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The High Performance Team trains hard all year long with their eyes on the National Team and hopefully the Olympics. As they continue on their journey, they will be providing updates and insights into their experience. Check back regularly to see what's going on.
Update from Steve in Bled! Great news! Good morning, In a dramatic finish, the US LW4x, with Katherine Robinson and Lindsey Hochman at stern pair, won the bronze medal! In fourth place for most of the race and trailing Italy by 1.5 seconds with 500m remaining, Katherine let out a yell and the boat took off! Posting a time of 6:33.91, the US took the bronze from the Italians who crossed in 6:33.92. It was an amazing race to watch and I am so proud of these athletes. We could not have done it without all of your support throughout the year, so HUGE thank you to all of you for making this possible. We are looking forward to spending some relaxing time back in Seattle and will see you all soon. Go USA! Go Pocock!! Steve
Photos from Hochman and Robinson in Bled, preparing for the World Championships!
Summer 2010 - "Some changes, but the program keeps rolling..."
The team has undergone some changes recently, and we need to let everyone know what's going on with the HP athletes this summer. Check back here shortly for an update on all of the recent HP's, where they are right now, and meet some of our newest oarsmen and women!
8/10/09 - "HP Athletes are Going to the World Championship!"
By The Office via Nancy Hochman via US Rowing
We are overwhelmed with excitement and pride in our 5 athletes (over 50% of the HP Team) and 2 coaches headed to the World Championships in Poznan, Poland: August 23rd to 30th! Lindsey Hochman, Abby Broughton, Michelle Trannel, Jimmy Sopko, and Kenny McMahon represent the PRC at Worlds along with coaches Bryan Volpenhein and Steve Dani. Although they did not qualify for the US Senior National Team, Jill Austin and Carmel Zahran had strong performances at trials. Jill was in the light weight 4X that came in second to the 4X that Abby and Lindsey rowed. Carmel competed in the light weight 1X against 5 other athletes to place 3rd in the finals. Congratulations to all our athletes and Good Luck at Worlds!
The athletes and HP Program also need your support to continue at such a high level. For more information on how you can help, please visit the HP Page.
Read the US Rowing Press Release here.
7/31/09 - "Hello once again from New Jersey!"
By Abby Broughton
Hello once again from New Jersey! I hope those of you in Seattle are surviving the heat wave!
It has been a while since any of us have updated the blog, however that doesn't mean that we don't think about
our good ol' boathouse back home quite frequently. Lindsey and I were just talking the other day about how much we miss our wonderful community at Pocock, the spacious weight room, and the locker room that doesn't smell nearly as bad as the one here. Not to mention the Seattle sunrises and Mt. Rainier and relatively scum-less water. I think all of us back here in NJ would agree that it has been a LONG summer so far, and it is a relief that World Championship Trials are less than a week away!
After a long selection process for the double, I've found myself in the LW4x, which is going well so far. Lindsey and I are with two gals from Riverside, and things are starting to gel and really come together. Jill will be racing as well at Trials, in a 4x she has been training in down in Philly. I wish we didn't have to be competing against each other, but at the same time it's great that we're all getting the opportunity to race and I'm sure both boats will push each other to the max. Michelle and Kristin are working hard in the LW2x, as are Kenny and Jimmy in the L8+, and Carmel in the LW1x. Needless to say, it'll be an important and exciting week of Trials!
Follow results on www.powerhousetiming.com. In the quad, we have to win two out of three finals to qualify. Both the light eight and light double are uncontested, so they just have to do one run through the course. Carmel will be racing against seven other women, so will be up against the most competition so send her speedy wishes!!
7/13/09 - "US National Champions"
By The Office
This quite an overdue post: congratulations to all of Pococks Elite Athletes who raced in the US National Championships! A bit from US Rowing's site:
"In the lightweight women's double sculls, USRowing Training Center's Michelle Trannel and Kristin Hedstrom came from two seconds back at the 1,000-meter mark to win the gold medal. Teammates Abby Broughton and Lindsey Hochman led the race at the midway point, but Trannel and Hedstrom came back to win with a time of 7:12.777. Broughton and Hedstrom held on for second place, finishing in a 7:13.849."
Kenny McMahon also won in the Lightweight Men's 8+. PRC Junior Alex Johnson was also out racing alongside the masters. The athletes are all currently training in Princeton. Good luck to all as they prepare for the 2009 World Rowing Championships August 23-30 in Poznan, Poland!
6/23/09 - "Chef Bryan's Online!"
