Hungry like the…

Just in time for this weekend’s NCAA we have a Speed 5 with Cal Captain Lou Kinder.  For a bio on Lou feel free to follow the link http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-crew/mtt/kinder_lou00.html        Speed 5    WOLF- Cal is going into the NCAA tourney as one of the top dogs, how would you like the weekend to play out for you and your mates?                 LK-We’ve been working all year to win this regatta and I think we have a good opportunity to do so.  We have three fast boats and I believe we can do it.  I expect it to be very difficult.                    Wolf- There is a lot of “debate” within the Rowing Illustrated masses that the men’s programs should follow suit with the women and follow the same format for the NCAA Championship š, as an athlete, leader and rower, what are the positives and negatives of going to this format?                 LK- I don’t really know how the men’s side is organized, and the NCAA format’s the only one I know.  My experience with it has been nothing but positive. I like the NCAA format because it really stresses the importance of the whole team.  The varsity needs the four to do well and vice versa. This raises the intensity level for everybody regardless of where they fall on the learning curve. It’s also hard to imagine our team without any freshmen in our varsity boats.  There’s that much more competition for each seat and having one big team enables us to race the fastest possible line ups.  Freshmen also tend to have a sort of excited-puppy attitude that balances the team atmosphere and helps everybody keep things in perspective.             Wolf- What made you choose Cal? Was it the rowing, the warm weather, the school itself, the boys?            LK -I just wanted to be excited to go wherever I ended up going.  I’ve always thought California, and the Bay Area in particular, was super cool.  I wanted to go to a big school where I could feel a little more independent, but my mom didn’t want me to because of the usual “you’ll just be a number” kind of reasons.  She let me apply to Cal because the academics were so good.  We’re both very happy about it now. I didn’t know much about collegiate rowing at the time.  I remember looking at some race results online and seeing “California” was doing pretty well.  I didn’t know that was Berkeley, the place I was visiting. When I did visit I loved the team atmosphere– the women seemed hard working and motivated.  I’m lucky that Dave and Sara ended up recruiting me because Cal was the perfect fit.  I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to pursue rowing intensely with so many great teammates and role models.  Oh yeah, and the weather is a plus.             WOLF- Who do you feel is going to pull it out with the men at IRA’s next week?            LK-I have no idea. From what I hear there’s going to be some great racing. I’ll be on the shore cheering for Cal.  Go Bears!            WOLF- So when you finish college are you thinking of taking your rowing to the next level?            LK-Yep, that’s the plan.  I feel like I have a lot more in me.        WOLF- Give us some in site to your Coach Dave O’? Does he coach with his eyes closed at times? What does he call an erg test?            LK-He’s usually in sun glasses, so I can’t really tell.  He seems to see everything though.  As for erg tests, those are usually “1×2k (or 6k) at max.”  Or he’ll say, “Is this a test?”  Then he’ll shrug and say, “I don’t know, I guess it’s a test, but every time we erg it’s a test.”                WOLF – I actually thought Dave O was call erg test erg opportunities these days, some we both learned back in the day from our days at RBC.  Oh how time has flown by.  Good luck this weekend to you and the Cal bears. 

We are all getting near the end college racing season. With the IRA’s
right around the corner what can we expect from CSP?

Sean, let me begin by thanking you for this opportunity and for all you and RI do for the rowing community. Mike Teti has thrown down the gauntlet, challenging our sport to come out from the shadows and get into the mainstream. There’s no white knight out there charging in to get this job done, so it’s got to come from the rowing community itself, from grass roots movements such as you’ve created at Rowing Illustrated. Captured Speed is serious about being part of this movement, taking Coach Teti up on his challenge, and showcasing this great sport as it’s meant to be seen.

Which brings us to what’s on tap. We’ve reached an agreement with the IRA to bring you the 2009 National Championship Regatta as you’ve never seen it before. First, we’ll partner with Bullpen Media, who will provide a live 4-camera webcast free of charge on all three days of the regatta. We’ll make an announcement on our Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/capturedspeed), as well as on Rowing Illustrated, as soon as we have information about where and how to log on to this event.

Captured Speed will actually have eight high definition cameras on location and we will produce a DVD of the five eight-oared Grand Finals, including interviews, start-to-finish coverage, slow-mo replays, and all the production qualities you’ve come to expect from Captured Speed. The DVD will be offered for sale at our website (http://capturedspeed.com) as well as at the race venue, with a discount offered to those who purchase prior to June 7.

Since our inception in 2007 we’ve never charged for video coverage and we recognize that this year’s IRA is a departure from what everyone is used to. That being said, we will continue to offer a mixture of free content on our website, as well as other pay-per-view coverage in the future. We have just reached an agreement with the USOC and USRowing to provide video coverage of the 2009 USRowing elite National Championship Regatta in late June and we will deliver that coverage free of charge.

Who is CSP’s favorite to win the national championship for the men’s
heavyweight eight this year?

You’re asking this of a bunch of Cal grads? Uh, hang on while I adjust the taps on my shoes . . . We predict the winner will be a school with a mammal for its mascot. If we’re wrong, we think everyone will be seeing red.     

Now I understand you have many challenges when it comes to filming the
races. What has been CSP’s oddest adventure while filming?

Well, there have been quite a few, but since you asked, the oddest occurred when we saw an oarsman scramble over a fence, into the backyard of a residence during the pre-race warm-up at Redwood Shores. It turned out he had a sudden urge to see a man about a dog, if you catch my drift. Fortunately, our cameraman had the good sense NOT to go to full digital zoom and resisted the temptation to memorialize the scene for all the YouTubesters out there.

