Does high school sculling prepare you for college crew?
freeheelfunhog
about high school sculling as training for college crew.
Does sculling make it easier to later learn to row both port and
starboard?
Does the act of rowing any boat, whether sweep or sculling, help sweep
rowing?
If you were a college coach recruiting high school rowers, would you
be less interested in sculling high schoolers?
I know some college programs have acquired sculling craft, themselves,
so maybe that is a partial answer.
Finally, is there any sculling in US college competition? Is there
likely to be?
Thanks,
Torsten
Brown....@gmail.com
I am a University Club's Head Coach. I would love to get scullers,
why? because they usually are technique-wise stronger and many times
they can move the boat better than most High School Sweep rowers.
If i'm not mistaken the Dutch have many guys move from the quad to the
four for from sculling to sweep on their national team.
Most of the colleges I know of that have acquired sculling boats are
usually used in the fall for the basis of building feel and technique
in the fall.
To the best of my knowledge, sculling events are not included in
collegiate competitions in the US Even though many of us would like
to see sculling events at the college level, it probably will not
happen.
-Justin
Chris Kerr
Any sort of rowing experience is a good thing as far as I am concerned (I am
Vice-President of the Cambridge Uni Lwt RC). Sculling ability also has the
obvious advantage that you don't have to make one person erg if you have an
odd number of people in the squad.
Personally, I find it useful and instructive to go out sculling every so
often and try to replicate the technical changes the coach has had me make
in the eight - often I can get a different perspective this way. Switching
sides in sweep rowing has a similar effect - I find it helps me re-evaluate
my body posture etc.
Another advantage is that, at least in my experience, rowers who can scull
well, and particularly those who have sculled and/or rowed at high school,
get injured much less often than those who can only row sweep or who have
limited sculling experience.
Anne Rogers
despite not having rowed sweep before!
Anne
donal...@gmail.com
have been sculling since they were 6 and 7 years old. They had never
held a rowing blade before. They paddled for 2 miles. First half a
mile square blade outside hand only then introduced inside hand and
feathering. After 1 mile they swopped sides and went outside hand off
again. They went for around half a mile with no problems..then the
younger one managed to run over his inside hand (which wasnt on the
blade) thumb with the seat which got a lot of squeals of pain such
that I had to row back with him in the coxes seat and his thumb
trailing in the water to numb the pain!! Apart from this problem which
didnt stop him from playing other sport over the weekend they were
able to control the blades swing round the rigger and generally row
effectively on their first outing rowing.
Having personally learnt to row and then to scull I would say that it
is not as easy for a rower to learn to scull effectively.
I believe anyone who sculls will be able to row...not so easy for
rowers to scull.
Donal
carol...@aol.com
wrote:
>
> - Show quoted text -
I always teach people to scull first - usually in stable coxed quads
or doubles so they can get the technique right without having to worry
about falling in. The transition to sweep is then painless, and
because they've learned to feather with both hands, they find is easy
to row either side. I also teach them all to cox.....
Caroline
liz
**grin**
"Anne Rogers" <anne...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:52mleuF...@mid.individual.net...
Chris Kerr
Learning to cox is certainly easier when you are young... Even a lightweight
like me would probably have problems fitting into many coxes' seats, but
(back in the day) my first ever race in a crew boat was as a cox (2nd J14
4x+, Reading Small Boats Head IIRC - I had raced in a scull in an earlier
division, but I prefer not to count that)
>
> Caroline
Peter Ford
Is it? thats interesting. Similarly, we all scull first, and while
most people only row one side for extended periods now, everyone is
still called upon to cox (mostly the shorter members of the squad, but
we do from time to time have the comic sight of our 6'8" rowers coxing
bowloading fours... sometimes looking taller than the bowman on his
seat as well...)
However, I've never got the hang of saying anything particularly
useful while coxing; I can just about cope with technical outings, but
any pieces where something inspirational might be expected, I just
clam up or say things which immediately sound foolish; this suddenly
became painfully obvious when called upon to cox for a 1000m race last
year and my encouragements sounded sadly feeble.
Do any occasional coxes have any particular tips on how to string
together a useful monologue for a piece? (I know the obvious answer
would be to actually listen to what our coxes say, but I'm usually too
busy rowing to take much notice of them, and am mostly grateful for
the neck-twisting and ankle-twisting having them in the boat saves me
from...)
Peter Ford
Carl Douglas
>>Learning to cox is certainly easier when you are young... Even a lightweight
>>like me would probably have problems fitting into many coxes' seats, but
>>(back in the day) my first ever race in a crew boat was as a cox (2nd J14
>>4x+, Reading Small Boats Head IIRC - I had raced in a scull in an earlier
>>division, but I prefer not to count that)
>
>
>
> Is it? thats interesting. Similarly, we all scull first, and while
> most people only row one side for extended periods now, everyone is
> still called upon to cox (mostly the shorter members of the squad, but
> we do from time to time have the comic sight of our 6'8" rowers coxing
> bowloading fours... sometimes looking taller than the bowman on his
> seat as well...)
>
> However, I've never got the hang of saying anything particularly
> useful while coxing; I can just about cope with technical outings, but
> any pieces where something inspirational might be expected, I just
> clam up or say things which immediately sound foolish; this suddenly
> became painfully obvious when called upon to cox for a 1000m race last
> year and my encouragements sounded sadly feeble.