By The Office
Check out coach Bryan Volpenhein on USRowing speaking about the HP Program and how to make some delicious chicken:
On the team: http://www.usrowing.org/MediaCenter.aspx?id=255&topicID=35
On how to make pan-fried chicken: http://www.usrowing.org/MediaCenter.aspx?id=161&topicID=35
6/9/09 - "News from the Boys"
By Jimmy Sopko
Kenny and I are both settled in at the lightweight men's 4- camp. 12 of the best lightweights in the country are here with only 4 spots available. The competition is going to be fierce but I think the training that we put in over the winter at Pocock has prepared us well. Bryan is here too. He'll be here for the majority of the summer assisting the head lightweight coach with the LM4-. It's nice to have some familiar faces around.
Growing up in Virginia and being in Seattle for the past 3 years I've forgotten how different the right side of the country is from the left. Driving for three hours in Washington gets you to Washington or Portland with no traffic. Driving three hours here gets you through three to four states. I've been to Maryland three times. To get there I drove through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. One trip was to the Naval Academy, which I had not been in over two years. It was nice going to the old Alma Mater and reminiscing on the good old days. I spent some time with my college rowing coach talking about my recent training and getting pep talks about the upcoming selection.
Well that's all I've got for now. Kenny and I will try to keep you guys posted on the progress. We hope everything is well in Seattle and I'm looking forward to getting back there.
5/28/09 - "Greetings from the first World Cup: Banyoles, Spain"
By Bryan Volpenhein
I hope things back home are as nice as they have been here. Let me back up a bit and explain why we are here. Two weeks ago Abby and Michelle won the second National Selection Regatta in Princeton, New Jersey giving them the opportunity to race at a World Cup of their choice. We decided to come to the first one here in Banyoles, Spain. It's about 90 minutes north of Barcelona and was the location of the rowing regatta for the '92 Olympic Games. We arrived Sunday with a small group (M1x, W1x, M2x, M2-, LM2x and LW2x) and drove up in a couple rental vans. Road trips in Europe are fun and the rest stops in Spain have some good food. Things have been moving along over here. If you can believe it they sent me and another young coach from the California Rowing Club, Joel Scrogin (I’ve know Joel for a long time and rowed with him at U23 camps) to look after the crews. We’ve been busy rigging, getting parts, painting blades and making sure everyone has what they need, but it’s been fun. We are staying about 20 minutes south of the course at a very modern European hotel in Girona, the town Lance Armstrong lived in for two years after he had enough of the French.
This is one of the best places to row in the world. It certainly rivals any place I've ever raced. It's a natural spring lake exactly 2000m long and just wide enough for six lanes. It’s located in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains and surrounded by farms with clay tile-roofed estates and winding country roads with an odd mixture of smart cars and V8 Audis. The people have been wonderful and easy going. The course is frequented by locals, swimming, biking, walking, watching, and eating at the restaurant. I have enjoyed the ‘jamon y queso’ sandwiches and beer after a long day at the course. I think they are on to something, maybe Pocock should look into a bar/café (hint, hint). My Spanish is getting better. I’ve actually had a few conversations, albeit brief, only in Spanish. Well…I hope they understood.
Racing starts tomorrow and Abby and Michelle seem ready. They are having fun and joking around which is a good sign. The competition is very tough so we’ll see how the racing goes tomorrow and make any adjustments as we go along. Ursula Grobler-James, formerly of the Pocock Rowing Center, is racing for Espana and she is racing in the same heat in the lane next to Abby and Michelle. I think it will be fun for them to race a friend in their first international race. There are eleven crews in their event. If they win the heat they advance on to the final on Sunday, if not then they are on to the Repechages on Saturday and then have to place top two to make the final. For more info and to watch results and live streaming racing check out this website www.worldrowing.com. For more info about USRowing selection procedures visit: www.usrowing.com.
Thanks for all your support and we’ll see you soon!
5/18/09 - "The End of the Beginning"
By Abby Broughton
There's nothing like spending three weeks together doing something as focused and intense as a rowing selection camp, to bring a group together. Michelle and I drove Lindsey and Jill to the airport this morning, said some sad goodbyes, and watched them bump through the doors with their huge duffle bags and packaged oars resembling a giant Q-tip. We missed them within a second, (well, at least within a second after we picked them up and dropped them off again, after realizing we were at the wrong terminal and JFK!! oops!).
It has been a long past few weeks, while at the same time it came and went so quickly. It's just the end of the beginning of an awesome summer for all of us! I am so proud of all the Pocock rowers, not only with our results across the board, but also with the way we handled ourselves on and off the water. As a group, we sent any stereotypes of the "catty lightweight" out the window, and even through the challenges of weight-making and competing with and against each other, things remained pretty drama-free!
