Trinity Women's Rowing

Henley Day 8

2011-06-30T13:11:00.012-04:00

Hard to believe that we've only been rowing together a week - have packed in the sessions and am pretty proud of getting the boat to where it is now. But it's pretty obvious that physically we're undersized and likely undertrained to make a big impact.
Listed to Yale come through FIT on regatta radio and went to the enclosure for a very short amount of time then back to St. Andrews for sleep and chill out time.

Warmed up similarly to yesterday and was very prepared for a tough race. We were ahead at the island and the Barrier by 2 seats and then a weed patch, wake, and bobble hit us and we lost our rhythm...felt short again and maybe too high but that's likely because Combined Services was pouring the pressure on. They pulled to about a full length up and we made a good push where I still felt like we had the chance to take it (4-5 seat move)...I'm not sure we ever made a decisive strike but they ended up winning by a length.

We were pretty disappointed afterwards but very thankful for the opportunity - not sure what to think really other than that we probably earned our result...The equation of practice, age, fitness, and weight probably didn't help us and perhaps it was hubris to think that we could make it to Friday again with 7 days of rowing together. Questions we'll have to answer later on I suppose.

More to come later.

Henley Day 7

2011-06-29T13:01:00.020-04:00

Wednesday June 29 - The beginning of the regatta is always pretty special as the course, grounds, and enclosures look immaculate - the wear and tear of so many rowers and spectators hasn't accumulated and the excitement is palpable. Even though there are very few close races on Wednesday the nerves for everyone are pretty apparent as steering, breakage, and boat stopping crabs can take an excellent crew out on the very first day. Enjoyed the Stewards Enclosure from the stands and after lunch headed back to St. Andrews Road...had a quick nap, foam rolled for a good twenty minutes, stretched out, and arrived at 4:00 PM for the 6:30 PM race (maybe too much time). Warmed up on the C2 Dynamic as I had been doing on all of the other days and the machine is growing on me...Good feedback from the body but I wish there was better monitor feedback for what is happening during the stroke.

Had a pretty good warm up though we were interrupted by some massive barges (not surprising) and eventually lined up against Thames 'C' on the Berks station while Four Score and Four RC was on the Bucks station. We had a solid start that worked well but had a hard time finding a base that worked...again we were a little short. We ended up winning by 1 and 3/4 lengths but it hadn't felt truly easy and we weren't able to cruise. Nevertheless a win at Henley is pretty sweet and we enjoyed it with some Thai food afterwards.

Very clear from times and margins that tomorrow was going to be very tough...Combined Services RC (a combination of British Navy, Royal Air Force, and Army men with prior rowing experience at UL and Leander) at 6:00 PM - right after the tea break.

Henley Day 6

2011-06-28T12:58:00.009-04:00

Tuesday June 28th - the day before racing. Two practices again...one at 10:30 and another at 6:30 PM. The boat felt a little better and we were able to avoid a lot of the traffic on the course - did some inside arm, start work, and 18-22 spm steady state. Made progress but in retrospect we probably could have demanded more ratio from one another...would it have made a lot of difference? Who knows but much better to try and not leave it as an unknown variable. Our 2nd lap felt better and our final trip in the evening was better still. Despite not a lot of time in the boat we were able to take some short bursts that felt legitimately long and quick. Scheduled to race at 6:30 PM tomorrow evening - one of the last races of the day!

Henley Day 5

2011-06-27T12:57:00.000-04:00

Monday June 27th - rowed at 12:30 PM to give ourselves a less busy time on the course and to get a little more recovery. Went at it pretty hard and did 2 x the Henley Distance (2112 meters) at full rating with no start. Rowed pretty conservative times (slow!) into a pretty strong headwind but did get used to rowing base rating a little more. The ratings were high and also felt high but the second piece felt a little longer as we were able to let the boat do more of the work for us. Tough!

Came back in the evening for 1 session and the wind was still blowing hard. We were able to do some shifts, 5, 7 & 7s and some saw better improvements on the speed coach. Ended the evening playing hearts as the sun went down...Pretty sweet day all the way around.

First opponent on Wednesday was "Thames 'C' who qualified the previous Friday.

