Today - Final Post of 2009

Best wishes, straight courses, fast boats, and smart training to all in 2010 from the Trinity Women's Rowing family to you and yours.

A look in the past...

An awesome banquet video presentation put together by Ed Slater -

Hartford Weather and Connecticut River Level Links added

I've added links to the Connecticut River levels measured at Hartford and to our weather system from Weather.com - they're also located in our links session down below on the right hand side. Hopefully this will make it easier to see what conditions we're anticipating every day.

I also want to recap the Joy of Sculling Conference as well as my coaching conference in Pennsylvania - lots to be learned. Can't wait to hear back from our accepted recruits! Best of luck to everyone who is in the midst of exams and feeling the crunch.

Coaching Conference

Just made it to a university in Pennsylvania for a very small coaching conference and had an easy drive through some very foggy weather. I'm looking forward to sharing some ideas and experiencing a little bit of a different university life.

I'll be heading to the Joy of Sculling Conference on Friday afternoon and that will run to Sunday - so I fully expect to be digesting a ton of new ideas and carefully evaluating if any of them can actually help our program.

Recruit Update & Sincere thanks...

I'm REALLY excited about our recruiting class for next year. We were lucky that the applicants we had in the ED1 round were accomplished academically and I think it bodes really well for next year. I especially want to thank our current team members who have been so giving of their time with hosting recruits. Now that our attention turns to ED2 and regular decision we're hoping to knock the ball out of the park and create a really phenomenal class for next year. I think it also reflects well on our development coach and recruiting coordinator Melissa Schomers who is doing an excellent job of staying in contact with our prospects and getting to know them well.

On another really heart-warming note, the team sent my family a really beautiful fruit basket from Edible Arrangements...My parents, rest of the family, and I were blown away by the thoughtfulness and generosity. I'll thank you when I get back to campus but it won't be really enough to match how much I appreciate what you did. The visitation was this evening and there must have been close to 175 people who came to lend their support and pay their respects. Tomorrow we'll have the funeral and I feel honored to be one of the pall bearers for Uncle Chris. Have a great night everyone...

250 Posts!

A quick thank you to all of you who are continuing to follow my sporadic blog posts...This thank you is the 251st posting and I'm happy to keep on firing thoughts into cyberspace. On another side note, I broke my toe yesterday and that may hinder my squash game and oly lifting regimen significantly. Ergometer, elliptical, and upper body lifting here I come!

A Few Seconds of Panic

Just blasted through a book by Stephan Fatsis entitled A Few Seconds of Panic that describes his time as a 43 year old writer turned NFL kicker for the Denver Broncos. I loved how he was able to weave the back stories of his teammates into the overall rhythm of training camp and the overall picture of the NFL as a business and as a way of life for the players, coaches, staff, and owners.

He turned to a number of different experts to try and learn how to kick a football including kick specialists, strength and conditioning experts, and sports psychologists. Of course, he also leaned heavily on the generosity of the other kickers and punters in camp and they were amazingly generous with their time.

I like to think that our team is improving on a daily basis because of that exact type of willingness to learn new skills, to take risks in training, and to be able to share our collective knowledge to achieve a greater result. No doubt we can be even better at it as time goes on and we reaffirm our common goals, get used to the idea of being willing to make and accept criticism, and really study the way successful boat movers approach the sport.

The other striking aspect of the book was how, unlike rowing at Trinity, players were absolutely at odds with management and felt very used and misled about their futures and their status and role on the team. Obviously the pressures on an NFL team are incredible but I really hope that our rowers have a good idea about what their strengths and weaknesses are, how to improve upon them, and ultimately know that their contribution to our team is critical from the novice level all the way to the our varsity eight.

Letter to Recruits and Thank You

First off, I wanted to thank the many recruits, friends, and current rowers who emailed with sympathy for my family...It's much appreciated and really startling to hear how many people have had a similar experience with cancer in their families.

Secondly, I was going through my desk at home in Toronto and came across a lot of the correspondence from my own recruiting experience in 1998 (dating myself exactly!) There were some really fun letters and some very generic ones...The best ones were obviously after I had been accepted and my freshman coach was trying to get the recruits connected with each other before we arrived on campus. So much of it sounds the same as we send to our recruits over the summer but I wanted to share some of it NOW because it's way too long before I'll get a chance to write one of these to our recruits. We'll be having an admissions meeting on Wednesday to support our ED1 recruits and are trying hard to schedule visits for those who we want to support in the ED2 round.

Here is some text from the letter...

To the Class of 2002,

Congratulations on a successful senior year both on and off the water. I know that your summer plans are starting to take shape and I hope that also means you'll stay in shape! I have enclosed a list of phone numbers and addresses for the incoming recruits in the Class of '02 and I wanted to give you a way to contact one another should you feel the urge to get to know each other a little more. I have sent a copy to our Varsity Captain Guillem who is also eager to get to know you before you set foot on Old Campus....It's most important that you arrive on campus fresh and ready to become a Yale oarsman but please don't get me wrong, this does not mean you should see how good a job you can do at becoming a couch potato - You will be spending time rowing with the Varsity during September and October and I don't want you wheezing in Guillem's ear when you row behind him and you've only just finished the warm-up.

I can't tell you how excited I was to receive this letter and reading it again now it's odd to think that facebook didn't exist and email was far less prevalent (so much less so that email addresses weren't included in the mailing!) Most incoming freshmen to competitive college programs do train on specific programs because they want to contribute immediately. The one thing that may not have changed though is that I was pretty darn intimidated by the thought of getting to know the varsity BEFORE I was even on campus and unsure of what to say to the other recruits if I was bold enough to call them. Could I really say "Hi, I'm going to be your teammate next year and I really want to win...I hope you're a good boat mover!"

***Note*** My freshman coach was Mike Irwin who went on to coach the Yale freshman heavyweights and varsity lightweights at U Penn and who is now the Program Director at Essex Rowing Club. By pure coincidence Mike was also a Trinity grad from the Class of 1991 who coached at Trinity after graduation.

Deepest Commitment

Drove back to Toronto early on Saturday morning as I found out that my uncle was facing his last moments in a battle with cancer. He slipped away into peace early this afternoon and I know that he is no longer in pain and can finally rest.

The way families and friends rally together in those moments is something that fully amazes and astounds me...and I'm convinced that true love and the deepest commitment are shown by those who stay with you to the very end - One of the most telling comments amongst his family who had gathered and were trying to make sense of what had just happened was that the loss of a loved one is so much harder when that loved one was so well-liked, respected, and trustworthy...even to the end he was still thinking of my aunt and how she would cope without him. It just means that we'll miss him even more.

So who is going to be with you when you're in your toughest spots? Who is going to be the rock when things are most challenging? Please tell those around you that you care about them now because every moment is precious.

Back on board...

Finally ready to start writing again with lots of updates about how our fall season finished up, alumni rowing updates, recruiting progress, ideas about training, and videos of our team that can help give you an idea about what it's like to be a part of our team. I'll start with a photo from our Head of the Riverfront Alumni 8+

Haven't yet decided if I'm going to put my competitive energy towards personal fitness training or towards playing squash at a higher competitive level. I was called out by a gentlemen who I played squash with last spring so that's kind of spurring me in that direction...