Last Wednesday at the Lake Mercer boathouse the staple-ridden plywood information boards appeared in their usual spot outside, and I felt my stomach do a little flip in anticipation of the upcoming race, National Selection Regatta #2. However, turning around to then see Carmel, Jimmy, Kenny, and Bryan at the boathouse was great and also comforting - I think we had all really missed those guys and it was so good to see some fresh yet familiar faces. The time was approaching to shake up our routine and do some racing in our new line-ups! The camp resulted in three fast and competitive doubles: Lindsey with Kristin (from Wisco), Jill with Meghan (from Philly), and me with Michelle. We also knew there were other fast crews coming from Seattle (yeah Carmel and Cecily!!), Boston, and Philly, and I think everyone was prepared for some tough racing!
Check out the results at: http://secure.powerhousetiming.com/powerhouse/webpages/raceResults.jsp?raceId=216
Friday's time trial happened on nice water, but it was one of those "thick" and muggy days that almost seemed to slow down the times overall. Saturday none of us from Pocock raced, because there were not enough boats in either of the events to need heats or semis. Sunday the wind was out...a nasty cross/tailwind that was threatening unfair conditions across the race course. After the usual routine of weighing in two hours before the race, and taking some time to eat, hydrate, and focus, we prepared to launch only to see boats being called in off the water. After lots of deliberating, the officials decided to run the A Finals two hours late, when the wind died down a little. It was some scrappy rowing out there, battling the gusts, but overall some great racing.
Yesterday after racing was a day of celebrating, and of course, EATING, especially for all us lighties. :)
This coming Saturday, the 23rd, Bryan, Michelle, and I will be flying to Spain, to race in this year's first World Cup Regatta, May 29-31st! It's quite soon to be racing internationally, but seems our best chance at gauging our speed early on, and hopefully at placing in the top four which would qualify us for the World Championships. As usual with this rowing life, we won't be sure of what we will be doing or where we will be living until after we cross the finish line! It's all very exciting and we can't wait to represent the USA, and POCOCK at this regatta!
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5/4/09 - "One week down in rainy New Jersey!"
By Abby Broughton
After one HOT and sunny day of rowing here in Princeton, we've found ourselves right back at home in our familiar Seattle drizzle. Despite the piles of soggy spandex, week one of training camp has been great! Life in the rowing bubble at its best. For me, there's nothing like being able to fully focus in on your dream so much every day, that you can actually tell you're living it. What an incredible opportunity!
We are staying in two different homes with wonderful host families, but for the most part we spend most of our time together: me, Jill, Michelle, Lindsey, and Kristin from Wisco. When not on the water, showers and naps tend to take priority, but there will usually be a daily trip to the grocery store, and a stop at "Dunks" (Dunkin' Donuts), for after-practice coffee. And then, there are the jigsaw puzzles. We managed to attack and complete a 2000-piecer within just a few days, with similar intent and focus as you might see in an 80-minute erg piece, but with less sweat. We're now in the middle of a 1500-piece puzzle but have been breaking that one up with some movie-watching and granola-baking. As you can see, life off the water is pretty relaxed. This is important, because when we are at practice, there is no room for anything but our highest focus and sharpest performance. The actual training doesn't necessarily feel physically harder than what we're used to in Seattle, however there is more at stake and a lot to think about as we're switching doubles' partners every couple of days and doing our best to match up and make the boats move as fast as possible. Yesterday we had our first day of pieces with switches, which will be the first of two extra important workouts used to gauge who will end up together and who makes the fastest boat. We should know within this next week what our lineups will be for NSR II, May 15-17th!
Puzzles...
It has been especially great to see how much our group as a whole has improved over just the past week. We've been working hard and doing lots of drills, and as our technique unifies and we learn how to row with each other, our overall speed has increased a lot. The coach actually has formulas to measure this and compare our speeds to the speeds of the other groups training here, all in relation to world records and speeds of various super-fast crews of the past.
Another big component of life as a lightweight rower, is the lightweight part. Weight and eating just the right things and the right amounts is constantly on our minds. We consume lots of rabbit food, however luckily there is always a little room for some indulgence, in moderation of course! In fact, yesterday my wonderful teammates made me a delicious, semi-healthy birthday cake, which we ate with a salad for dinner!
...and cake!
All-in-all, life in NJ is treating us well, but of course we miss Seattle, our other teammates, and our wonderful rowing community there. We were just talking yesterday about how much we love and value our Pocock support network. It's not just our own sweat and hard work that got us this far...it's knowing we're connected and supported that gives us the confidence and stamina to take it to the next level. So, thanks!