Henley Day 4

2011-06-26T12:46:00.014-04:00

Woke up and the general feeling amongst the crew was that we were a little beat up from the volume of rowing in the previous three days. Also tried to come up with some ideas about how the boat could feel pretty solid, reasonably balanced, and we were rowing a competitive rating but still be SO slow in the first 40" but then be okay at base. Conditioning and strength was something we obviously couldn't change but our line up and the physics of the shell were something we could alter. Rowed at 10 AM and did only 2 trips...worked on some flying starts, did some other speed work and thankfully Colin was able to watch us and give us a few tips about staying long in the water and not punching at it. Eric Den Besten Yale '97 hosted us at his wonderful London apartment at Cranleigh Gardens - saw his 5 week old son with his lovely wife Ruth and had a good chat with them about what they were likely to experience at Henley and some of the group challenges they would have to overcome. Have been really fortunate to be at Henley in 2000, 01, 05, 08, 09, and now 2011. Ended the evening with dinner at the Anglesea Arms. Great wild boar sausages...

Henley Day 3

2011-06-25T12:43:00.000-04:00

Saturday June 24th - Reading Town Regatta. We took cabs to the course and sat in a ton of traffic. To get Colin back into the groove of what we had been working on during the long row we did a quick shake down row and the boat felt better again...Always really encouraging to feel better every time you put the boat on the water. We lined up for the Elite 8+ sprint race - 800m only against Kent School Alumni and Hobart College USA. Feeling rather unprepared given that we hadn't really practiced a starting sequence we blasted off the line and took an early lead on Hobart while Kent moved out. Hobart gradually worked back through us and we ended up finishing about 1/2 length back. Awesome to feel the intensity of the action even as my body started locking up with about 20 strokes to go. Petey arrived straight from the airport and we went out for a 2nd race in the Senior 8+s against Kent and Shiplake. We were blown away off the start and were sitting a full length down to Shiplake before we started coming back. Finished 2 feet shy of Shiplake and closed the margin to Kent by about a length. Improvement again and it gave us lots of stuff to work on in the coming days.

Had a quick chat with one of the Leander coaches and spoke about a neat erg demonstration as well as some sports psychology ideas. Awesome to see the Bourke and Naylor families supporting their sons!

After a quick bite to eat (leftover pastries!) we left Reading at 6:30 PM to row back to Henley. This time the locks had to be manually operated and we finally got back around 8:45 PM. Rowing in the evening was GORGEOUS! Boat felt smooth and pretty relaxed though we could have given the boat a little more time to run. Visited the Asiana Indian Restaurant for some delicious chicken korma as Andrew Kaiser regaled us with stories of living in Moscow.

Henley Day 2

2011-06-24T12:28:00.000-04:00

Friday June 24th - two rows scheduled (though it's always a little hard when there are group decisions being made). I woke up fairly late and felt pretty jet-lagged - rowed at 10 AM with Colin once again in advance of John Petersen making his way to England. We did three trips of the course. 1st trip - drills & steady state, 2nd trip - drills & steady state, and 3rd trip 4 x 3' - tough choppy rowing at 36 spm...The rating was likely too high but we thought it best to push the envelope early to try and acclimate ourselves to the turnover speed as soon as possible. Visited Sainsbury for a quick readymade sandwich and lucozade (so quintessentially British!).

Had a special guest rower for our trip to Reading through the locks - Petey still hadn't arrived due to work obligations with the DC public schools and so we were able to get in some good long strokes. Found out how much inside arm rowing helped our length of time in the water. The trip only took about 90 minutes total as we hit each lock at exactly the right time. Celebrated that evening at the Three Horseshoes again with the 2011 IRA National Championship Yale Lightweights. Good to see the common threads and developments of the last decade!

Henley Day 1

2011-06-23T12:10:00.006-04:00

Arrived at Heathrow and somehow met up with Dave Werner, James Higgins, and Joe Fallon for a quick taxi ride to Henley-on-Thames. Met our wonderful hosts, the Brassey family on St. Andrews Road and then picked up our shell at the course...we were well prepared for the shell.

A quick rig, check of the internal components, and the aid of Colin Farrell to replace one of our late-arriving members we got on the course for a quick two laps. Felt amazing to be back on the water...though everyone felt a little crunchy and consequently the rowing was short and choppy. Went to dinner at the Three Horseshoes and felt really blessed to be in the UK as a competitor again. Special thanks to Nigel the proprietor of the Three Horseshoes.