I’m also pleased to report that the young, trespassing lad emerged from his adventure much relieved and went on to help lead his crew to an important victory. After the race, he told me he was merely trying to improve his strength to weight ratio. We couldn’t argue with the results.

  Will you be able to provide coverage beyond the Cal racing in the future
and how about for head races like the Head of the Charles? 

There’s no denying that the founders of Captured Speed are Cal grads and we’re proud of our background. But rowing, which has given us so much, is our focus, not our alma mater. I can tell you with utter sincerity that we felt good for Michael Callahan and the Huskies when they defeated Cal in the dual race last month up in Seattle because it was a hell of an achievement in the wake of their disappointment at the Stanford Invitational the week before and because it was good for the sport. I mean, who’s not loving the round robin knockouts we’ve seen this spring? This is how you attract fans. We remind ourselves to leave our colors at the door before every race we cover.

The Stanford Invitational was a good example of what can happen when people and programs collaborate. Wisco, Oregon State, and Stanford helped underwrite our coverage, a first for us. It didn’t pay all the bills, but it made things possible and we expect to see more of this kind of unity next year.

As for the Head of the Charles, we’ll be sharing a launch with Fred Schoch at the IRA. I’ll have a word with him. We’d love to be there.

Will CSP venture into women’s rowing ?

Absolutely. We are blessed with a gifted and generous Advisory Board, comprised of Yaz Farooq, Steve Gladstone, and Curtis Jordan. Yaz is going to be instrumental in helping guide us into women’s race coverage. As with everything, the pace of our progress will depend upon the support we receive from the marketplace.

Let me put it in perspective: if 10% of the active rowers in the U.S. spent 41 cents a day to get our productions, Captured Speed could deliver fresh weekly race videos all spring long, beginning next year.

Extra 1We are giving out last year’s IRA DVD as prizes in the pickem contest -
 will you have more DVD ’s this year ? 

As we move forward, we will deliver videos in varied formats desired by the marketplace, such as direct downloads formatted for iPhones, computers, and Apple TVs. We will also produce DVDs and, perhaps, video flash drives when physical media are desired by sufficiently large numbers of viewers. We’ve opted for the DVD format at this year’s IRA because we’re not yet set up for pay-per-view downloads.

And speaking of the IRA, if any of you reading this are going to be there please come up and say hi to us. We’re all in this together and we’d love to meet those of you who are as passionate about this great sport as we are.

You have traveled about a bit in your coaching career, from Boston with the USA Junior Team, to Yale, and now to Georgetown.  And I can say no matter what, you have produced results…..what is your most treasured personal accomplishment.  
I’m first and foremost a student of the sport and although success gives you credibility and is certainly more fun, I’ve always learned more from the failures. There’s nothing new in that observation, but I see each crew as intrinsically linked to those who came before them. The ’02 Junior Team marked the first decade in my coaching career, and was the culmination of many experiences, so it was really satisfying. From my perspective, the needs of that group and my skills were a great fit. But, I’d have to say the ’07 Georgetown Varsity tops the list – most of those guys had never made a grand final and some seniors won their first rowing race that spring. They were hungry and it was awesome to share in that with them. They understood “crew” in the larger sense, and still do.   So tell me about streaking and Georgetown Lightweight Rowing - I just had to ask.  We like winning streaks. So now that you have traveled the east coast where are the best rowing personalities and who are they?   Interesting question, and coming from you, it smacks of Riverside in the late 90s! In all honesty, every individual you coach brings many unique qualities to the table. I’ve been fortunate to work for, and alongside, some really great coaches and I’ve been privileged to ride launches with many others. While their personalities cover the spectrum, one common trait they all held was an excitement to help motivated individuals improve. That they are deeply competitive goes without saying. The varied and creative solutions to solving the same simple problems have always intrigued me and the personalities just help to deliver those solutions. As for the best personalities, I think they are in my JV. What are your plans for Georgetown this year….and how can a “smaller” school like Georgetown compete with the likes of Cornell, Navy and Harvard ? Our plan was to go as fast as we could at the Sprints and faster at the IRA. Academically, Georgetown is a demanding university, its rigor a testament to both the programs offered and the ambition of our students. Rowers here want to succeed on all fronts and that combined pursuit of excellence creates balance. We have a campus culture that is at once athletic and intellectual, so that helps too. We’ve made a real push to build from the bottom up, ensuring the frosh learn how to be successful collegiate oarsmen. We do have some strong kids coming in, but because we support fewer recruits, we rely on walk-ons perhaps more than the other schools and I think it is important to take the time to teach them well. From a recruiting perspective, I’ve never tried to “sell” a school per se, but I do work hard to find kids who will thrive at Georgetown. The model, if you want to call it that, is to create a high-end opportunity and to clear a pathway for guys to pursue it with abandon. In most cases, a person of serious ambition will make all the requisite good choices on their own, largely because they care about the result. I recruit potential more than anything else–the guys here take care of the rest.  When recruiting high school guys to row lightweight are you afraid of the growth spurt in college? Not too much. Our current frosh are taller, greater in number, and lighter than the upperclassmen. It’s a guessing game to some extent, and all the teams lose bigger kids here and there. I think we do a thorough job finding guys who are lightweight oarsmen, not small heavyweights. Extra One: You coached the junior eight to medals not once, but twice, and back to back – where are those guys now?     They are all over the globe and doing well. For example, Alex Hearne and Charlie Cole both won the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race in the last two years, and some other guys are going for the Olympic team. Two of the guys from the ’02 squad, Morgan Henderson and Chris Richbourg, are working with me here at Georgetown. It is wonderful to get to know them as adults and even better to see their influence take hold. They are great at coaching and great at life – a perfect match.