More soon...for now, keep thinking fast thoughts for us Pocock gals!
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4/23/09 - "HP Update and Summer Plans"
By Bryan Volpenhein
Speed Orders:
We recently raced at the spring Speed Order in Princeton, NJ. We took eight athletes and they all did well. We had four athletes in finals, two in B-finals and two in C-finals. There was a different format for this Speed Order from what has been done in the past. They raced in singles and then the top 12 finishers were paired up and raced in doubles. Abby Broughton won both events. Lindsay Hochman and Michelle Trannel place 5th and 6th respectively in the single. Jill Austin won the B-final and raced the double with Lindsey where they placed 5th. Michelle row with a Riverside athlete and placed 3rd in the double. Kenny McMahon made the final in the single and was .1 sec out of second in the double. Todd placed 8th in the single and 4th in the double. Jimmy and Carmel both place 14th and therefore did not race the doubles.
These are very good results and it is a great start to the four years they have to go. However, I’m waiting to see how they do by the end of the summer to fully assess their progress. This is a ‘post Olympic’ year and the competition is generally slower, so I’m not sure if they were faster than last year or if everyone else slowed down. I do think they were more prepared to race. We’ll get a better sense of real speed in a couple weeks. For the most part, they did meet or exceed my expectations.
What this means:
Good things are happening, though. This group of athletes works very well together. They were all very supportive of each other and very outgoing to the other athletes. They represented Pocock well! Combine this with very solid results they have established themselves as the top group of lightweights anywhere and are the ones to beat. Four of the six women have been invited a two-week doubles camp to select boats to race at the National Selection Regatta II, May 15-18. The men and other two women will be preparing here in Seattle for the same race. Jimmy and Kenny will be switching to sweep rowing, hoping to gain invites to the 4- and 8+ camp. Todd is looking for a partner to race the 2x. After this race we’ll evaluate the results and figure out where everyone will be and go from there.
Summer Rowing Program at Pocock:
In the meantime several athletes, both post-collegiate and collegiate, have contacted us about training at Pocock as full time members as well as summers between semesters at school. We have confirmed two new athletes, but we need to develop this. I will be spending as much time as possible in Seattle trying to organize and coach this group, with Steve, Matt and Dusan helping out, I think we can make this a great place to row in the summer. We will be only rowing once a day and doing lots of outdoor cross-training. Depending on how many we get we hope to make a trip to Canadian Henley in August. I’m working with Matt on fitting in the Program with all the other important summer programs going on at Pocock. There is also the possibility of taking a boat to the U23 World Championship Trials, but if someone makes the LW2X or LM2X there will be a schedule conflict with the Lucerne World Cup that will need to be worked out.
World Championships and Beyond:
It looks like we have several athletes with very good chances of making the Senior World Championship Team this summer in Poznan, Poland. The events would be LW2X, LM4-, LM2-,LM8+, LW4X and three of them will require the athletes to pay their way, which means Pocock will need to organize a fund-raiser to help them. The estimated cost/athlete is $3100 plus airfare. The timing on this is important and I’ll need some advice as to when to have this event. They will need to leave about 10 days after they are officially selected to the team, so this is a quick turnaround to put on a fund-raiser.
By this fall we will have added three new athletes, two heavyweight men and a coxswain, with potential of three athletes from UW(two are Canadian and want to stay here instead of going to Elk Lake). Then it’s all about having fun going to all the local head races and one big trip to a fall race.
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4/13/09 - "Speed Order Update: The Finals"
By Bryan Volpenhein
There was new format at this year’s spring speed order. It consisted of racing in singles, doubles, pairs, and fours. It is a combination of an open trial system for athlete identification and a kind of mini selection camp. The idea is to give the people the freedom to train where they want and with whom they want. This gives them the opportunity to race in small boats, and then bring the top performers together and test them out in combinations to see if the larger talent pool can make the fastest boats. At first people were a little skeptical about how it would work in practice. I think it’s a great idea and if we continue down this road we can create a system that is flexible and dynamic and will create a broader team culture between competing clubs, while still maintaining their autonomy. In the end, all the athletes that I spoke with (Pocock and others) thought it was a success and they all had a lot of fun. We now have a large group of athletes who know each other and are willing to work together in order to make fast boats to compete at the world championships as the United States.
