We are in the last few days of the season with CSSRA this weekend.   It is important to understand what we are doing the rest of this week.   Please read carefully.

PHOTO ID. Absolutely needed. PHOTO ID. Absolutely needed. On every day you go to the course.

Wednesday:

tomorrow is the last on the water practice at Leander.   You need to be prepared to do a number of tasks tomorrow.

  First and foremost tomorrow practice is extremely short.   You need to have your boat launched and on the water by 5:15 AM.   If you do not then you and your crew  do not go out.   This means you must be down by at 4:50 AM to make this occur. 

Also you know your boat assignments so please do not be asking the coaches questions.   Close to 20 minutes each day (and we’ve timed this) is spent answering questions for which you already know the answer or you were not present when the issue was discussed with your crew. 

Any questions tomorrow will automatically exclude you and the crew from practicing.  Above all do not approach us with requests to row a double,quad, single, or any other boat.   You have a crew.   If you do make such a request than you and your crew will not go out.

You will be derigging tomorrow and loading the trailer.  No exceptions.   Boat, riggers, and oars need to find their way on the trailer.   This is not a new exercise to perform.  You have done this through a couple of regattas.   Do this as a crew and ensure that you have put all equipment necessary for you to race on the trailer.

The Westdale coaches will be having a short 15 minute meeting with you tomorrow morning

Thursday and Friday:

There is an opportunity to practice Thursday and Friday at the course. The first requirement though is to rig any and all boats that you will be using for racing. If you are racing then you are rigging.

The practice times are between 4 to 7 pm but the coaches need to confirm this. You can only practice as a crew that is racing. Do not ask to row another boat. Do not ask……..

The coaches are still determining how we’ll coordinate for practice and rides. We’ll update you tomorrow morning.

Saturday:

We have a lot of racing on Saturday. The coaches will have their hands full marshalling crews to the docks for races. We have a number that are very close together. Be very prudent with the questions that you ask. You may not get an answer.

You are expected to be at the race course on Saturday. There is no opportunity to sight see, or go off the island. Expectations are that you are at the course preparing to race. This mean in the shade, hydrating, off your feet, and resting. If out in the sun, standing around for long periods of time, or just walking around than you are not prepared to race.

In a post tomorrow the coaches will detail the schedule for Saturday such as when you need to be at the race course.

Please fill out this form to let the coaches know if you can attend practice in St. Catharines on Thursday.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMgxpel_Rze2_Qz-CcLpdVLRSQhICeSZqDBMyNVXMHmhbY9Q/viewform?usp=pp_url

Athletes from all schools now need to be at the club for 6:00AM

It will be a wet launch for this regatta, meaning you’ll have to get in the water up to mid thigh. Dress accordingly.

There will be a BBQ for the athletes after racing. Each athlete will get a free burger and free drink. Parents/guests can get a ticket for the same meal for $5. Cash only.

There will now be a second senior men’s double, with L.D. and Q.H.

There will now be three mixed novice quads instead of just one.

1. A.R., Ha.R., C.D., S.B.

2. G.S., K.M., M.W-S., A.K.

3. S.L., I.A., A. F-S., T.K.

There will be a mixed eight in the last event of the day, the captains challenge eight. It will consist of both senior quads, and Y.H. As the coxie.

Please bring lots of food, water, and sunscreen.

Here are the past three weeks time trial results. It’s important to note that times vary based on a number of factors: wind, waves, course, and performance.