UK Bound - Next Stop Henley-on-Thames

2011-06-22T17:31:00.000-04:00

Sitting at JFK and am about to board for a nice long flight to Heathrow to meet up with the Four Score and Four rowers who will be racing in the Thames Cup. I can't really describe how excited I am to be rowing in a competitive eight again on a stage as storied and prestigious as the Henley Royal Regatta. There's an idea about self-motivated training and the enjoyment of trying to make a boat go fast that is ridiculously fun, fascinating, and totally engrossing.

The story of Trinity Women's Rowing this past season is one of great highs and surprising lows...and I'm looking forward to recapping it over the next few posts but more importantly I'm excited to look forward towards helping create a new standard for 2011-2012.

Season Recap and Henley Bound

2011-06-21T10:14:00.000-04:00

I'm going to resurrect the blog after an exciting season of racing. Congratulations to our rowers who put together a team-wide strong effort in bringing us another ECAC and New England Overall Team title and to all of our competitors for making the season so exciting and rewarding. I'll have to add some reflections on the spring for our parents, alums, and recruits because it was a one filled with challenges, triumphs, and defeats.

On another note, I'm leaving for England tomorrow morning to race with the Four Score and Four boat club (Yale lightweight alumni) in the Thames Cup. It's a return to Henley after our last campaign in 2009 and one that I think we're better prepared for...It's amazing that training through the calendar year will be focused on about 12 rowing sessions before we race. With limited opportunity comes great focus and I can't wait!

Bantam Bars Born

2010-11-15T16:00:00.002-05:00

We're solidly into a New England fall that has featured a beautiful turn of the seasons. In between raking leaves yesterday I did a home gym project making our version of canned weights (The Bantam Bar). A little bit of a dirty process but nevertheless 15 new bars are coming home to roost in the Ferris Athletic Center.

The fall was a big shift for Trinity Women's Rowing as we fielded a large team than we have ever done before. With 4 full eights racing we raced at the Housatonic, Charles, and Schuylkill and came away with medals at all three with some excellent performances by our younger athletes and some growth with our varsity athletes. I've been particularly pleased with how positive our athletes are responding to one another and how that has laid the foundation to really make a run at earning a 9th straight bid to the NCAA Championships to be held in Sacramento this year.

It's all hands on deck from here on out...

First Day in the Books

2010-09-08T12:49:00.000-04:00

Awesome first day! Completed our fitness evaluation and saw that the majority of athletes prepared themselves well for the rigors of training but also saw areas that we can have continued improvement. There were white cap conditions so we were able to use our BRAND NEW DOCK to launch two eights and have 5 athletes do a combination of erging and running. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality on the first day and a huge compliment to our coxswains who ran an efficient and competitive practice in tough conditions. Hands in felt pretty strong too...along with some extra little wrinkles that we've added to practice.

Recruit visits are heating up - we'll have four in the next four days or so and the classes they'll see are already looking fascinating.

Ready to Launch

2010-09-05T22:41:00.001-04:00

A quick message for the 2010-2011 edition of Trinity Women's Rowing - starting it up on Tuesday.

Four Days and Counting

2010-08-30T09:33:00.000-04:00

Until freshmen arrive on campus I mean...It's that awesome time of year again when coaches get to finalize race entries for fall head race competitions and make sure that our athletes are compliant with both our medical training staff and the NCAA.

Recruits and athletes please don't be surprised by the amount of paperwork you need to complete in order to be an intercollegiate varsity athlete. This list is by no means exhaustive but you need to complete the following items:

1. Medical history questionnaire
2. Cardiac screening with Dr. Carl Nissen who works with Trinity athletes (www.elitesportsmedecine.com)
3. Trinity Health Center physical completed
4. imPact concussion testing for all varsity athletes
5. NCAA waiver, compliance, and drug-testing forms
6. Regattacentral waiver (Head of the Housatonic, Head of the Schuykill)
7. Ronin Racing waiver (Head of the Riverfront, Head of the Charles)
8. Trinity Women's Rowing information card

Surprising isn't it? And when you consider that it can be a challenge to have 45+ athletes cooperate there is always somebody who needs to be chased down to do it. The consequences are large as you are not eligible to practice if you don't complete these requirements. First and foremost, we want you to have a safe and healthy experience participating and competing in Trinity Athletics.

