By Oscar Mcconnell
5:30 AM: The dreaded alarm goes off, you struggle out of bed and grab your school bags as your poor parents prepare to endure yet another morning drive. You slowly begin to wake up as you get some breakfast in – with my personal favourite being peanut butter, honey and banana on toast.
Last Year’s 2nd VIII on January Camp
6:30 AM: You arrive at the gym, seeing some of your closest mates; and prepare for 90 minutes of “pumping iron” under the watchful eyes, and motivational words, of the gym coaches. The session is usually the same – a series of compound lifts including bench press, squats and deadlifts (the strongest boys usually squat 150kg and bench 105kg for upwards of 4 repetitions). These sessions are seminal to building the strength and mass needed to move the boat quickly and form a key part of training through the pre-season and season. During these sessions we are powered by a playlist that is able to change from AC/DC to Dom Dolla and then to Elton John at seemingly impossible speeds (thanks to the coxes for that). To finish off gym sessions we usually do a final, agonising trunk workout that makes 85 seconds seem longer than a period 6 on Friday. After this we all race to the locker rooms – desperate to be first in line for the 4 showers.
Current 1st VIII on Tasmania Camp
8:30 AM – 3:20 PM: The school day is about the same as for any other kid, except that you spent a lot more time trying to shovel as much food as possible down your throat and your eyes feel a bit heavier in those long math and English lessons.
Current 1st VIII racing at NSW State Championships
3:20 PM – 6:00 PM: This is the most important time of the day – when we get to actually get on the water and do what we train to do: row boats with our mates. We either row in single
sculls, which includes racing each other up and down the Parramatta River while precariously avoiding crashes with each other (crashes which almost always seem to include me), or we row the eight – the fastest and most fun boat. These sessions include pieces ranging from 250 metres to 16 minutes, technical focused drills and skills as well as race preparation work. Since racing is ultimately done in an eight this is what makes up the vast majority of our training and thus you get very, very used to sitting in the eight for prolonged periods of time – with camp including up to 3 sessions daily. An extremely important role in these sessions is that of the coxswain, who is responsible for avoiding ferries, pylons, walls and a whole host of other objects – which while it may seem easy enough becomes far harder at 5 AM in the morning in a moving boat with limited visibility.
6:00 PM – 9:30 PM: Once you finish the session it’s time to head home, eat as much of your parents cooking as possible, studying as much as possible (or little as you can get away with), relax a bit then head to bed for another day.
Senior 8’s and the 1st and 2nd 4 on the annual Tasmania Camp bushwalk