Q:  Where is study hall?  How does it work?

A:  Study hall is part of practice; enabling students to participate who can’t go home then come back.  Attendance is not required, but most of us are there.  It is held in a room assigned by the school, usually the medium forum.  We meet there after school, club meetings, etc.  Study hall ends with a run and/or walk to the boathouse, starting around 1500.

Q:  Where does the team practice?

A:  Our boathouse is at the back of Lakewood Park.  The address is 1650 Willow Wood Drive.  From there, we launch our boats to practice on the Lafayette River.  We will also practice on land inside and/or outside the boathouse from time to time.  In the winter, we sometimes lift at the school’s weight room.

Q:  When does the team practice?

A:  We are at the boathouse almost every weekday from 1530-1800.  This includes some days when school is out.  We also practice on Saturday mornings from 0800-1100.  The specific dates for practice are in the schedule.

Q:  Can a student arrive late and/or depart early?

In some cases, yes.  We try to flex to allow students with full schedules to still join in.  The occasional conflicts are easy.  A known schedule overlap would need discussion, but we’ve had several athletes manage these well.  On days where the team is going on the water, the shells leave the dock by 1600 (0830 Saturday).  The shells return to the dock around 1730 (1030 Saturday).  You might sometimes have to practice on land.

Q:  What about bad weather?

A:  In most cases, the opportunity to practice is made available to those who can safely attend.  Lightning or other severe weather would prevent water training, but once inside the boathouse, we are fine.  A practice cancellation would be announced at school, and via electronic notification.

Q:  What practices are required?

A:  Practices are only ‘required’ in the context of whether a student is eligible to race.  A student who does not practice will not have the necessary skill and has not displayed the necessary effort for racing.  The only strict participation rules are for spring racing.  Keep in mind that participation in all seasons is not required.  Even our most important regattas only require a certain amount of participation.

Q:  What happens during a typical water practice?

A:  Every practice starts with running (or some other endurance warm-up if you can’t run).  Then we do a dynamic stretching routine as a team to make sure our bodies are fully prepared.  Most days we do core and/or power work.  The coach will announce lineups and explain the scheduled training.  The students set their equipment and put the boats on the water.  We complete our workouts and/or drills for the day.  When we return to the dock, shells and oars are taken back up.  All equipment is washed and re-racked.  We wrap up with discussion, demonstrations, and/or video review.

Q:  What happens during a weight room practice?

A:  We use signup genius to schedule groups of students. Each group trains for 2hrs.   We warmup for 20min.  Then we complete 6 stations: squat, bench press, deadlift, shoulder press, glute bridge, and cable row,  Each athlete has a partner/spotter.  The goal at each station is to complete a warmup set, a progressive set, and three working sets.  The number of reps is dependent on the athlete’s goal, strength or hypertrophy.  We rotate stations every 16min.  The coaches monitor form closely, and demand proper mechanics.  Students who are new to lifting start slow and work up.  The last lifting day is meant to test our maximum strength at 4 stations: squat, bench, deadlift, glute bridge.