Ice on the Willamette

I was not planing on posting for the next few weeks, but we're in the midst of quite a memorable storm. I've lived in or had family in Portland my whole life and this is probably the most snow I've ever seen on the valley floor. I just got back from a cross-country ski expedition and we saw the most remarkable thing-- ice forming on the Willamette River. Check it out.



Ice forming inside one of the small marinas.



The Sellwood Bridge; this is about 750 meters upstream of our boathouse and dock. The silvery color on the bridge railing is frozen rain icing over.



The dock at Staff Jennings; Staff is a boating store that does all of our engine maintenance and repair. Their boat ramp has ice forming and the white flecks in the river are ice flows breaking off of this.



Looking downstream from the Sellwood Bridge. Our dock is in the middle of the picture on the right bank.

NOT a good day to row.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Portland, and campus, is still snow-bound. I'm in my office today (Friday) and the campus is closed; absolutely dead quiet. It seems a good time to wrap things up for 2008.

I probably won't post again until the new year; start looking for posts around January 6th when I get back from vacation. At that point we'll have 20 days to get ready for the start of practices and I expect things to ramp up very quickly!

A very happy holidays to everyone and here's hoping for an excellent 2009.

All Quiet on Campus

A view from the front porch of Zehntbauer (the swim pavilion, where the crew program office lives) this afternoon. Obviously people were sledding earlier but it was very quiet on campus today as students wrapped up finals. Some interesting challenges present themselves to our students as for the first time in school history a finals day (Monday) had to be canceled due to weather. Professors are left to assign a take home final, reschedule to fit with their classes availability, or wait until the start of the spring semester.

I like to think our athletes are better prepared then those without athletic experience; part of success in the competitive arena is being able to adapt to challenges and circumstances other then what was prepared for. Good luck to all our team members as they finish with finals, and safe travels to everyone headed home or wherever the holidays find you.

Snow Day

Very quiet Sunday in Portland, and we're buried (well, dusted at least) in a few inches of snow. It doesn't snow often here but when it does it's beautiful. I took a walk earlier and shot some video of the snow in Willamette Park and along the path on the west shore of the river.


Snow Day from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

The water looked fine. . . it would have been a cool (cold!) day to row.

Goodbye Charlie Brown

Got up early today and headed over to the boathouse on a wet and chilly Saturday to help a couple of Lakeside School coaches load the Charlie S. Brown on their trailer. The oldest eight in our fleet, the Charlie S. Brown served Lewis & Clark crew well over the years. Like the regatta, the boat was named in memorial of a longtime Lewis & Clark coach. Originally one of the primary racing boats, the hull has moved through the squad to the JV's, novice, and finally to the beginning rowing course.

And today the Charlie S. Brown finished up her career at Lewis & Clark. Not for long, though-- by common consensus, the new four will take up the name Charlie Brown this spring.

Tour of Boathouse

And now for the final, ultimate video test. . . High Definition. Thanks to media services at Lewis & Clark, I procured the use of an HD camera, took a quick video tour of our boathouse and dock, clipped it together, and uploaded it.

Pretty nice, eh?


Boathouse Tour in HD from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

By the way, if you click on the link for my name above you can see the even better quality version.

With the option of both quick videos from the Flipcam, and super-high quality video from the HD camera, we should be able to get lots of film this spring. With our new erg space right next to the Athletics Department Media room (with HD TV) this should be a cool new toy to play with.

Video test #2

Just another video test today. . . comparing a previously uploaded video from our Oregon State scrimmage uploaded in Vimeo, and uploaded in Blogger.

So, Blogger:




And Vimeo:


Women's 4+ vs. Oregon State from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

What do we think?

Gremlins & Video

After an hour spent checking and rechecking two sets of oars at the boathouse, I'm convinced the little guy you see above is a Rigging Gremlin; he comes around after everything has been set and tightened down solidly and makes small changes to drive coaches nuts.

Seriously, what is that?

