Jason achieved his goal! Congratulations!!!

Happy Jason

We received this:

____

Hey Chaos! Thanks for all of the support and the virtual cheering...

I met my goal of getting my 2k below 7 min. Ken deserves the credit for putting a plan together that helped me to drop my time in the last 2 months. He's been an incredible coach!!!

My target pace was 1:42.5, actual was 1:42.1

All good, I followed the plan and made the goal: 6:48.3 (faster than he was in college)

Enjoy your weekend!

Jason

____

And saw this: https://www.facebook.com/ergsprints/videos/419944398755798/

Only the Canadians beat our Jason G. Training Team

Second out of 54 small clubs, 70th out of all 140 clubs

When Jason asked us in December who would be interested in participating in the Concept2 January Virtual Team Challenge, we had now clue what his real motivation was.

Turns out he is the only one brave enough to compete in tomorrow’s Alexandria Erg Sprints. The other 4 just served as his virtual rabbits.

We are proud of him and wish him good luck in executing his race plan (brain-confidence-anger) and reaching his goal (matching the time he rowed when 18 years old).

The rest of us are just happy that we put CHaOS on the leader board, 2nd only to the famous Canadians from Victoria (it is all in the name).

After the Holiday Challenge (200k) and the January Challenge (another 200K) it is time to put the erg away and focus on long miles on the water (to eliminate the terrible erg catches and perfect the smooth water catches).

Good luck Jason!

CHaOS? Queep?

Turns out this is a “Queep”

Over the years we had 2 reactions to the name CHaOS for our rowing club: Those who see the humor in it and those who think it is the club program. It seems that the good, experienced rowers see the humor, appreciate our intention and embrace the CHaOS.

However, when we received the the below invitation, we first did not know in which of the two categories associating CHaOS with the the term “queep” falls.

Turns out it has nothing to do with the farting meanings in the urban dictionary but rather refers to our logo having sweep rowers and scullers in the same 4 person boat .

Thank you Kate for teaching us something new about ourselves!!!

And yes, we have winter training on the erg such as the January Club Challenge but prefer to row on water.

Hullo CHaOS!

I know I’ve seen you at SE Regionals! When I realized your logo was a queep, it tickled my random-rowing-knowledge fancy!

In a few weeks, we will be hosting Belmont Rowing Center's first annual Hammerfest indoor race! Last year's inaugural event was a great success, so we're only going up from there! This year, Hammerfest is on 2/23 and we'd love to have you attend! You can find out more information about the event in a few different ways:

RegattaCentral: https://www.regattacentral.com/regatta/index.jsp?job_id=6082

Belmont Rowing Center's Website: http://www.belmontrowingcenter.org/Default.aspx?tabid=992559

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/289055888414578/

I didn't see any information about any winter indoor training (I’m guessing your Saturday/Sunday morning rows are on the water…?), but we currently have a couple unaffiliated registered competitors from the Triangle. So I'm reaching out in case any of you would like to set some times down. We have 500s, 1k, and 2k events in addition to coxswain and learn to erg events (we try to be inclusive of everyone as well).

We have a few youth (and hopefully some returning collegiate again) teams that will be attending, however last year we had a retinue of masters all the way up into their 70s racing.

If you have any questions about the event, please don't hesitate to ask! I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

- Kate

Please try to attend!

The first guests of 2019

Today, Tamara and Will braved the freezing temperaturesand rowed with us on an almost perfect lake.

Turns out they saw us (and the uniforms) at FISA Worlds and wanted to come and row with us. Naming our club CHaOS wasn’t so stupid after all.

After the outing they sent us the following note:

Hi CHaOS,

It was such a pleasure and we are so grateful to have rowed. Even better, was the opportunity to meet a group of fellow rowing enthusiasts. Please extend an offer to any of your athletes who should happen to visit Upstate NY (Finger Lakes) or the Ontario Canada or Muskoka Region of Canada. We would love to host/row! Door is always open!

Until we meet again,

Tamara and Will

You are welcome back, anytime.

We really enjoy to row with guests! Please come and see us!

New Year and 3 times Three Kings: Real rowers re-claim flooded Jordan Lake

Having to choose between the erg (January club challenge) and wet feet to row on a perfectly flat Jordan Lake, our members’ choice is ROWING.