Trinity Wins the Charles

Starting #19 in a field of 29 the Collegiate Women's Four had an excellent start and continued pushing through the field to take a 25+ second victory. Our eight entry races today in rainy and blustery conditions - congratulations to all of the competitors from yesterday and best of luck to those of you who are racing in youth events today!

In other notable results, Trinity alums Peter and Tom Graves (Peter is our current men's assistant coach) won the Championship 2X event besting the current World Champions from Germany, while the men's collegiate 4+ qualified for next year's regatta finishing 10th. Bryna McConarty and Christine Collins (Olympic medalist in 2000) also competed in the Championship Women's 2X event and finished 13th in a strong and very well-represented international field.

I rowed in the new alumni eight event for Blue Cheese Boat Club (Yale Lightweight alums) and finished 11th also qualifying our entry for next year. Great stuff!

Heading to the Charles

Leaving with the trailer for the Head of the Charles shortly - we'll have two boats entered - a collegiate women's four on Saturday and a collegiate women's eight on Sunday. What an awesome opportunity to be a part of a huge event!

Getting to Know our Athletes

Great interview with one of our senior rowers Deede Dixon.
Check it out!

What a week!

We had a solid week of practice that included some rowing in eights, fours, and quads with some intense post-row activities. We've had three weeks of preparation and I'm happy with the way that the team is beginning to come together and how our walk-on athletes are progressing. Now, as we prepare for the Head of the Riverfront, we have the chance to go "live" with our competition.

Our men's and women's soccer teams, field hockey squad, and football team all went at it with Bates this Saturday and emerged victorious...Great stuff to see success in the entire department over a good league rival. Expectations are high and we'll train as close to our capacity as possible.

NCAA declaration

I'm sure that many of you have read about the changes to the NCAA Division I championships that were posted on Row2k today. The addition of automatic qualifiers and the elimination of individual awards for the top finishers in the each category were the main changes. It's obvious that rowing is trying to become comparable to other "team" sports in the NCAA and yet almost everybody connected with rowing that is not the case.

I am hoping that the language that our sport's leaders are using to make changes to our championship format reverts to an ATHLETE-CENTERED discussion and not about an NCAA-centered discussion. If there are three separate "events" in the Division I championship, varsity eight, second varsity eight, and varsity four then the winners of those events should be recognized. Winning a race at the NCAAs should be rewarded the same way that our junior, masters, and national team athletes are across the board.

Automatic qualifiers...that's another story.

Do It Day Video

Fantastic first Saturday as a team together working in Pope Park - one of the major parks in Hartford located a few blocks from Trinity's campus. Pope Park has undergone a tremendous renaissance in the past four years and is now a well-used and busy recreational area for many Hartford-area residences. It has a community recreational center, swimming pool, baseball diamond, soccer field, and playground and is used by families, groups, and others. The park has been reclaimed from grass land and is important for the continued improvement in the area.

Convocation 2009 Video...

A quick video of the beginning of Convocation 2009. Freshmen begin moving in and registering between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM and move into their dorms. We, like many programs across the nation, bring a rowing shell on campus and encourage as many people to try a new sport as possible. Convocation marks the opening of the academic year and is a chance for the new class to be addressed by the President of the College, the Dean of Faculty, and the student body President. It's easily one of the top three gatherings of the year for the faculty and students.

Convocation Video

I thought I would take a little video of convocation just to give our prospective students an image of what it's like to meet as a freshman class underneath the Elm trees of the Long Walk. Once I get it processed and downloaded I'll put it up online.

Blogging from Freshmen Move-In Day

One of the best days of the year! Freshmen move on to Trinity's campus for the first time and begin their collegiate careers. There are people looking to make their mark, experience new things, follow their dreams, and spread their wings.

The best part for me is meeting the families of our recruits again and seeing how proud they are of their daughters and the hope that they'll continue to grow and develop as people throughout college.

And yes, even freshmen can be embarrassed by their parents as we've heard a few of those comments already! I'll write a little more after convocation...

Back in the Office

A whirlwind summer indeed - Cherry Hill NJ, Henley-on-Thames, Worcester MA, Toronto ONT, the Hamptons (for a day), Bulldog Rowing Camp, Northeast Rowing Camp in Maine...and finally back home to Hartford.

We've got an incredibly busy next three days to finalize our preparations for the freshmen moving into campus - I'm going to try and get some pictures of matriculation and our recruiting efforts for all to see. Stay tuned!

The Rain in Maine Falls Mostly on Everyone

Okay...that's probably not quite what Henry Higgins would have said but it has been very interesting weather wise...Very hot and humid...then windy and dark...and then a ton of rain. Three out of the four rows were productive today and we focused a lot on establishing ourselves on the recovery in a strong and ready position and in the afternoon we added in some front end connection work. The physicality of these athletes is impressive and I think there are bright rowing futures ahead for them.

I'll be doing a talk this evening focusing on relaxation and race hypnosis. Should be interesting to see their reaction in a different venue.

Blogging from Northeast

Arrived in Raymond Maine a couple of hours ago and am getting settled in for the Northeast Rowing Camp run by Bill Miller. It's the 21st year of the camp and I feel lucky to be included as part of the coaching staff. The exposure to lots of different coaching styles will be fun and educational and a good way to lead into the beginning of our Trinity season. I'll try and keep the updates flowing as the week progresses.

Finishing up in the Office

Finishing up a long day in the office with a lot of different things that happened. Five really great recruiting calls yesterday evening and today and I'm optimistic that this class will shape up well. The weight room project is continuing and the specialized equipment looks awesome. Most likely a much better use of space for the whole College.

I'm also really excited by the prospect of our new development coach and recruiting coordinator Melissa Schomers from the University of Iowa. Melissa came highly recommended and I believe will do a fantastic job of teaching the fundamentals of rowing, a passion for the sport, and help forge great relationships with our future rowers. More about Melissa later on...

In the mean time...the new academic year is fast approaching...Are you prepared?

Weight Room/Exercise Room updates

I wanted to keep you all updated on how the exercise room and weight room are being updated. Nearly 45 new pieces of aerobic equipment are being moved into the existing weight room along with some new weight racks - I claimed the existing lifting platforms for usage at the boathouse.

The old exercise room has a brand new floor and almost all of the existing weight racks are being moved into that area. In addition to being air conditioned there will be 12 ergs on slides along the mirrored back wall.

What does this mean? It means we'll have to do an excellent job of managing our space, making use of the 3rd floor of the boathouse as a training site, and keeping the tanks as an excellent work area. We gain the use of an improved general cardio facility and improved weight area but please don't mistake the intensity of an elliptical machine compared with an ergometer.

Adaptability!

Getting Down to Business

These are the days you have to really enjoy - where there's no pressing engagement but rather a little openness and flexibility to work ahead and make some headway. Hopefully I'll have a workout that I can write about later but needless to say I'm really looking forward to seeing our athletes return invigorated and ready to learn. Being super fit helps a lot as well...

Swagger

I love following sports and seeing fantastic competition that requires talent, dedication, intelligence, and execution. We're in the thick of baseball season and I've heard a number of well-known and respected sports radio hosts and actual managers of baseball teams talk about the "swagger" that their athletes exhibit when they're winning. I heard manager Joe Torre of the Los Angeles Dodgers say, "we have to get our swagger back..."

