conditions, they managed to keep their focus and power up throughout the whole 5 kilometer or ~3.5 mile race; a problem that had plagued them in practices.

(For a the definition of rowing terms used below, see bottom)

During their post-race meeting, rowers shared what they thought went well and what they could improve on. "For a plus: we definitely kept the power up, especially during the power tens, but we should have had a smoother transition from arms to legs. But in general power was good. For a negative, our set in the boat was off, and ports were dragging their paddles on the recovery because of it, which slowed us down. So we need to have better handle heights. Also, we could have slowed the slide down and increased the speed of our drive".

The team's fall season is over, and workouts begin in December. Rowers will then start their spring season in March, which consists on the water practice and shorter 2 kilometer races.




EXTRA INFORMATION



Power 10: Ten, hard, good, 100% effort strokes to re-focus the boat and speed up.
Set: Wether the boat is leaning to port, starboard, or is balanced. (Set is off when the boat is tilted).
Handle Heights: How high or low the oar is in the rower's hands during both the drive and the recovery.
Recovery: The stage where a rower prepares to take another stroke.
Dragging: When the oar skims or skips across the top of the water on the recovery, caused by improper handle heights and bad set.

For further info about rowing technique and rowing in general, check these three videos/websites out:

Rowing 101

Concept 2





"May you have a westerly tailwind that will propel you to victory"
-Zepher"