New Year’s row 1x and 4x was followed by Champagne and Swiss chocolate (after exercise snack of champions).

The Three Kings day row was attended by 9 members, 1x and two 4x working at the Dick Tonks/ Ian Wright drill (80% of guaranteed winning time at stroke rate 20 for miles, and miles, and miles (12K in total).

Thank you Jason for getting the UNC dock in place so that the other 8 kings could dry-launch! Glad that Felix’s toes were just squeezed and not chopped off - must be hes lucky year.

Spotted the first bass fishing boat of the year - I guess we lost our exclusive on the lake. I was wonderful while it lasted!

Member opinions: Proud to have caring citizens and parents among us

Awfully proud to have such outspoken members:

Brad’s reservations, suggestions, and dreams on the subject of the Durham Chapel Hill light rail system can be read in this weekend’s News & Observer.

Tim’s suggestions for parents who really care about the sports skills of their kids should read the following OpEd:

Dear Editors,

Enclosed is an OpEd submission for your newspaper, regarding the recent Olympics and future youth athletic development. I am a local physician, 25 year hockey coach, former board member of Triangle Youth Hockey NC, and current Instructor for the USA Hockey Coaching Education Program.

Now that the Olympics are over, it’s time for introspection as to whether or not U.S. Olympic athletes reached their potential. How could a country such as Norway, one sixtieth the size of the U.S. bring home more medals? Are Norwegians better athletes than Americans? Do they develop athletes in a way to reach their potential? Maybe if the U.S. would develop all our young citizens to be better athletes, could we have a bigger group of candidates to choose from, as they reach prime sport-specific training years?

Until most recently, the United States has lacked a consistent message, with a plan, for long term athletic development of its youth. Starting in the 1980s, researchers such as Eric Ericcson, and Istvan Balyi, have identified stages in athletic development that correlate with growth and development of children. For instance, between age’s six to eight is a great window for the child to acquire agility, balance and coordination, and between nine through twelve is an opportune time for skill development in various sports. Twelve through fourteen years training to train abilities develop, and after 16 years old, a person is able to devote intensive time and effort to one or two sports, training to compete. Younger than that, over competing in a single sport, and undertraining for what the individual is ready to learn at a specific age leaves the athlete underdeveloped. That’s not to say you can’t acquire skills such as dribbling a basketball, swinging a club, or learning intricate footwork when you’re 20 or 25 or 50 years old, it’s just that between ages of 9 to 12, the body and brain are optimally able to develop a new skill. Moreover, the balance a six year old acquires stays with her, as muscle memory will retain that ability over time – “just like riding a bike”.

Many youth sports organizations in the United States over the last 30 years have facilitated adult training rituals and rules on children, with over competing in adult games, and undertraining the athlete for their appropriate athletic developmental stage. We displaced the sandlot and the backyard frozen pond on which to practice skills over and over. The United States does not have a sports ministry to oversee how we train youth, so it has been up to the youth sports governing bodies, such as USA Hockey, to come up with player development guidelines for all our young athletes to follow. The U.S. is late to the game, so to speak, as many European sports ministries and Canada have instituted these long term athletic development guidelines twenty years ago. USA Hockey implemented many changes to their player development system starting in 2007, and in 2009 introduced the American Development Model, with the encouragement of cross ice play and small area games devoted to skill development. The ultimate goal, of course, is to maximize time on the ice, maximize puck touches, and minimize time standing and watching, or even worse, in the car driving from tournament to tournament.

In 2014, the US Olympic Committee, partnering with various sport’s national governing bodies, adopted the ADM guidelines “ to help Americans realize their full athletic potential and utilize sport as a path toward an active and healthy lifestyle”. Assuming all American youth sports governing bodies develop sport specific guidelines with long term athletic development in mind, children will develop appropriate athletically, so they can have the opportunity to decide in high school, or even college, which sport they find the most fun and are truly passionate about. LTAD brings sport back to its roots for the young athlete, to let them develop their bodies in age appropriate fashion, and have more fun doing so, which will add to the likelihood of continuing into adulthood. Not everyone can be an Olympic athlete, but everyone can be an athlete. In Europe, many nations have incorporated these notions into their school curriculums, allowing for daily exercise along these guidelines.