Does this type of comment not bother anybody? As far as I know, there aren't any baseball "swagger" drills...there's better pitching, better health, hitting practice, visualization, scouting, situational baseball play, video analysis...But no "swagger" practice. Having swagger demands that you show excellence or are continually winning...I guess it would be fun to try the "winning drill" over and over again too.

I do know what they mean though - I'm not taking what they say literally but I wish they would actually talk about what they're going to try and do to help improve their team.

I believe that in order to become an excellent rowing team you have to be able to meet an excellent physical standard, demonstrate and understand the fundamentals of blade skill and body movement, and then have the courage and trust to execute this with your teammates. Once you have these things you'll deserve to have "swagger" and be able to attack the season.

Whether you have enough athletes that can meet the standard, are willing to go after it, or are willing to give it their real best shot to get there, is another question entirely.

Bulldog Rowing Camp Complete

The final week of Bulldog Rowing camp finished with a lot of rain but some very productive practices. I was working with a 2nd women's boat for the first half of the week and then combined with Coach Porter to run some practices for the top two even boats. The practices became very competitive, college-style, and efficient and I think it may have been slightly eye-opening for the coxswains but they did a tremendous job adjusting.

The main things we really worked on were front end leverage with the importance of bodies over, stabilizing the shell through good clearance off the water, connection to the water, and then as much aggression as possible. There were some stand out teaching moments based on situations we faced as a group.

Now it's back to the task at hand of hiring an assistant coach, closing on my home purchase tomorrow, and then finalizing plans for the upcoming season. Thanks for following!

Trinity Women's Rowing updates

It has been awesome hearing from so many of our own Trinity athletes who are feeling the lengthy summer already - the summer is really only half over but the preparations that people are making physically sound excellent. The picture is of the Trinity men and women who were competing at the US Club Nationals (not including some of the incoming freshmen). We'll be missing some very important juniors to study abroad programs but will have to adjust. As much as it's not comfortable or helpful for the team, I do recognize the value of a study abroad experience. However, the returning athletes have to understand that they have to hit the ground running on their return and be ready to contribute at a higher level then they left the previous May.

It's also been really encouraging hearing from our incoming freshmen athletes - there is some great sculling experience, height, and ability in the group and I'm looking for them to become a cohesive and motivated class.

Finally, I'll be interviewing an assistant coach candidate tomorrow afternoon and will try to keep everyone updated as I know more.

Week 2 - BRC Wednesday

The second full day of practice for the Bulldog Rowing Camp finished today and I realize this must be incredibly boring for readers of the blog and it really doesn't pertain to the Trinity Women's Rowing mission. However, it does help me organize my thoughts and provide a little bit of a record of what kind of rapid progress can happen in a camp environment.

This morning's practice we worked on some drive mechanics with the "Sass" and saw some of the campers really bite into the idea of driving the boat past their blades whereas others found it really challenging. We ended with some 45 second blasters against a younger boat and perhaps we felt a little too good about it. Right before the mid-afternoon lecture, Coach Tynan and I did some dead lifting, Turkish get-ups, side presses, and some KB push-ups. It felt great to lift...it has been simply a really long time since I've done it. Coach Card put up an excellent dead lift personal best.

The lecture was a repeat of last Friday's guided meditation and relaxation. Too many distracting noises to make it truly excellent but nevertheless I think everyone enjoyed it.

The afternoon session was more of a fun attempt at getting the athletes to feel acceleration by hanging on to the end of the boat and rowing by sixes. Very challenging but just a lot of fun...where else are you going to get a chance to do it?

Bulldog Rowing Camp Day 2 + Monday Check-In

Great day on the water in pretty rainy conditions - it promises to be rainy all week and right now we're in a very foggy bus on the way back to campus. Kids are very much asleep and are doing that continuous head roll...I guess they worked enough today.

I'm working with the second girls boat and this morning we did a demonstration illustrating the importance of achieving a strong bodies over position and attempting to produce a strong push off the foot stretcher. We met with mixed success but made great progress from the beginning of practice through to the end.

Completed a great workout with Coach Tynan - the Filthy Fifty and put up a solid time of 21:12. My burpees were of very poor quality and I could have made the jumping pull-ups harder. However, not feeling in great shape makes it harder to do each exercise better. Ironic I think.

Our second practice was legitimately excellent with some balance work, abbreviated slide rowing, and more emphasis on bodies over to allow the boat to keep running. Could be a challenging night in the dorms because of the rainy conditions but we'll make the best of it.

Week 1 Complete

The first week of Bulldog Rowing Camp finished yesterday and I have to say that the collection of campers made it really enjoyable. The racing went off smoothly with only a couple of epic crabs in the beginner boats but some very close racing in the boy's and girl's finals. It's always interesting to get a chance to speak to the parents about their son or daughter's potential in rowing, their work ethic, their enjoyment of the camp, and their behavior in the dorms. Getting a chance to know the athletes in a living environment is very different then just seeing them at practice - one can only act for so long before the true colors come out.

Now I'm back in Hartford blitzing through some work and especially recruiting - we're lining up our visits for the fall and getting in touch with as many qualified scholar-athletes as possible.

Bulldog Rowing Camp Day 5

Friday's sessions at the boathouse were a little bit of a mixed bag. The morning session with the girl's second boat was solid with some emphasis on the back end of the stroke to the top of the wall and then some all eight work back to the dock. The added sense of balance and boat run was good and it looked like they gained a little bit of confidence in being able to move out of bow together. We then rowed back to the 2000m start and rowed 5 boats across with the girl's first boat and three boy's boats for some 20 stroke pieces. I thought the athletes did a nice job of being competitive throughout the workout and were able to sneak away with one piece and then be right in the mix for the others.

For the Friday afternoon lecture I took the campers through a relaxation induction series that got them to focus and block out distractions, increase their body awareness, and then find a relaxed state of mindful rest. At worst the campers fall asleep and at best they feel totally engaged, refreshed, and energized. It was fun to get back into it and see the type of reaction the athletes had to a new experience.

The afternoon session was more difficult because of boat traffic and a mixed lineup of girls had a tough time racing against the other mixed lineup. It was bouncy enough that we never really got into a consistent rhythm and I think the campers were frustrated.

Bulldog Rowing Camp Day 4

Heading to Vespoli now for a tour of the factory after two quick rows this morning. I took a mixed girls boat and we did a lot of back end stabilization work and I was really excited to see their progress as they were able to balance the boat far more securely by the end and started to see some actual free run. With two novices in the boat I was pretty impressed by their concentration though I was staying on them consistently.

There has also been some discussion amongst the coaches about how to create an amazingly competitive team atmosphere and one that reflects a commitment to training to win. That's kind of tough to define and it probably evolves more quickly than we think.

Congratulations to the USRowing MIT Development Camp Trinty rowers...Mina and Deede were able to win their heats in the 2x and Mina won her heat in the intermediate 1X. Our commitment to sculling has to continue and I hope more and more athletes will get involved.

For full results from USRowing Club Nationals please click here

Bulldog Rowing Camp Day 3 recap

Rowed twice yesterday with the second girl's boat and a more advanced girl's boat in the afternoon. In the morning we continued to work on feeling good power and body preparation though it was challenging to continue to concentrate over the entire duration of the practice. In the afternoon we worked on feeling acceleration and some starts to feel great connection. All in all successful day!

