RowingRelated

UVa men's squad training on Rivanna Reservoir (Photo courtesy of Frank Biller) The second post in our second season of #BestRowingDrills takes a closer look at determining, and improving, effective stroke length on land, and on the water.

Rowing fans, it's time for Part Two of the 2015 RoRy Awards, celebrating the best athletes, coaches, and performances in intercollegiate rowing this year. And, there was no shortage of material for the RoRy Voting Committee to consider, not least of which were two unprecedented performances at IRAs and NCAAs last spring.

High Tea with the Hoos The following is the fifth installment of our series with Virginia's Forrest Brown, after the Hoos' close loss to Hobart in the Temple Challenge Cup.

Virginia racing past the Progress Board in Round One of the Temple The following is the fourth installment of our #HoosGoingToHenley series with Forrest Brown of Virginia Men's Rowing.

Not long now! Catching up with the Hoos on the eve of Henley Royal Regatta What follows is the third installment of our #HoosGoingToHenley series, thanks to Forrest Brown of Virginia, as he and the Cavaliers gear up for the first day of racing at Henley Royal Regatta.

#HoosGoingToHenley, Part Two: Dude, where are our oars? While Henley is still a week away, it's time for the second installment of the #HoosGoingToHenley series, with Forrest Brown.

RR series: #HoosGoingToHenley, Part One As longtime readers of RowingRelated will remember, we have twice connected with athletes and crews heading over to Henley Royal Regatta in the past. This year, we're doing it again.

The famous finish line tower at Lake Lanier (Photo: A.J. Brooks) The 2015 American Collegiate Rowing Championships, celebrating the best of the best in intercollegiate club rowing in the United States, showed once again that the level that it takes to reach the top of the podium continues to rise in the club ranks.

The 2015 ACRA Championships are set to begin tomorrow morning on the 1996 Olympic course at Lake Lanier, Georgia, and, well, it just wouldn't be right if we didn't take the opportunity to shoot our mouths off and throw some picks and predictions out there. Feel free to use them as motivation—anything to fuel the fire. Warning: Opinions will follow. Started rowing in Georgia this morning on the 1996 Olympic course #ACRA2015 A photo posted by Bucknell Men's Crew (@bucknellcrew) on May 21, 2015 at 12:02pm PDT The men's varsity eight event this year will be a barn burner, with more heat coming from teams out West than in previous seasons. As evidenced by San Diego Crew Classic and later Newport Regatta (see video below), both UCSB and the UC Irvine Anteaters are looking strong—the Anteaters got the better of the Gauchos at WIRAs , as did Washington State , and UC Irvine followed up that performance with a victory in Newport Harbor (a first for the program...

The UCSB men on the Crew Classic podium, 2013 (Photo: B. Kitch) Without a doubt, the top-end speed in men's club rowing has been improving over the past few years, not least because of the development of the ACRA league. What will 2015 hold? Here are our picks for the long haul.

Pac-12s 2014 (Photo: B. Kitch) Spring racing season is upon us. Yes, the ice is melting (finally), and crews are back on the water in gearing up for another great year. Before we kick things off in earnest at Crew Classic, however, we'd be remiss if we didn't share our thoughts on just how this year's NCAA Rowing field stacks up. Here are the first official RowingRelated NCAA Rankings for 2015.

Kevin Sauer at the 2012 NCAA Championships (Photo: B. Kitch) Having done a little research recently, I discovered that, surprisingly, there's not much available on the Internets in terms of useful content for rowing coaches. Try scanning the web for decent examples of drills and technique, and you'll find that what is accessible to most is largely race footage, which certainly has its place in the coaching toolkit, but ultimately isn't that informative on its own. This is the first in a series on the best rowing drills, featuring some of the top junior and collegiate coaches in the U.S. If you like this idea, let us know, and share it—if it takes off, then we'll continue to build a library and create an index on our Rowing Drills page. For the first series, we'll be releasing the an article every Wednesday for the next five weeks. As with this post, this early series will be mostly geared toward sweep rowing, but sculling will also feature in the near future....

O'Leary (left) and Ellen Tomek on the podium in 2014 (Photo: USRowing/Ed Moran) Meghan O'Leary is much more than just an outstanding rowing talent. In fact, Meghan was a two-sport varsity athlete at Virginia —and neither sport was rowing. Growing up in the South, O'Leary wasn't exposed to rowing until she arrived at UVA, where one of her college roommates introduced her to the weird hours and extensive training schedule associated with our sport. Still, it wasn't until after college that she got bit by the rowing bug—having bantered back and forth with Virginia's Kevin Sauer , who suspected that she might have a talent for rowing, O'Leary decided to Google places to row near Hartford, where she was working full time for ESPN. And the rest, as they say, is history. Here's Meghan's take on how it all went down. Thanks very much to Meghan for doing the interview! You can stay up to date on Meghan's progress via her website , listed in our ...

This week's video comes to us from the Montlake Cut, where the Washington Huskies have been putting the final touches on their preparation for the 2014 IRA National Championship Regatta , set for this weekend in Princeton. The Huskies, who (inexplicably) started the season as the No. 6-ranked men's varsity eight, are looking to cap off another Pac-12 win with a fourth-straight IRA title (and fifth in the last six years)—but they will have their work cut out for them. The Huskies came through Pac-12s strong, but faced their toughest challenge since the 2013 Cal-Washington Dual , coming back from a four-seat deficit with 500m to go to take the victory by roughly one seat over Cal . Cal and UW race to the line at Lake Natoma (Photo: B. Kitch) While ACRAs are now in the rearview, the varsity-level national championships give us plenty to look forward to, with IRAs taking over Mercer Lake, and the 2014 NCAA Rowing Championships returning to Eagle Creek Park, Indianapolis ...