The single most determining factor of whether a person will continue to participate in a sport throughout adulthood is whether they’ve had fun playing sports growing up. If we want our nation to have a healthy active adult lifestyle, investing in long term athletic development programs in our youth is the way to go. And we might just see our Olympic teams start to bring home a little more hardware from the Games.

Christmas row at Jordan Lake - from drought to flood 3 times a year

Last year’s Christmas post was asking “where did all the water go” - all lakes were empty - UNC Rowing and Duke Rowing joined us on Jordan Lake because we were the only ones who hat at least some water left.

Since then, Jordan was flooded 3 times - Florence, Michael, and now again for Christmas. Means in the 5 years we row on Jordan, we had one flood in the first 4 years and then 3 floods during the last year - and the next flood is already in the 10 day forecast. Jordan has been over “normal” pool since August 12th.

The positive on all this: All public ramps are closed and we have the ENTIRE lake to ourselves. All it needs to take advantage of this unique circumstances is a hike through the woods and a pair of neoprene socks to make sure toes warm up quickly after the wet launch.

We are working on writing our names in the lake (obviously still need some practice):

It seems we will have the lake to ourselves for much longer. Even though the levels are coming down, there are another 2 inches of rain in the forecast further up North - which will lift the lake level by another foot or two.

We wish everybody a Happy New Year with normal rain patterns.

Christmas came early - for the Big Dudes!

NOT the big dude boat we had in mind …

We would like to thank #HudsonBoatworks @beAshark for being responsive to our needs and really innovative.

We needed a 4x and a 2x for a 245 pound average crew weight (yes, we have some really big dudes).

We contacted all North American boat manufacturers and distributors. Only Hudson was responsive and came up with an idea to match our need.

If all goes well, the new boats will be here mid January.

We learned a few things in the process:

• Glen B. of Hudson is an absolute perfectionist

• Glen B. is volunteering his time and effort to help out the entire boat building industry by challenging a patent that might have put many small boat builders out of business. Thank you very much!

• No sales rep believes that there are rowers weighing more than 250 pounds (and with a big wallet)

• Sadly, Jakob Kaschper no longer makes boats. His fast, high quality. long lasting boats will be missed.

So, if you have put on too many pounds since your college rowing glory, there are no more excuses for not rowing again. Thanks to Brad we have a boat for you!

Adopt a national team rower!

Being an elite rower in the US is tough. I am sure most of the US rowers have dreamed at one point of their career about having been born in the UK, Germany, Australia, or New Zealand - countries that take real good care of their rowers.

The US selection process does not make things easy for the athletes, too (and reamins incomprehensible for all outsiders).

One athlete who - in our opinion - somewhat defied the system is Olivia Coffey (little sister of our coach - so we are biased).

She became world champion in the 4x in Aiguebelette - the huge surprise of that event (we were there and felt the surprise in the grandstand when the Germans got beat).

In Rio she was an alternate - only shooting pool with the Aussie coaching team - instead of doing what she does best: rowing. We did not understand.

Then she disappeared from the US and reappeared in Cambridge. Getting an MBA.

For the first time being exposed to European coaching. You have to read her interview where she speaks about the differences - Cambridge building vs. the US emphasizing testing. She must have impressed the Brits - she got promoted from 6th seat in February to stroke the 2018 Boat Race - winning it in a dominant fashion.

So the question was: how will US Rowing react? They did the unexpected: they put her on the team and let her stroke the W8+ to a gold medal at the Worlds in Plovdiv. The whole thing reminds us a bit of GB Rowing and Constantine Louloudis.

So like Louloudis did before her, we hope that Olivia Coffey will win gold in the Tokyo Olympics. Being beamingly happy and freshly engaged and winning the US Rowing fan choice award for sure helps with the motivation to do the grueling winter training - long, boring, hard miles.

We hope that US Rowing has the foresight to continue to invest in her and we hope she stays healthy till then.

Would be great if she could better her father’s Olympic silver from Montreal with a gold from Tokyo.

We wish her all the best and hope to see her again at one of our CHaOS outings.