Winter Training Preview
1/04/12 - After ending their fall racing season in a dominating fashion, both the varsity and novice squads headed south for the winter (The Intramural Sports Building where the team trains indoors on ergometers is located geographically south of Argo Pond). The team will be on the erg immediately following the Ohio State Duel all the way through mid-March. Over these four months the team will practice daily, sometimes twice daily, and take countless strokes with the goal of further developing their physical and mental strength.
Training under Coach Hartsuff can at times feel very methodical – for good reason. The training plan the Wolverines follow is an adaptation of the plan used by the U.S. National Team in the early 90’s under kris korzeniowski (then the US head coach), albeit with a reduction in the volume of work. Each day of the week has a workout that is focused on a certain aspect of the rowing physiology. Whether the workout is a mind numbingly long steady state to increase the aerobic capacity of the athletes, or an excruciatingly painful short interval workout to develop the fast twitch muscles for race pace, Hartsuff has the training regime broken down to a fine science.
The training plan that the team will be following this winter will be nearly identical to the training of last year, the year before that, and the year before that. Since Hartsuff took over at Michigan two decades ago the specific training that Michigan oarsmen undergo has remained nearly unchanged. The results of past seasons races very clearly validate such a consistent training plan and also give rise to traditions developed along the way.
Two of the more (in)famous traditions that any Michigan oarsmen will remember are the Hartsuff’s Hol’erg-day Hour (HHH) and the Anaerobic Tourney (AT).
As an incentive to train over the semester break (a time when rowers can be found sweating on a borrowed erg back home in their parents basement), Coach Hartsuff challenges the squad to beat him on an hour long erg piece once classes resume. Prizes are awarded for any oarsmen that beats the coach as well as for guessing the movies that the songs from Hartsuff’s playlist were featured in.
The Anaerobic Tourney is the exact opposite of the HHH where low stroke ratings are the name of the game. In the AT the rowers find themselves in a bracket style competition with eight 500 meter pieces to determine an eventual winner. Sprinting for 500 meter and thereafter sprinting to the trashcan defines this tradition. For some reason coach Hartsuff takes this workout off.
One of the best parts about finishing the day’s workout is getting to finally head home after a long day of class. However the novice may be surprised to find out that after working out, they are then required to attend Coach Hartsuff’s own course, Rowing Training 101. In this course the novice are informed of the methodology and theory as to why they are putting their body through such grueling training. Though it may make sense on the chalkboard, the theory behind doing a 10,000 meter workout may not make such sense while actually on the erg.
Training indoors is by no means an easy feat but it is a key time for the entire squad’s mentality to develop and oarsmen to begin establishing themselves for boating selection later on in the spring. Upon emerging into the sunlight in early spring, the rowers will undoubtedly find themselves in the best shape of their life and ready to start another successful campaign with a “Block M” on their backs.