The 2012 NCAA Championships were, as expected, characterized by closely fought heats, semis, and finals, with the depth of the entire field improving from year to year and the top-end continually reaching new heights. Our pick to win the Division I title since January, Virginia , delivered in both the varsity eight and team points, with a solid performances from the varsity four (second) and second varsity eight (fifth) to set up the first eight for success in the grands. The Hoos left no doubt in the 1V, pushing out the margin in the second 1000m enough to hold off a very strong Michigan crew–with a second-place finish in the varsity eight and first place in the 2V, the Wolverines locked up second place in the team points standings, ahead of No. 1 California. As for our pick of Western Washington, well, the Jacks of Humboldt State showed that a new era may have begun in DII women's rowing. The Jacks were the class of the field in the varsity four, finishing roughly nine secon...

The NCAA Rowing Championships and ACRA National Championships are now just hours away, and it wouldn't be right if we didn't throw some picks and predictions out there. We released some season-long predictions in January , and we are sticking to our guns, though things have certainly heated up in both fields (not to mention the IRA field that will take to the water in just under a week). Now, let's get started. NCAA Rowing Championships: We picked Virginia to win the Division I team title last Winter, and Kevin Sauer's Cavaliers are looking on pace to do just that, despite their No. 2 ranking behind Pac-12 power California . The RR readers' poll agrees with that assessment at this point, with 29% of the vote currently going to Virginia, versus 24% to Cal. The Golden Bears will enter NCAAs this year on a tremendous high, having swept the Pac-12 Championships for the first time a little less than two weeks ago–Cal is certainly not to be taken lightly, nor would...

The UVa varsity eight training in Seattle (Photo: © F. Biller) The UVa men’s team has, once again, made a statement in the early season, and looks to be one of the favorites this weekend in Philadelphia at the 2012 Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta , as well as at the ACRA Championship Regatta later this month in Gainesville, GA. Having won the title in the men’s varsity eight at ACRAs last year, defeating perennial front runner Michigan along the way, UVa has shown thus far that it has not lost speed, despite having graduated some of the top talent from last year’s varsity crew. This was in evidence at SIRAs, where the Cavaliers battled a strong George Washington crew all the way to the line, eventually taking second place, less than a second behind the Colonials, with roughly a six second margin on the rest of the field. Last weekend, UVa was invited to participate in the 2012 Windermere Cup, and had another strong showing, defeating Oregon State by roughly a length, and finishing ju...

UVa through Fawley, Temple Semifinal (Photo: Allen Miller) The UVa men carried a great deal of momentum into today's semifinal v. a talented Dutch crew from ASR Nereus . The Cavs fought well, but when all was said and done, the verdict was 1 length to Nereus, and one of the most successful seasons in the history of the UVa Men's Rowing Program came to a close. On the other side of the bracket, California's frosh eight, coached by UVa alum Wyatt Allen , defeated the Harvard freshmen to reach the final. En route to victory, the Golden Bears broke their own course record to Fawley again .  Here's Matt's take on Saturday's racing in Henley: Saturday at Henley is bustling with energy and spectators. It seems like the number of Virginia fans doubled overnight. We’ve gained the support of a number of eliminated American crews, as well as the English crews we beat earlier in the week. It was great getting so many cheers on our way to the starting line. This mor...

Henley-on-Thames, England: UVa Reaches Semifinals at Henley Royal Regatta The Cavaliers faced another tough challenge today from the last British crew remaining in the Temple, and again UVa came out on top. Though the University of London was very quick off the line, the Cavs were able to reel them in through the middle of the piece, establishing firm control by Fawley.  Here's Matt's view of the race from the five seat of the UVa eight: The last remaining English crew of the Temple Cup did not go down without a fight. A poor start put us down to the University of London by a seat or two, but as we lengthened down to base rate, we gained back ground we had lost. The middle of the race is where we won it. We accomplished our goal of finding the rhythm that we were missing yesterday. It didn’t feel like we had worked very hard up to Fawley, and we continued to walk away. Like yesterday, a move put us a full length ahead. UL brought the rate up with about 400m to go, but only ...

UVa men's eight launches - alongside a notable pair (Photo: Allen Miller) Update from Henley-on-Thames: Round two is now done, and the UVa men have delivered another strong performance, though the four has been knocked out by a strong Durham crew. The eight had a solid race against a tough Oxford Brookes entry – conditions are always variable at Henley, and Brookes handled the changing winds and wakes very well, hanging on throughout the race.  Here's Matt's view on the racing from within the UVa eight: UVa engine room (Photo: Allen Miller)  The competition certainly improves after the first round. Frank warned the eight today that the 2006 champions, Oxford Brookes University, would go out hard. We had a good start, but they were right with us through the end of the island. By the barrier, our flow and rhythm at base-rate had gained us half a boat. A big move put us a length ahead, and we would hold that margin to the line. It was not a particularly good row for us be...