Q&A With Orangewoman Lesley Wolf
1/15/2003 10:38:43 AM | Women's Rowing
The women’s rowing team doesn’t wait for the spring semester to begin to start its winter training. The Orangewomen headed south on January 4 for a seven-day training session in Melbourne, Fl. The annual trip consists of many miles and long hours on the water with naps on the beach between sessions. The spring season for the Orangewomen gets under way on March 29 when the rowing team heads to Boston, Mass., to compete against Boston University.
Senior tri-captain Lesley Wolf answered a few questions about the team’s trip to Florida.
Q: What is the purpose of the rowing team’s trip to Melbourne, FL?
A: Melbourne is a week of a lot of technique work. Our practices could run up to three hours, and we wouldn’t get a lot of heavy work in. We did a lot of skill work and drills.
Q: How much time did you spend on the water?
A: We had two practices a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The practices ran from one hour to three hours. So we practiced around five hours a day.
Q: What do you think was accomplished on the trip?
A: I think my coach (Kris Sanford) saw a lot of people really working hard in the lower group. Rowers were standing out, whom she didn’t think stood out before. So, I think she was excited about people stepping up and making an impact in the junior varsity and the varsity four level boats.
Q: What did you personally accomplish over the week?
A: Melbourne has always been the place where I work on my technique. This year was the same.
Q: What is an example of a drill that focuses on technique?
A: We do pause drills at different parts of the stroke, which help with balancing the boat and having everyone move together. The big thing about making a boat go faster is everyone doing the same thing at the same time: all the blades going in together and finishing together. We did a lot of work on taking a simple motion of one stroke and breaking it into 15 different pieces. So, pause strokes are something we did almost every practice.
Q: Where did you row?
A: We rowed at the intercoastal part of Florida. If you look at Florida, there’s a long strip of land down the east coast of Florida and the intercoastal part. We can’t row on the ocean because of the waves, but the ocean was just a mile away.
Q: Did any class or group stand out?
A: Our sophomore class did. They make up over half our team, and I think a lot of them stepped up and showed their true colors.
Q: What did you do in your free time?
A:We did a little sun tanning, but mostly we just hung at the apartments. We stayed at the Pines Resort, a big apartment complex, similar to South Campus.
Q: Were there any funny stories from the trip?
A: This really isn’t funny, but there was a bug going through the team. So, rowers had to sit out practice and were throwing up. It was all in my apartment too, but I didn’t get sick.
Q: What is next for the team?
A:We have winter training now. So, heavy indoor training, which includes a lot of erg work, cross training and lifting weights.
