Tanks: The Unknown & a Senior Lunch

Lots of progress today and some excellent workouts - had a great discussion with the senior leadership group over lunch at the Trinity Restaurant as well. We're trying out a number of mechanical changes in our tanks to try and standardize the work and make it more repeatable over time. At this point we have 20 Model D and E ergometers in our tanks and another 24 ergometers in our slide center. The number of training options are really increasing!

My fitness I class did a great workout today on the ergometer and a couple of other activities that were awesome to watch - a couple of guest students joined in and I was surprised to learn that they had never even been in the tank room or known that it existed! It just goes to show you that the general student population just may not understand exactly what rowers do or even where they do it! Anyway, the two guest students, a junior woman and a senior man went head to head and finished absolutely tied despite doing exactly the same distance and type of exercise. I thought it was tremendously inspiring! Neither had any rowing experience prior to today's workout.

Looking forward to the Vespoli Conference in Philadelphia on Sunday - should be interesting to hear coaches talk about their successes in the past year.

Workout & Big News

Slowly getting back into working out with daily activity - did some dead lifting, squat high pulls, pull-ups, a little bit of isometric core work and then a solid 60 minutes of squash against a wily master's player. So much of the sport is about movement and sharing the court and I think I'm slowly understanding that each strike of the ball doesn't end when the ball leaves the strings but rather after you've taken position based on the type of shot your opponent is (hopefully) forced to hit next. My huge weakness appears to be that after an aggressive shot I simply can't follow up and position myself for the volley, drop, or killing rail.

Also, huge news! My brother asked his girlfriend to marry him last Friday and she accepted! She's a really wonderful person and I don't think I've ever heard my brother's voice be any more excited or happy than when he called to relay the news. Congratulations and bravo Derek and Kristen!

NCAA Field Hockey results

Our field hockey team won their NCAA tournament first round game against Neumann College by a score of 7 - 0. Using the wonderful sports writing cliché that the score didn't reflect how much Trinity dominated the game. Seeing those athletes apply continual pressure on their opponents was great to see but it also made me wonder about the tactics of the other team. There didn't seem to be any flexibility to their game and looked like they kept doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.

Took a day off of training today to rest a bum ankle and wrist so hopefully I'll be a little sharper in the weight room and on the courts tomorrow. Great to see our two sport athletes Kate Bress and Madison Helies in the pool today!

Squash & Leadership

There's been a great initiative amongst the Athletic Department here to start a squash ladder and there are nearly 25 people signed up from coaches, to GAs, to athletic trainers, etc. Finally an outlet for all of the working out that we all do on a daily basis and a means to measure improvement. That's probably what I miss most about rowing in college - the sense of purpose and mission that required my friends/teammates to commit to one goal.

Squash is one heck of a humbling game though and I believe it's particularly analogous to rowing in that the work you put in does not necessarily result in improved performance right away. That's what I'm finding now as I'm trying to add variety and depth to my game - because I'm not good at those skills my opponents are able to take advantage of my attempts at better shots. However, if I only shot the same way every time because I knew I could do it my game would never expand and never develop to a higher level. In some ways, it's kind of like early season races - I think athletes tend to overuse those results as a barometer of future projected performance as opposed to a mirror for their current level of preparation.

Next up - a discussion about leadership - what ways can you exhibit it?

Saturday in Boston

Pretty cold and cloudy this morning as I write this from 'Hotel NESCAC' - crews from Wesleyan and Colby are staying at a hotel past the finish line along with representatives from St.Catherines RC and Prairie Rowing Association. Pretty fantastic to see crews gather from all around the world for a shot at the race course.

Registration was much improved and far simpler than last year - well done Head of the Charles organizers!

Also dropped off Coach Gluckman at the race course for his race with Motley BC and then will head back later on to race with Blue Cheese BC. After last year's three crashes with Harvard Law we hope to have a cleaner run down the course.

On the recruiting stand point we've had some wonderful responses from those who have visited so far and if you are debating about your collegiate choices please don't hesitate to contact us.

Head of the Charles Coming Up

Back on the mic and hope that our faithful Trinity rowing followers can forgive the non-communication on the blog in these past two weeks.

Quick recap: We have been making good progress from the Head of the Riverfront to the Head of the Housatonic and are now aiming towards the Head of the Charles. It's a little bit of an oddity in that we only have one crew entered after last year and were denied a College 4 and College 8 additional entry in the lottery. Tough draw!

A. Incredibly positive recruit visits in these past few weeks.
B. Our new truck has arrived and will be operational next week
C. Have heard back from all of our study abroad students and they are doing amazing things in France, Scotland, Ghana, and Australia - we can't wait to have them back in our boats as well!
D. The water has been spectacular on the Connecticut River.

Tanks today

Split squad practice today - one group in the morning for on the water practice. This afternoon we'll have the other half of the squad in the tanks for video, lifting, and ergometer work.
We're over twenty rowing sessions in and we're starting to make significant progress in the realm of technical and physical development.

On the very near horizon - the Head of the Riverfront on the Connecticut River in East Hartford. It's one of the larger events in the northeast with nearly 500 separate entries. Can't wait to see you there.