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Thursday, 0600 - Holodeck 3: Rowing practice

Posted July 14, 2020, 8:12 p.m. by Captain Amelia Manning (Former Executive Officer) (Joana Ribeiro)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Renveer (Counselor) in Thursday, 0600 - Holodeck 3: Rowing practice

Posted by Commander Amelia Manning (Executive Officer (aCO)) in Thursday, 0600 - Holodeck 3: Rowing practice (tag Renveer)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Renveer (Counselor) in Thursday, 0600 - Holodeck 3: Rowing practice (tag Renveer)
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Ever since she had left the Counselor’s office earlier that week, Amelia had been excited about introducing the newest member of the Dresden’s crew to her favorite sport. That was why she had been at the Holodeck’s doors thirty minutes later, making some last minute adjustments to her regular program.

Sporting a pair of black leggings, black flip flops, and a dark blue tank top with the words ‘Oxford University’ in white letters printed in the front, Amelia finished tweaking her own programming at 0550. Clearly she had gotten there too early. Laying against the bulkhead beside the doors, she took a small sip from the water bottle she had brought with her and waited.

Cmdr. Manning, XO

Renveer arrived almost exactly at 0600, which seemed to be cutting it a little close for someone accustomed to keeping appointments. As he rounded the bend in the corridor, Renveer quickly turned his head to the side and did his best to stifle a yawn before Amelia noticed him. He was dressed in a fitted purple t-shirt and standard black cloth workout shorts. A backpack sat on his shoulders over a thin grey sweatshirt. The counselor’s hair was a little less well-kept than it had been in his office, and his body language, likewise, was more casual.

“Good morning, Amelia,” Renveer said with a warm smile. “I watched a couple vids on rowing to get myself acquainted, but I didn’t think the, uh… typical spandex leotard men seem to wear would be very flattering on me. I hope it’s alright if I’m not perfectly aerodynamic.” He chuckled lightly to himself, which turned into another swallowed yawn.

(Lt. Comm. Renveer, Counselor)

Amelia’s face lit up in a smile when Renveer rounded the corner. “Good morning, Commander. I hope I didn’t rob you too much of your sleep.” She chuckled. “By the way, I don’t think I have ever asked… how to you prefer me to address you? I… I am not sure what Trill customs are… is Renveer okay? Mr. Renveer? Ren?” Manning smirked with the latter. It was clear that she was running and revving to go.

Renveer chuckled. “You’re free to call me whatever you like. Renveer is perfectly fine. I don’t think I’ve ever known someone who habitually called me ‘Ren’… but there’s a first time for everything, I suppose.” He smiled sheepishly, apparently not having a strong feeling about one moniker or another.

A hearty laugh escaped Amelia’s lips at the spandex remark. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t expect you to wear them. As you can see, I don’t wear them either. Aerodynamics won’t be a problem, trust me.” She smiled. “Now, first things first. Have you eaten? As a medical professional I would assume you are familiar with the damage that practicing any kind of sport without the right fuel can make. So, if you haven’t I would encourage you to replicate something small and energetic, like an energy bar.” Manning turned to the keypad next to the door and pressed a few buttons. “I am also hoping you didn’t have a full three course meal for breakfast, or you’ll be throwing up in the river in no time. I can tell you from personal experience that that’s not something you’ll want to go through.”

“I appreiciate the concern,” Renveer said with a grin, “but yes, I have. I think it was of a reasonable size, but then again I guess I haven’t ever eaten with the intention of rowing afterwards so this’ll be a trial run.” The counselor’s face drained a little bit at the mention of vomiting, hoping that he hadn’t gotten himself in over his head. He gulped subconsciously, thinking ‘I hope she knew I wasn’t joking when I said she should go easy on me’. Renveer was in shape, but his exercise was usually on the… less intense side.

With a final tap, the holodeck’s doors slid open, revealing a wide river surrounded by green grass and trees. It was a peaceful scene. The sun was rising in the east and the light was the gold shade of an early summer morning. The birds chirped happily and the flat waters moved lazily with the soft breeze. There was a wooden pontoon and in the distance an old stone bridge crossed the river.

Kicking herself mentally for forgetting her jacket in her quarters, Manning walked through the holodeck doors, gesturing for Renveer to follow her inside. As the doors closed behind them, they faded into another door, this time giving access to a concrete building.

“This is it!” Amelia said with a smile. “I thought about taking you to my old boathouse in Oxford, but I decided it was more appropriate to invite you into my own private rowing facilities.” She chuckled. “This is the simulation I use. I tweaked it this morning so that we could have a rowing tank inside the boathouse. I thought we could start there, as forcing you into the water unprepared is not something that should be done.”

“In case you’re curious though, this is my own upgraded version of the rowing facilities at Oxford University. For as many good times as I spent there, I wanted my own private river that reminded me enough of one of my favorite places, but was not exactly like it. I have actually been thinking of changing my program to randomly generate the river and landscape every time I use it, but that will be a side project for another time.”

Manning was quite a talkative person, and even more so when outside her working hours. It was clear she took great pride in her program and she was happy to finally be showing it to another member of the crew. It was also very clear that she was used to get up early in the morning. Not to mention, her enthusiasm caused her already thick British accent to become even more pronounced.

