Club Committee
2010-2011 Manifestos
Gonzalo Garcia - Men's Captain
It has been almost eight years since I first got into a boat, as a terrified 14 year old being pushed out onto the Tideway in a clinker single mid-January. I capsized within 20 minutes. And then twice more, before finally being towed back towards the bank by my coach in a speedboat to avoid hypothermia.
That was almost my last ever outing. Nearly eight years later, I'm hoping that my last outing won't be for a few more years at least.
Rowing has been a central part of my life for quite some time now, and over the years I have been gradually building up my own ideas and opinions on it, assimilating what I think brings success. At First and Third, I have rowed at M1 and M2 levels, coached regularly on the men's side up to M2 level and coached the women's side at all levels, particularly novices. I was also on the committee as a Men's Lower Boats Captain last year, and I have been on the bench with a long term injury. I have thus seen the club's inner workings from a wide variety of perspectives, and, perhaps more importantly, I have come to really care for the club as a whole. First and Third has done a lot for me during my time at Cambridge, and in this coming year I would like to return the favour as best as I can.
My primary aim, as Men's Captain, would be to consolidate the men's total supremacy in college rowing, particularly in the Lent and May Bumps. At present, FaT is hugely respected on-Cam, and indeed feared - crews often believe that they are racing for second place if the relevant FaT crew has entered. In my opinion, maintaining and sharpening this image is of the utmost importance - if we are thought to be unbeatable, then the race is already mostly won before we even get our hand on the boat. And the most effective way to maintain this image is to aim not only to win every race, but to win them comfortably.
If we can walk the walk, then others will talk the talk for us.
As for off-Cam, I will look to enter M1 and possibly M2 into several prestigious events throughout the year, such as Head of the Nene, Head of the River, Metropolitan Regatta, possibly Marlow Regatta, and Henley Royal Regatta. Although I do not intend to focus on these at the expense of the Bumps races, I do think that a consistently good performance on a national levels is important, particularly at Head of the River and Henley. College rowing was often seen to be of a poor standard on a national level, until the rise of FaT over the last four years - people do notice, and people do care. Off-Cam events are also often fun, and are of immense benefit in developing individual athletes.
Other goals include:
- Finding the club a sponsor, if this is not already settled by the start of next year. Extensive efforts have been directed towards this over the last year, and I intend to redouble them, working closely with the newly established Sponsorship Officer.
- Ensuring that ALL members of the club steadily improve, no matter at what level they are.
- In order to achieve all my intended aims, I would like to make the following changes to the way we trains as a club throughout the year:
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Erg tests. Doing these right at the start of term, particularly Michaelmas term, I feel is pointless. Rowers are often unfit, and results are usually
essentially corrected, at least in the captain and coaches' heads, for how fit each rower will be come selection time. I also feel that tests should
only be done when necessary for selection, as they are physically and psychologically detrimental, and they often take out 2 or 3 days of training due
to people tapering. As such, I propose to set the following compulsory full-squad tests only:
2k test two and a half weeks into Michaelmas term (in time for University IVs selection).
If individuals wish to carry out additional tests, then I will of course give them full support, as long as regular training is not compromised. Similarly, if more information is needed on particular athletes for selection purposes, I will ask those particular athletes to carry out the relevant test, rather than imposing it on the whole squad. I will ALWAYS take any and all results and information on athletes fully into consideration for selection at any time, always focussing on optimising the club's performance on race day.
2k test at the start of Lent term to carry out immediate selection for Lent Bumps.
5k test in week 7 of Lent term to carry out selection for Head of the River, ONLY IF NECESSARY.
2k test at the start of Easter term to carry out immediate selection for May Bumps. - Other ergs. These will be largely of the long, sustained steady state type, aiming to do two or three of these a week. These will form the backbone of the fitness training. There will also be lactate ergs in the two weeks leading up to big races, and every 3 weeks or so I will set a diagnostic erg, in the spirit of this year's 2 * 20' UT1 ergs, to monitor improvement.
- Water sessions. Water time is valuable, and much harder to come by than erg time. As such, outings will be focussed on learning how to row and learning how to race, rather than explicitly on fitness. Of course, I still expect most sessions to offer great fitness benefits, but if necessary, technical outings will be spent doing exercises. Early morning outings will be avoided like the Plague, particularly in the second half of term, as the river is always very crowed and people tend to be tired and unfocussed.
- Core. Doing a few minutes a few times a week before outings I feel is not efficient, as it wastes potential water time, and the exercises in current use do not effectively activate the core muscles without tiring them out. I propose altering the pre-outing routine to short 30-second exercises that are not meant to strenuous, but require careful control. The "planck-and-touch" is a good example. The core strengthening exercises will instead be carried out twice or three times a week as part of weights sessions, or as separate 20-minute sessions with e.g. 3 x 1 min of each exercise. We do all our other strength training in this fashion, I don't see why core should be the exception.
- Weights. I would like to continue our work with Core Cambridge, as the sessions this year have been very useful. Weights will feature regularly in the training plan, and circuits will be completely abandoned in favour of ergs or weights, at least in the upper squad.
- Michaelmas term. I'd like to run this essentially as an extended training camp, looking to see results at Fairbairns. Everyone would have 3 sessions a week in VIIIs throughout (always approximately ranked), and then the remaining sessions, varying in number from athlete to athlete depending on commitment levels, will be individually tailored. For the more experienced rowers, they will be focussed on fitness and strength training, while for the less experienced rowers, focus will be on fitness and technique. In both cases, I'd specifically like athletes to go out once or twice a week in IVs with people of similar technical standard. This is because, in my experience, there is little net benefit to sending out mixed ability IVs - the best rowers will not improve, and coaching resources cannot be used efficiently on those who need it the most. The VIIIs however will take priority throughout.
I would like to make these changes primarily in the upper men's squad, but also in the incoming novice intake and lower boats, although perhaps to a lesser degree.
Coaching:
In terms of coaching, unfortunately the club does not have any long-term solutions at present, and so it appears I will have to rely on bufties and experienced current and ex-rowers, as we have done this year. I have built up a good contact base in college rowing, and so I hope to have a large number of people available to ask. The top boats could also potentially pay guest coaches for weekly coaching.
It would be great to get Iain involved on a regular basis as well if he is keen, but I do not intend to rely on him to any great extent.
Committee:
I will work closely with the committee, holding regular meetings to keep track of progress. In particular, I will work closely with the Kit and Social Secretary to ensure we have regular club social events (e.g. Cindies trips, formals etc) to keep spirits high. I will also work very closely with the Men's Lower Boats Captains to ensure the novice program and lower boats are being managed adequately.
Other:
- Selection. This will be done on primarily on erg test results and coaches' opinions, with seat racing as well if necessary. The aim will always be to put out the fastest boat possible.
- Training camp. This will take place before the start of Lent term, most likely in the UK to keep costs down. Chester is a possibility, following this year's success, although I will look into other alternatives such as the Tideway.
- M2 and Lower boats. I will personally monitor each and every boat's aims, performance and progress, to ensure that things are running smoothly. I will also pay close attention to morale in each crew - crews that get along tend to be faster than those that don't. Rowing should be fun, and I will strive to ensure that this is indeed the case for everyone involved.
This year, I have devoted a huge amount of time to the club, and I do not intend to change this for next year. If matters require more attention, then I will simply give them more time, prioritising the Captaincy over most other aspects of my Cambridge life. I pledge to do absolutely everything in my power to ensure that my stated aims are achieved, and to ensure the general success and well-being of First and Third Trinity Boat Club.
Proposed by: Richard Fletcher
Seconded by: Alex Caulfield