Lasting Commitment

Saturday 4.25 Racing from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Video from Saturday morning; did a nice piece with the Women’s 8 vs. the Men’s Varsity 4 and Freshman 4. Some excellent racing. The main focus this week is going to be hitting our stride and getting a sense of rhythm at racing pace. Saturday was spent in the first stages of this. Partially it’s a physical thing, partially it’s a mental thing. It takes a lot of confidence to drop the rate when your competition is right next to you; having the Men’s fours out has been a good learning process for us.

Directly after practice I got on the road and went up to my old haunts for my alma matter’s annual rowing alumni get-together. It was great to connect with lots of old friends and get to talk to them both about what they’re doing now and the times we spent together ‘back then’. It’s an amazing thing to see so many people involved in what I think of as giving back professions; education, health care, social work. It also got me thinking about the nature of lasting commitment to a program and the friendships and bonds that are created. A good crew requires so much shared trust amongst the athletes; over time this creates true friendships that continue well past graduation.

One of the things I like to talk to prospects about is the experience of college rowing; certainly I hope that rowing with this program will be a lasting experience that defines our athletes values, commitment, work ethic, and joy. It was very gratifying to me to hear from athletes I coached a few years back that this was true for them; I hope it will continue to be true for the generations to come.

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