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    Sweep Rowing: The Short Story
    Sweep Rowing: The Short Story
    Sweep Rowing: The Short Story
    Ebook121 pages1 hour

    Sweep Rowing: The Short Story

    By Dave Cherry

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    About this ebook

    There is a dearth of rowing literature. When I was young and in college there was even less, and I had a devil of a time finding anything intended expressly for the novice coxswain, oarsman, or early coach. More than 20 years later, I was still nagged by this gap in rowing prose, so I decided to make an attempt to fill it in a little.
    Sweep Rowing, The Short Story is a manual that addresses all three the oarsman, the coxswain, and the coach. I set myself a limit on page count, so the book is straight meat and potatoes, and not an autobiography. I’ve tried to set down details I’ve learned over the years but have never seen written down anywhere. The object is to remove mystery and improve a crew’s enjoyment of rowing in one quick read.
    No book on rowing has ever made this approach, and it’s about time. I wanted to make this contribution as many as 20 years ago, but I guess that God doesn’t give me some things before I am ready to have them. Now, after 25 years of experience with crew, I’m ready to offer this book. There is very little literature that caters specifically to the oarsman, coxswain, and crew coach, I think the rowing community is plenty ready to have this book also.
    The book is finished now, and it will be helpful for me to learn people’s thoughts and needs as it is prepared for release. I thought I’d offer a preview here so you can get a glimpse of the tenor and content of the work. Below is the foreword to the book and, on the next page, an excerpt from Chapter XI. Perhaps you’ll want to offer me in return some words from your experience; I will be very grateful if you would.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateApr 23, 2013
    ISBN9781626757356
    Sweep Rowing: The Short Story
    Author

    Dave Cherry

    Dave Cherry is a graduate of the Great Books Program at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. Harms Done to Others is his second novel, following Ivy League Killers. With the benefit of 32 years' coaching experience, Cherry is also the author of Sweep Rowing-The Short Story, a handbook for oarsmen, coxswains, and coaches. He was born in New York City and now lives and writes in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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      Book preview

      Sweep Rowing - Dave Cherry

      Coach

      300 Words in Advance

      This book is a set of essays on technique and coaching. It addresses all three audiences; the oarsman, the coxswain, and the coach. This isn’t the final word on anything but merely a collection of guidance on successful technique and good practices. I’ve tried to answer as many questions as I could think of within the scope of so few pages. There’ll be several ah-ha moments which I hope you’ll discover with joy.

      For your ease of digestion, I set myself a limit of one hundred pages. I figure, if I can’t carry this message in a hundred pages, the possibility exists that I can’t carry it. Part of what you’re paying for is for me to write as few pages as possible so the big picture won’t be lost.

      Where appropriate, I’ve tried to add a few words I’ve derived from the rowing culture at its best. I know that I personally have learned many needful lessons on what it means to be a caring adult and one who’s sensitive to the happiness and security of others.

      Naturally the main lesson from day to day is about boat speed and how to find it. Though not every subtlety can be captured, I’ve tried to be as specific as possible without the benefit of pictures and diagrams. As with life, some things cannot be understood prior to doing them or, at least, attempting them.

      Fortunately rowing rewards you even as you are trying it not so well. The rewards get greater as you strive, so be diligent and patient. Life is long and, as sports go, I’ve seen more people continue rowing for a lifetime than any other sport I know.

      As my dad said to me when he dropped me off at college,

      Do well.

      I

      The True Beginning

      I’m sure you’re eager to learn something new to improve the quality of your stroke and increase your boat speed. I can promise you that and, if you can’t help yourself, I suppose you’re free to skip ahead in this book to find out how. If, on the other hand, you can pin your attention here for a moment, I’d like to improve the quality of your life—right now. Read just a little and see if it doesn’t affect your perspective.¹

      Many believe that the beginning of the stroke is the catch, when the blade first enters the water. This is a matter of interpretation but I have an opinion. I say the beginning of the stroke is the release, at the finish. Everything that happens from that moment onward to the next catch lays the groundwork for the next successful stroke. But the beginning I want to tell you about, the beginning that may dramatically increase the quality of your life, starts before you set foot in the boathouse.

      This is your house now. Treat it kindly as your personal property. If you appreciate something, you’ll take care of it, right? The first things you’ll want to take care of are your relationships. You must have a relationship with this house of yours. And this relationship is composed of the relations you have with others; coxswains, oarsmen, coaches, and also the boathouseman if there is one.