Wolf- So the Harvard 1-HF took in a silver medal at sprints by a narrow margin of about .6, what was it like watching that race and what do you plan on improving on for IRA’s?

  BM. Watching the race was unusual. I was waiting for the start, saw that the scheduled start time had passed, and figured that the race was delayed as they tried to line up the boats in the difficult wind. Finally, the ship-to-shore radio announced that it had been out of action and the crews are now nearing the 1500m mark.  I stood up and saw a tight battle. As the boats got closer to Regatta Point I knew we were in contention and well ahead of third but having atight battle with Brown. To their credit, Brown found the extra gear and gotus by two seats. Obviously, as a coach, it was disappointing but it feels more like a missed opportunity than a crushing defeat. Both boats were seven seconds ahead of third place and running level for much of the race. We won in April. They won in May.   I anticipate that both boats will get faster in the next four weeks and I think both will need to as the west coast crews are good and the other eastern crews will get faster too.    

Wolf- There is a lot of chatter on the boards on men’s rowing “switching” over to the same format the women run, mainly freshman rowers/recruits being allowed to row in the varsity boat, what are your feelings on this?

  BM.In terms of the Freshman eligibility question I’m somewhat undecided. I think the current system has great merit for many reasons. I don’t see any need to change it and lots of reasons to keep it.  

However, I’m open to eliminating it if doing so does not reduce the number of walk ons in our sport and/or reduce overall squad size.

Wolf- Most of us would like to be a fly on the walls of the Newell boathouse, so what is it like to be in that office with all those great coaches around? 

  BM. Coaching at Newell is a real privilege. I share an office with Harry Parker, Charley Butt, Linda Muri, and Wayne Berger. Is there a better pair of rowing coaches than Harry & Charley at any college? We have some extraordinary discussions about rowing, training, mentoring students, and coaching. (I also hear a lot about the stock market and the Red Sox.

I’d do well to listen to their investing insights!)

Wolf- So if you were a “blue chip” high school senior where would you go and why?

  BM. When I was seventeen I picked my college for all the wrong reasons. I didn’t do my research. My advice to blue chip seniors today is to learn for themselves and not simply believe what others tell them. There are many exceptional colleges out there. Ask tough questions and look around.  

Wolf- Does Harvard actually have its own set of river rules that they follow and how do they differ from the ones everyone else on the Charles River follows?

  BM. I admit we have one unique river rule of launching and landing in the opposite direction from the traffic pattern. I’m pretty sure it’s a hold over from the old days. Other than that we’re just trying to do the right thing.   

Wolf- So when is Harry going to retire? 

  BM. Harry has made it very clear when he will retire. If and when it gets that he either isn’t enjoying himself or isn’t connecting effectively with the students he will move on. If you’ve been around him at practice and on race day this year you’d see how much he’s enjoying himself. In terms of effectiveness, Harvard has won gold or silver at the Sprints in seven of the past eight years. He’s still damn good.  Bill William Manning Freshman Heavyweight Rowing CoachHarvard University

As we head into the “championship weeks” how are you prepping your girls mentally and physically to be in the running for yet another National Championship Title?

It is not as much a question of what we’re doing right now to prepare for our championship season, as what we’ve done all year.  From our first day of practice in the fall everything we do is a progression working towards the Sprints and the IRA.  Each practice builds on what we’ve done before, and we try to make each row or erg better than the ones that have come before it.  If we got to this point in the season and didn’t have enough speed, there would not be too much we could do about it now.  We’ve been working on different parts of the race with the hope of putting together a complete, well-executed race by the end of the season.

The guys here at RBC want to know how does Wisco recruit such talent, it appears the Wisco women are physically talented as well as photogenic?
We’re fortunate to attract some of the top people here to Wisconsin.  The group of kids who are sophomores were a very quick novice team, and I think we have an even better group coming next year. Our novice lightweight coach, Dusty Darley rowed on the lightweight team here and has been novice lightweight coach since 2002.  She does an awesome job of getting the best people from around the country to come to Wisconsin.  She has recruited and developed every one of the kids who have helped us win the IRA four of the last five years, so obviously she’s good at her job.  About half of the team are kids with rowing experience who come to Wisconsin because of the success we’ve enjoyed and they want to be a part of that.  The rest of the team is “recruited” from the registration lines on campus every summer.  Most of them are from the state and have been Badger fans their whole life.  They are excited to have an opportunity to be a part of Badger Athletics, and many of them quickly surpass the “recruited” athletes. We have a great novice team, and those kids feed into our varsity program.  We would not be successful without our novices.  Our 2008 National Championship boat had three kids in it who learned to row at Wisconsin.

Over the last 15 years we have seen the decline of lightweight women’s events at Worlds, do you feel this has effected the colligate field as well and what do you suggest to your women to do after college? What do you feel that could be done to try and bring back another event or two at Worlds or the Olympics?

There has been a decline in the light women’s events at Worlds (no more LW4- or LW2-), but I don’t think this has had too much impact on collegiate lightweight rowing.  I feel like lightweight women’s rowing has been more impacted by the addition of women’s rowing as an NCAA sport, both positively and negatively. 

