ATTENDANCE 

Line-ups are created in the morning before practice. Coaches expect that if you are going to miss practice, you let us know no later than 2 pm.  Update the attendance sheet AND email your coaches.  For those individuals that don't inform coaches or do so after 2 pm: do not expect a guaranteed seat to row the following day. Athletes are expected to make a minimum of 4 practices during the school week. If you miss more than 2 practices, you will not be given priority in the boat you rowed in for the next week and someone else will row in the seat you occupied. Consideration will be given for sickness, emergencies, and other items, HOWEVER, failure to plan, prioritize, or other excuses, will not be considered valid excuses.  

Saturday practice we are going to focus more on specific teams or boats. Meaning, one Saturday might just be Varsity. Next might just be Novice. One might be just the men’s team and the following weekend the women’s team. This will allow us more one on one time with rowers. Now we might also have the entire team out as well. Saturday practices will be dictated by what we see, where we think more focused coaching is needed, or how the weather might dictate how the week went and thus everyone needing more water time. 

Why are we creating this policy? Crew is a team sport. Your team, your boat, they count on you. You only showing up to half the practices hurts the boat. It isn’t fair to the individuals that are putting in the effort. We will not be giving priority to individuals that miss multiple practices even if they are the better rower. The boat needs to be able to count on the individuals in front and behind them. Attendance matters. The person in front or behind you needs to know they can count on you and that you can count on them. Faith in your boat goes a long way. You do not want to let them down, they do not want to let you down, but if you appear (whether correct or not) not to care, they will not either. 

Also, if you miss more than 2 practices on a race week, you will not be racing. Again, not fair to your boat, you need to practice together in order to gel as a unit. Only showing up to a single practice in a week, then expecting to race, is not going to happen. We average less than 16 water days a month and that is if weather works in our favor.  

ACCEPTANCE 

All the returning rowers know me as fairly joking, passionate, and brutally honest, so you will know by these following words how serious I am. ACCEPTANCE. I don’t care if you are tall, short, Hispanic, African American, white, Russian, Catholic, Mormon, Muslim, straight, gay, identify as something totally different, have special needs, have anxiety, or whatever. Our program will not tolerate bullies, bigotry, racism, or other negative behavior. If someone can’t row on Sunday for religious reasons, we the coaches don’t care. We will schedule accordingly, you don’t make the individual feel bad they are missing a race (or practice) so they can attend church or whatever the religious reason may be. It is none of your business. If someone loves a different God than you, don’t make them feel bad because they have different views. If someone identifies differently, we don’t care. Our program is accepting. All we ask is for good humans. If we find out that anyone, and we mean anyone, uses racial slurs, hate speech, tries telling someone that their bible says that someone is bad, or goes out of their way to put someone down, we will be asking you to leave. Do not test us on this one. You don’t have to like everyone on your team, but you do have to be respectful. We are a team. One boat, one stroke, one team. If that is something you can’t respect, then Inglemoor Crew might not be a good fit for you. 

Also, if you bring an ‘acceptance’ issue to our attention, you need to be able to back it up. None of this “I heard Betty say she heard that Rufus said….” Rumors can be as hurtful as actual truths. The negative attention that could be foreced on an innocent individual can be extremely damaging and harmful.  Don’t get me wrong, if someone is hate speaking, we need to hear about it, let us just make sure we are not spreading rumors. 

Respect for your teammates. This goes for coxswains as well as rowers. Please note, you can row with only 7 rowers in an eight. You cannot row without a coxswain. In the past, in order to make this point, we are not afraid to replace your coxswain with a concrete block. Not all coxswains are at the same experience level, however, they all should be given the same respect. This also goes for the rowers. Coxswains and rowers need to show patience and acceptance with everyone. We do not make others feel negatively about their skills. We are all in the learning mode. From freshmen to seniors, you all are learning and growing. If someone makes a mistake, we do not make them feel bad. We are all learning. 

ROWERS 

Rowers, you are the engine, the machine, the unit that makes the boats move forward (and you backwards). Your attitude, behavior, and actions directly reflect on you, your teammates, your team, your school, and your family. Besides attendance and acceptance, you all need to add respect to the list. Respect the people in the boat, the people on your team, your coaches, and the volunteers that help make our program work. As coaches, our main goal is to teach the art of rowing and hopefully teach life lessons through a team atmosphere. Secondly, have fun. Third, and many of you think this is my number 1, it is to be competitive. I think they all go together. If we are competitive, we will have fun. If you learn the technique, work as a team/boat, focus on the positives, I think we can achieve all 3. 

