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.