Because of the growth of collegiate women’s rowing, more kids are rowing in high school.  Some of them end up being lightweight sized and want to row as lightweights in college.  This has been good for us, since we get more good kids .  But a lot of athletic departments see lightweight rowing as a distraction or redundant (a sport just like the NCAA sport, but without the benefits of NCAA tournaments/awards).  I think that this is why places like UCF or Loyola Marymount drop their lightweight programs (LMU won the light four at IRAs last year and as soon as they got home the AD cut the sport).  These schools could go to the IRAs and compete for a national championship, but since it is not an NCAA championship, it doesn’t carry nearly the same reward or legitimacy in the eyes of the athletic department.  It is a lot like men’s rowing in that regard. It is not less of a race, it just receives less recognition and understanding. (This is kind of like the difference between Olympic and non-Olympic rowing events—since certain events are in the Olympics, they are a much bigger deal and are more important in the minds of those who make decisions (NGBs and Olympic Federations).  The light men’s eight won at non-Olympic worlds this year, but recognition of it was almost non-existent.  It is not less of a race- the efforts of the competitors was no less worthy, but it does not come with the same recognition.)

As far as what could be done to bring more light women’s events back to Worlds or the Olympics, I’m not sure what could be done besides adding a lightweight sweep event at the Olympics.  FISA added an Under-23 light women’s quad for this year, so that is a good move for college lightweights. (Shameless plug: I’m coaching a development camp this summer in Madison for U23-eligible lightweights and we’ll be sending a quad to U23 trials–no sculling experience necessary!)

And what do I suggest my women do after college? Get jobs!  But if they want to row, I’ll help them prepare for that also. 

What personal experiences from your own lightweight international career have you instilled in the Wisco lightweight program?
The biggest thing I’ve tried to bring is a focus on consistency and willingness to do hard work.   I was never the most talented or strongest rower, but I like to think that I was very dedicated to my training and dedicated to helping the USA have the fastest boats possible (hopefully I was in them).  I feel fortunate to have spent eight years on the US team rowing with some great people and for some great coaches.  The goal now is for my team to be successful while they are here, and hopefully some of them have the talent and ability to make the US team as well.

We all know that the Wisco programs spend a lot of time on the erg, what are some of the more “successful “ workouts that help develop the rowers for the spring racing season , and what time of cross training do you mix it up with ?
I don’t have any secret workouts that will stand out as being too different from what anybody else does.  I mostly have my team do workouts I did while rowing for coaches like Ernst, Teti and Korzo.  Every once in a while I’ll ask coach Clark what the men are doing and we’ll do that if I’m tired of 2×6k, 5×5′ or 3×10′, 1×7′. 

During the winter in addition to the ergs and tanks, we do weights a couple of days per week, and do a lot of abs/core work. When it is time for spring racing season we have no excuse to not be fit. Extra OneSo what are the differences in coaching lightweight women vs. lightweight men? Are there any?

I talked to a few coaches who’d coached both men and women before I started and they’d assured me that there would be no difference between coaching men and women.  Wrong! The coaching–technique and physiology–is the same.  But the way I approach the team to get them ready for a race, or talk to them if they’ve performed poorly is quite different.  When I started working with the team, the women in general seemed to have a harder time separating professional criticism from personal criticism.  Just because you have a slow catch doesn’t mean I don’t like you!  I say most of the same things now, but just say it nicer.

As a coach you have the ability try to mold the personality of the team and set up expectations and responsibilities, and to determine what is acceptable and what is not.  Most of the previous exposure I’d had to lightweight women was at national team camps from 1997-2004.  A lot of them were very high-strung and high-maintenance. There was a lot of drama and a lot of negativity.  I was really nervous in taking this job that the Badger women would be the same.  But it turns out that all of those national-teamers had learned those behaviors.  So I’ve set out make sure that my group learns good habits and that we have a strong, supportive team environment.  “No Drama” is rule number one.

Hi All

I am please to announce the latest Speed 5 with Paul Ridley. Paul recently rowed 2950 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. The journey took him 87 days. Paul raised $500,000 to help fight cancer.  

 Now hold on a second. Before you start saying I jumped the shark to ocean water rowing, Paul rowed for Colgate and is looking to get back in his single to row on “glassy” waters.  Lean about his training, his time out on the Ocean and his picks for IRA’s.  Yes! He knows about the pickem!

For more on Paul his quest and fight against cancer go to   www.rowforhope.com .  I liked following his GPS route.

A special thanks to Xeno Mueller for getting us together to get this to you!

Wolf -Paul - How did you train for this? And which feels worse erging or rowing across the ocean?

Paul - ** I spent two years on an ocean-rowing specific training program to prepare for this expedition. Lots and lots of steady-state work. On the erg I never did a piece shorter than an hour or longer than three hours, but the real benefit came from training twice a day, six days a week, for an extended period. Training on the water in my boat consisted of workouts in the Long Island Sound of anywhere from 90 minutes to 8 hours of rowing, with a few overnights mixed in to get a feel for what it’d be like to sleep in the cabin. In hindsight I probably could have skipped the overnights. Nothing could have prepared me for those first few very scary and seasick nights at sea.

To mix up my workouts I lifted weights twice a week and did Bikram yoga once or twice a week, which really helped me stay flexible and avoid injury during my training.

