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Post by Stephanie on Aug 17, 2013 9:48:53 GMT -8
Two things I learned from big LB this year was that
1. we need to train our steers better to call a CHECK as soon as they lose control and if they are too close to another boat. Quite a few of the accidents and near misses this time could've been prevented if only the boat were checked as soon as something went wrong.
2. we need to train our callers better to echo if the steer yells a CHECK, or to look out for the steer since sometimes they won't hear the call either. I saw a couple steers who had completely lost control only to have the caller not do much about it. If the caller can't see the steer for more than just a couple seconds (if the steer fell out or has fallen down), the caller should call a CHECK because it means that no one's steering the boat!
I wonder how many of our callers are coaches/captains/steers, or how many teams train callers at all? for my first few years calling, I didn't have any coaching experience. actually, I don't even think I'd even been on the bow of a boat until I was sitting in the drummer's seat on competition day. I didn't really know what I was doing up there and my team probably would've been screwed if something had gone wrong.
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Post by TK on Aug 18, 2013 17:38:12 GMT -8
My guess is that many new teams do not realize the leadership role the caller has...
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Aug 19, 2013 19:13:17 GMT -8
I did some calling at Lake Gregory for the first time, for the community team races. It actually felt comfortable to me! But it's probably because as a steersman, I'm already used to giving commands.
I already seem to know the basics of what to do. But that's simple on a boat of novices...
I think we should use the Gregory races as a training ground for novice steers and callers during the community races. It's a great test run before any more formal races.
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Post by SpaceREC on Aug 19, 2013 20:24:44 GMT -8
That is a good idea Stephen, unfortunately Gregory is after both LB races and long before them in the following season.
I recall two cross-team on-the-water events in the past. Since the technical issues seem to happen during a race we can set up mock races with powerful teams to better simulate the race conditions.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Aug 20, 2013 7:37:47 GMT -8
Maybe the festival teams would be a good lower-pressure opportunity for novice steers and callers. Especially for the non-tournament certified steers who need more practice time.
Let--- No wait... REQUIRE newly numbered steerspeople and callers to help with festival teams! Under the supervision of experienced coaches of course.
Still won't be in time to get new people ready for the "big leagues", but we all need to start somewhere.
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Post by shinsa on Aug 20, 2013 9:06:19 GMT -8
Could be as simple as coaches provide new steers and callers with as much practice time and attention as the paddlers.
They are part of the team and are critical links in communication. a team that does not train its steers and callers is not training the "entire" team and inviting a breakdown in communication, boat control, safety, performance, etc..
practice practice practice.... 10,000 hour rule and all that
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Post by SpaceREC on Aug 20, 2013 9:11:53 GMT -8
The problem is that festival teams have no power and it the duress of aggressive (sometime crooked) starts and powers that put strain on boat guidance. I am not race experienced but could eat, text, and chew gum while steering a festival team during practice =p
The straight-line exercise in the on-the-water-test tries to mimic this but the amount of power in the steer test boat is variable.
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Post by shinsa on Aug 20, 2013 9:14:38 GMT -8
My guess is that many new teams do not realize the leadership role the caller has... agreed calling can a very complex and difficult job on some teams (some teams or more or less complex): eyes on the steer eyes on the paddlers eyes on the other boats active drumming echoing the strokes echoing the steers evaluating the crews performance and exhaustion making decisions on stroke rate (for some) making race call decisions (for some) and not falling off the boat It is not a job you can easily walk in and do. They need practice. and guided training. just like the paddlers.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Aug 20, 2013 9:19:53 GMT -8
The problem is that festival teams have no power and it the duress of aggressive (sometime crooked) starts and powers that put strain on boat guidance. I am not race experienced but could eat, text, and chew gum while steering a festival team during practice =p Practice is NOTHING like actual racing. When I was learning to steer, my team NEVER put out as much power as they did during races, because they didn't have to conserve energy to get through a 90 minute practice. My race debut was an awesome mess, when I flipped the boat...
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Post by SpaceREC on Aug 20, 2013 9:46:52 GMT -8
The problem is that festival teams have no power and it the duress of aggressive (sometime crooked) starts and powers that put strain on boat guidance. I am not race experienced but could eat, text, and chew gum while steering a festival team during practice =p Practice is NOTHING like actual racing. When I was learning to steer, my team NEVER put out as much power as they did during races, because they didn't have to conserve energy to get through a 90 minute practice. My race debut was an awesome mess, when I flipped the boat... Exactly my point, festival teams are at the low power end and therefore not useful at race training. But I will tell you this, competitive mixed and open crews practice with enough POP to drop our experienced steers and coaches .... If you don't practice it you cannot execute it in a race Logistics may be difficult, but race steering clinic strong crews practicing race-level starts would be useful.