“I’m sorry…” It finally dawned on Amelia that her constant blabbering might be seen as rude. “… I can go on about it for hours.” She gave the Counselor an apologetic smile. “Have you ever rowed at all? Even if in those little wooden boats that you can find in certain lakes?”

Cmdr. Manning, XO

Renveer stood with his hands on his hips, looking around and taking in the scenery. He nodded along as she talked, enjoying the chipper attitude. Amelia’s enthusiasm was waking him up and getting him ready to dive in. “I’ve never been to Oxford, so this might not mean much, but I like what you’ve done with the place! And no need to apologize.” He shrugged his backpack off his shoulders and pulled out his water bottle, taking a swig.

“Thank you!” Amelia’s face lit up with a grin. It was clear that she was ecstatic that Renveer found the place agreeable.

“Well…” he said with a nervous laugh, “I mean I’ve used the rowing machines in the gym every once in a while, if that counts. But other than that, no…” Renveer stretched his arms casually as he considered. “I appreciate that you’re giving me the full training experience, but I wouldn’t want to take up your time using a rowing tank if that means you wouldn’t be able to get your workout in. I’m sure I’ll be fine out in the river.” Renveer wasn’t completely sure that he believed that, but he was also maybe a little too excited to do the ‘real’ thing.

(Lt. Comm. Renveer, Counselor)

Bump

OOC: Just a note that I will get to this tomorrow. I’m really sorry! It’s past 2am over here and I really want to give this a good reply. :) – Joana

“Trust me. You won’t. But don’t worry, you’ll get on the water today.” She smiled as she pulled the door open and motioned for the Counselor to enter. Leading inside there was a corridor, with plain white walls. Nothing fancy. There were a few pictures of rowing teams and their boats on the walls, and at the end of the corridor a particularly old looking set of wooden shelves was filled with dusty trophies that looked at least as old as the shelving itself. There were two doors, one to the left, and one to the right.

“It’s a good thing that you used the ergs in the gym.” The word escaped her lips naturally, as if Amelia didn’t realize that the name ‘ergometer’ was not usually used outside of the rowing community, and therefore, Renveer might not be aware of what it meant. “It tells me that at least you know the whole movement. However, there are a lot of misconceptions about the rowing stroke, especially by non-rowers.” She had said the whole sentence in one breath. Moving ahead of the Counselor, she opened the door to the left and motioned for him to get in once again. “Did you know that if you don’t know how to place your back correctly when you finish the stroke you can actually damage your spine pretty severely?” Manning was visibly excited that she could discuss her favorite sport with someone and at this point she was so enthralled in her own words that she didn’t even seem to notice whether her company was actively listening.

Renveer was definitely listening and nodded like he knew that, but his face drained of color at the reminder. Renveer was starting to get the impression that he might have underestimated the intensity of Amelia’s hobby.

Inside, there was what seemed to be a pool cut in half by a small dry ‘corridor’ that ran right through the middle of the water effectively spilling the pool into two smaller pools. There, eight standard sliding seats — the kind usually present in rowing boats — were displayed in the same manner they would be in an actual shell. They were lined directly behind each other, and two oars were attached to the walls on both sides of each seat and dropped into the water. In other words, it was a glorified concrete rowing shell inside of a pool. Mirrors lined up the walls of the room, presumably so that whoever was using the tank could see themselves rowing.

Walking right through the seats, stepping over each of them, Manning crossed the room before placing her bottle next to the first seat and turning back to Renveer. “Something I wish I had been told before I started rowing was that rowing on water is not the same as rowing on a tank, or on an erg. Nothing can mimic exactly the way oars behave in the water. However, some tanks, like this one, move the water at the press of a button, or well… a computer command, in order to mimic the water passing by when a rowing boat is moving. It’s still not the same, but it’s close. Now…” She sat down backwards on the first seat and motioned for the seat behind hers. “Rest assured, you’re not taking my training time away. I row for fun, not for the workout. That’s just a bonus. I come here this early in the morning because that was my schedule in college, and I got used to rowing with the rising sun.” She smiled apologetically. “Do you know the basics of the rowing stroke, or do you need a refresher?”

Cmdr. Manning, XO

Renveer set down his pack at the edge of the pool and shrugged off his sweatshirt, then gingerly mirrored Amelia’s movements to climb over the seats one by one until he reached the chair behind hers. He plopped down and looked about to take in his surroundings and take stock of the setup. Remembering Ameila’s prior comment, Renveer gave a little nervous laugh. “Maybe you better refresh my memory, just in case.” The counselor was obviously a bit less relaxed than he had been a moment prior when they had entered the holo-deck, but showed no indication of wanting to back out.

(Lt. Comm. Renveer)

Amelia smiled. “Alright then. Just repeat what I do, and let’s go from there.” Turning around on her seat, she sat facing forward, away from Renveer. It was now evident why there were mirrors running parallel to the setup across the walls. Both officers, sat one behind the other, could not only see their posture in them as they could also see the other people practicing with them.

