Time Trial Tactics

Hey guys, let's discuss what worked, what didn't work, what you wish you could have done, etc to help others out for next time! Treat this as a learning experience to help yourself and others for the next TT. I feel like some people didn't know what to expect or what methods they should employ. Let's put our heads together and figure out what the good, the bad, and the ugly were.

What worked for me:
Okay, I did some pretty long strokes. I also tried to sit up at the end of my strokes to get that extra pull at the end, but kinda failed doing that, haha. Got too amped and forgot.
On left side, I pretty much did the same thing, but got more tired.
But anyways, I feel that when the boat is heavy like that, you either do short strokes and muscle through it, or do super long strokes to get the most out of each pull. As I'm not a very big guy (don't call me fat! D=) I felt long strokes would be best.

What didn't work:
I had paul count every second, thinking that I needed it to settle. What happened was that I was going slower than his counting, so that was a moot action, lol
FOOTING!! I spent like the first 10-20 seconds of my right side TT fixing my footing and flipflop... I had it on the first notch, moved it to the second, flipped my flipflop and in the end, ended up going back to the place where I started. I would recommend not trying to fix footing once you begin.
Left side, ENDURANCE. Man, it felt hella bad. especially my top arm from doing right side, lol.

What I wish I could have done:
POWERS AND A FINISH, okay, I didnt really do any powers or a finish on right side. I thought I would be able to call them out myself, but I dont work like that. I needed someone to call them for me, but I didn't have that. I really wish I coulda have added powers and a finish to my TT as it might have increased my distance.
On left, I kinda did like a 8 stroke finish or something, but I was way too tired by then for it to matter.

Anyways, how about you guys? What did you guys think? Any questions on strategy for next TT(whenever that may be, lolllll)? Discuss!

So for me, I felt that I had a very fast rate and didn't settle any. With the rate I had, I started feeling tired after the 30 second mark and was burned out by the 60 second mark. For the remaining 30 seconds, I felt that I barely pulled any water.
Having people call powers and a finish might have helped my distance too :/
Also for my attempt at a finish I tried doing half strokes, did not work AT ALL

For the next TT I will definitely request having someone yell in my ear for the powers and finish.

I tried to focus on burying my blade as much as possible as well as snapping back on my recovery. How well I actually did that will be seen in my video. I also rated up in the last 15 or 20 seconds to try and get a finish in, but I'm not sure how well that went. The whole piece I felt like I wasn't moving at all. But I did move so I guess I did something right.
On a side night I was reaching so far that I hit my head on the gunnel at least 2 times. :O

I feel like if I was stronger I would've done better. Yeah. I just said it. Yup so goal for next time, get much stronger.

wow, that's some impressive reach! :O i tried to focus on burying and getting it forward. hopefully i actually did. i did a start, settled, one power ten, and did a 10-stroke finish (i think). i realize now that i should have done more powers, and probably a faster rate. i was afraid that i wasn't strong enough to sustain a high rate, so i chose a slow rate. as a result, i wasn't all too tired at the end, and that made me kinda mad.

and always, MORE DRYLANDS. i didn't do anything at all this week cuz i had a minor injury...and a paper due, lol.

I thought that I did well for the first half of the TT piece but I increased my rate far too much for the finish and I switched to the lean-stroke which didn't help in moving the boat. I should have focused on a slower rate+more rotation for the finish and stronger strokes for the TT. I will also aim to reach as far as Paul

Fred said that the boat didn't go anywhere on my last 15 seconds, which was when I switched to the finish stroke. In the beginning I felt my rate was a bit too high and I started slowing down about halfway through, which was when it felt really heavy. To me, the best strategy would be to keep your strokes nice and long at a rate that you can sustain for 90 seconds.

For my TT, I focused mostly on my strength, trying to get those high numbers that a lot of people expected from me. As a result, I paid very little to no attention to my technique, as my video shows. Next time, I will (try to) focus mostly on my technique instead of power and see where that brings me.

I critiqued myself a lot on my own video because I know I did soo many things wrong.

One of the biggest things that I lacked was strength, but I chose a slow rate. I wasn't ready for TT (mentally) and if I was more prepared, I would have made up my strength deficiency with a faster rate. I also realized that my stroke was not at it's full potential and it was reaaally shortened out...so short stroke + slow rate = not a lot of distance.

I also didn't choose to have a finish, so my rate was the same throughout the entire tt. Next time, if I were to fix, def should change up the rate.

Also need to concentrate on my own technique: huge body drop, slight fare, slight chicken wing, and to lengthen my stroke (I think I started shortening it when I was tired). Yeps.

I think we should do a better job on organizing dock masters and the boat order. Jamie and I had to switch pretty much every boat so the dead weights could be on every boat that they needed to be. I think we should have three shifts of dock masters instead of two also. Getting through 12 boats was a lot. I was so busy rushing around getting boats organized that my own trial caught me by surprised and I pretty much just jumped into the boat not mentally prepared and I know it had a huge impact on my performance.

I did a 5 10 start in my head and for a "finish" I tried to increase my rate during the last 20 seconds. Next time I definitely want someone to call out the start, maybe one power, and a finish for me. I think I respond better to people yelling at me.

I think the best thing we can take away from this TT is all the videos that were taken. Now I know that I still have my chicken wing and could have a better reach. I'm looking forward to my coach feedback.

Lol so Fred said the first thing I did after my time trial was smile. Lol, oops. I guess I will try to be serious and try moar next time =X