On the boat my GPS unit was mounted in the bulkhead directly in front of the rowing position so just like on an erg I stared at it constantly. It showed my GPS coordinates down to three decimal places, which was just like watching my meters tick by on an erg. Luckily I never minded erging too much so it only drove me partially nuts. **

Wolf - What did you see out there?  And did it take your mind off the blisters you were building up?

Paul - ** In 87 days at sea I saw an incredible amount of marine life; schools of 100+ dolphins all around the boat, young Minke whales gliding in ocean swells, sharks, countless Dorado, birds of all types (shearwaters, storm petrels, frigate birds, etc…), beautiful sunsets and even more stunning sunrises, thirty-foot waves, and a 900-foot oil tanker that almost ran me down on Day 33. With all of this entertainment I was never bored on the ocean. An equally incredible experience was going twenty-nine straight days without seeing a single sign of other human life. No ships, no planes, no satellites…nothing.

Blisters and salt sores were an every day concern, but of course all I could do was keep them clean and keep rowing. Blisters, cuts, and scrapes didn’t heal on the water so all I could do was get to Antigua as soon as possible. **

Wolf - Your talking right to the rowers here Paul - which do you prefer “rowing” or ocean or rowing? 

Paul ** There’s no way that anything I’ll achieve on flat-water will come close to the feeling of rowing into English Harbour, Antigua after 87 days at sea and being greeted by a cheering crowd of friends, family, and complete strangers that turned out to welcome me. It made all of the pain, loneliness, fear, seasickness, and frustration of the last 87 days worthwhile. With that said, I can’t wait to get back to normal “rowing” and the joys of early mornings in a scull when the water is like glass and the rush of walking through an eight at full power and 36 spm with 200 meters with 200 meters to the finish. **

Wolf Now that you have built up the huge aerobic base will you take up the single and give it a go at a couple of races? 

Paul ** I absolutely am looking forward to getting back in a single. I spent countless hours splashing around in one while I was training and now its time to get my technique back. I still enjoy the single, but I think I’ll stay away from the six-hour shifts that I pulled to cross the Atlantic. I think that my aerobic base at this point leaves me far below where I’d need to be to pull a good 2k time, but I’ll probably be pretty strong come head race season. **

Wolf- What did you have on you iPod for the trip? - I am pretty sure you did not listen to techno music the whole time? 

Paul ** Given all of the work that went into making sure my boat, food, and equipment made it to the starting line I didn’t spend as much time as I should have putting together my iPod. I only had a few audio books and about 1,100 songs. The audio books were great. It didn’t matter what they were about because the smallest reference to some random aspect of life on land (like pizza, a city I’d visited, or whatever) could keep my mind occupied for hours. Even so, I did listen to David McCullough’s book “1776″ about 8 times, so if you need to know anything about the Revolutionary War I’m your guy.**

Wolf If you can summarize your message into one sentence, what would it be?

Paul ** If I had only one sentence, I’d say “Rowing an ocean, especially solo, isn’t for everyone but if you take on the challenge it will change your life.” If I had another, I’d add “If you’re going to row an ocean, find a cause you care about it make your row a charitable effort, you won’t regret it.” **

Extra One -

Wolf -Who do you feel will win the IRA’s this year? 

Paul ** My alma mater, Colgate, of course is my Cinderella-story pick! **

WOLF-So Chris does size really matter?……..Wait a second do not get me wrong here; I was referring to the size of your crews.  Last year your crew was just a bit smaller than the other big guys out there but yet they won the National Championship in fine form.  

///CLARK- That is a real good question. I have noticed that over the last decade or so, guys in men’s hwy. rowing are getting bigger and bigger. I see UDub and others and just think “My God, those guys are monsters”. Generally, everything being equal, those with size and power are going to win. Once in a rare while, you get height and some power on a leaner frame and then you are dangerous; that’s what we had in ‘08. I definitely select for lean.However, the bodies I want don’t just walk through the door. I had a recently retired coach tell me that it is easy for us (Wisco) because we get” a hundred frosh a year that are 6′4 or over coming down to the boathouse” Really? Not unless you count the same guys 3 or 4 times./

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WOLF-You’ve mentioned in past that the key to a winning crew is to have a bunch of guys with strong heads. Do you do train guys for mental toughness, or that one of those things you either have it or you don’t?

/// CLARK-There is no way to make a strong head from a weak one. It is possible to discover that a fellow who appears to be pretty weak-minded at first is in fact a hard man. That process, the forging in the fires of a cold winter’s hell, can produce surprises. However, I am certain that the tough guy always had it in him. We just create the environment for the hoped for metamorphosis. Also, inconsistency (and converselyconsistency) are the hallmarks of the tough. The fellows who throw it down precisely the same in all conditions, environments, and mental states are always, always the ones you want in the stern of your 8.Sometimes though, you reach into your quiver to make a lineup and the hard men just aren’t there.///     

WOLF-I am doing a Podcast on rivalries within rowing this week, who do you consider to be your rival?

/// CLARK- We really do not have a classic rival. Our #1 nemesis is the tough winter. I really think that it would exhaust us to have to shift immediately from fixating on the cold to obsessing about another team. Oh, there are plenty of teams we take great satisfaction in beating; don’t get me wrong on that point. The difference is that I don’t recall ever wasting one bit of emotional energy on Henry V style speeches on the eve of battle against our mortal foe.///       

WOLF-What are the bread butter workouts of the WISCO crews, both on the water and on the “machine” (ergometer)?