Bulldog Rowing Camp Day 2

Two sessions today with beautiful weather on the Housatonic River. Worked on the fundamentals of how to sit on the seat to allow for good torso mobility and how to hold on to the handle in order to be able to hold your body weight on the handle. The first session was primarily rowing by sixes using hands away and bodies over pauses and primarily rowing legs only and legs and back with straight arms. The second session moved into all eight rowing one and two strokes at a time with full strokes letting the blades skim on the water. The coxswain steered an excellent course and the rowers did a great job of paying attention and supporting one another. Tomorrow's plan will be to try and gain a little bit of time on the slide and to enjoy the free run of the boat that the rowers earn through their efforts. We'll also try some problem solving games to get their minds tuned into the idea of improvement.

Bulldog Rowing Camp Check-In Day

Day 1 of Bulldog Rowing Camp Week #1 and there are over 30 campers staying in our dormitory for the week aiming to improve their fundamental grasp of boat moving. I'm planning on looking at the very basics with the two groups that I'll be coaching and trying to minimize 'scattered' effort and find a couple of clear focal points that the whole group can key in on quickly and effectively.

Fab Five Recent Movie List:

1. Gran Torino

2. The Skeleton Key

3. Wanted

4. Role Models

5. Footloose 1984 version

Congratulations Derek and Kristen

The day came and went and my brother married the love of his life, Kristen Wright on July 11, 2009. Fantastic stuff with family and friends from the Maritimes, Ontario, Washington State, Germany, England, and California gathered in Worcester, MA at St. George's Cathedral for the ceremony.

There's something so fascinating about how quickly time accelerates on a wedding day and how there are surges of anxiety, relative calm, excitement and emotion. Depending on how close you are to the event it's not unlike pre-race jitters or the pace of a championship regatta - though I don't mean to minimize or blow out of proportion either event because they're very different.

I felt simultaneously proud, excited, close-to-crying, and happy for them both which scarily enough is close to how I feel when I see a crew I've been working with exceed their previous performances, transcend themselves, or just battle incredibly courageously.

So to my brother and my new sister-in-law, here's to traveling a shared path of joy, experience, and change together.

Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding This Afternoon

In Worcester MA on a beautiful sunny morning (finally) where my brother will get married this afternoon. We had the rehearsal dinner last night overlooking Lake Quinsigamond and it was a wonderful opportunity to meet with the people who are really influential and special in Derek's life. One of his college friends remarked "That it was like having a window into other parts of Derek's life" and I couldn't agree more. Seeing so many of my relatives and close family friends from all over Canada is also simply incredible - my face hurts from smiling so much (what a great feeling). I'll hopefully have some pictures that I can post later on.

Ridiculous...or is it?

Sometimes to go MUCH faster you have to divest yourself of beliefs that limit what you think is actually possible. Check out this video and see if it changes what you think about gymnastic strength training. I remember my first strength training sessions in high school where it was a scary prospect to try and do 4 x 10 pull-ups. Phew!

Henley Day 8,9,10 and Trip Completed

We raced Friday midday against Henley RC - our plan had been to spend as little energy at the start but to keep our high strokes clean and crisp enough to hang with them. We had a good feeling that Henley would try and blast us immediately and we didn't want to fall into that trap (we simply don't start that well!) Coming out of the island we were very much in the game and were about 3/4 of a length down. I felt really good physically and the boat felt similarly stable to the platform we had when we started to walk back through Marlow RC on Thursday. However, I'm not sure if it was crosswind or a little dip one way or another but we ended up hitting the port side booms at the barrier and Henley walked away. It's an incredibly shocking feeling because you're moving quite rapidly, trying to think calmly, and you're in a great physical rhythm when you have to stop...something like pulling back in a golf swing, or checking your swing in baseball...it just feels wrong.

Either way, Henley moved out to a 4-5 length lead as we extracted ourselves from the booms and we raced hard to get back into it. The verdict was "easily" and supposedly that was a gift from the umpire who could have given us a "not rowed out" verdict but we raced hard enough to get back into it that we deserved a "racing decision".

Our coxswain, Dorothy, was pretty cut up about it but many of us were philosophical about the entire experience. Here are a few of my observations:

1. It's amazing that we could pull the trip off with people getting time off from work, leaving family behind, and training.

2. The amount of rapid progress was really exciting. A comment from another rower who helped us out during our training in the US was "the guys in the boat really knew what they wanted to feel and how to articulate it".

3. Being okay with trial and error...there were things that we tried initially that felt right technically but proved to be flat out slow, uncomfortable, or delivered very little speed bang for our effort buck. And yet, the crew was flexible enough to adapt quickly.

4. Rowing in a crew was really really fun and I think I had lost sight of that slightly - the shared sense of purpose, cooperation, and just those few moments when everyone realizes "Damn, that last piece felt really good!" were really special.

Friday evening and Saturday were all about taking in everything the regatta and the town had to offer. It went by very quickly and we saw a lot of courageous racing, proper and improper British behavior, and the continued excitement of the regatta.

Sunday came quickly and I was able to have a short visit with last year's host, Valerie Nicholson, who had some amazing wedding pictures of her daughter Kathryn and her husband Andrew and also watch the Princeton lightweights win the Temple and the Brown varsity win the Ladies Plate. The other two Yale crews saw their amazing runs end in the final when the women lost by 3 lengths to the GB senior team and the 4+ lost to the Isis Boat Club. All in all, I think we represented ourselves very well!

In the picture above are my good friend and former college roommate Steve Cheng who coxed for Cambridge (Goldie 04 hence the special blazer) and then the Canadian National Team, and Yannis Hodges, who is a former Yale assistant coach, coxswain at University of Rochester, and now an epidemiologist completing his PHD at Oxford. Henley was a great time for reunion as well as competition.

I'm going to be compiling a list of "best practices" on how to best run a trip to Henley because I think there are some really good ways to proceed that make the experience less stressful and really enjoyable. More lodgings, to air travel, to equipment procurement, to ground transport, and meals there are ways to bring a college team overseas that can make it excellent. Having great hosts certainly help and this year Minnie and David Wilson and Keith and Lyn Goodwin went above and beyond for us.

Monday was a day to begin catching up on email and laying out the process for the next four weeks. Big events in progress or coming up...

1. Signing a contract on a house in Hartford today.

2. My brother gets married this Saturday in Worcester, MA.

3. Bulldog Rowing Camp begins next Monday.

4. Recruiting, recruiting, and recruiting the Class of 2014.

What a great teammate

The crew had gotten together for a pizza dinner and I had bowed out to try and work through a mountain of emails and a housing negotiation...And they brought me a whole pizza! Unbelievable thoughtfulness - so thank you Joe Fahrendorf '06 (and CJRC alum).

Race Tomorrow

We'll be racing the Henley Rowing Club Thames Cup entry tomorrow - they defeated river-rival Upper Thames Rowing Club by 1/3 of a length today in a very fast race. We'll do our best to stay in the game as long as we can...good luck to all of you who are preparing for your own races in the US and Canada and to those of you who are training on their own.

