The dominant sporting event of my weeend was not the Superbowl. (I did watch it,
though I generally define "watching" TV as taking occasional peeks at it over the
top of a book.) Both mornings this weekend, Rudder and I participated in a rowing
seminar with Xeno Muller, winner of the
gold medal for men's single scull in Atlanta in 1996 and the silver in Sydney in
2000.
It was good. Xeno's a hell of a nice guy, down to earth and
with a contagious enthusiasm that's impressive in someone who's been doing this
half of his life. He has am emphatic presence, partially but not entirely due to
his being rather a large lad. (I think Rudder and the other male participants were
a tiny bit cowed.) (He's cute, too.) More importantly, he didn't tell us anything
stupid -- all of his comments on good rowing form are things that make sense in
terms of basic biomechanics. (Not true of the styles taught by some
coaches.)
Of course, I may be a little biased because he was very
complimentary of my form and Rudder's, commenting that, because we've been rowing
longer, we're way ahead of the other rowers in the seminar. However, said other
rowers are still faster than I am and I don't expect to be getting any taller in
the immediate future. I can't get let my head swell much, since all it would take
to deflate it would be two words: "Wanna drag?" We didn't get as manypointers on
form because of that, but he did correct some bad habits I'd been developing --
this is what I need occasional coaching for
Xeno did give me
some helpful rigging tips. I made an easy change or two, and did seem to be moving
a little faster, but there are some things I can't easily change (the shoes don't
fit in front of the righer, so they need to be in front of or behind it). Now, of
course, my ever-helpful husband is all in favor of taking my boat apart to try to
optimize it. Rudder's not terribly well-acquainted with the idea of "good enough".
I suppose if we can make it better, it will be worth it, but when we doi take off
that rigger I'm going to be very very careful to mark the present positions so we
can put it back if necessary.
Longtime readers of this journal may be
shocked to hear that the seminar was arranged by the local junior crew, nexus of
the often-vilified (by me) Coach DI: he had two boats-full of juniors in it but
also invited any of the local rowers to sign up (I think he charged us the same as
the juniors). I think, though, that while the idea may have been his, the actual
arranging was done by one of the parents. Nothing wrong with that; if you're not
good at organizing, the best thing may be to let someone else do it. Furthermore,
DI was in full-on Jekyll mode all weekend; not only was he helpful and friendly,
he went out of his way to be generous -- actually loaned one person a boat when
there was a conflict with the club boat she expected to use, and in general tried
to make us all look good in his comments to Xeno. Impressive. He told us he's
planning several more of these seminars, some with equally impressive names. If
they all go this well, bring 'em on. If they don't happen, at least we had this
one. I think its success went a long way toward mending some strained
relationships around here, too. (Though at least one other coach may not be best
pleased at Xeno's comments on the style he teaches -- and several of his most
dedicated people were in the seminar. But I'm with Xeno on this one, purely from
the physiological and engineering standpoints. (It wasn't the charisma. Really.))