/// CLARK-I have an erg split chart that we use that shows most, if not all, the erg workouts we consider important.Korzo has his “magic” speed chart so I realized that no coach currently in the sport today has probably both erged more than I and has their guy’s erg more so the data was there for the interpretation. If anybody wants one, feel free to contact us [I consider it an “open source”, if that is the right technical term]. But to directly answer your question, on the erg, we stick with standbys like 5 x’s 5:00, 10k’s, 6k’s, 2.5 k’s and the like. On the water, we race a lot. Between land and water, I want us to do something approaching 400-500 individual pieces a year. Mind you I don’t not count anything under 3:00 but the total also includes any summer rowing. This appears to be madness but there is a method to it. As this is a “Speed 5″ and not a slow one, I’ll leave the reasoning for the imagination.///      

WOLF-Do not blame me for this question but our users want your “expert advice,” so what is best, white or yellow cheddar cheese?

/// CLARK-I absolutely love cheese. There is no doubt in my mind that white cheddar is top of the line. However, like the finest of wines or beer, you don’t want to tackle such quality on a daily basis so most of the time it’s just plain old sharp yellow cheddar. If you really want to go low though, fried cheese curds ought to be illegal. They are addictive, permanently, after just one.///      Extra One  

WOLF-What do you look for while recruiting a rower?

///  CLARK- Tall and lean first, always. We have had plenty of guys here who have done some winning who do not fit that bill but that’s the number one physical profile we look for. For the HS rower, I may have fewer choices but I look for the kid who, 1, has at least and inkling of what he is getting into attempting to be a serious D1 hwy. rower, and 2, is smart enough and not blinded by hubris to see that the demographics of our main competitors means that rowing @ Wisco gives them a realistic shot to someday make the V8

http://www.usrowing.org/News_Media/AthleteBios/ureackelsb.aspx

 Here you go.  Nothing like following one of the best rowers on the planet. 

Wolf - I am going to be real; you and Cody took down the heavily favored Tim McLaren CRC double of Aller and Fraise last year at the lightweight double trial, which must have felt pretty good?  How were you and Cody able to put the double back together after you had a brief time out from each other and I think one of you attended the sweep camp as well for a spell?   Dan U- A Yes, winning felt pretty good.  Cody taught me more about sculling and training than just about anyone else, from the time I was a fat kid who rowed for three months of the year at Macalester College and he was some weird cowboy who showed up at the Minneapolis Rowing Club with ’speed fins’ shaved into his head, who told me I should take rowing seriously.  So to win, and to do it with him, was nice.  Of course, we didn’t actually make the team, so…

In terms of it all coming together quickly:  The back story is that I decided that after the double didn’t qualify in 07, and we had a really unsatisfactory result at the NSR, that my best chance of making the Olympic team was to try for the four.  So, off I went to Princeton.  As it turns out, I was really bad at sweep rowing.  Really bad.  As a result, I had to pull as hard as I could, every single stroke of every single practice, whether it was steady state or pieces, just to try and moderately keep up (with an emphasis on moderately).  Somewhat unsurprisingly, by early November I broke a rib and pulled an intercostal muscle or two, and was off the water until early January. 

At that point I started sculling again, was really slow, and pretty much gave up on Beijing.  After a few more injury and illness setbacks throughout the winter and early spring, I began to figure stuff out (with a lot of help from Tim McLaren and John Parker), and ended up second at the NSR.  After Cody’s double partner, Jon D’Alba, had his own rib injury, Cody and I got back in the boat, and about ten days later, we won trials.  We didn’t do a single 2k at rate.  What can I say, he completes me. 

In all seriousness, people watch us do steady state and they think we will suck, because we apply pressure a little differently.  But once we get to a little higher pace, we naturally know how to move the boat pretty well together.  We were actually much faster after we came back together than ever before, but we never really showed that in Poland.  We (I) also probably over thought it all, and tried changes that were too dramatic for such a short period of time after trials and before Poland.   WOLF - What are your plans now?  I feel that if you and Cody stuck together and worked it the next couple of years you could qualify the double and go to the Olympics? I am sure you like that idea? Hell it seems like the only crews that get there are the ones that sick together.     DAN U-A I desperately want to try to train for London because, as John and Tim have kindly advised me many times, I have a lot of room for improvement.  But, I am graduating law school this year, and have six figures worth of debt from it.  So, I am trying to find an employer that will pay me enough for me to make loan payments, and who is into the whole rowing thing.  As you can imagine, it is not the best economy to be asking employers for that type of arrangement.  So, that is where I am at personally- trying to find a way to make it work.  But yeah, rowing at the Olympics sounds pretty nice.  (And if anyone out there needs a lawyer/public policy guy/rower on staff, give me a call.)

In terms of Cody and I, we haven’t talked about it a lot, except that we both are trying to see if it is feasible for us individually.  A few days before leaving for Poland, my ribs started hurting again, and that kind of knocked us off of our game, and prevented us from doing any real pieces leading up to the regatta.  We were kind of riding a wave until then, but being off the water like that really slowed our momentum, and was a really crappy, anticlimactic and depressing way to end the quadrennial.  I would like to make up for that.