Henley Day 6,7 and ready for the 8

I apologize for how frustrating it must be to click on this blog and see that it gets updated every three days during an event like Henley. Brutal...with such great websites like Row2K and the Henley Royal Regatta official page I'm thankful that you're reading this right now. A quick recap to bring you up to speed:

Tuesday - we rowed once in the morning versus Galway and rowed a Barrier piece with them where we lost by about a length. Again, equipment played a factor in that my rigger was making tremendous cracking noises and it distracted me to the point where our start and high strokes were clearly effected. After the business with Brunswick the day before we really didn't need this. Regardless we finished out the trip, checked over the boat, and did another trip continuing to work on good movement. Felt better and better...Tuesday night we did one more lap working on our race plan and by accident lined up next to the Brown Varsity crew (Ladies Plate entry) - they started first and then we did our start and ended up rowing steady state next to them down the course. I can just imagine how annoying we must have been sitting up 1/2 a length and rowing a couple of beats higher (but still making the boat feel good) all the way down the course. Best of luck to them as they start their campaign tomorrow against MIT.

Wednesday - we woke up early because our race time was 10:00 AM against Twickenham RC. It was simply a lot of fun to get anxious about racing again, to see other crews similarly prepared and ready to go, and then to put it on the line...okay limited preparation on the line. Starting on the Bucks station our high strokes were effective and then very quickly they drew back into us coming almost level. We were rowing 37 for the first 3 minutes of the race and finally touched 36 at Fawley and then began to creep out slowly. It was a slow extension of the lead to the line and while we maintained our speed and rating they dropped off a little more in the final 500. Fun note - we were the first US crew to race at the 2009 regatta!

So interesting to break down the race afterwards and hear the differences in opinion amongst the crew - it's good and perhaps even healthy that it happened. One, it means we were able to speak about and articulate what we felt and two, we felt confident, motivated, or angry enough to say something about it. Stern four felt pretty good about it and I may be generalizing but bow four felt like we were behind and having to overpull. We decided against a second row in the evening and had a quick bite at an italian restaurant near the Three Horseshoes. Travel note: Pasta Bolognese should not look like Chef Boyardee pasta from a can.

Thursday: We rowed even earlier meaning the stands were almost empty as we got to the line for our 9:30 AM race versus Marlow Rowing Club. Marlow had beaten Lea Rowing Club (containing a good high school friend of mine - Angus Laurie who was rowing in the 7 seat - the last time we had seen one another was at the 2005 regatta when I was coaching a Trinity Student 4+...Great to catch up with him!) Marlow had blitzed the start and were faster to the barrier and to Fawley than our times yesterday and that played out again...We were behind almost a length at the barrier and we started to relax into a more sustainable base at 36 and they stopped moving. I noticed their puddles looked the same size and stole a glance over and suddenly their coxswain was in view. Over the next two minutes we had draw level and then in the final two minutes of the race we moved a further 3/4 of a length...A rare come from behind victory! Bobby Kennedy, our two-seat and IRA Champion in 2005, pointed out that in 168 races run on Wednesday and Thursday only 3 crews had won after being behind at Fawley.

I'll have to write about how much damn fun it is to be rowing in a competent 8+ and being at Henley...the expectations, personalities, physiological concerns, and traditions have been really fascinating to note. It's also interesting to get to know some of the athletes that I had coached in 2003-2004 on a different level...

Other topics - Henley picnics, other Trinity alums racing at the regatta, US results, Leander's establishment, heat wave, classic board games, recruiting, and ideas for next fall.

Henley Day 3,4,5

Quick rundown as I've had sporadic internet access:

Saturday we raced at Reading and were placed in two events where we lost by one length each time to Kent School and WPI - frantic start and not a pushing base which created some challenges. Ended up making a rigging change and then rowing back in gorgeous weather through the locks. One of those rowing moments where you just say "I am so lucky to be here". Finally we had a wonderful dinner hosted by the Higgins family where we grilled out and had a blast.

Sunday we rowed twice in the afternoon - trying to improve our start and also find a better base speed - again good progress.

This morning we rowed a full distance 2000m piece with the Brunswick School piecing beside us to Fawley - on the third stroke of the start our seven man hit the stanchion with his blade and ended up getting knocked off his seat. We continued anyways and did a reasonable job. At least we have a good feel for the distance at rating. Will try and make it into London this evening for a show (Jersey Boys) and then back to Henley.

Tuesday we expect to piece against an Irish club crew from Galway over the Fawley distance. I hope we can have a cleaner start.

Henley Day 1 & 2

Finally got quick access to the internet and can post a couple of updates about what has been going on so far.

We arrived on time at Heathrow and navigated our way to Henley easily enough - after meeting our hosts, exchanging some money for GBP, and getting a bite to eat we found our rented boat (a beautiful Empacher) and spent the next hour rigging, checking pitches, adjusting shoes and oars, etc.

We rowed the course twice and then had a solid dinner at the Row Barge which is under new management - the busy times of the regatta will surely stress the kitchen (slept like the dead afterwards).

This morning we again rowed the course twice and predictably made a ton of improvement off a post-airplane row - now it's back to the course in about ten minutes for the row to Reading. It should be a good way to find some swing together and get a little bit more for what we are putting in...great to see so many familiar faces and get a chance to catch up about what has gone on in the last calendar year. Thinking back to it, exactly a year ago we broke an oar in the qualifier and were eliminated. It's still not pleasant to think about but it doesn't sting as much anymore (perhaps time does heal all wounds!)

Hartford to New Haven to JFK

Made good progress on work today and then somehow navigated through some potentially brutal traffic to pick up our stroke Dave Werner in New Haven and then on to JFK. The airport experience, a la Peter King has been very smooth and we were able to get through security with cox box in tow easily. Now it's a matter of taking care of those little things like letting your bank know about international travel and setting up a meeting time with our hosts.

Can't wait to visit some of the key points from last year's trip - the Row Barge, Rose and Crown, that special deli on the main street, and the gentlemen in the boat tents.

Henley Bound

I can't believe it has come so quickly but the Four Score and Four Boat Club eight is about ready to depart for England tomorrow night. We'll be flying through the night and arriving in Henley ready to rig, row, and meet our hosts Minnie and David Wilson and Keith and Lyn Goodwin. The Goodwins and Wilsons have hosted Trinity crews in 2005 and 2008 and hosted the Yale women for the Henley Women's Regatta. There needs to be a book written about Henley family hosts who have probably seen and heard some amazing stories of overseas crews and their deeds on the water and their exploits off the water.

Also, just saw Eli Roxby and John Graves at the boathouse picking up their pair in preparation for Nationals on Mercer Lake. They look lean and fit and apparently have the boat going incredibly well.

Also, found out that we have another athlete training with the South Jersey Rowing Club in preparation for Canadian Henley as well. Keep it going! I'll be trying hard to keep the blog updated from England.

NYAC Scrimmage

Heading down to the Travers Island Boathouse tomorrow to do a little work with the NYAC summer program before we head to England on Wednesday. Should be good racing with a fair amount of wind and rain. Solid practice today with good adjustments from piece 1 to piece 3.

Summer Rowing

More great news today about summer rowing plans - so far we have X athletes rowing for the Boston U23 Development Camp, X for Riverside's competitive program, X for NYAC, X for Penn AC, X for Hudson River Valley RA, and X number of other incoming freshmen who will be keeping their hands on the oars this summer. There's no better way to get better at rowing than rowing...And you can quote me on it!

