2020 US Rowing Conference Blog
2020 US Rowing Conference Blog
I suspected that biomechanics and rigging would be a heavy technical day, and it definitely was. I wanted to sit in on every presentation today, but it's hard to be in two places at once. I'm very interested in having access to the recordings of all the presentations next week when they are available. In the meantime, here are some takeaways from the sessions that I attended...
Yoga for Rowers: A great way to start the day! The timing was perfect because I really needed to stretch after hitting 100k in the Concept2 Holiday Challenge :-) I got some great ideas for stretches, and loved the core work that Laura threw in. I thought it was interesting how some of it intersected with what Dr. McGill had talked about the day before - specifically the core excercises of side planks and bird dogs.
Keynote: Rigging & Technique: There was a lot of information here! It was also a great experience to hear these two men talk. Each of them literally "wrote the book" on rowing, so is was great to hear them speak. I have heard a couple of consistent things throughout the week, one of them being that athletes need to have fun. It's interesting becuase I have heard that from multiple PhDs, Doctors, and "high level" people. They give all of their high level information and then say, "but it all comes back to the athletes have to be having fun". Basically, you can throw all of the details out the window if the rowers aren't having fun. I did, of course, take away some details as well. One of the big ones was that, yes, angles are important, so you have to work on them, but if you're going to start somewhere, start with finish angles.
The Difference in Coaching Sweep & Sculling: This was a really interesting presentation becuase our organization both sweeps and sculls (as the name would imply). There was a lot of good information here that matched with my experiences with youth rowers. I loved the "fun" drills and confidence building ideas. Those were some good concrete things that I can take back and use right away. I particularly liked the "Exploding Star of Joy"!
Effective Rigging Analysis: This was another technically heavy session with a lot of great information! The different anaysis options that he gave that help inform rigging were fantastic. I also loved that he gave video clips and "tasks" that you could use to practice. I also thought that the chart he gave in the presentation that covers how to adjust the rigging to achieve certain affects was extremely helpful.
Panel Discussion: Which Comes First? Debating Technique, Rigging and Biomechanics: It was very interesting to listen to these gentlemen interact with eachother. I also heard the common theme from the week with them - teach rowing first and make sure the athletes are having fun.
WOW! Day 2 was another jam packed day!
I wanted to sit in on every presentation today, but it's hard to be in two places at once. I'm very interested in having access to the recordings of all the presentations next week when they are available. In the meantime, here are some takeaways from the sessions that I did attend...
Optimizing Endurance Training: This may sound a little bit silly, but one of the best things about this presentation for me is that I'm doing OK with our training program! I loved Dr. Seiler's approach. Basically, training doesn't have to be overly complex and it's not vital to come up with a detailed training program. The zones he recommended matched the zones we use, and I liked his simplification down to 3 basic zones, which is something I've been doing for a few year, using 5 zones, but not worrying to much about athletes meshing two higher and two lower zones.
Repetition-Training the whole athlete in a repetitive motion sport: I picked up a lot of good tips here! Some of the things that I plan to start incorporating into training as soon as we can do circuit work again is work on the anterior and posterior oblique subsystem. I also loved his take on the mental and metaphysical aspects of training. Especially for younger athletes, any work that I can do to help them become more aware of their bodies will only help them. I liked the idea of staring each practice with some quite sitting to reflect on what they are about to do. Now that we are erging, I think it would work out well to describe the flow of the practice and what the pieces are, then have them think about the practice and what their intentions or goals are for the practice before we get started.
Types of Interval Sessions: This presentation continued Dr. Seiler's theme from his earlier presentation - keep it simple and don't over-think it! His approach is so simple that is makes it extremely accessible. Again, my takeaway from this is that I'm doing OK! I do have some new ideas for approaching interval training, but it was also justification that I'm OK to continue doing what I'm doing.
Enhancing Resilliance and Performance in the Back Pained Rower: I have 2 specific rowers that I could not help thinking about during this session. I now have a few ideas to help them. Specifically, his 3 excercises were really helpful. I did not have time to do this, but I'd like to see how his 3 excercises dovetail with Frank Clayton's (Repetition-Training the whole athlete...) recommended excercises and Will Ruth's thoughts in "The Puzzle of Strength Training".
Panel Discussion: This hour seemed to fly by! There were so many good questions asked. I had also not been able to see the presenations of some of the panelists, so it was good to hear from there. The hip hinge videos that came out of that discussion were extremely helpful. I also found the suggestion for professionals to recommend to the athletes that understand movement, and particularly rowing movement, extremely helpful. One of my rowers has seen doctors, and I'm not sure it's helped at all. I think she needs to see someone that understands rowing. Having a network of some kind to ask for recommendations woud be great.
There is so much great information, the hour long presentation seems to fly by! The presenters were all excellent. There is so much to learn!
Here are a few of my personal takeaways from Day 1...
Making our Youth and Collegiate Rowing Programs More Diverse and Inclusive: Malcom’s story about his experience being called the “n” word for the first time will stay with me for a long time. I hope that I never have to handle a situation like that, but if I do, I hope that I handle it as well as his coach did. We are tested all the time. You can’t just speak inclusion, you have to live and breathe it.
The Language of Coaching: There is a lot that goes into teaching movement. The language of coaching presentation broke down how to give verbal cues so they are simple, understandable and relatable. It left me with a lot to think about. How am I doing describing movements to my rowers? Am I demonstrating enough? I think that a follow-up discussion, or even a clinic of some kind, where we could practice using language with other coaches using real-world rowing examples would be realy helpful taking the topic from theory to practice.
Supportive Coaching: I found the reflection exercise that we did during the Supportive Coaching presentation particularly helpful. We took some time to think about athletes that we connect with vs. athletes that we don’t connect with and our behaviors as a result of those connections. I do find myself getting into ruts where I become more short and snippy with certain athletes and need tools that will pull me out of those ruts so that I can stay positive with everyone. This has been particularly challenging during COVID when everyone is under more stress.
Keeping Athletes Safe Whe You Are Not Around: The videos in the “Keeping Athletes Safe When You Are Not Around” presentation were fantastic! They really gave me some great ideas for things I need to make sure I cover with my rowers! I'd seen most of the videos, but they way they were presented and discussed brought everyhting in to the real world.
Different Styles of Coaching and Leadership: What kind of coach am I? What kind of coach do I want to be? I’ve thought about these things, even talked about the type of coaching I believe in, but I have never tried to write it down. The Different Styles of Coaching & Leadership presentation made me think a lot more about what kind of coach I am, and what kind of coach I aspire to be. I am already working on a draft of my coaching philosophy that I will share here.