>
> Do any occasional coxes have any particular tips on how to string
> together a useful monologue for a piece? (I know the obvious answer
> would be to actually listen to what our coxes say, but I'm usually too
> busy rowing to take much notice of them, and am mostly grateful for
> the neck-twisting and ankle-twisting having them in the boat saves me
> from...)
>
> Peter Ford
>
Peter -
I suspect you think too hard, see the silliness of the usual coxing
expressions & thus are unable to spout garbage with a straight face.
Coxes may perhaps shout more than is really necessary? That may be
their way to show the importance of a tricky but unspectacular job? But
all that hot air going forwards can't be good for boat speed, & must
play hell with stroke's respiration.
Hearing a cox in full cry can be a like listening to the more voluble
sort of commentator - the words mean almost or entirely nothing but
sound very important. With commentaries I often pray for more less
emotion, more information & more measured tones.
So what do you say to yourself when racing in a pair or a single (if you
do hold such conversations with yourself)? I'd imagine that sometimes
you are reminding yourself on points of technique, at others keeping
watch on rate or work-load, & just occasionally noting where the
opposition is. Wouldn't a rather measured spoken version of that,
coupled with quiet encouragement to stroke, be sufficient, maybe even
work rather well. And do, above all, keep the boat straight & on course.
Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: The Boathouse, Timsway, Chertsey Lane, Staines TW18 3JY, UK
Email: ca...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1784-456344 Fax: -466550
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)
Peter Ford
Listening to other coxes when marshalling for head races is usually
the most amusing part of it! I can't remember some of the best lines
I've heard, but the "random counting" technique always seems
prominent; coxes who seem to hope that the magical incantations
"1,2,3,..." will somehow induce some wonderful effect when either they
stop counting or everyone gets bored of listening. At Worcester heads
another common sequence is "harder strokeside... HARDER STROKESIDE"
usually followed by a gentle crump, or splashing, or both... Some of
the best comments I've heard have been talkback from stroke's who
didn't like what the cox was saying, which at a few hundred metres
into a 6k race isn't promising... and the most surreal line i've heard
was a cox of a junior 4, who, similarly a few hundred metres from the
start, appeared to be asking for a final sprint from his crew...
Has anyone any humourous/unfortunate comments they've heard from
opposition coxes in the past?
> So what do you say to yourself when racing in a pair or a single (if you
> do hold such conversations with yourself)? I'd imagine that sometimes
> you are reminding yourself on points of technique, at others keeping
> watch on rate or work-load, & just occasionally noting where the
> opposition is. Wouldn't a rather measured spoken version of that,
> coupled with quiet encouragement to stroke, be sufficient, maybe even
> work rather well. And do, above all, keep the boat straight & on course.
>
Racing in a pair I rarely seem to manage to find time to think of much
but the steering, even the 2k races at Nottingham where I managed to
get the strategy right I can remember very little of except for which
buoys we hit when... What I think of while sculling is an interesting
thought; it tends to involve a lot of psychology about the opposition,
and possibly this would be a useful addition to the limited ideas I
currently have for my coxing.
As regards the steering, I've always so far found it pleasantly do-
able in relation to steering coxlessly, partly at least that the
steering systems seem rather better designed...
However, I have yet to steer an 8 in much of a cross-wind, so don't
know if I could avoid the snaking that seems to haunt many of our
coxes in such conditions.
As a related aside, is there any easy way to adjust to a cross wind
when in a single, and or is there any way of adjusting the boat's
tendency to bear away/head up to wind? I find it particularly
confusing that of the 2 singles I use regularly, one generally seems
to bear away and the other heads into the wind, both of which are
rather annoying, and it would seem logical that it ought to be
possible to find a happy medium between the two...
Peter Ford
> Cheers -
> Carl
> --
> Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
> Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
> Write: The Boathouse, Timsway, Chertsey Lane, Staines TW18 3JY, UK
> Email: c...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1784-456344 Fax: -466550
> URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk(boats) &www.aerowing.co.uk(riggers)
Ewoud Dronkert
> confusing that of the 2 singles I use regularly, one generally seems
> to bear away and the other heads into the wind, both of which are
> rather annoying, and it would seem logical that it ought to be
> possible to find a happy medium between the two...
Put a bow number on the latter. Change size until you go straight. With
wing: try moving it back- or forward.
--
E. Dronkert
Carl Douglas
Ewoud -
I'm going to bring out a vertical Air-Fin system, so a sculler can
occupy their remaining 3 grey cells trimming this rig for a true course.
But some plonker will ban it on the grounds that we are providing sails.
The Vikings - who used very advanced steering oar designs, BTW, & were
always in a hurry to get to the next party (but had terrible table
manners) - would still trim their ships for a neutral helm by moving
their ballast (large rocks, or maybe adversaries severed heads) along
the boat. Contrary to popular opinion, their ships sailed best in
cross-winds, because they were expert at trimming a square sail to be
anything but what you see in pictures. They also reckoned they weren't
really sailing unless water was slopping over the lee rail - even though
they weren't that much bothered with buoyancy.
But I don't know how much sculling the Vikings did before going to High
School.
Cheers -
Carl
--
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: The Boathouse, Timsway, Chertsey Lane, Staines TW18 3JY, UK