Indianapolis Rowing Center - Junior Practice Plan

Juniors Practice Plan

All rowers in their first year of rowing, practices weekdays Monday thru Friday at the Eagle Creek Boathouse. Novices are welcome to join Saturday practices with the varsity if they would like but this is not required.

4:00 - 4:30	Practice preparation. Official practice doesn't start until 4:15, but rowers are expected to be ready to start at that time. It is advised to arrive early if possible to change into practice clothes and to help prepare for practice by taking oars down to the docks and setting up launches. This is also a great time to socialize with teammates before the practice session begins.
4:30 - 4:45	Dynamic Warmup. We will continue with a full team (varsity and novice) dynamic warmup each day at practice.
4:45 - 4:50	Pre-practice boat meeting. The coaches like to set lineups and go over the practice each day. This meeting helps assure that everybody understands what will be happening at practice. It also helps keep dock congestion down by allowing the varsity boats to launch and get out of the way.
4:50 - 6:10	On the water. Boats will be on the water for slightly over an hour. We will be scheduling groups back for recovery in order to avoid the long waits we have had in the past for dock space.
6:10 - 6:30	Boat meeting and put-away. The rowers will meet with their coaches to go over what occurred during practice. Rowers will be expected to put away any equipment that they used during practice and to help break down launches if required.

Varsity Practice Plan

The varsity will be broken down into two groups of rowers based on their plan. There will be two different practice plans, each with slightly different objectives. Each rower will be primarily responsible for selecting the practice plan that they wish to follow, however, frequent jumping back and forth from one plan to the next will not be allowed.

Red Plan: The red plan follows the strategy that we have been using for the past several years. After dynamic warmups boats will be launched and practice time on the water will be maximized. Rowers following this plan will maximize their technical instruction but will miss some strength and fitness training that will be included in the alternative (black) plan. Rowers wishing to maintain maximum levels of strength and fitness will be required to pursue additional conditioning activities outside normal practice time.

Black Plan: This plan sacrifices a little bit of time on the water each day and increases the fitness activity of each practice. At each practice a 20 minute dry land training exercise will be inserted into practice. Typically this will be a steady-state erg session but it may also include core circuits and cross training.

We will be holding Saturday practices this fall season for varsity. Details of the Saturday practice are still TBD. Expect both a fitness and a technical component at these practices for both plans.

Red Plan

4:00 - 4:15	Practice preparation
4:15 - 4:25	Dynamic warmup
4:25 - 5:55	On the water
5:55 - 6:15	Boat meeting and put-away
6:15 - 6:35	Optional fitness session

Black Plan

4:00 - 4:15	Practice preparation
4:15 - 4:25	Dynamic warmup
4:25 - 4:45	Fitness session
4:45 - 6:00	On the water
6:00 - 6:15	Boat meeting and put-away
6:15 - 6:35	Optional fitness session

Attendance Policy

Attendance is critical for all rowers in order for them to develop the individual technique and fitness to be an accomplished rower. It is also important that rowers are able to row together to develop the synchronization that is so critical to successful rowing. However, we realize that for many of our team members, rowing is but one of numerous activities and commitments. In the past, attendance has not been closely tracked and missing practice has not had a significant impact. This has led to a great deal of confusion about what attendance expectations are. We are adopting a very simple policy this year and will evaluate it at the end of the year.

All rowers should strive to attend 90% of all practices if at all possible.
Excused absence from practice will not count against you when determining your attendance and will be granted on a case-by-case basis. We will be publishing guidelines for what constitutes an excused absence prior to the call out meeting. We will also communicate the process for getting an absence excused. Saturday practice is required for varsity.
When granting an excused absence, coaches may require an additional fitness workout to be completed.
Rowers whose attendance level is not above 80% will not be boated at regattas. In this past this has be a very loosely followed guideline. This year we will be adhering to it very explicitly. You must meet the 80% requirement to row.
Rowers who are using participation in rowing for physical education credit at their high school must meet the 80% attendance requirement and may only miss one regatta in a season in order to have the coaching staff sign off on their participation. When high schools have explicit guidelines for participation that differ from this requirement, the high school guidelines will be followed.
With the exception of those rowers wishing to compete for seats in 1v4, 2-, 2x and 1x entries, attendance will not be used as a factor in determining boating (provided the 80% requirement is met). Coaches will evaluate the performance of an athlete using many inputs when determining boat assignments.
For rowers wishing to be compete in 1v4, 2-, 2x and 1x boats the attendance requirement will be 90%. Additionally, rowers wishing to participate in any of these boats must complete one fitness session during each practice. This can be accomplished by following the black plan or by following the red plan and sticking around for the optional fitness session.
Varsity rowers that attend late releasing high schools should plan on following the black plan. Rowers that are not ready to go on the water by 4:45 will be required to practice on the ergs for the day. Late arriving varsity athletes that wish to remain eligible for the 1v4, 2-, 2x and 1x events must stick around for the optional fitness session daily.

Indianapolis Rowing Center, PO Box 53223, Indianapolis, IN 46253

Juniors Practice Plan

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