Summer Recap

2010-08-28T09:37:00.000-04:00

Have been purposely not blogging so that I can attempt to be more consistent throughout the season and give our alumnae, friends, families, athletes, and recruits some more to think about it, look at, and read about our team. This has been a turbulent summer for me personally in both good and bad ways and it's good to know that the mission and goal of our team is one of the rocks to which I can always return. As a quick summary I coached a series of camps that helped me redefine some of the parts of the rowing stroke that are critical and challenged the way that I approached the teaching process. I got to spend a wonderful week in Prince Edward Island with my family and reconnected to my first cousins that I haven't seen in years - it's easy to say it when we're together as a team but family truly does come first. I moved into a new house in West Hartford and have spent a good portion of the summer getting to know the place, fixing things up, and truly making it my own. I am really looking forward to having the squad here for breakfast (after a run from campus of course).
The other major highlight has been reconnecting with the erg and enjoying being athletic again. The group I rowed with in 2009 at the Henley Royal Regatta in the Thames Cup is aiming for a return in 2011 with higher expectations for training and racing. That has provided all the incentive I need to put training as one of the priorities in my life again and I'm truly loving the process. However, the work has been being done behind the scenes for much of the summer to be ready for this year's campaign and I am so eager to push, pry, pull, teach, cajole, support, challenge, correct, praise, criticize, explain, observe, analyze, synthesize, and most of all - COACH the Trinity women for 2010-2011.

Individual Awards

2010-06-03T11:49:00.000-04:00

It's really odd to recognize individuals within a rowing shell - team results are what really matters but nevertheless Trinity earned a fair share of recognition for performance in the classroom and on the water this year. Here is a quick list:

NESCAC All-Sportsmanship Team: Stephanie Apstein '10 (Captain)
NESCAC All-Academic Team: Jamie Callahan '11, Brianna Dix '11, Sarah Keller '11, Hannah Smith '10, and Tracey Suter '11
NESCAC All-Conference First Team: Deede Dixon '10, Robin Neschke '13, Sarah Keller '11
NESCAC All-Conference Second Team: Ellie Wierzbowski '10 (Captain), Courteney Coyne '10

National Invitational Rowing Championships Stewards All-Academic Team: Jamie Callahan '11, Sarah Keller '11, Kate Pool '11, Tracey Suter '11, Sophie Hollingsworth '12, Hannah Smith '10

CRCA All-Academic Awards: Sarah Keller '11, Kate Pool '12, Hannah Smith '10, Tracey Suter '11
CRCA First Team All-American: Deede Dixon '10

Season Complete - Boats back on the rack

2010-06-03T11:20:00.000-04:00

My updates from the NCAA were clearly not up to par as we were continuing to try and make improvements all the way up to the warm up for the grand and petite final. It was one heck of season for its myriad challenges, successes, failures, and learning opportunities and it certainly taught me a ton as a coach. This year's varsity squad had 4 freshman, 3 sophomores, 6 juniors, and 5 seniors and they all made huge strides as we changed the guard so-to-speak.

To recap, there were seven teams invited to compete for the NCAA team championship: Bates, Trinity, Williams, and Wellesley from New England; Ithaca and St. Lawrence from the New York region, and the University of Puget Sound from the Pacific region. William Smith and Mary Washington were the two at-large varsity eights invited to compete. Given our results during the season and our progress post-ECACs the goal on Friday was to make the Grand Final with the 1V and the Petite Final with the 2V. After racing in the morning heats where only the heat winner advanced directly to the final both boats were faced with the prospect of racing through the qualifiers in the afternoon. The 2V sat 5th for the majority of the petite qualifier while the 1V was passed for qualifying at the 1500m mark. Both crews roared back with really inspired technical rowing in the 2nd 1000m and were able to secure positions in both the grand and petite finals making it likely that we could earn a 4th place NCAA team trophy. Looking back at the New Englands where the 1V was 6th in the grand final and the 2V 5th it was really exciting to see Friday's racing when I really saw the grit and determination of our squad come out. Split times for the 2V race can be found here and for the 1V race here.