We now have a group of lightweights in Philly at a number of clubs that will be mixing up boats, and we are both a part of that, and have committed to working with various people to try and get faster doubles and quads (although I am really just starting to seriously train again).  If we both decide that we can make it work for 2012, we could end up together.  However, I am sort of neurotic and a pain in the ass to train with, so, I wouldn’t want to commit anyone to rowing with me that many years out.  WOLF - Now you are in the new USADA testing system of where you have to give an hour of time each and every day to when you can be tested. How is this affecting your life and how would you change the system if you could?    Dan U-A It is a stupid system.  Very, very stupid.Under the old system, if you happened to be away from your house when they came, they called you, and you had an hour to show up.  It meant that as long as I was in Philly, I didn’t really have to worry about it, because I could always get back to my apartment in time when they called.  It was pretty low-stress, and I was still tested regularly and randomly. In the system now, if I am around the corner getting a cup of coffee and they show up, they cannot call me, and I get a missed test. 

Further, like many people I put a late time for testing, figuring that I would be home that late.  But, because I put a late time, if I make plans late in the day (say 30 minutes before my testing hour I decide to go to the movies) I was told I could get into trouble by updating it so late, because I then didn’t give an hour to be tested that day.  I currently have three different alarms set on my blackberry to remind me.

It is probably not USADA’s fault.  But, I hope they communicate to WADA just how much it sucks, and I hope the athlete lawsuits succeed.  I would simply change the system back to the old one, which was pretty comprehensive.  

WOLF — I know you’re a Philly person but would you consider training elsewhere and where would you go?   DAN U-A Long term, no.  I have a lot of non-rowing stuff going on in Philly that I can’t walk away from, nor want to.  But for a short period, say for a year or something pre-London, I would do pretty much do anything or go anywhere if I could make it work financially. 

Besides glorious Philadelphia, I don’t think you can beat San Fran as a city.  And CRC is a great environment.  But San Diego, or any other warm weather place with good water, would be fine too.    

WOLF - The Phillies won the World Series last year, now we all know this is a dam fluke that happens every so often – How do you like their chances this year?   DAN U-A You always wonder how teams or people will respond to winning.  Shane Madden once beat me in a video game, and then promptly put on a homemade crown, called himself King, and refused to go to practice for a week.

However, the Phils have responded better.  Phillies Spring training looks like the season finale of “the Biggest Loser.”  Ryan Howard has lost a ton of weight, and Brett Myers doesn’t even look like the same person.  And what a lot of people don’t talk about outside of Philly is that greatest infield in the history of the world of Rollins-Utley-Howard all had pretty down offensive seasons versus their career norms.  If they play more to type, and the pitching stays healthy, they will win more games this year. 

Also, the Red Sox will lose 115 games this year.  And the fake Red Sox nation, with those pink hats worn by people who think Pesky’s Pole is the title of a 1980’s era skin flick, has to be the most annoying thing in pro sports outside of Joe Buck.  I just wanted to throw that out there.     Extra 1 WOLF -  As a rower you have to road trip and travel a bunch – What 3 non rowing things do you NEED to bring with you in order to get thru the boring times of just sitting around in hotels?       DAN U-A Even though you are bored, you have to give up any idea of being productive.  Once you enter the hotel, seriously, just forget it.Book of NY Times crossword puzzles.DVD Box sets.

More DVD Box sets.

Fresh off his win at the NZ Championships this past weekend I am happy to bring you Mahe Drysdale

Wolf -We all know you were here at the Head of Charles party this past year, now one of my fellow RBC members won the club four and he had a few too many drinks. Do you remember this sort of big dorky guy coming up to you and bragging that he won the Charles and you did not?                

 Mahe- Sorry I don’t remember this exact incident, He will need to try and harder next year to do something I cant forget! I was a little disappointed with my performance at the Charles last year, being 16KG over my race weight and spending 3 days training (since the Olympics) wasn’t the ideal preparation, and with Nathan Cohen and the NZ woman’s double winning it was easy to forget about the race and just enjoy the rest of the event. I always love coming to the Charles and this year I will be fit and looking forward to trying to take the title again, it has been my boogey event performance wise with 1 out 4 wins. The Party always makes you quickly forget the disappointments on the race course though.   

Wolf-  I have to ask and I am sure you hear it all the time , so what is the plan for this year for you, hell what is the plan for the next four years in regards to you rowing the single for NZ?              

Mahe- Good question and its been one its taken me awhile to answer. Initially I was going to take this year off from international racing and just go to “fun regattas” After my trip around to the fall regattas and some time off I started to get the rowing bug back. I was thinking I can sit around for a year waiting to get back into it or just go for it. I have now been back training full time for a month and am absolutely loving it. I have made a few changes and while its early days things are going great at this stage. I will be in London in 2012 and my goal is to be best I possibly can be. I still think I have some improvements to make and so will be working on those this year as I aim for the world championships. I have just won the National champs and on Sunday our trials start where I will try and secure the single sculls spot for the Worlds this year.    

Wolf-- All what is a typical training day like for you? What is your workload like?     

Mahe- We train 6 days a week and usually do 2-3 sessions a day for a total of around 14 sessions a week. Most of our time is spent on the water with a couple of sessions in the gym we would look at averaging around 200KM per week with each session being anywhere from 16-30KM long.  

Wolf - So in the past four years what has been you best race and what made it so?   

Mahe - That’s a tough one. I have 3 stand out races and they are my 3 world championship finals races. 2005 was most surprising and I have never felt more elation than after winning, being my first worlds medal was also special. 2006 2^nd 1000M was my most gutsy and I call it the “get out of Jail” race, I made some errors early but felt relieved at the end that I had come back and made up for my mistakes taking a very tight win and world best time.  Probably my most satisfying and when I think about it probably my best ever race was Munich 2007. I was confident, rowed well and at no point felt like I was going to loose. I always felt in control and when I took off at the 1000M mark there was no one that could keep up, that was very satisfying and I think it was all the more special for me because early on in that year things didn’t go well with a 4^th place at the 2^nd world cup.   