FISA Rowing World Cup Series

You can watch FISA rowing online for the entire World Cup Series. More updates to come later today.

Reunion Row Recap

Fantastic reunion row this morning with representatives from the Class of '64 all the way to '04.  Two eights on the water for almost 5000m of rowing on a picturesque day on the river. Hearing the stories of past races, victories, near-victories, and adventures as a team are what I, as a coach, am hoping our current athletes will remember. Everyone looked successful, healthy, and had loving families in tow!

I also took a little video of the dock getting used for the DEP so we can make some progress with our dock replacement project.

Last four personal workouts: 

10' blocks and some short intervals on the ergometer mixed with 40 minutes of spin biking

75 minutes in a heavy training single working on some low rating power x 2 and then some lactate production work last night and steady state on the slide ergs. 

NCAA Post #6 Saturday May 30

Phew! What a season...3rd place as a team and a bronze medal in the varsity eight. It's a fifth straight team trophy for Trinity and the third straight medal in the varsity eight (2007 silver, 2008 gold, 2009 bronze). I'll have more time to break down the results and process the strengths, weaknesses, and prospects for this current team and what we'll need to improve upon.

A wonderful dinner at Maggiano's with our whole parent group...goodbyes and thanks that don't quite match what you're feeling inside.

New captains for next year - Ellie Wierzbowski and Stephanie Apstein. 

NCAA Post #5 Saturday May 30

The morning of the finals...emails rolling in from well-wishers (both alumni and friends alike), rowers making their final mental preparations, coxswains rehearsing their plans, coaches anxiously trying to find something to do, and really isn't the excitement and anticipation what it is all about? Yes, it's definitely a big part of what we prepare to do but what I truly enjoy about the NCAAs are actually the weeks of preparation leading up to it. Eating at Ogilby, having time to run thorough practices, the students are generally relaxed and having fun with the work, and the promise of the event is near. Little things like the NCAA gear (in the picture above you can see the NCAA gift this year - iPod Shuffles!), travel together for more than a night, practicing in uniform, and being surrounded by incredible athletes creates a powerful atmosphere. We're very lucky that our team has committed to finding a way to the NCAA Championships for the past seven seasons. To all of the incoming recruits, prospective recruits, alumni, friends, and families we hope we'll make you proud by laying it all on the line in a few short hours.

Fast boats...

NCAA Post #4 Friday May 29

The heat results are in the books and can be found here. Our second varsity rowed a good piece to finish third in their heat and qualify for the grand qualifier. Last year's 2V was nipped out at the line and rowed in the petite qualifier so this was a nice push from this year's crew. The varsity racing in the third heat were facing a really serious test from Ithaca and Williams' second varsity and rowed a good first 1000 to qualify directly for the Grand Final.

How things play out from here are anybody's guess...Many thanks to all of the parents who traveled to support the squad. To our incoming recruits and rowers training at home - I can't wait for all of you to earn the chance to experience this type of racing.

Weather update

Weather.com is predicting a very slight cross wind from the east at 3 mph with showers. Please do come prepared!

NCAA Post #3 Thursday May 28

Full day at the Camden course today with a practice this morning, boat weigh-ins, compounding the hull, and then the coaches and administrator meeting at the hotel (followed by our Division III coaches meetings). 

Definite highlight of the day was the championship banquet held at the Crowne Plaza with a keynote address by Leslie Gudel, a Philadelphia-area sportscaster. Pretty amazing that her rowing experience 20 years ago still rings true to so many of the athletes from today. Pretty amazing too that the Crowne Plaza was able to process, I mean feed that number of athletes in only 75 minutes. Efficiency rules!

NCAA gifts this year - iPod Shuffles! Big round of applause to whomever made that decision. The jury is out on whether they are superior to the Nike sunglasses from last year though.

Racing begins tomorrow at 8:15 AM for our II eight racing in the 2nd heat and at 8:30 AM for our I eight racing in the 3rd heat. Winner goes to the grand final directly, second and third place to the grand qualifiers, and the remaining crews to the petite qualifier.

Let's get it on!

NCAA Post #2 Wednesday May 27

I realize how lame it was to post a picture of traffic for my first post from the NCAAs. So i'll give you this new picture that pretty much speaks for itself.

NCAA Post #1 Wednesday May 27

NCAA training in Hartford is finished and the athletes depart campus at 8:30 AM this morning...a quick rig, investigation of what the NCAA layout has to offer, and then a row to shake out the wrinkles from the bus ride through New York.

Uneventful trailer drive yesterday with only about a 30 minute delay getting across the Cross Bronx.

Have to track down a little more boat weight and complete some other little errands before the athletes arrive.

Also, great NBA game last night between the Cavaliers and Magic - can't really see the Cavaliers coming back when every time the game gets close the plan becomes "Pass to Lebron and watch...or set a weak screen...or maybe I'll rebound".

The Penguins are on to the Stanley Cup Finals for the 2nd year in a row! What an incredible accomplishment but certainly they want to rectify the situation from last year.

7 in a Row

We're in! Heading to the NCAA Championships for the 7th year in a row. Details to follow!

Not the way we wanted it...

Well as many of you may know the regatta was cancelled yesterday at 4:00 PM after the conditions continued to deteriorate...This is actually the 3rd time in 6 years that the regatta has been cancelled or severely shortened. I feel especially badly for all of the men's crews whose final regattas never happened because of mother nature. 

For our team, we're now anxiously going to await the NCAA Division III selection announcement that will happen via live webcast on Tuesday at 3 PM - you can find that link here.

In the mean time, we'll unload the trailer this afternoon and then start implementing our plan to help find more speed. I'll break down my impressions of the 1V, 2V, and 3V performances from the ECAC later on.

Windy Cooper

We've been battling 20 mph tailwind conditions all day and racing has currently been suIspended until 4 PM. Our varsity 8 rowed this morning at 7 AM in and rowed to an absolute dead heat with the University of New Hampshire for 2nd/3rd about 2 seconds back of Williams. The semifinal race was rowed relatively cleanly. Our women's 3V raced well in the conditions and earned a spot in the final - the women's 2V were upset by Smith in their qualifying heat and were relegated to the petite final.

The most recent update has racing suspended until 4 PM and all petite finals, 3rd levels, and 4th levels are cancelled. I'll try keeping updates flowing but the number of scheduling changes is making it pretty challenging.

On to the Semifinals

We're heading to the 1st semifinal tomorrow morning for an early 7 AM race. We raced a solid piece in the heat to qualify for the semifinal setting up a matchup between Williams, St.Lawrence, UNH, Simmons, and Wellesley for three spots in the Grand Final. Tomorrow our 2V and 3V will get a chance to go for their best performances to date...now we're off to a team banquet with parents and friends right at the hotel.

Cooper River Park - 2:34 AM - Races "heating" up

The wind is starting to blow down the course at the start and eventually turning into a crosswind at the finish line that is creating a little bit of chop. Coxswains have weighed in at this point and the athletes should arrive shortly for our pre-row and race warmup. 

There is talk of changing the women's varsity semifinal time to 7:00 AM tomorrow on the basis of forecasted wind. It should get up to 20 mph by 10:30 AM or so and that could make delays very likely.

Can't wait to get it started!

