from green to black

return of the ironmonger

star wars music starts. the orchestra plays and the trumpets
blast. then he walks in, a picture of self assured calm as
he prepares to dispatch any challenges in his path. yes!
the ironmonger/ terminator/ muscle war champ is back. oh,
how the mortals tremble at the sound of his name.

rowed quite a few good sets today, but thats lucky for me
because they were mainly long sets which allowed my
recuperating lungs to keep up. the champ did his part
beside me and i hope he took away the lesson on increasing
stroke rate today. one of the issues we need to remember
is that we always row as a boat, hence the pacers must
always keep the backpack in mind just as the backpack must
keep the pacers in mind. we adjust accordingly to each
others limits, because we know that we must be cohesive
to be effective.

i'm not quite sure if the rest of the boat understands
what i was trying to do by keeping down the stroke rate,
but i'll try to explain. basically, a hard effective
stroke results in a forward movement of the boat in the
water. the boat moves faster when more of these strokes
are applied. of course, we want to do more of these
strokes, so naturally a faster stroke rate results in
a faster boat. however, it was NOT part of the training
plan today. and i would rather have lost to the other
boat than compromised the training plan for these reasons.

the aggression of the stroke is in the execution of the
stroke, so if we had stayed effective, pulling hard
each time, we have enough time to come up and do that
stroke again. i did not want to lose this effect because
the rowers on my boat need a strength endurance to pull
hard strokes than to just rely on jacking up the stroke
rate to increase aggression. ( a point to note is that
the other boat had to be 4-7 strokes faster to catch up
with us) we want to be effective at a low rate and still
be able to pull this number of times to the same effect
when we go for a higher rate (which we eventually will).

i was afraid (and eventually proven right) that
uncontrolled increase of the stroke rate is unsustainable
in my boat simply because many still havent mastered
pulling hard at a low stroke rate. ( clues to this
include a very weak exit, this means your body twist
is not strong enough to end of the stroke snappily.
the resulting implication is that, there is a slower
recovery. the resulting conclusion is that the stroke
length is shortened and power is ineffective) this is
not what i intended, because i believe effective
training means staying in time and doing an efficient
stroke. if i know that my boats recovery is cui? i
think it is very foolish to lose my glide. the rowers
must first strengthen themselves before they can be
effective at high speeds. ( clue woodchopper, if they
raised recovery is slow..... there is a lot to work on)

hence there needs to be composure and control, not to
react to the higher rate of the other boat (yes! for you
detractors, i KNOW we must get it up eventually but
eventually is not today, and that is what i correct
in my small boat, and twisting sessions). this means
that, those behind the pacer MUST be alert to changes
in the stroke rate and have trust and faith to follow
his stroke rate. the other boat followed alv when he
did a higher stroke rate and they caught up a lot of
ground, but can we control our rate, keep in timing
yet have a much stronger stroke in the water? i
believe it is possible and i believe fast recovery
training will be around another day. objective first!

oh well, till tomorrow then. i feel sad that some
believe that their improvement is not urgent but
choose to leave the rest whom they consider
"siao on" to shoulder the burden of their weight.
what do you really feel for the people in the
team? i guess you think that you have no affinity
with them. do remember, it will be their hard work
that you will take the credit for when they push
you across the finish line

posted by green unseen @ 6:56 AM