Sunday, April 02, 2006

Launch Exhaust

A reader of FITD, (who also left a couple of comments) is one of three people who write on Launch Exhaust a blog mostly about coaching rowing and, in the case of this reader, being married to a coach. I think Launch Exhaust merits a mention here for a couple of reasons. First, the blogging coach is the coach of the Pitt lightweight four that just won that event at the Murphy Cup. There were good crews in that race and this was a nice win for Pitt. Second, while not all of the posts are specifically about rowing, those that are give some insight into a coach's thought process. It's easy to believe that a coach makes decisions with the certainty of a computer program and the emotion of a stormtrooper, but catch the right posts on this blog and you'll see that's not true. Who knows, you might even get some inside scoop on an upcoming opponent (probably not after this post, though)!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, thanks for the mention. As Emily said, it's always great to see another rowing blog out there.

I started Launch Exhaust as a way to communicate with my crews, but its become a vehicle for my own thoughts on all sort of subjects as time has gone on. I usually put more rowing posts on as the season goes on; winter training isn't the time to try and get crews jacked up.

I was very happy with the Pitt lights last weekend because of the challenges they've had to overcome this spring. What we call "Asian bird flu" (not really) has been knocking off athletes for weeks at a time. Because Pitt only has 4 light women, when one gets sick, the boat sits in the rack.

This last week has been quite a challenge, with only two practice days due to illness. I'm hoping the weekend will help the girls kick this thing. Knecht cup next weekend will be another tough race, and they're hoping to build toward a great performance at Vails.

Great blog, keep it up! Lightweight rowing is great fun to coach and watch, because not everyone can be a knuckle-dragging heavyweight thug like I was.