Cooper River Park - 8:27 AM Saturday dawns

Athletes arrived last night around 4:30 and were on the water at 5:00 PM - I thought it was pretty excellent efficiency and we were able to get our work done on the course and give the athletes a good chance to adjust. Immediately following we showered, changed and headed to a wonderful dinner at Tracey Suter's home in Haddonfield...What an amazing neighborhood and great food!

Coach Jaugstetter from Tulane University is bringing his athletes over in about 10 minutes to borrow our M2 'Bob Benjamin ' 71 - they'll be racing our heat this afternoon. The shell won the NCAA Division III varsity title in 2005 so it definitely can be rowed at top speed. Still have to get the parent tent supplies set up and we'll do that as soon as we get the grill down.

Our athletes arrive at 8:45 AM and there is a coxswain's meeting at 9:00 AM.

Weather for the area can be found here. 

Trailering down to the ECAC

I'm beginning our coverage of the ECACs with a post from the trailer - Coach MacDermott and I are driving down and are just about to get on to I-95S on our way to Camden, NJ - the athletes will follow this afternoon and paddle on the course this evening.

I'll keep updating as we move forward.

NERC Aftermath - Trinity Sprints Back!

The New England Championships are in the books and it was a pretty amazing day all the way around. Trinity entered eight eights and one four and were grand finalists in every event. 

Our athletes were able to improve upon or hold  our seeding in every event which is usually a mark of a successful regatta especially as we transition from two and three boat racing to six lane racing.  Our 3V battled to a 4th place finish and held their seed, while the 2V improved from 6th to 4th with a final that, while okay, may not be a true reflection of their ability. 

The 1V came into the regatta ranked 3rd and rowed an excellent heat in the fastest time of the day. In the final, they weren't quite able to put all of the pieces together but staged a terrific sprint that resulted in a thrilling 3rd place finish. After a reasonable start, the eight was in contact with the leaders but gave up a fair amount in the middle 1000 leaving a lot of work to do in the final quarter. Finding a little more in the last 500 than they have had all season the crew charged back to within 0.4 seconds and closed the gap on two crews who have been clearly ahead since the fall season. The bronze medal was a good start to our championship racing season.

We race at the ECAC Championships this upcoming weekend in Camden NJ - most of the same crews from New Englands with the New York schools added in...should be excellent racing! Thanks for following.

1:26 - NERC

All heats are finished and EVERY Trinity crew has made the final - the men's 2F, 1F, 2V, and 1V made the final with the 3V going directly to the grand final. The women's 1V, 2V, and 3V also made the final. The 1V rowed a good piece with plenty of room for improvement and now we continue the waiting game until the afternoon finals.

Oh yes, and a Life Saver Medical helicopter just took off from the UMass Memorial Hospital.

12:04 - NERC

We're waiting for the 1V to come down in their heat - and many races are in the books right now. The 3V established an early lead against Wellesley in their heat and qualified for the afternoon grand final. The 2V women had a fantastic heat and turned the tables on Holy Cross who were leading at the 1000m mark. Eventually the Bantams moved ahead by nearly 3 seconds at the finish and are now poised for a good grand final and will battle for a medal.

The men's 1F and men's 2V won by a very healthy amount of open water - and the 2F finished 2nd in the 1F event.

We're still just searching for improvement as time goes on...

10:29 - NERC

Our 3V is about ready to launch and are completing their final preparations. Conditions look fast so far as the novice eights have gone down in pretty quick times.

The men's 2V4 was in a barn burner of a race and came in 2nd with less than 1.5 seconds separating the top three crews. They qualify for the afternoon grand final.

More to come.

8:51 - NERC

Sun is finally out and a cross tailwind is increasing across the course - the fours races are currently going and the parking lot is filling up with crews rigging their eights.

8:02 Saturday Morning - New England Championships

As the NCAA committee has decreed that Twitter is not an acceptable means of communication for any collegiate program I'm going to be trying to keep people updated "twitter" style on the blog today.

Attended the coxswain meeting - Gary Caldwell said something fantastic to the assembled coxswains and coaches about the volunteerism of the referees and regatta organizers who are making a difference.

The men's 2V 4+ is warming by the trailer and the Jones' family have taken over the tent - pancakes and other breakfast goodies are already being produced.

Bus expected to arrive in about thirty minutes.

Cool article...Perhaps we should believe the hype!

Interesting article here - check it out!

Thursday Practice Complete

Pretty excellent stuff today in my books - we were blessed with great weather and flat water and I believe we took advantage of it. I think that our practice skills are improving and we're beginning to apply some of the lessons of the past four weeks. Something I'm continuing to learn as a coach is that those lessons may have to be learned and relearned year after year and those growing pains may be the most important to go through. Experiencing the full range of capability in the boat may be important for our long-term development. 

Finally, I'd like to rant a little bit about internet access and cell phone service - does anybody else feel like they're getting completely gouged when it comes to wireless access? A friend of mine mentioned that for a family plan of 3 phones, one with mobile internet and the others equipped to text that they were paying close to $170 a month. At $2040 per year it just seems like an awful lot of money...and now that we're well past that Malcolm Gladwell-esque Tipping Point of numbers of cell phones you can't really function in the digital age without one. 

I'm also pretty upset with the blocking of wireless internet access - I think that's a huge thing that is blocking potential economic growth and the sharing of ideas...yes, there are risks and probably unintended consequences, and this may drive a luddite crazy, but I think there should be basic high-speed internet access across the country that is truly affordable. 

The view from the beach at Lake Quinsigamond...what are you going to see?

Video Fun From Today's Practice

I thought I would post a really inspiring video from today's post-practice interview session - if you can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at really? I'm not sure who will ask me to take down the video first...the interviewer, the interviewee, or the sidekick in the video...we'll have to see! 

Excellent water today with a small 5-10 mph E wind - efficient getting on and off the water and it was excellent to have two more VIP day recruits on the water with us again. We were able to identify two more rowing focal points that essentially force the members of the crew to focus on the correct movement. I'm not quite sure how hard everyone was really pulling but I was pleased to see improvement in our body movements.

Tomorrow's practice should be quite telling to see if we can raise our game again. 

Another foray into Video...Apple-style

Here's a quick video of a boathouse sunset from a couple of days ago - also we've had such a good time meeting with some of our VIP accepted students and are really excited about their commitments to Trinity! I'm very excited by their personalities, rowing skill, and physical talent.

A big week of preparation and we're continuing to work on some concepts that started helping us last week along with examining body posture as a way to improve efficiency. More later!

Falling Moon Sun Rising

Friday morning row complete and the trailer is loaded for our first foray to Lake Quinsigamond - home of the QRA and the New England Championships this year. I took this picture this morning about 6:20 AM and the moon was still out and looked incredible. It was fantastic to see the moon and the sun rise all in the span of twenty minutes!

I believe that we've prepared better this week with regards to structure, change, and focus. I really hope that the athletes are starting to recognize that their physical talents can both help and hurt the boat even if their focus is just the smallest bit different. I guess it really does come down to trust in your teammates that you're all replicating the stroke pattern as closely as you can.

Saturday we race Mt.Holyoke, Smith, Clark University, and Holy Cross - it should be a fantastic test for our squad because of the depth of the teams we'll be racing.

