At least we learned something...

I never relish the thought of a tour to East London. I keep saying I will never go back, but I end up spending my Valentine's Day every year under the massive bridge on the side of a rainy Buffalo River watching crews fight against that notorious headwind.

For a long time in January I struggled to come to terms with why we were going on tour so close to Champs... results at the Buffalo and Selbourne Sprint Regattas were never any indication of how well a crew would do two weeks later at the Nationals - in 2006, my Holy Rosary 1st quad came 4th in East London (the worst result of that season) and we ended up a close second at Champs. So in my mind, the only thing that could be gained from the bastard regatta that robbed me of my Valentine's plans every year was a blow to the mentality of the girls in my crews, since if we do well, it's no indication of our performance at Champs, and if we do not perform, the girls will read ito it too much and be dispondant going into the final two weeks of the season. I was to be proven wrong... We had a cracker of a weekend, winning the sprint regatta and cementing our place in the leading pack in every event over the 2000m course.

The one thing that impressed me about the weekend and the way the girls raced, was the maturity they seemed to have developed over the past few weeks. I'm sure Anne and Dave are to thank for this... before the first session they had with the girls Dave mentioned that I shouldn't expect a change in the girls right away, that the metamorphosis would take time and that like newly planted seeds, the mental excercises and concepts would grow inside their minds as they applied it to their racing and training. Every athlete that came off the water on the weekend seemed to beginning to see their perfromances from an objective side - not reading too much into a dissapointing result and keeping a clear head after a victory (I had told them that results at buffalo didn't usually carry through to Champs).

All in all it was a good tour - the girls had fun and were able to get some bonding time in with the other members of the club and within the age-group. There were a few head-butting incidents with the umpires and regatta-organisers (they're the real reason I say theat I won't go back every year... but that tirade's best left for another time), but I had fun and we definately got something out of it all - I say this even though it all could have gone the other way.

It's becoming a yearly tradition for me to say this, and with luck I'll be able to actually stick to my promise next year, but I don't think I want to return to East London again... I just hope the girls took leasons about their racing and the opposition away from this weekend rather than results.