Saturday we raced after the 1V semifinals and the 2V spent themselves early in an attempt to gain valuable team points and rowed a courageous race eventually finishing 6th - three hard races in two days took its toll and that's something we can address for next season. The 1V, a very young crew found the early going of the grand final pretty hot and sat in 5th place going through the 1000m and made a huge mid-course to move up to 4th position. By finishing 4th in the grand final it tied us with Ithaca for the 3rd place team trophy - the tie was broken by the higher finish of our varsity boat thus earning the squad a 3rd place NCAA trophy and 6th team trophy in a row.

More to come on individual awards, our new captain, and summer plans.

NCAA Thursday

2010-05-27T13:28:00.002-04:00

Morning row on the course is complete and we're waiting to go to the coach's meeting at noon and then a coxswain's meeting at 1:00 PM. I think the crews are in a good place as they have made some improvements in practice since getting to California. The crews look sharp out there and I find it entirely fascinating that some crews are entirely body-oriented while others are very blade-oriented. I'm always impressed by the physicality of the top crews in the country and it certainly leaves something for us to strive for in the future.

The 2V will race in the first heat with Williams I, UPS, William Smith, and Ithaca II. While the 1V should be in a barnburner of heat number 3 with Bates, Mary Washington, and Williams II.

Took some good video today including wild turkeys, some funny luggage-moving, and some good boat-moving. I'll try to post those soon!

NESCAC All-Conference Teams Announced - Trinity puts FIVE on the team!

2010-05-26T09:14:00.005-04:00

Based on ECAC performances 5 five members of the Trinity Women's Rowing team were awarded All-Conference Honors - Deede Dixon '10, Sarah Keller '11, and Robin Neschke '13 were awarded first-team honors while Courteney Coyne '10 and Ellie Wierzbowski '10 were awarded second team honors. Neschke was the only freshman woman to make the All-Conference squad.

NCAA Wednesday #1 - Mozart Woods

2010-05-26T08:49:00.012-04:00

Woke up a couple of hours ago still clearly on east coast time...Am very glad that we were able to make our way out on Tuesday and have a chance to sleep in today. The hotel is excellent and so far the staff at both Southwest, Holiday Inn, and Enterprise have made everything very smooth and easy. I love it when customer service runs smoothly and the system works! Also read a good book on the plane entitled Talent is Overrated that has a pretty controversial thesis that there is little evidence to point out that humans possess innate talents for certain tasks - they might be genetically predisposed to being more successful at certain activities (height for a basketball player and height for a gymnast) but that the key factor in success may very well be how early we start and what do we do. Great comparisons of Mozart and Tiger Woods along with German violinists and chess masters. There is even an example of the Army men's rowing team...The argument is that even though Mozart and Tiger Woods have been considered child prodigies capable of producing world class work incredibly early they did so AFTER 10 years of intense, focused, and directed work that helped develop them into something world class. I also thought the picture of them side-by-side is particularly funny.

We'll likely head to a local shopping mall to hang out in the mid-morning before heading to the course to rig and register. The weather looks pretty un-California-like if you ask me...

Off to Sacramento

2010-05-25T14:41:00.001-04:00

Deja vu all over again...After our trip to the San Diego Crew Classic in March, a dress rehearsal of sorts, we're now on the way to Sacramento for the NCAA Rowing Championships. We have a very exciting opportunity to keep improving and I believe we've uncovered some good areas to focus upon...

I'll try and keep the updates coming from California for all of you who are following at home.

Fast boats...

Dixon named to ECAC All Conference Team

2010-05-13T17:37:00.002-04:00

2010 ECAC National Invitational Rowing Championships All-Conference Teams were announced yesterday and senior Deede Dixon was named to the All-Conference squad. Details of the award can be found here.

Trinity Earns its Eight Straight Bid to the NCAAs

2010-05-12T18:52:00.002-04:00

Yesterday at 3:00 PM the NCAA selection committee made it official that Trinity is one of seven Division III teams that will compete for the National Championship in Sacramento on May 28th and 29th. It was a pretty huge thrill to know that the team's progress from a very slow start could be rewarded with the opportunity to compete at the national level.

For parents and friends of the program, the team will be staying at the Holiday Inn Rancho Cordova and will be training through exams and graduation to try and earn the highest position possible.

We're expecting the absolute hardest racing of the year and will look to continue making improvements to what we do during practice in this next two week block.