Trinity Rowing Boathouse Team Store

There is learning...and then LEARNING

Fascinating day on the water with multiple crews working side by side and head-style. The interchangeability of the athletes is good to see and it also indicates that to be exceptional you truly have to exceed the sum of the parts. That was demonstrated on a number of occasions today and I know that we'll respond in a way that furthers our preparations. I was very impressed with our coxswains today who did a wonderful job avoiding the debris floating down the Connecticut. It's not easy rowing on a river that is at nearly 60,000 cubic feet of water per second but the athletes and coxswains are handling it well.

Amazing!

It has been a really incredible couple of days as our regular decision recruits are emailing, calling, and getting in contact about their acceptances to the College - the excitement is really palpable and I think we'll have some tremendous potential and youth added to our program. As matriculation cards are sent back I can begin to write about the new members of our team for next year.

Also, an excellent practice today with a good mixture of technical and physical rowing (they should always be mixed in my mind...) - I think I can continue to do an even better job of defining the precise elements of the stroke cycle that will unlock some of the "easy speed" that we haven't yet found. The physicality of our rowers makes it a little bit more challenging to find a collective impulse because both the negative and positive aspects of each rower's contribution to boat speed is magnified. What a wonderful puzzle...

Trailer Departure

Trailer loaded and ready to depart...We'll see you in Philadelphia and Princeton.

Keep the streak alive

Wanted to fire off a quick blog post "twitter" style - leaving the boathouse now after fixing our tent and putting the team through their paces. We needed a course correction in terms of what is important to the group and I think it played out in both of our varsity boats having improved practices. Loading tomorrow morning and then heading down to Princeton to drop off the boats for the men's team and then heading to Philadelphia and the Murphy Cup.

More from the road tomorrow!

Interesting Meeting This Afternoon

Had a great discussion this afternoon over lunch (Subway...does anyone else notice how pungent the smell of the "fresh" bread is?) with our faculty liaisons and senior faculty members and coaches. The topics ranged from how we can better educate and involve the faculty in the mission at Trinity to create excellence, to recruiting, to real forums where faculty and coaches can interact and share ideas. Essentially, it seems that many faculty are envious of the relationships we are able to generate with our recruits and current athletes - whereas we know almost as much about the incoming class as admissions many professors will enter a class in September and have no background information whatsoever about their class roster. What kind of campus community could we have if there were personal expectations of excellence in the academic and athletic realm before setting foot on campus. It's one thing to expect to earn good grades or produce excellent work (those two are not necessarily the same beast) because of your own personal drive and initiative or parental expectations and quite another for your teacher or coach to want to help you reach your potential (or exceed what you think may be your potential).

Just one way...

Solid practice into another blowing headwind...solid work portion of the practice that surprised everyone I think followed by an aggressive post-row exercise that showed a ton of progress again. One of the men's rowers commented on how it was easily "the loudest post-row of all time"...that can't be too bad right? It made me think about what, as a team, we choose to value and how we can continue to emphasize the things that are important to us day in and day out while maintaining the flexibility to respond to needed situations. Very much looking forward to Philadelphia to see what we are doing well and what we need to work on compared to our competition. Racing is only four days away now!

Also, there's a part of the movie City Slickers with Billy Crystal and Jack Palance where they discuss the meaning of life...and how it's just one thing...does anybody else remember that scene?

This is more like it

Ahh...true New England rowing conditions...20 mph headwinds, white caps, ice forming in the tracks and on the oarlocks, rowers attacking the work with gusto. I love it!

This is what I had expected for spring training and instead we had southern Georgia conditions on the Connecticut River. Either way, the work was sharp and intense today and I think we made good progress in continuing to develop our practice habits.

If you look closely in the picture above you can see our two crews battling side by side doing starts.

Spring Training Complete

The athletes have a well-deserved Saturday afternoon and Sunday off before we return to practice on Monday...with the intent to make our boats even faster in preparation for the Murphy Cup next Saturday. The skill level across the board has been improved and we'll have to see if we can match that with our physicality over the distance. It certainly hasn't hurt us to have 7 of the 8 days be virtually glass water to make discoveries, improvements, and to improve our practice skills. Special thanks to all those who helped make the week fun and enjoyable and hope that we can keep the enthusiasm running high as we continue our search for speed.

Spring Training Finishing Up

3/20/09 - We're finishing up spring training here in New England's Rising Star and we've been blessed with excellent weather. We've explored a lot of different lineups in the search for speed and have made some good breakthroughs...Technically we're continuing to work on how to find easy speed and flow while being comfortable in the shell. Needless to say, the boats look farther along then they did at this time last year and that's encouraging.

I'll try and post some videos and pictures from the previous month in the next bit. Looking forward to keeping you all better updated as we prepare for the Murphy Cup in Philadelphia next Saturday.

Super Bowl Champs - Steelers Six Pack

Passion for the game - passion for competition. The game itself was fairly anticlimactic apart from a few huge plays - why was there such a concentration of big plays in the final quarter? Was it two teams learning about each other's tendencies? The law of big numbers leading towards a certain percentage of success? Fatigue? Or some form of chaos theory?

All I can think of is that when the game was in doubt, fans of both teams were taken on a tremendous roller coaster ride. It's hard to put into words that feeling of wanting a result but having absolutely no impact on the outcome...well actually, it's kind of like watching a rowing race as a coach and knowing that the result is totally in the hands, hearts, and minds of the athletes. Even as I write this it brings me back to that excitement of watching our athletes perform...I wish we could race tomorrow!

Down to Two: Heading to the Super Bowl

Pretty darn excited right now to see the Steelers come out and play the Ravens extremely hard and come out on top. But even more excited that our student-athletes return to campus tomorrow to restart our drive towards boat speed in the spring.

I thought the Steelers played within themselves and didn't execute cleanly in all aspects of the game...(Limas Sweed's drop, Mitch Berger's shanked punt, silly penalties). I thought that the Steelers showed a lot of confidence in their defense and that allowed the offense to play well within themselves and not be forced to take risks against a pretty damn impressive Ravens defense.

How do you measure momentum in sports? Is there any way to harness that and make it work to your favor even when you're down?

So my prediction was a little off...Steelers 23 - Ravens 14 setting up a Super Bowl matchup in Tampa with the Arizona Cardinals. It's not a great matchup on paper and the only really interesting aspect of it is probably that Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm (both former Steelers coaches under Bill Cowher) were both leading candidates for the Steelers head coaching position won by Mike Tomlin.

Here's a quick prayer to Willis McGahee and his family - he was taken off the field on a stretcher after an open-field hit.

Hartford Wolf Pack Hockey

Just got back from the Hartford Wolf Pack versus Providence Bruins hockey game at the XL Center - also enjoyed a great dinner at the Spris Restaurant in Constitution Plaza. It's funny that it takes some effort to get out to do things but that the entertainment options in Hartford are pretty fantastic.

I said that I would write about our women's basketball team that had gone undefeated up until their game versus Babson. It would have been easy for me to talk about their disappointment or change in intensity immediately following but I was waiting to see how their next game versus Conn College was...and they came out firing and earned their first NESCAC victory. Perhaps the lesson has to be that you can't identify what the lessons of a loss will be until you see your team apply what they've learned in the next competition.

Steelers tomorrow evening - prediction - Steelers 24 - Ravens 13