Freshmen and Novice Eights

Photos courtesy of Susan Griffith

Nisky Freshmen Sweep

The following narrative of the Shaker Invitational was written by Nick, six seat in the Dirigo. The Dirigo and Swift are the two freshmen eights used by Niskayuna rowing.

For the week leading up to the race, our whole team had been improving by leaps and bounds. Our timing was close to perfect, our technique was getting better, and we were all strong. The Swift was also frighteningly close to the Dirigo. In fact, on some of the short distance sprint drills, the Swift was faster.

Going into today’s race, we in the Dirigo knew we would beat Shaker. Coach told us up front he wanted us to demolish them. The real question was if the Dirigo still deserved to continue to consider itself the faster boat. The Swift was mostly lightweight rowers, but they gave it their all in every stroke. The Dirigo would never be able to slack off for fear of being passed by the Swift.

When we got to the start, we were very focused on beating the Swift. It was a little cold, but that would only make us want to go faster to warm up. The race started with all three boats flying. Neither Nisky boat left Shaker in the dust as originally planned. They stayed right with us… for maybe twenty strokes. After that, they just fell further and further behind the Swift and Dirigo. Two hundred fifty meters in, the race was between the two Niskayuna boats.

The Dirigo had a stronger start, but did not open water quickly. At one point, it looked like the Swift could start taking water back. Then the Dirigo hit the halfway point, and we took off. Our rating slowly increased, and we got faster with each stroke. We finally started opening water on the other boat. We crossed the finish line, most of us barely able to get through the last few strokes under the bridge. The Swift was maybe two or three boat lengths behind, and the Shaker boat was easily five boat lengths behind us. That race was the fastest we had ever been. For the first time in a race, our whole boat rowed together with all the lightness, power, and speed Coach had been trying to get us to achieve all season. We had a first and second Nisky freshman sweep.

Perfect Timing (Part II)

Rowers:

The following excerpt from Mind Over Water by Craig Lambert echoes concepts that we have been discussing this season.

"In crews of two, four, or eight rowers, the sonorities [sounds] of our blades mingle with those of our crewmates. Naturally, more oars make more sounds and hence perhaps obscure the source of a given note. This is the nature of social life. A solo cellist can sound fine playing alone, provided the instrument's strings are in tune with one another. But to play a duet or with an orchestra, the cellist must first "tune up" with fellow musicians to forge a common reference point. In a single scull we tune no blades but our own. But on a crew, the goal is not perfection of the individual but of the team, and so we seek unity and harmony.

"Precise timing is essential: if eight oars strike the water even fractions of a second apart, they jerk the boat ahead unevenly, like cylinders misfiring in a V-8 engine. A rower whose blade enters the water even a fraction of a second late has momentarily reduced the crew from an eight to a seven. At the catch, the rowers strike their greatest blow against entropy, and whoever is late immediately becomes a form of ballast rather than a driving force: the shell is now surging ahead, and the late oar is going along for the ride. Imagine that eight men are about to lift a small automobile off the ground: each man hunkers down, grips the frame, and readies himself to lift up on the count of three. Whoever lifts a fraction of a second late may as well not be lifting at all; the task is already accomplished.

"Rhythm, a rocking rhythm, is crucial. In crews we listen to the tone and texture of catches and releases and also for the synchrony, a key element in speed. When strokes synchronize perfectly, the crew pulls in phase, like light waves in a laser beam, and, as with a laser, the energies reinforce each other and multiply. To the crew, an eight-oared boat in peak form feels rowed by a single oar, and in a sense it is. The rowers' unifying awareness has come to life, and the shell stirs with it."

Sydney Olympics - Men's Eight

When you hear the commentator say "at a 38," that is their stroke rating. Also, note how quickly the blades move through the water.