Callie at the Catch: Stress-Free Zone
December 07, 2017 | Women's Rowing
Finals coming so letting the (party) lights shine
Whitewater, Wisconsin, native Callie Herbert is back and giving regular updates again this year from Porter Boathouse and wherever else rowing takes her and her teammates. A four-time swimming state qualifier in high school, the senior stroked the varsity eight to 11th-place at the 2017 NCAA Championships.
MADISON, Wis. -- The semester closing in means that finals are coming and the stress levels are rising. Thankfully the eight-hour schedule we are in allows us to be flexible, which is especially nice when we need extra time to study, write papers, or work on projects. What we are good at doing is letting go of our finals stress as soon as we walk into the boathouse. It is our place to let loose and becomes our stress-free zone. This week, we had a fun and festive practice to shake things up and help us distress even more, all while still putting in that hard work.
To start practice off, we began warmups with the lights off and plugged in the colorful, bright party lights. Being early in the morning and still pitch black outside, it looked pretty cool!
I think what made this practice even more fun was the fact that coxswains and even some of our coaches were getting on the erg for some short, hard pieces during a relay.
Saylor Martin, a junior coxswain, volunteered to erg to make the teams even (what a trooper). Before coxing, Martin used to row early in high school, but has not done much since then, so she admits it can be easy to forget how hard erging can be.
She said, "Today was fun for me because not very often do the coxswains get to really be with the team during the winter, since our roles become so different."
It is not like sitting in the coxswain seat. However, "even just a few short pieces was enough to remind me how much work the rowers are putting in every single day," she added.
Even Assistant Coach Jim Mitchell got on the erg and was pulling some fast splits while in jeans! Then to top the morning off, our strength and conditioning coach (who may be the fittest woman I have ever met), Bre, hopped on and though she has never rowed before, she sure can throw down some fast splits with some good technique.
It was a super fun morning, but we were also completely dead afterwards. But having fun makes it easy to work hard and go fast! I think that is something our team at Wisconsin is extremely good at and should be known for, if we are not already.
MADISON, Wis. -- The semester closing in means that finals are coming and the stress levels are rising. Thankfully the eight-hour schedule we are in allows us to be flexible, which is especially nice when we need extra time to study, write papers, or work on projects. What we are good at doing is letting go of our finals stress as soon as we walk into the boathouse. It is our place to let loose and becomes our stress-free zone. This week, we had a fun and festive practice to shake things up and help us distress even more, all while still putting in that hard work.
To start practice off, we began warmups with the lights off and plugged in the colorful, bright party lights. Being early in the morning and still pitch black outside, it looked pretty cool!
I think what made this practice even more fun was the fact that coxswains and even some of our coaches were getting on the erg for some short, hard pieces during a relay.
Saylor Martin, a junior coxswain, volunteered to erg to make the teams even (what a trooper). Before coxing, Martin used to row early in high school, but has not done much since then, so she admits it can be easy to forget how hard erging can be.
She said, "Today was fun for me because not very often do the coxswains get to really be with the team during the winter, since our roles become so different."
It is not like sitting in the coxswain seat. However, "even just a few short pieces was enough to remind me how much work the rowers are putting in every single day," she added.
Even Assistant Coach Jim Mitchell got on the erg and was pulling some fast splits while in jeans! Then to top the morning off, our strength and conditioning coach (who may be the fittest woman I have ever met), Bre, hopped on and though she has never rowed before, she sure can throw down some fast splits with some good technique.
It was a super fun morning, but we were also completely dead afterwards. But having fun makes it easy to work hard and go fast! I think that is something our team at Wisconsin is extremely good at and should be known for, if we are not already.
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