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Sculling

Sculling Updates – Regatta Sign-up M/Th Sculling

SIGN-UP by Sunday May 17th – end of dayQuadMorning
  • Sculling Day – May 30th
    • If you haven’t signed up yet and want to spend some time in sculling boats, this is the day.
    • Another email will go out with details as we get closer to the date and reminder to pick the food you will bring.
  • Regionals – June 26 – 28th
    • Please sign up so the coaches can start setting up line-ups.  This is a complex regatta to put boats together, so if there are limits to races, desired line-ups or races make a note.  Not all requests can be accommodated but attempts will be made.
  • https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yf0ub1OdTuoA4E81SI0f_cQ3rzYcz-XxsMgY4DZNGQ8/edit?usp=sharing
Monday/Thursday Sculling (L4) – NOTE FROM SAM

Hello to all the Station L sculling crowd-

Wanted to lay out the format that I’m planning to use for the Monday and Thursday sculling group so everyone involved would know what to expect and what I’m planning to work on.  The overall idea is to develop scullers towards a higher skill level and better preparation for competition, both short and long term.

My general framework to lineups is to show up each day and see who wants to row what.  Unlike in sweep rowing, I’m probably not going to assign lineups as much as work to help people get into boats that they want to practice.  Some days that’ll be in singles, some days (when we have the right athletes) we’ll try to push more folks into quads and/or doubles, and I may tweak what folks want to do to try to get similar speed boats on the water and get a higher quality practice.  Especially as racing at Masters and Cascadia approaches I’m very happy to work with competitive lineups that want to go out- but I’ll leave it to the athletes and crews to organize with each other who wants to row what when.  Scullers have to be independent and self motivated- if you want to take out a specific combination or crew, tell me, gather your crew on a day, and I’ll try to make it work.

Practices will revolve around some level of specific technical theme and branch off from there.  Expect to do a fair amount of independent rowing (with coaching, to be sure) vs. highly specific drill progressions.  Be ready to execute drills and workouts with a small group of boats, or by yourself.  I want to encourage a lot of boat feel and self coaching- be ready to row in circles, be ready to watch your blades, be ready to do eyes closed and feet out.
IMG_2764
As far as training goes, I’m assuming the sweep groups (that most of you are part of) are doing a more detailed progression of training.  M/Th I’m going to focus on two things- steady mileage, working on improving both aerobic fitness and technical rhythm, and short sets of race-pressure work probably totally less then 5 minutes or ~150 strokes of work where we’ll try to transition your technical gains up to a racing speed.  I don’t plan on a lot of long or intensive interval workouts, but I DO want to help the group get comfortable logging more kilometers in the limited time we have- one of my goals is to cut down on time sitting or waiting, and add more minutes rowing.
As far as a technical model, if you want to take a look at the best sculling I’ve seen, it’s always worth spending ~10 minutes watching the Sinkovic brothers from Croatia– reigning double scull world champions and to my eye, the best technical sculling athletes in the world currently.  When I think of great sculling, this is what I think of.  It’s also a great clip as it includes both steady rowing, drill work, and some race pace and even above race pace work.  I’ll try to get this down to the boathouse in some form so I can talk about some of the focus points prior to practice over the next couple weeks, but if you want to know what the ideal is you won’t go wrong with this in your minds eye.

Please don’t hesitate to write if you have any questions or ideas- coachsamt@gmail.com.

Sam

Info Station L

Info Station L

Rowing has a long history in Portland, and competitive rowing was a popular local spectator sport in the 19th century. For several decades beginning in the 1930's there were no active rowing clubs in Portland, and Willamette River was deemed by many as too dirty for water sports. Station L Rowing Club was founded in 1972 by a group of former college rowers who were surprised to find a great setting for rowing on the newly cleaned up Willamette, but very few active rowers. At the club's 2008 gala and auction, a plaque was unveiled honoring the 28 founding members of Station L Rowing Club. The original boathouse was built on a used wood chip barge donated by Shaver Transportation. In early 1973, it was moored adjacent to Portland General Electric's Station L generating plant, the current home of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry [OMSI]. The moorage site is now occupied by the submarine USS Blueback, which is open for tours. In 1975, the boathouse structure and its contents burned in a fire. The boathouse was rebuilt and additional boats obtained. Into the 1980's, the boathouse operated as a cooperative between Lewis and Clark College, Reed College and Station L Rowing Club. Station L emphasized teaching rowing to the public and hundreds of Portlanders learned to row at the club. OMSI's acquisition of the PGE site in 1986 necessitated a move for Station L. Now estranged from the colleges, Station L moved the barge/boathouse to a moorage site near the Fremont Bridge at the beginning of 1987. New equipment was added and the club grew quickly. Competitive Station L crews became a regular sight at Northwest regattas. Lewis and Clark College Crew returned to the boathouse as a partner of Station L Rowing Club in 1989 in a deal brokered by then LC head coach Charlie Brown. A pump failure led to a temporary sinking of the barge soon after, which was raised using high capacity pumps. Under the leadership of Station L President Ian Townshend, the club began a search for a permanent home, as the Fremont location lacked permits and safe access. A home was found just 300 meters upstream, and Station L moved its barge again in 1994 to the Westar Electric site. Club membership grew to over 100, class offerings proliferated and the boathouse reached capacity with 5 8+'s, 6 4+'s and numerous small boats. In February 1996, a significant flood on the Willamette threatened Station L. The boathouse was saved by members who stayed aboard the barge nearly 24 hours a day for 3 days. However the flood left silt which settled in the moorage area around the barge. Extreme low water in October 1997 caused the barge to tip and fill with water, ending its 24 year history as the base for Station L's operations. Club boats were split between boathouses at Riverplace Marina and Oaks Park starting in 1998. In December 2004, Station L moved to the new Portland Boathouse on the eastbank of the Willamette River near the Hawthorne Bridge. The new boathouse is only about 500 meters north of the original 1973 Station L site.