Almost 30 GDS rowers just returned from their annual Spring Break rowing camp at Camp Robert Cooper in South Carolina. For once, they were blessed with excellent weather. Here is the report!
From Head Coach Alan Burch:
Camp Bob was a big success! The weather was good through Monday night, and the team worked hard.The boys varsity made huge progress improving their catches, which is one the most difficult parts of the stroke. We’re still held back by some fitness issues, but we’re working through them and the focus is good. The boys are still struggling with setting the boat, rowing in a four this year, as opposed to the eight last year. The long practice time at Camp Bob let us try several different things to see if we could isolate the problems. We made progress in that area, and I like the way we are focused on it and open to feedback. We tried out a few different lineups, and the boys took turns filling out the novice and girls varsity boats.We had the camp to ourselves on Saturday, with a glorious sunrise greeting us in the morning. The boys from St. Ignatius (Cleveland, OH) joined us on Sunday, and we were the only two schools there. The St. Ignatius boys were a rowdy bunch, and the contrast with the GDS kids’ behavior was clear. As I told our kids this morning, their behavior was exemplary.It made a big difference having five coaches here. Lots more sharing of ideas, suggestions, and perspectives, and we got to know each other better too. This was the least stressful Camp Bob so far for me, and I’m grateful to Regina and Ed for joining the team.It was GDS’s fourth time coming here. Bridget, Sophie and Sophia (our seniors) have come all four years and they each shared heart-felt gratitude for crew at the campfire last night. The intensity of the experience at training camp brings out the best in the kids and they bonded quite well.
And here is the report from Coach Regina Saifee:
I echo Alan’s thoughts about how incredibly well-behaved the rowers were. Though I expected some team bonding over meals and downtime, I was particularly impressed with how the women’s varsity captains, Talia Rodriguez and Sophie Tucker, facilitated post-dinner activities each night to organize team bonding either for all women rowers (including the novices) or the entire coed team. I saw new friendships develop and strong bonds solidify within each team, which is incredibly reassuring as a coach.However, I really saw the impact of this trip on the water. The weather was perfect, which gave us plenty of quality time to find connection and power. Josh and I went into the trip with a plan of breaking down the stroke into small increments, so as to correct bad rowing habits and to get the boat moving as one. Having the opportunity to focus on one aspect in the morning practice and then build off of that in the next practice really helped us to see the progress. By Monday afternoon, the women’s varsity 8 had a solid catch with slow rollups.There is still work to do, but I personally see even more potential for the team after these few days together. Calm water, sunny weather, and motivated rowers really are the ingredients for a great spring training trip.
And last, but certainly not least, the report from Novice Coach Ed Ryan:
The Novices (or “Novii”) had an amazing couple of days. We had 8 in total, including one new cox’n, so we rounded out the 8 and 4’s with varsity rowers who volunteered to row with us – yet another example of the great team attitude of this group of young athletes.Saturday was the first day in a ’skinny’ boat for many of the Novii, and they handled it well. We did some rowing by 2’s and 4’s, but given the nice water conditions and the ambitious intentions of the kids (and coaches) we “graduated” to all-8 rowing on our first day, which was both exciting and a true accomplishment.For the remainder of the practices we worked on a lot of basic rowing skills – particularly good bladework – and did pretty well. It’s not something that gets learned and perfected in a few days for anyone. And we also did some “full power” rowing, which gave the kids a taste of the excitement, and exhaustion, of full boat speed. They really seemed to enjoy it, and we were paid a nice compliment when the Ignatius novice coach asked us to do some pieces with them (logistically, it didn’t work out, but our kids were excited). And our new cox’n, Phoebe, learned so much, both as a cox’n with control of a team on land and water, and as someone steering a 65 foot boat with limited maneuvering capacity. All in all, a great few days
Sounds like a great build toward the first regatta, coming up fast on April 6.
Here’s a video from Camp Bob. And here are some pics.