      What do we want ultimately? What do we want to be able to count upon every time we show up to the boathouse? Obviously we want fun. We want the thrill of rowing. Like the thrill of the pole vault or the floor routine in gymnastics. But before that, beneath being in the activity, what do we need in order to do well? Partly it’s belonging. Our inner existence, our emotional security, and our self-esteem crave a feeling of belonging. With it we know peace and we’re in a unique position to do well. So this unique position is essential and I’m going to tell you how to achieve it. This isn’t pop psychology, it’s my real-world experience.

      I suggest that peace is a state of knowing that all of our needs are met or that they soon will be. If we are at peace then our emotional security is stable and our self-esteem is not wanting for anything. We are not afraid that there is something we won’t get, and we are not afraid that anything will be taken away.

      This is a wonderful place to be, surely for the obvious reasons related to happiness and contentedness, but also because in this state we are eminently teachable. This we must have. This is a must. So how do we get it? I’ll show you, and you’ll like it.

      Perhaps you’re in college and you can look forward to three or four years of enjoyment. Over time, especially as you master various things, the quality of your enjoyment will evolve and grow more sophisticated. I have eight times the practice of a typical college graduate and I can tell you that when I race today it’s a richer experience from when I was in school.

      I decided to write this book for you because I have so often felt remorse that my students couldn’t see what I’m seeing, feel what I’m feeling with the benefit of 25 years’ practice. Finally I decided to wake up from my years of complacency and at least attempt to share some of what has come from such a luxurious body of experience.

      We’ve established that you need peace in order to do well, to be at your most teachable. And in order to have peace our emotional security and self-esteem must be free of fear, anxiety, and craving. We must want for nothing, other than the thirst for knowledge and excellence.

      So before we enter the boathouse we need a little self-honesty. Isn’t it true that 5 minutes ago all of your needs were met? You had a dry place to sleep last night, there was food to eat, and you have a boathouse to go to. That’s it. Your needs are entirely met. Now what about 5 hours ago? 5 days? Weeks? You see my point. Statistically speaking, what is the likelihood that your needs will be met 5 minutes from now? Approximately 100%, that’s what. So relax. We’ve just realized okayness. We are fine and we’re going to stay that way. Remind yourself that no one and no thing is hurting you right now.²

      Now we can enter the house with calm. But then it happens. We’re human and, as humans do, our emotional security and self-esteem pipe up with perceived needs. Uncontrollably, we want all sorts of things. We want the men to look us up and down and conclude that we’re of a suitable size and strength. We want the girls to think we’re cute. We want the coach to single us out and pay special attention to us as a favorite. We want the respect of our boat. And on and on. You see what’s wrong with this picture? Hadn’t we decided that our needs were met? Whatever happened to rowing beautifully? Where is that on the list? And how do we get there?

      Oh yeah, we’ve already been over that. Peace. Right. So let’s try again. We enter the house with calm. If everyone’s supposed to be stretching, we stretch. But maintain a little situational awareness. Be what you want. Where the opportunity arises, put your hand out to the person next to you and say, Hi, my name is Erica. That’s all you have to say, just that and just the one guy. Tomorrow you’ll pick someone else.

      Often times some third person will see you shaking hands and they’ll feel compelled to shake yours too. Success. We wanted a feeling of belonging and all we had to do was extend some belonging to someone else. Be what you want. One of the mysteries of dignity is that you can have it by treating others with it. When you’re a new member of a crew or boathouse, you may not have any alliances yet. Fake it ’til you make it. Honor others and they will cherish you.

      As you stretch I would urge you to let go of your everyday concerns. Maybe you have an exam today, or you’re worried about a housemate making the rent on your apartment. Listen, stretching time is an opportunity to get wound down, not wound up. You can’t do anything about your life’s issues while you’re on the water anyway. So let them go.

      Here’s what I suggest instead. Meditation is not for everyone, I understand that, but it’s been my experience that everyone can experiment with it a little and choose to implement whichever parts of it they find useful. The benefit to your presence of mind and willingness of body is remarkable.

      Try this. Let your body go through its stretching routine on autopilot. This is not difficult to do. Now make yourself quiet. Eyes open or eyes closed, let yourself go to a quiet place in your mind. You will tune out of the conversations taking place around you. You will stop hearing the clatter of oars as people carry them. The voices of coxswains will become muffled and indecipherable.

      Now wait. As your heart rate falls below sixty and your breathing slows to three breaths per minute, wait. The first intrusive thought will come. A thought which forces its way into your consciousness unbidden. Could be a class you’re dreading. Could be a boy or girl that you like. Perhaps you have some anxiety about your performance today.

      Human nature is to look away from such thoughts; to deflect them or somehow pretend that they’re not there. Today you will do the opposite. Today you will embrace each thought as it arrives and you will talk to it. In your imagination, wrap your arms around the thought as you would a crying baby. Now say to it, "I see you here. I see you and

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