Great stuff! If you would like to watch the selection show on NCAA.com please click here. You may need to search for women's rowing and then click on the Division III selection show.

What a moment on the water today

2010-04-23T19:29:00.006-04:00

It was 12...now it looks like 15.

2010-04-23T19:26:00.002-04:00

Could it really be 15 recruits for the Class of 2014? I'll provide some information later but needless to say I'm incredibly excited by the prospect of having such a deep class coming to help raise the standard of rowing at Trinity!

2010-04-14T21:10:00.001-04:00

First one in the books...

2010-03-27T13:29:00.003-04:00

The 1V finished third in a heat of seven boats to qualify for tomorrow's petite final. One of the newest D 1 programs, the University of Oklahoma finished 1st while St. Joe's finished about 4 seconds up on us. There were some positives from the piece and it was the first collegiate race for two of our 8 rowers...always good to get six boat racing experience. And perhaps most importantly, we learned a lot about what we can improve upon and how to spend our energy more effectively.

The 2V is coming up in about 2.5 hours...They'll have a challenging time as there was a late addition to our heat of Villanova. That will mean a heat of six boats with 2 to go through to tomorrow's grand final. Thank you to all of you who are watching live online and have sent awesome messages of support for the athletes!

San Diego Crew Classic Day 1

2010-03-27T09:42:00.002-04:00

Heading to the course now with the 1V - they're finishing up breakfast and then we'll go over our prerace checklist. California radio stations are really excellent...a ton of variety.

Heats Tomorrow - It's finally here!

2010-03-27T01:20:00.004-04:00

We returned to the hotel after a great dinner at the Fashion Valley mall - beautiful area and a great atmosphere. Some of the athletes who have family in the area or who traveled out to watch the races went out to dinner with them - I was really happy that they get to spend some time together. Chicken piccata for dinner...great flavor, tender chicken, but a little on the cool side. Very fast service...

The practices this afternoon were solid and both crews felt like they gained some familiarity with their new shells and the conditions. In my mind, it's really important for us to remain focused on the mechanics of what we do and not get too caught up in evaluating our results as they happen. We have a lot to learn on both the 1V and 2V levels and so I hope we can use this race experience to identify some of our reactions, strengths, and weaknesses. Good luck to all of the competitors racing tomorrow!

In Between Rows...

2010-03-26T17:10:00.002-04:00

What are the quintessential California trip stops? The 2V rowed this morning right away and had a solid practice where they began to feel the length that should serve them well as we get into racing. They were smart about bringing their own shoes and were logistically very quick to get things finished. We had a little bit of trouble getting the rigging correct on the 1V shell and so they didn't launch until quite a bit later but many thanks to John Tytus of Pocock Racing Shells for helping get everything in order. The conditions (stiff crosswind) are a little bit challenging but aren't anything that we should be surprised by tomorrow. A quick lunch from In N Out and back to the hotel for a little rest before this afternoon's paddle...Even though everyone knows about the secret menu at In N Out I thought I would link to it here just so you have it when you want customized food. Check out the Five Guys versus In N Out discussion thread on chowhound.com - people REALLY care about their burgers.

Sunset Pizza

2010-03-26T10:00:00.003-04:00

It turns out that we had a very short stopover in Baltimore and flew right out to San Diego arriving nearly 20 minutes early! Fantastic because it did allow us to get our gear and over to the ZLAC boathouse (the oldest women's rowing club originally founded in 1892 www.zlac.org)

We did a trip of Mission Bay just to get sorted out in our new shells and we have a few adjustments to make for tomorrow but that's to be totally expected. In one of those "this is really awesome I can't believe it's true" moments, the team ended up having a bonfire hosted by the Pool family on Kellogg Beach in La Jolla and enjoyed the sunset, pizza, and a whole lot of digital photography.

Regular start time today to let the bodies rest a little more and then we'll do two short rows to get reacclimitized for tomorrow's racing. The venue looks well set up with enclosures, organized boat areas, and it will likely be packed by midday today.

Flying to San Diego

2010-03-25T08:03:00.004-04:00

Through security and about ready to board our flight to San Diego with two eights of athletes ready to race it up for the first time in 2010. The selection process was long and I thought the group handled the pressure well...and while we've been able to get a fair amount of water time the conditions on the river have made gauging speed challenging. We've tried to give the athletes a nice mix of consistency and variety and the mechanics of the stroke have been steadily improving.