As far as Pocock is concerned, there was a great turn out in all the sculling events and our athletes did very well. There were twenty-four entries in the lightweight women’s single. Abby Broughton, Lindsay Hochman, and Michelle Trannel all made the final, placing 1st, 5th, and 6th, respectively. Jill Austin won the B-final by a significant margin and Carmel Zarhan place second in the C-final in her first regatta at the elite level. The top twelve finishers raced in doubles on Saturday. Abby was in the winning double, Michelle place third, and Lindsey and Jill placed fifth. The idea was to switch line-ups and race again, but the weather didn’t cooperate and we only ended up racing once.
On the men’s side Pocock had three athletes competing in the lightweight men’s single. There were 20 entries and our athletes place 5th, 8th, and 14th. Kenny McMahon made the final, finishing 5th in his first time racing the single over the 2000m distance. Todd Mickelson had a great race in the B-final and Jimmy Sopko placed second in the C-final (not bad after he thought he would not be able to row this summer and stopped training for a couple weeks). The doubles race on Saturday was competitive all the way down the course. Kenny placed third, missing out on second place by .1 seconds. Todd was not far behind in fifth.
I’m very happy with the results across the board. Not all the athletes did as well as they would have liked, but they all had great races at some point throughout the regatta and overall the trip was productive. I’m excited for this summer and looking forward to helping them prepare for the next step on their way to a successful year.
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4/8/09 - "FIGHTING NUTRIA HAVE BEEN SPOTTED IN JERSEY"
By Bryan Volpenhein
The Pocock High Performance Team recently made the annual trip out east to participate in the first of three selection races as part of the process in making the US National Team this summer. They have been training all year and through one of the coldest and unusually snow covered winters in Seattle’s history. They were happy to travel and get into some warmer, sun-filled days. However, it seems we have brought the weather with us, only to hear stories of the sunny days we are missing in Seattle. Winds have been up and the water has been as bad, if not worse, than some of the worst days of Lake Union. When I arrived on Saturday the waves were crashing over the dock and the juniors were rescuing sinking launches from the shore! We were able to get a row in on Monday evening, but were relegated to the erg and weight room on Tuesday. Today were able to get out early enough, beating the wind and getting in some good rowing so the athletes could finally tune-up their rigging and get comfortable in the new boats. Hudson and Vespoli have been very generous and helpful; providing them with brand new, top of the line equipment. We have also been fortunate to get housing from local residents. The men are staying with a rower from the training center and the women are staying with our very own Pocock member Jan Stone, who also has a house in Princeton and has graciously opened her doors for us, which I’m sure is much more comfortable than a cramped hotel room. It’s always amazing to me how generous the rowing community is. If there was ever a model for developing a supportive local community, rowing is it!
Most of the athletes arrived this past Sunday, with the last couple arriving yesterday and today. We have a wide range of skill level and experience in our group, and it has been fun to see how they react to the pressure of the first race of the season. The older, more experienced athletes are calm and collected (for the most part) and the less experienced had have a nervous look to them and tend to have more questions. Morale seems to be high, though, as people are just excited to race. We made a trip to the movies to pass the time and release some of the tension from not being able to row. We saw “I Love You, Man” a slightly inappropriate, but very funny romantic comedy that got good reviews from everyone. It has us all cracking up and was well worth the trip (although, some parts were so awkward I sweated though my t-shirt).
I sent the athletes off for their row today and I went for a walk through the woods to watch from the shore. As I was navigating the thorn bushes and mud puddles I began to notice the some of the trees had been cut down at the base about a foot from the ground. At first I thought it was just some pruning done by the parks department, but upon further inspection I noticed teeth marks, not axe cuts. I’ve have trained on that lake for 12 years and have never seen a beaver, or anything close to a beaver lodge or dam, so I moved in to get a closer look and I found some amazing evidence. Along the edges of the teeth marks— and these were fresh cuts—I found gold flakes. I thought it was paint at first, but when I scraped some off it didn’t flake or chip like paint. It balled up like something else, something familiar, almost like a dried up paste. My dad designs toothbrushes so as a child I was obsessed with clean teeth and when I looked closer I hit me; this is tooth enamel. On my way to inspect the next tree I found the same thing, and at the next one I found a piece of green fabric caught on a thorn branch. I knew immediately. It could only be one thing: a Pocock Fighting Nutria! I don’t know how they got here, if they hitched a ride in luggage, or if someone brought it intentionally, or if our grass roots recruiting efforts on The Facebook are working, but I do know that they are here and they are doing work! It’s good to know that we have the underground support to this invasive but persistent critter. If anything, it makes up feel at home. Racing begins tomorrow morning with a time trial, then heats in the evening. Check back for updates and race results, or go to www.usrowing.com. Go Pocock!
