Crew teams head south for grueling training

By David Goldenberg

The rowers will only have one free day, the day following the President's Cup Open Regatta on Sat., Mar. 14, to visit Florida's attractions or catch up on homework. The heavyweight rowers will have no time to rest and will be on the water for six to eight hours a day.

Yale is one of the few universities nationwide to have a two-week recess, and its athletic teams take advantage of it. In the next two weeks, Bulldog athletes will leave New Haven for warmer locales.

The baseball team will take its traditional southern tour, the men's and women's tennis teams will head to New Mexico and California, respectively. The track teams will travel to South Carolina, and additional trips to Florida are in store for the women's golf squad and both of the lacrosse teams.

As it does for all spring teams, the vacation offers an opportunity for the crew teams to get an edge on their competition, even if the rowers must sacrifice the period of relaxation that other Yalies enjoy. "It's great," lightweight captain Steve Purdy, TD '98, said."We have a week more than Harvard or Princeton to concentrate on crew."

Yale's chief competitors also train in Florida, but usually only for one week. Purdy added, "We never go out. We don't do a lot of fun things.... It requires a tremendous amount of discipline, but it's worth it." The rowers do find some respite from practice in team traditions--laundry, meals, and the occasional movie.

Spring training is a time to work on fine-tuning the details of technique and also trying out racing line-ups. Many of the lightweights should reach their optimal weights, something they have been working on since the start of February.

"It's not like they go into Florida fat and come out skinny," Card warned. "They are undertaking a gradual weight loss in a healthy and performance-enhancing manner. But the combination of the sun and having two workouts a day should help the process."

The schedules are always grueling. "It is not random flogging," heavyweight coach Dave Vogel, DC '71, stated. "This is our opportunity to build the precision we need to race well this spring. Mileage makes champions."

Far removed from campus and home, the athletes are often left with little to think about but training. "During the entire time down there we think of nothing else but crew," varsity lightweight Mark Violante, ES '00, said.

Freshman lightweight Andrew Moore, BK '01, also noted the stringent diet that he and his teammates must follow. "I have to continue practicing," he said. "Even in the dining hall."

Distractions are something that coaches look to avoid during their spring training. For the first time in many years, the women's crew team will not be joining the men in Tampa. Instead, new coach Christine Wilson, ES '83, has opted to take her team to Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga., site of the 1996 Olympic Games rowing competition.

"I have been going to training camps since 1977," Wilson, a former Yale oarswoman herself, said. "And [Gainesville] is by far the best in terms of the environment and the helpful people." Although Wilson knows that going to Tampa is a tradition for Yale rowers, she feels that the channel area has recently become too crowded with other crews, freighters, and tugboats.

"Over the last few years, Tampa has been really congested," she said. "With all the shipping traffic, it was often unpredictable. You basically had to shop around for water."

The women's training camp will hold practice three times a day, including weight training, until Thurs., Mar. 19, when the women travel to Charlottesville, Va. to practice and scrimmage against the University of Virginia and the University of Victoria. "My father says that camp is a party," Wilson said. "But this is not a camp. This is a training mission."

Spring break--usually a time to chill, a time to party. But for athletes, spring break means spring training. As Card said, "We'll have our party in May."

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