Day 7 – January 3rd
Ben Williams
Hometown: Sacramento, CA
Major: Political Science
Today was another long day for the Laker Navy, we begun our last day of having three practices
at 7:30 a.m. It was overcast today, but that proved to be a nice break in the heat, but it was still
warm and humid. As we got to practice we begun with a talk from assistant coach Costas, about
continuing to focus on using the legs to ensure an effective stroke. We got on the water and had
our first practice accentuating drills and steady rowing together to get a feel for the movements
and engraining the changes that we had made.
After a short break, we changed up the line ups in the boats and went back out in 8’s to refocus
on swinging together and moving as a unit. Today was a really good day in terms of work done,
we all were tired following the morning sessions, but satisfied with how everything went.
Before we headed out to the afternoon session, the sun began to break through the clouds and
the gorgeous Florida weather really shone through.
However with the sun and broken clouds came quite strong winds. As we launched for our
afternoon practice, we immediately knew it was going to be interesting to say the least. We
rowed through very rough water, waves breaking over our gunwales and drenching our
coxswain. But. Despite this. We had a very good time! Spirits were high, and Coach Costas
coached and encouraged us from the launch, and assured us the water would flatten out soon.
Before long though it did, and we finished out the row with some drills and hard strokes on flat
water.
Once we returned to the docks, we were greeted with a barbecue dinner from Coach Michelle’s
cousin, who runs a catering service for barbecue. This was a great end to the day, we all left the
boathouse full and happy. Once we returned home, we watched The Return of the Jedi and
spent some time enjoying each other’s company. Another great day for the Lakers!
Tiffany Curtis
Hometown: Downers Grove, IL
Major: Criminal Justice
Today started out just like any other: alarm set for 6:30am, a light breakfast, and a jog down to the boathouse. This morning the sky was overcast so it was nice to get out of the sun for a bit. The first half of practice was spent working on rowing at lower stroke rates in order to really focus on technique. This portion lasted for about 90min then we had a snack before the 2nd half of practice. During this hour we did a lot of stationary drills by all eight. After two great rows, the team headed back to our townhouse for some lunch.
Our second practice of the day consisted of more work by all eight and by sixes. We did wide-grip and “pointer” drills which help us to get the rotation at the catch. Following the evening practice we had a scrumptious BBQ dinner provided for us by Coach Michelle’s cousin, Johnny. Now it’s off to the townhouse for some relaxing and team bonding before tomorrow’s practice.
Cameron Ulrich
Hometown: Northville, MI
Major: Finance, Human Resource Management
My name is Cameron Ulrich, practice today started nice and early at 7:30 am. I have been working off a minor knee injury so instead of jogging to practice Coach gave me the team bike to ride back and forth. It has been feeling better every day. Unfortunately Coach Bancheri could not be with us at practice today, so Coach Costas and Coach John Reichner, stepped in and helped out. Our first session was about 90 minutes of water time. We focused mainly on the release and the finish. I sat in bow seat behind Simon Klida, who was stroke seat of our novice eight last year. Being able to follow his stroke and rhythm was very beneficial.
We took a break between sessions for about thirty minutes. We changed lineups in the eights for the second one. Simon and I sat stroke pair with Claire Krajkowski, a novice coxswain. It has been awhile since I was stroke pair in a boat and coach switching me to starboard did not make things easier. However, switching has been very helpful for my technique. It has really helped me improve my lateral pressure throughout the stroke as well as my rotation around the rigger. This session was only 60 minutes. Costas told us to start heading back to the dock but surprises us by making us row a few kilometers past the dock before actually heading in. This gave us an extra opportunity to really apply everything we had worked on today and last week.
Our third practice was the hardest from today. The waters were very rough and we covered the most distance. At one point we had to stop to bale out water from the boat. It was good practice for rough water regattas though! Afterwards we were lucky to have a visit from Dennis Kamrad. He spoke to us about his tins at Grand Valley and how important team comradery is. He told us something he found on Facebook that stuck with him – “right now is the oldest you have ever been and the youngest you’ll ever be again. So live it up.” Afterwards, Coach Goodwin’s cousin provided us with an amazing barbeque dinner.
I am really looking forward to the rest of the week.
Row Lakers!