Renveer would notice that right in front of each sliding seat there was a pair of straps that were meant to hold one’s feet in place. Expertly, Amelia slid her seat forward and slid her feet into the straps with her flip flops on, tightening them up before grabbing the handles of the oars beside her and sliding her seat back to its original position, stretching her legs completely.

Never letting the oars go, Manning turned to face the Counselor’s reflection in the mirror. “So first, I will need you to place your feet on the straps, just like you would do in an erg, shoes on and everything. Then, I will need you to grab your oars and slide back as far as you can comfortably go without forcing your feet out of place. If you’ve used an erg before, I’m sure you’ll find this quite familiar.” The smile in her face was warm. It was clear that she was enjoying passing on her knowledge on her favorite sport. “Now, in order to have a solid grip on your oars, you’ll need to grab them like this.” She waved her right hand on her oar before continuing. “Four fingers go around the grip. Not the palm. Thumb resting on the end of the oar, like this.” She moved her right thumb in order to show it. “Now, when you pull the oars back towards your stomach, your left hand always goes on top. Never the other way around. Everything good so far?”

Cmdr. Manning, XO

OOC: I realize some of these are quite hard to describe, and since I don’t know how much is widely known about rowing, I just thought I’d leave these here as references: rowing tank, and slide – Joana

OOC: Apologies for the delay, and thank you for the references! :)

Renveer breathed a sigh of relief from his nose as he listened to Amelia explain the technique. Indeed, it did sound very similar to the rowing machine… erg, as she called it. Renveer followed her motions for the straps and then positioning his hands on the oar. His brow creased in thought as Amelia mentioned that the left hand always goes on top, an indicator that he had the urge to ask why.

But at her question, Renveer flashed her a quick smile in the mirror. “All good, captain.” His feeble attempt at humor, which had never been his strong suit. But, he was feeling more comfortable now that he was in the seat. Amelia made it sound pretty self-explanatory. Renveer rolled his shoulder to loosen them, ready for the next step.

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, Counselor)

Amelia laughed at the joke. I was clear that she was cheerful. Usually quite a social being, Manning was not someone to hide the emotions she was feeling, choosing instead to display them loud enough for everyone to see.

“So, I don’t know how you learnt to use the erg, or how you were taught the basic movement of a stroke, but if it was done correctly, you probably have heard this already. It’s always good to repeat it though.” Her eye contact was always kept through the reflection in the mirror.

“A rowing stroke consists of four parts: the finish, the recovery, the catch, and the drive. The finish being kind of where we are now… legs stretched, hands holding your oars just under the chest.” Amelia moved slightly to exemplify the position. “The recovery being the full movement to the front, the catch being when the body is as further forward as the slide allows and the oar catches the water, and finally, the recovery being the movement that brings us back into the finish.” She smiled at Renveer as she finished her explanation. She had said most of it excitedly in one go. “Please feel free to stop me at any time if there’s something that I am going over too fast…”

“Now, onto the anatomy of the stroke itself. Let’s start by the Finish.” Manning chuckled softly at how weird the sentence sounded. “Again, you have probably heard this already. From here…” Once again she exemplified the Finish position “… again, legs stretched, hands under the chest, and most importantly, back tilted back slightly…” She eyed the mirror to check on the Counselor’s posture “… the first movement is simply to stretch your arms horizontally in front of you, leaving your back tilted slightly backwards still. Try to move your arms forward while leaving your back unmoved. Like this.” And once again, Amelia moved to demonstrate what she had just said.”

Cmdr. Manning, XO

OOC: No worries! And again, yet another reference. :P – Joana

Renveer followed along in a jerky fashion one step behind Amelia as she explained the process, doing his best to keep up. He shook his head when she asked if she was going too fast, feeling like he was understanding for the most part. Except for the names of the positions… finish, recovery.... he couldn’t think of the others before Amelia moved on to talking about the anatomy of the stroke.

Renveer’s posture in the finish position wasn’t perfect, but it looked like he understood the gist. The counselor again found himself relieved that it was pretty similar to using an erg, and was also a little relieved that he had been doing that motion correctly in the gym. At Amelia’s instructions, Renveer slowly extended his arms from the finish position and held his back straight, although he found himself drawn up vertically and corrected it as he saw it in the mirror. He smiled apologetically. “I might not be able to do this motion as fluidly as you at the start here, but I’m sure I’ll get it.”

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, Counselor)

“I was new to the sport too once.” Amelia smiled warmly. “You’re doing fine. I would risk saying you are probably doing better than I did when I started!” She chuckled.

“Now, from here…” She continued. “… this is when you will start moving forwards. First your back, like this.” Manning said as she moved her back from being slightly at an angle to them being completely straight. Her arms never moving. “And when your back is completely vertical, you use your legs to slide forward, always keeping your torso in the same position.” She wend back again to exemplify from the start. “So, arms…” She extended her arms. “… back…” She placed her back vertically “… and legs.” And she slowly slid forward, her knees bending. “And you want to stop when you can’t move further while keeping your back straight. If your hips are not lined up with your back, you have slid too much.”

Through the mirror, Amelia shot Renveer an apologetic smile. “Are you sure I am not going too fast?”

Cmdr. Manning, XO


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