Video Of The Week: Norcal Men's Lightweight Eight Wins Youth Nationals

Coxswain's view of the Norcal men's lightweight eight (Screen capture)

This year's running of USRowing Youth Nationals is in the books, and while the college rowing championships saw repeat champions in most cases (and the return of the Stanford Lightweight dynasty in others), the racing in Sarasota featured a bevy of new crews crowned.

Among those winners was Norcal Crew, who took first in the men's lightweight eight ahead of Belen Jesuit and Marin Rowing Association (last year's champion) in a time of 6:02.16.



The video above offers an inside experience of the men's lightweight eight grand final. Along the way, listen to the things that coxswain Thomas Fuller consistently does well: he keeps his crew informed about where they are on the course; he gives them feedback about where they are relative to other crews; and, importantly, he also reminds them of their goal times at each major marker down the course—it's a nice way to bring the focus back inside the boat, on achieving your potential as a crew, in addition to moving out ahead of the field and winning the race. By the time they cross the line, the Norcal lightweight men manage to take nearly a length out of the field—one of many strong results for crews from the Southwest region in Florida this year.

More on the 2015 USRowing Youth National Championships (full results here) still to come this week, plus, look for the first post in our upcoming 'On The Water' series with Forrest Brown of Virginia Men's Rowing, as they gear up for Henley Royal Regatta (you can keep tabs on the whole series by following the hashtag #HoosGoingToHenley).

Keep it locked!

-RR

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