Week 1

Heart of Gold: Piece 1 – 9:25.0 ; Piece 2 – 8:30.5 ; Piece 3 – 9:12.6

1x (He.R.): Piece 1 – 10:04.7 ; Piece 2 – 9:29.7 ; Piece 3 – 10:23.1

Propeller: Piece 1 – 10:01.3 ; Piece 2 – 9:32.9 ; Piece 3 – 8:56.7

Roche: Piece 1 – 9:39.7 ; Piece 2 – 9:25.0 ; Piece 3 – 9:20.8

Morreale: Piece 1 – 10:00.2 ; Piece 2 – 9:04.2 ; Piece 3 – 9:32.6

Waxman: Piece 1 – 10:24.9 ; Piece 2 – 9:58.7 ; Piece 3 – 10:52.1

Week 2

Ad Astra: Piece 1 – 8:52.9 ; Piece 2 – 8:09.5 ; Piece 3 – 8:51.6

Wolter: Piece 1 – 8:51.6 ; Piece 2 – 7:51.5 ; Piece 3 – 8:45.4

Roche: Piece 1 – 9:04.7 ; Piece 2 – 8:56.6 ; Piece 3 – 9:17.8

Morreale: Piece 1 – 9:43.7 ; Piece 2 – 9:07.8 ; Piece 3 – 9:34.8

Waxman: Piece 1 – 11:56.2 ; Piece 2 – 10:13.0 ; Piece 3 – 10:26.9

Week 3

Wolter: Piece 1 – 8:48.2 ; Piece 2 – 8:12.1 ; Piece 3 – 8:50.0

Ad Astra: Piece 1 – 8:28.2 ; Piece 2 – 8:04.4 ; Piece 3 – 8:58.0

Miller: Piece 1 – 9:51.5 ; Piece 2 – 9:46.2 ; Piece 3 – 10:01.0

Morreale: Piece 1 – 9:46.8 ; Piece 2 – 9:47.2 ; Piece 3 – 11:09.2

There were a lot of questions being directed at the lead coaches today about summer rowing. I’ll answer these from my perspective and then you can approach the lead coaches tomorrow about any unanswered questions.

I encourage everyone to consider rowing in the summer and by extension the fall rowing season. It will give you considerable opportunity to improve your rowing abilities. Here are important considerations.

The summer competitive season starts on June 12th and runs through to the major event of the Canadian rowing calendar which is the Royal Canadian Henley and which runs August 2 to 7.

If you are interested in summer competitive club rowing then you need to commit to it. What this means is that if you are planning on being away on weekends or taking time off during the above mentioned period than summer competitive rowing is NOT for you. You must be able to commit to a training schedule that involves in excess of 8 practices a week and racing every weekend. No exceptions.

Also crew composition is based on performance. You earn your spot in a crew through your rowing ability and erg scores. This is not a program where you row with who you want and try out different boats based on your choice. The coaches build boats towards high performance and racing potential.

You need to commit to the summer competitive program by June 12th. Do NOT leave this to the last minute.

If the above has not scared you away than you need to purchase a Leander unisuit for racing. This is time sensitive and needs to be done by Sunday May 29th. Put your order in NOW.Here are the details:

iTeam order instructions
http://www.regattasport.com

1. http://www.regattasport.com
2. Click ‘iTEAMS’ link in the header & “Home” in the subheader
3. Click “Register” then proceed to create your personal account.
4. Once step 3 is complete, click the “iTeams” header & “Home”
   link again.
5. Select Leander Boat Club from the drop box.
6. Password: LBC2022
7. Place order!

At this point if you have read this far you now realize that summer competitive is not a drop-in program. If you want to come out a few days a week and improve your rowing ability than consider the bantam program as your suimmer activity. This is a more casual program and gives more opportunity for flexibility. Please review the following carefully and ask me or Meegan for clarification.

Summer Rowing Programs at
Leander Boat Club
Junior Competitive Bantam
Start Date: June 12, 2022
2km erg piece Start Date: June 13, 2022
Cost:
Upgrade to Spring/Summer: $270.00
Upgrade to Full Year: $550.00
*Full-year includes winter training
Leander.
*Fees do not include entry fees and
Leander Uniforms
See above for uniform ordering details
*Uniform order due by May 29, 2022
Cost:
$150.00/month
Commitment:
● Practice 6 mornings per week
5:15am
● Availability for practices will play a
part in crew selections
● Regattas on weekends
July-August
● Top crews will compete at Royal
Canadian Henley (August 1st – 7th)
Commitment
● Flexible commitment show up and you will be assigned a boat by a coach)
Monday-Friday 4:00 pm-6:00 pm
Purpose:
● Train to Compete
Train to Train
Contact:
leander.juniorrowing@gmail.com
Contact:
lbcrowing@gmail.com

Hello everyone. Please arrive at the club tomorrow for 6:30AM. Mike and I will post more information about the regatta later today, but for now here are the boatings and what time each boat races.

8:10AM Senior Women’s Quad (Lane 2)

E.M.

G.M.

S.M.

He.R.

8:20AM Senior Women’s Quad (Lane 2)

C.J.

E.W.

N.B.

J.B.

8:40AM Senior Men’s Double (Lane 2)

J.H.

R.D.

8:50AM Senior Women’s Coxed Four

Lane 2

A.R.