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Post by Stephanie on Aug 20, 2013 11:30:33 GMT -8
Practice is NOTHING like actual racing. When I was learning to steer, my team NEVER put out as much power as they did during races, because they didn't have to conserve energy to get through a 90 minute practice. My race debut was an awesome mess, when I flipped the boat... Exactly my point, festival teams are at the low power end and therefore not useful at race training. But I will tell you this, competitive mixed and open crews practice with enough POP to drop our experienced steers and coaches .... If you don't practice it you cannot execute it in a race Logistics may be difficult, but race steering clinic strong crews practicing race-level starts would be useful. we ALWAYS have more problems with year-round teams than with festival teams (steering, contesting, collisions, capsizes) - though to be fair, we also have many more year-round steers than festival steers. I think part of it is cause festival steers tend to be more careful and prepared to begin with: they generally go over the material we provide, they might actually have more recent practice than many year-round steers, they're used to steering for their own teams rather than others (consistency is key), and they're not cocky about their abilities. We also tend to test them every year (many year-round steers get upset that we test them three years in a row). I like Stephen's suggestion of "REQUIRE newly numbered steerspeople and callers to help with festival teams! Under the supervision of experienced coaches of course." however we generally have problems with steers steering their own team. which means that SpaceREC's suggestion of scheduling clinics of strong crews (if we could even get that together - I have a hard enough time getting paddlers to clinics as it is and that's never a full boat) would probably not help much. if a team wants to practice in the afternoon to mimic tourney conditions, there's certainly nothing stopping them from scheduling such a practice on their own. for big LB next year we will be vetting steers based on previous tournament steering experience and performance at such (for local and visiting teams). the committee hasn't decided yet, but we might require all steers to have steered accident free in at least one other tournament before steering at big LB.
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Post by F3 on Aug 22, 2013 15:02:05 GMT -8
Practice is NOTHING like actual racing. When I was learning to steer, my team NEVER put out as much power as they did during races, because they didn't have to conserve energy to get through a 90 minute practice. My race debut was an awesome mess, when I flipped the boat... Exactly my point, festival teams are at the low power end and therefore not useful at race training. But I will tell you this, competitive mixed and open crews practice with enough POP to drop our experienced steers and coaches .... If you don't practice it you cannot execute it in a race ;) Logistics may be difficult, but race steering clinic strong crews practicing race-level starts would be useful. I am Confused. Why do you need a clinic to practice? so it is race level? Cant you just practice at race level? make believe you are in a race?
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Post by Stephanie on Sept 10, 2013 10:55:57 GMT -8
this might be a bit off topic, but it totally reminds me of dragon boat steering accidents, especially how while the steer is ultimately in charge, everyone shares in the responsibility of safety. I'm reading The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes chapter of "Outliers - The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell. he writes that:
"Plane crashes are much more likely to be the result of an accumulation of minor difficulties and seemingly trivial malfunctions. In a typical crash, for example, the weather is poor--not terrible, necessarily, but bad enough that the pilot feels a little bit more stressed than usual. In an overwhelming number of crashes, the plane is behind schedule, so the pilots are hurrying. In 52% of crashes, the pilot at the time of the accident has been awake for more than 12 hours or more, meaning that he is tired and not thinking sharply. And 44% of the time, the two pilots have never flown together before, so they're not comfortable with each other. Then the errors start--and it's not just one error. The typical accident involves seven consecutive human errors. One of the pilots does something wrong that by itself is not a problem. Then one of them makes another error on top of that, which combined with the first error still does not amount to catastrophe... it is the combination of all those errors that leads to disaster.
"These seven errors, furthermore, are rarely problems of knowledge or flying skill [italics mine]. It's not that the pilot has to negotiate some critical technical maneuver and fails. The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and communication [italics mine]. One pilot knows something important and somehow doesn't tell the other pilot. One pilot does something wrong, and the other pilot doesn't catch the error. A tricky situation needs to be resolved through a complex series of steps--and somehow the pilots fail to coordinate and miss one of them.
"'The whole flight-deck design is intended to be operated by two people, and that operation works best when you have one person checking the other, or both people willing to participate... and for a long time it's been clear that if you have two people operating the airplane cooperatively, you will have a safe operation than if you have a single pilot flying the plane and another person who is simply there to take over if the pilot of incapacitated.'"
I think a lot of this applies directly to steering, whether your "co-pilot" be the caller or coach. And paddlers too, should speak up if they see something going, or about to go, seriously wrong (it's so easy to miss seeing the swimmers!). In a race when it's really loud, paddlers should echo the steer's "check!" call if the caller doesn't hear it. If a paddler sees that others have missed the call, they should check the boat and get the other paddlers' attention. Eventually, from back to front, the whole boat will be checked.
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