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2008-2009 Manifestos

Manifesto Florian Gruessing, Men’s Captain & Overall Captain 2008-09

Rowing is great fun because

For each rower individually some of these points may be more valid than others. Personally, all of the above points make me love rowing to equal extents, but rowing is worth doing for each and every one of them! First and Third Trinity Boat club is there to provide the infrastructure which enables everyone to find their satisfaction in rowing and so it has to, and will, cater for a variety of different motivations and levels of rowing:
social rowing as wells as competitive rowing as well as the stages in between.

In the following I will provide an outline of my plans, divided into Upper and Lower boats and Novices.

Upper boats:

In the past there has been a strict separation between the 1st and 2nd VIIIs which to my mind has not always been justified. I will aim to dissolve the boundaries between both boats by establishing a squad system for most of Michaelmas and early Lent term which will ensure mixing of crews to establish two matched trial VIIIs. They will race each other in Fairbairn’s Cup after which preliminary crews for Lent term will be selected. This decision will not be final and is likely to be influenced by the amount of training done over the Christmas vacation. A pre-Lent training camp will be held which should give squad members an opportunity to get back into rowing if they did not have the facilities to train over Christmas.

There will also be a considerable amount of small boats rowing well into Lent term which is aimed at raising the general standard of rowing in the club.

Generally, training will be carried out so as to peak for May bumps with the ultimate goal being the Mays headship (if not already achieved this year). Lent bumps will be on the road of preparation for May bumps and it is expected to hold the Lents VIII headship.

From a broader perspective, I will aim to change the training programme more towards club level rowing. In Michaelmas and early Lent term, training will mainly be physique-based with long ergometer session and a weight programme. Water sessions will be kept to three long water sessions per week (one during the week and two over the weekend) because of the tough time constraints due to lighting up and down times over the winter. Water sessions will all be triple or quadruple runs in order to get enough mileage in. To allow a great number of people to row and train despite academic commitments, training will not exceed one session per day, quality rather than quantity is the way to go. As the year progresses, we will move more onto the water and cut down the land training which by then will have created a solid fitness base to build onto.

Competitions entered will mainly be Lent and May bumps (which are both highlights of the season), some additional Cam races and a number of off-Cam races. Off-Cam races in particular provide a valuable experience because they provide a chance to see what rowing in different places is like and to experience racing non-College teams.

Lower Boats:

In the past, lower boats have been doing a disproportionately high number of training sessions per week. If this is enjoyable to the crew, then it should by all means be carried on. If it is not enjoyable or people feel like they have spent too much time at the boathouse then I think it is feasible to get the same amount of training progress with less time input just by increasing the quality rather than the quantity of training. This means getting good coaching in and enjoying the rowing experience in general.
Overall I think it is a good idea to keep decisions on time spent doing training and race entries to the crews involved.

Novices:

To keep the general standard of rowing at the high level it is at now it will be crucial to recruit talented novices and train them so they will be able to join senior boats later on in their Cambridge time. Above all, novicing should be a great, initially primarily social experience, but it is important to spot the people who have an interest in rowing beyond that point.

Sponsorship/ Fundraising:

It is vital to the club to stay well-funded so new boats and equipment can be purchased as required. If not organised before the end of this year’s captaincy I think it would be a good idea to put a strong emphasis on raising sponsorship money. This would be particularly helpful to the upper boats squads to financially support off-Cam training camps, race entries and gym memberships for weights programmes. Along the same lines, it is crucial to keep the good connection to Black Prince Boat Club because in the past a considerable part of funding has come from them.

Coaching:

The success of a rowing crew always to some extent comes down to the coaching it gets, so good quality coaching is essential to good performance next year. I think it is a shame that especially the men’s side of the boat club is not on best terms with our boatman Iain Law because he is a great and experienced coach who it would be worth listening to. I will aim to get Iain back involved into coaching men’s crews which should hopefully cover some of the coaching required. Alternatively, we will need to rely on active rowers who are willing to do additional coaching, bufties and possibly CUBC rowers.

I hope that rowing for the next year(s) will be as fun, successful and great as the previous ones! Personally, I love rowing and would like to make or keep it an enjoyable experience for everyone else involved.

Ra Ra First and Third!


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