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| Head Women's Crew Coach Beth Emery and her crew team pick up litter along the Connecticut River shoreline during their off season. |
| Posted 05.04.06 |
Women's Crew Coach Stresses Dedication, Teamwork |
| Q: Most of us know
little about crew except that very strong people move amazingly fast in
tandem in a thin boat and look like water spiders dancing on the surface.
Would you mind briefly defining the sport? A: Rowing can be done competitively or recreationally. Most of the rowing taking place out of Wesleyan's Macomber Boathouse is done with collegiate competition in mind. We race in eights and fours. In “eights” there are eight rowers, each with one oar, plus the coxswain, the person who steers and commands the crew, the same is true of the four, it just has fewer rowers. Q: Are there different ways to row? A: "Sweep" rowing is in reference to rowing with both hands on one oar, as a port or starboard oarsperson. In the fall the physical education curriculum offers a sculling class. Sculling is done with a similar oar just smaller in size, with one oar in each hand in singles, doubles or quads. Q: What is the distance the crews race in their competitive season, and how long does the race take? A: Weather and water related conditions as well as skill, strength and fitness dictate the time it takes to cover the 2,000-meter distance where two to six crews race head to head in one of six lanes. Women's Division III first Varsity Crews often post a time between 6:40 and 7:00 on a 2,000-meter race course. In a strong headwind the crew that goes 6:40 on flat water could take 7:50 in a strong headwind. Elite women's crews racing in the Olympics can cover that distance in under 6:00 minutes. Q: Crew spans two seasons? A: Spring is the traditional 2,000-meter collegiate racing season. Our early season races have two to five teams competing. When we get to our championships at the end of the season 12 to 24 crews might be part of the regatta, so there are morning heats and in the afternoon--third level, petite and grand final. In the fall we have our "non-traditional" season and race against the clock in head-style races over a distance of 2 to 3 miles. There can be anywhere from 10-45 entries, racing over the same course starting at 10-15 second intervals where faster crews are afforded the shortest distance between to points as the slower crews are required to give way on the turns that are present in most head courses. Q: Tell me about a typical crew practice. Where do you meet and how do the women train? A: When we are "in-season,” we meet at the Macomber Boathouse a mile from campus on the Connecticut River. Water time is limited by the rules we follow and the weather, so we try to train on the water to develop our rowing skills whenever possible. Fog, high water and wind can force us off the water, so we do a “land” workout instead. Land workouts can be a combination of rowing ergometer training, running, weightlifting and body circuits plus a host of other activities that build muscular endurance, fitness and core body strength. When the team is out of season the athletes will keep themselves in shape with the same type of land workouts. Q: Physically and mentally, what makes an ideal crew member? A: An appetite for demanding physical training coupled with the ability and desire to push mentally through what the body sometimes perceives as pain when pushing the muscles, respiratory and pulmonary systems to and through the limits of its capability. A tall, lean, powerful, supple body helps, as does a commitment to teamwork and training in the off season all of which comes packaged with a winning attitude. Q: What do you think about your team this year? A: We have a young team of dedicated oarswomen who work hard everyday to make themselves better athletes and rowers. I look forward to helping them reach their personal goals, and their goals as a team this year and over the course of their rowing careers at Wesleyan. They have tremendous potential in the novice eight and varsity four to finish the season strong. Q: What classes do you teach, or have you taught, as an adjunct professor? A: I have taught a lot of swimming classes. The beginning swimming class is rewarding and usually a fun group to work with. Of course I enjoy being on the water and teaching the sculling class, though we can only teach that class in the fall, as the water is usually too cold, and moving too fast to teach it in the spring. The singles can flip pretty easily. Q: What is your interest in rowing and the environment, which was the topic of your article published in American Rowing Magazine in 1995? A: The water we row on is our playing field, and I believe we have an obligation to take care of that field, to be stewards of sorts, as well as to learn something about the lakes and rivers we race and practice on. I've rowed in a few places like the Los Angeles harbor, and the Piscataway River in New Jersey, where the water was so polluted it took much of the pleasure away from being on the water. I'd like to do more for the river. My current commitment, started with the team this last year which also serves as a community service project for the team is to participate in the annual Connecticut River Cleanup Day held each fall. I've also taken to pestering my coaching colleagues north and south along the river to have their teams join in. Q: Where did you coach prior to Wesleyan? A: My first year of coaching was at Syracuse University followed by a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and four years at Northeastern where I had earned my undergraduate degree in physical education.
Q: You're a former member of the National
Collegiate Rowing Committee and the U.S. Rowing's Junior Women's Rowing
Committee, and you're ending a six-year term with the NCAA Division III
Women's Rowing Championship Committee this year. Why do you get involved in
these committees and why are they important to you? |
| By Olivia Bartlett, The Wesleyan Connection editor |