I'm playing around with video hosting on Vimeo; I'm not a fan of the blogger upload as we lose most of the quality. Take a look at this video from earlier in the fall-- let me know if you like the quality/etc. Bear in mind it's not the best video in the first place.

Practice 9-20 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Applied Knowledge

Writing from home in a fuzzy fleece with a hot cup of coffee. At some point I need to saddle up and ride the bike up to campus. . . but it's fairly cold outside. . . hmmmm. A challenge I'm sure all rowers are familiar with when pondering training options. I always feel much better post ride, so I'm sure I'll get moving pretty soon here.

Attended a very good coaching clinic in Seattle on Saturday. The USRowing annual convention, where most of the coaching education in the country happens, was going on this weekend in Atlantic City, NJ. The cost and time required to attend was prohibative this year. I found out about this smaller clinic and decided it was a good opportunity. I was impressed with the format and presentation, and most importantly came away with a number of good ideas for our team.

The key now is figuring out how to apply these ideas. When I'm in the clinic and I hear something I like, invariably I start the process with "oh, we're going to do that!". Then we work our way through the system-- will it work? Do we have the equipment, time, and space required? Most importantly, just because someone else uses a technique, training session, or technology, is it going to have a real benefit for our team?

Good ideas are just that, ideas. Turning them into action requires consideration to make sure our program makes sense to us and most importantly to the athletes. This is one of the great challenges of coaching. Making a new concept work is a highly satisfying part of the job.

At the clinic I also saw the parent of a current athlete who's now coaching in Seattle-- it's nice to make these connections, and to see how rowing runs in families.

OK- off to the bike.

Glorious

Just back in the office after taking our new sets of slings to the boathouse and working for a bit on organization down there. Adjusting rack space for our fours, changing where things are stored, getting ready to put in a new work bench to replace the (very old and dirty) home built one we have now. Lots of little projects we think and talk about but never do while practice is going on.

The river is incredible today; it's about 45 degrees and sunny right now and absolutely dead flat with no boat traffic. I think I spent about ten minutes just standing on the dock looking at the perfect water. I've got the itch; we've got quite a few weeks before practice starts again but I'm starting to get antsy to get back out there.

AND a great tip.

Two posts in one day. . .what the hey?

But this is a classic tip. From one of the worlds best professional cyclists, a little wisdom to help you go fast, regardless of your sport.


Watch Tuesday Tip - Jens Voigt in Sports Online | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Great Quote

I'm reading "The Wonder Crew", an account of the 1920 Navy eight that won the gold medal at the Olympic Games, and came across this most excellent quote:

"I have never heard anyone profess indifference to a boat race. Why should you row a boat race? Why endure long months of pain in preparation of a fierce half hour, or even six minutes, that will leave you all but dead? Does anyone ask the question? Is there anyone who would not go through all its costs, and more, for the moment when anguish breaks into triumph--or even for the glory of having nobly lost? Is life less then a boat race? If a man will give all the blood in his body to win the one, will he not spend all the might of his soul to prevail in the other?"
-- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Yale University commencement, 1886

Down Time

This week- the week after Thanksgiving, the week before reading period-- is probably the single quietest one of a DIII rowing coaches calender. This has, at least, been my experience. Students are into their studies (rightly so) and we're into the doldrums of winter; enough time has passed for the dust from fall to have settled, still quite some time before the serious ramp up to spring begins.

The practice schedule is mostly done, and I'm liking the look of it. Very symmetrical. Current athletes: be fit! It will make your life much easier the next three weeks through finals, and will help you prepare for the season.

Prospective recruits: be in touch! I know this is a time of year where a lot goes on at home as well. I'm seeing promising mentions about our early action applicants from admissions, and hopefully most will have good news. If you're thinking about applying regular action this is a great time to get in touch-- I've got a lot of free time to chat and would love to talk.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I got in two long rides and a hike; so far the holiday eating has yet to get to the scale.