Wolf- I have to ask this one as well or it just would not be me and my readers would kill me, why not a double with Waddell and let the little guy Cohen have a go in the single for a year? Just one year?!      Mahe-Never say never! I think we are both too set on the single. I love the single and that will always be my first choice but would be interested to try the double one day to see how it goes.  

Extra 1 Wolf-So you have traveled the world and seen many people and places, where are the best looking women?  What do you think I was going to say where is the best race course?     

 Mahe- That’s a tough one because everywhere we travel we usually have people from all over the world. I have to say numbers wise the Head of the Charles attracts the biggest numbers of stunners but the Dutch and the Swedes are always hard to beat.

Good morning all  

I thought would do my best to touch base with someone on the international level for a special Speed 5.  One of our avid users put me in touch with Bo Vestergaard.

Bo is head of training for the Danish Center of Rowing, providing workouts to the Danish rowing elite. - Bo’s work includes: developing targeted seasonal time- and training plans, tailored to the practitioner’s age and level, and developing detailed objectives, action plans and evaluations for / with individuals and teams Bo also teaches the understanding and use of sport psychology tools

  Simply put Bo trains that really fast dude Henrik Stephansen, you know the guy who broke 6:00 min as a lightweight!!!  You want to know what this guy is on he is on

http://www.rojabo.com/   Check it out and learn how to train like the Danes !!!  

I would like to thank Jakob Øjvind Nielsen for hooking us up. 

  Folks we can’t do this with out you.  So please feel free log on to the front/home www.rowingillustrated.com <http://www.rowingillustrated.com/> page and scroll to the “donate” button and just click to send your donation via PayPal.
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Rowing Illustrated
Sean Wolf
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Somerville MA 02144 Cheers Sean Wolf www.rowingillustrated.comWhere real rowers talk real rowing.    

Wolf  ”What workouts do you feel are the most essential for any training program, 
what are his favorites/most productive for the athletes power?”

BO- It is important that the athletes know the purpose of his training program – what he wants to achieve - because no training program is inherently good for everybody. A good training program is one that mixes large amounts of low training and a relatively small amount of high intensity - that’s how you get the different energy systems in the body to supplement each other. But exactly how you should mix intensities is entirely dependent on the goals of each individual athlete and on his or her fitness level. In Rojabo, we’ve developed a method for testing that level and planning your training program accordingly. You can read more about it at Rojabo.com.

Wolf- ”Rumor has it that the Danish lwts do higher intensity and power training 
more than the avg team, or more consistently throughout the year. Is this 
the case?”

BO-Yes. In Denmark all athletes even at the highest levels either study or work, so even though people try to adapt their work-hours to their training schedule, there is a culture of training shorter at higher intensity – especially in the winter - to make it all fit together. 

Wolf- ”What is Rojabo? And who are they, how did they get started w/ Danish 
Rowing, & what is their role now?”

BO- Rojabo is an online training scheduler for serious rowers founded last year by me, Bo Vestergaard, and my partner, Jakob Øjvind Nielsen.

Starting with the ‘who’ - I myself won seven WC medals, two of which were gold, and later on – as a coach – I’ve had different teams win both WC and Olympic medals. In the last eight years I’ve been developing and supplying training programs for the Danish National Team. Jakob Øjvind is also a former elite rower, who won a WC bronze medal under my training. Equally important, he is also a brilliant IT-developer.

The ‘what’ of Rojabo is a concept for developing individualized training programs using a set of testing procedures and a whole lot of math. This is the concept I’ve been developing and using in my work with the National Team, and it is the same concept which our customers can take advantage of. We currently support 25 Danish elite rowers with individual training programs. The goal, of course, is to create more WC and Olympic wins.

Wolf- ”There are a lot of very strong lwts in Denmark despite the country’s size. 
What contributes to the success of lwt rowing in Denmark more: The training 
program and coaches, or because rowing is viewed as a high profile sport 
and the best athletes want to row?”

BO- Good question! We’ve often asked ourselves what exactly is the key to the successes of Danish lwts. I like to think that the training makes a difference, of course. But there are also other important factors to be considered.

Denmark is a small country – really small – and Copenhagen is the only major city. Because of that, all national level athletes are easily persuaded to move to Copenhagen where not only the National Team but also most of the major educational institutions and many major employers are located. That way all members of the National Team can easily train together on a daily basis and it is easy for the trainers to follow their development closely, which really gives their development curve a boost.

Rowing is certainly not a very popular sport here – especially not in the open classes where recruitment is a real problem. But it is a respected sport in the sense that those that practice it take it very seriously and are admired for it.

WOLF- ”Do you feel Henrik Stephansen will break the 5:55 time in the next year ?”

BO-Henrik Stephansen has the potential to row 2000m at 5.55 – definitely. He is only 20, and if he remains uninjured and continues training optimally, it is not unlikely that he might break the time next winter.

Wolf- ”How many gold medals do you see the Danish team obtaining in the next 
Olympics and in what events?”

BO- Denmark’s focus is on getting an LM4-, an LM2x, and an LW2x to the 2012 Olympics. The target is two gold medals in the LM4 and LM2x as well as a medal in the LW2x.