Over Spring Break, four Wabash Valley Crew team members took a trip to the Florida Rowing Center in Wellington, in Palm Beach County, Florida. This training facility has a protected 2,000-meter long lake where our rowers learned rowing techniques and form from some of the best coaches available. The four team members attended the world-class center with coaching staff led by Coach Gordon Hamilton. Coach Hamilton is a renowned coach who has coached at some of the premier collegiate rowing programs in the United States, as well as internationally.
Our crew had the opportunity to learn from Coach Hamilton and the other staff at the center over a four-day period, rowing two times daily starting at 7:00 AM each day and ending at approximately 4:00 PM. It was grueling physical and mental work as our crew learned from the best. One of the teammates said that “It's more about the mechanics of how the body is used.” The athletes learned more than physical mechanics. They learned how to take care of the equipment. They also learned about considerations needed to have a strong team. This teammate also mentioned during an interview that “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
Each of our crew reported 100% satisfaction with the entire training process, and that this is something they will remember forever.
There was a serious responsibility put on the students who attended the specialized training to absorb all the information to be able to bring it back home to improve the team. During the interview, the teammates who went on the trip were asked how they plan to teach and pass down the information they learned during their training. Another teammate responded by saying, “As a peer, we can point out things that we’re doing differently to help the team. What we say might resonate better in a different way with our peers than just the coach saying it.” Wabash Valley Crew Head Coach Jack Hill added, “This was a learning opportunity that will impact the team and the future generations of our team members, and we plan on getting back to the Florida Rowing Center as often as possible.”