Also, rowers, we might need you to cox a practice or two. This isn’t a time for you to act foolishly. You need to be the coxswain you want as a rower. Maybe learn that it isn’t all that easy and you don’t just sit there and talk to the stroke seat. This is a chance for you to get some insight for another position on this team. 

COXSWAINS 

Coaches have the same expectations for coxswains as we do for rowers in terms of their attitude, behavior, and actions. Respect your teammates, coaches, and yourselves. Because your voice is being amplified to 4-8 members of the team at a time, be conscious of the way in which that voice is being used. Coxswains are not passengers in the boat, they are an active member of the team with many responsibilities. Practice for coxswains is as important as practice is for rowers. Be aware of the general expectations we have for coxswains in order to keep practice moving smoothly and safely. Safety is a coxswains #1 priority on the water. If for any reason you do not believe you are physically/mentally able to safely cox a boat that day, please let a coach know and we will make other arrangements. 

Coxswains, you need to be aware of your surroundings. Running into the dock, a buoy, a log, or another boat is not a little thing. If a boat breaks because of something you could have prevented, you need to take ownership of it and do everything you can not to let that happen. Joking about hitting something or breaking something will get you a lot of launch time. If it comes across like you don’t care, I don’t know how the coaches or rowers can trust your judgment.  

BOAT HANDLING 

We will go over this again at first practice. Outside of rowing and attitudes, boat handling is the next most important thing. Without a boat, there is no race or practice. To help put everything into perspective, a new eight rowing shell goes for around $60K ~ $80K. A decent used rowing shell with about 5 years of experience goes for $30k or more. You might find a good used shell with 15 years experience for $12K. We are renting 3 of our shells from Pocock. We have 8 eights, and 8 fours. If everyone shows up to practice, all the eights and a couple of the fours are in use. We have to keep our equipment in working order. Once again, we are going to have the boat handling rules. 

• If your boat hits the building on its way to the dock, you are done for the day. The boat goes back on the racks, and you can erg. 
• If you (or the people in your boat) drop the boat into the water while rolling it into the water, you are done for the day. The boat goes back on the racks, and you can erg. 
• If you (or the people in your boat) set the boat on the dock while rolling it into the water, The boat goes back on the racks, and you can erg if we have a coach on land, or you go home. 

Now understand, the entire boat is done. Whether you drop the boat or someone in your boat drops it, the entire boat is done. That is because we are a team, a single unit. You win together and you lose together. Please try to not let your teammates down with a lack of concentration on something as simple as boat handling. 

All of the above items stated will damage the boat.  We HAVE TO take care of our equipment. Breakage leads to less water time for everyone. 

DOCKING/ON THE DOCK 

The goal is to have dock time kept to two minutes or less for each boat. This is measured from the time the hull is supported by the water until you start walking it down to leave the dock. When taking the boat out of the water it is measured from the time everyone can get out of the boat until the boat is up overheads. Not timed is how long it takes to get down the ramp, come into the dock, walk it down the dock or anything else where you are carrying the boat. We do want these things done promptly and efficiently but taking the time to do things right is expected. This is especially important at the beginning of the spring season when it is cold and likely rainy, the less time we are docking the less time your teammates are sitting on the water in the cold. 

IN THE BOAT 

• No Phones. Exception for coxswains though not recommended. 
• No talking during a piece. Bad form unless you’re the one that needs to tell the coxswain that there’s a concern. 
• Feet are in the shoes on the grip tape on the flat part of the deck in between the stern end of the tracks. If you need to take a foot out to adjust your foot stretchers in the boat stick it up on the gunwale until you’re done. 

ON THE ERGS 

• Feet on the footplates. 
• Butts on the seats. 
• Set handles down, never dropped or thrown. Coaches reserve the right to not record a piece where a dropped or thrown handle was involved. 
• If you want to be in the varsity boats, pieces start on time. Best to get the flywheel spinning with 0:06 left on your rest clock. We will normally have recommended pacing, this is what we want the average pace to be when done with the piece. 
• Drink water on the rest, not during the piece. You won't stop in a race to take a sip of water.
• Remember, ergs don’t float, but neither do they lie. Coaches are influenced by your effort and behavior on an erg.