A.F-S.

T.K.

Z.F.

Y.H.

Lane 3

G.S.

K.M.

Ha.R.

A.R-D.

M.K.

9:10AM Senior Men’s Quad (Lane 1)

L.D.

R.D.

J.H.

Q.H.

9:20AM Senior Women’s Double (Lane 2)

E.S.

He.R.

9:30AM Senior Women’s Double (Lane 1)

G.M.

S.M.

9:40AM Senior Men’s Coxed Four (Lane 1)

L.D.

R.D.

J.H.

Q.H.

M.K.

10:00AM Mixed Novice Quad (Lane 2)

A.R.

A.F-S.

I.A.

T.K.

10:20AM Senior Women/Men’s Eight

Lane 1

Z.F.

K.M.

G.S.

T.K.

A.F-S.

A.R.

A.R-D.

Ha.R.

Y.H.

Lane 2

E.S.

G.M.

S.M.

He.R.

C.J.

E.W.

N.B.

J.B.

Coxie TBD

Lane 3

S.L.

J.H.

A.K.

M.W-S.

S.B.

C.D.

Q.H.

R.D.

M.K.

10:40AM Mixed Double (Lane 3)

Q.H.

E.S.

11:00AM Mixed Double (Lane 1)

He.R.

L.D.

Please be aware that this is a very hectic regatta, and boatings may change slightly. Mike and I have a coaches meeting tonight, where we will try to enter on more senior men’s double, and look into a the possibility of more mixed novice quads. We know these boats are not what many of you have practiced, but Mike and I believe wholeheartedly that you can still go out there, race hard, and make us all proud.

As always, if you have questions feel free to reach out over email.

Some of you may have noticed boatings are different this week than usual. Don’t stress. As we come up to CSSRA boats will change. The best thing you as an athlete can do is get in whatever boat you’re assigned, and do everything you can to make that specific boat faster. That is done with good technique, solid effort, and being a good crewmate. Mike and I need you guys to come to practice with a positive attitude, good listening skills, and a willingness to work hard. We’ve got 9 practices left before CSSRA. Let’s make them the best 9 of the season.

I’m going to be chasing down a number of you to pay your entry fees for SNRC and Cities.

Remember that these have been paid by me and the school is not reimbursing. So we have to cover these ourselves.

I’ve been able to review and think about the weekend regatta and here are my thoughts. F

First and foremost, we have roughly two weeks until CSSRA and one week to the upcoming City Champs. These weeks will go by quickly and it is important that you take in as much information as the two coaches push at you.

Overall the weekend regatta was very positive. This was our first large regatta in over two years with two thirds of you never having experienced this. We performed well but not great. However, experience and focus will ensure the future regattas are great.

Crews raced well and we saw a number of crews make finals. This is a good thing. What was nice to see was the improvements made between heats and finals with some nice adjustments as crews leading to large improvements in time. One crew made simple adjustments in their stroke rate and improved 30 seconds.

I saw a number of races and Westdale crews for the most part were very successful in getting into the gates. The wind conditions conspired against the smaller crews and we’ll practice this skill set.

Some crews struggled with the racing and that is fine. It is what you do next. Honest and transparent communication is key but this is a difficult skillset. Many of the post race debriefs did not focus on the race between the gates and the finish. In the future the goal is to get faster and impartial debriefs are one of the steps to achieve this.

You also found that regattas can be long and tedious. This regatta either experiences two extremes in weather. Very hot or very chilly. We had the former and as you found you need to be in the shade and hydrating, Not all of us were successful at this.

At least part of one crew found that they were sitting around for almost the whole regatta before they even had a chance to race. This is the nature of regattas and the condensed nature of this one did not allow for more races. My apologies for this. It did not look as being such an onerous ordeal when I made the entries. I’ll do better in the future.

So we embark on the last two weeks of the spring season. I will reiterate your two primary goals when you are on the water. Perfect your rowing stroke. Every crew can improve in this area. We need to be more precise and efficient in all facets of the stroke. This is a movement that you will repeat over 200 times in a race. A single centimeter improvement in each stroke will mean 200 cm. That is the difference in many races between being in the medal and not.

The second goal is that you need to continue to work as crews. From the boathouse to the water and back the boathouse. Function as a single entity.

Good work all around and lets be better this weekend.

There will be an optional practice tomorrow at 8am.