The varsity will be racing in the Women's Varsity Cal Cup and they are in heat 3 at 8:20 AM on Saturday morning while the second varsity will be racing in the Open 8+ event and will be in heat 1 at 1:30 PM in the afternoon.

It's particularly exciting because the team has a great mix of youth and experience. Six of the nine current varsity eight athletes have been to the NCAAs on multiple occasions while seven of the nine second varsity eight athletes have raced or been spares at the NCAAs. And from a youth standpoint we will have two seniors coxswains and three senior rowers in between the two hulls...

More to come from Baltimore and hopefully I'll be able to upload pictures from my Blackberry.

Need some work...and an amazingly generous gift

2010-01-13T14:54:00.003-05:00

Worked on dead lifting today (you would be amazed at the number of different images there are of people dead lifting...) - Maxed out at 310 which isn't too bad considering what type of training I've been able to do. Felt good to go after some heavier weights though. Short term goal would be to do at least twice my body weight (definitely within striking distance given the previous day's workouts) and then to hit 400 lbs by the end of the season. I think it's simply going to take regular practice. Go figure.

On another fantastic note - a phenomenal gift has been pledged towards the naming of an eight in our fleet. It's really fantastic to know that our alumnae are supporting the program and the College

Great workouts

2010-01-12T18:33:00.002-05:00

Have done a couple of solid workouts in the past couple of days - yesterday I played around with side press and some dumbbell snatches as well as some kettlebell work with some new moves introduced by Coach MacDermott - today we did three rounds of 2' of box jumps, wall ball, and ring push ups with 2' of ergometer work. I found it pretty interesting to catalog the different ways I tried to improve over each round and how I would change my approach if I was to do the workout again.

Taking the approach of "figuring out" the workout may not be the most competitive or intense but it definitely made the time go quicker and made the work manageable. For early fitness preparation I think that focusing on the 'how' rather than the 'how many' made it easier...but I can see how it will be fun to compete VERY soon.

Here are a couple of videos I found online of ridiculous athleticism and hand eye coordination... and then an athlete who gets simply worn down by his opponent. Fitness anyone?

Today - Final Post of 2009

2009-12-31T17:05:00.004-05:00

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...

2009-12-30T09:12:00.006-05:00

An awesome banquet video presentation put together by Ed Slater -

Hartford Weather and Connecticut River Level Links added

2009-12-15T17:46:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-09T18:14:00.002-05:00

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...

2009-12-02T21:48:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-12-01T21:08:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-01T20:53:00.004-05:00

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

2009-11-30T18:28:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-29T19:18:00.002-05:00

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...

2009-11-02T17:06:00.003-05:00

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

2009-10-18T10:17:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-16T09:35:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-08T12:41:00.002-04:00

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

What a week!

2009-09-27T21:00:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-18T11:59:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-17T11:09:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-09-17T09:27:00.004-04:00

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

2009-09-04T09:33:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-03T10:20:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-31T08:52:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-23T17:44:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-21T21:17:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-14T18:39:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-13T10:07:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-12T09:01:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-11T10:38:00.003-04:00

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

2009-08-02T17:15:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-22T19:05:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-22T18:58:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-21T16:39:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-19T13:08:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-19T13:01:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-16T13:34:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-16T13:22:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-14T22:11:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-13T22:05:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-13T21:46:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-11T10:16:00.003-04:00

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?

2009-07-09T08:56:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-07T07:37:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-02T15:19:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-02T15:02:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-02T14:43:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-29T09:38:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-26T08:35:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-24T20:27:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-23T13:51:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-20T23:12:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-16T16:54:00.003-04:00

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

2009-06-15T11:15:00.000-04:00

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

Reunion Row Recap

2009-06-06T11:24:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-30T22:24:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-30T07:50:00.006-04:00

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

2009-05-29T10:18:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-28T20:23:00.001-04:00

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

2009-05-28T20:18:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-27T06:52:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-27T06:28:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-12T20:19:00.000-04:00

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

Not the way we wanted it...

2009-05-11T10:30:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-10T14:05:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-09T18:18:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-09T14:34:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-09T08:26:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-08T10:39:00.002-04:00

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.