East coast...
Had to share this. Sorry Buffalo.
I'm 24-hours into my summer in Buffalo, NY. Thoughts so far?
First, I've found a good coffee joint. I haven't traveled to the great Tim Hortons, but I shall. This place is about 7/10ths of a mile from the boathouse which is incredibly convenient. It'll be a good way to shake off the morning practice, and spend some time with myself and my thoughts.
I have pictures of where I'm staying as well as a video, but nothing that I've uploaded to this computer. I'll do that later so for now let's say that I feel very fortunate. My apartment is in a brand new multi business highrise, less than five minutes from the boathouse. It's double secured so you have to have a special key to access the inner lobby, and then a key to get the elevator to work.
They have also provided me with some food which has made life a bit easier for settling in, and given me a furnished room. I can have a work laptop if I'd like - I'll pass since I brought my own - and aside from the fact that the large office type printer does not like my laptops, either of them, things aren't too bad.
We had a quick, get to know you meeting tonight with some of the coaches in the apartment. My counterpart with the competitive junior women and I hashed out a couple of regatta decisions rather quickly, much to the delight, and surprise of the director of the program as well as her second in command. We've opted to cut from five potential regattas to four, with a third most likely to be cut later down the road.
I met my assistant coach tonight and we had a quick discussion about the training plan. I'll spend more time working with him on what I'd like to do this summer, but we can operate for now.
I also met one of the coaches I'll be mentoring this summer. I'm actually going to mentor most if not all of the coaches this year, but I'll have several assistant coaches helping with some of the other jobs. I haven't found an assistant for the Learn to Row Adults, which may not be the end of the world, though I would like to have one, but I'll have three for the junior Learn to Row.
I've decided that I'll delegate much of the load for coaching the juniors onto the assistant coaches. This gives me a little bit of a breather with everything else I'm doing - Competitive junior men, adult learn to row, masters, junior learn to row, etc. - as well as give them practical, hands on mentoring. I think the worst or at the very least, most boring and least effective way to mentor them is to run the program and have them watch. Instead, I want to have them sit down and draw up the training plans together. We'll meet once a week to discuss their plans, I'll advise them, and then help out and watch them implement their training. I've spoken briefly with the director who likes this plan, but my idea is that I'll allow them to do 90 percent of it, offering help, or guidance, and then we'll talk about it either after practice or during a weekly meeting. And I won't step in unless there's something no bueno going on - injury, safety, etc.
I'm looking forward to the summer here. There's weekly concerts near my apartment - one is happening right now - and we just gained access to a local gym to help with space for land training. I'm hoping that this means I can access it and train without needing to find a gym - I can also use the current Old First Ward building. I'm also looking forward to seeing Niagara Falls, and two more of the Great Lakes that I haven't seen as well as getting some more coaching under my belt.
I'm 24-hours into my summer in Buffalo, NY. Thoughts so far?
First, I've found a good coffee joint. I haven't traveled to the great Tim Hortons, but I shall. This place is about 7/10ths of a mile from the boathouse which is incredibly convenient. It'll be a good way to shake off the morning practice, and spend some time with myself and my thoughts.
I have pictures of where I'm staying as well as a video, but nothing that I've uploaded to this computer. I'll do that later so for now let's say that I feel very fortunate. My apartment is in a brand new multi business highrise, less than five minutes from the boathouse. It's double secured so you have to have a special key to access the inner lobby, and then a key to get the elevator to work.
They have also provided me with some food which has made life a bit easier for settling in, and given me a furnished room. I can have a work laptop if I'd like - I'll pass since I brought my own - and aside from the fact that the large office type printer does not like my laptops, either of them, things aren't too bad.
We had a quick, get to know you meeting tonight with some of the coaches in the apartment. My counterpart with the competitive junior women and I hashed out a couple of regatta decisions rather quickly, much to the delight, and surprise of the director of the program as well as her second in command. We've opted to cut from five potential regattas to four, with a third most likely to be cut later down the road.
I met my assistant coach tonight and we had a quick discussion about the training plan. I'll spend more time working with him on what I'd like to do this summer, but we can operate for now.
I also met one of the coaches I'll be mentoring this summer. I'm actually going to mentor most if not all of the coaches this year, but I'll have several assistant coaches helping with some of the other jobs. I haven't found an assistant for the Learn to Row Adults, which may not be the end of the world, though I would like to have one, but I'll have three for the junior Learn to Row.
I've decided that I'll delegate much of the load for coaching the juniors onto the assistant coaches. This gives me a little bit of a breather with everything else I'm doing - Competitive junior men, adult learn to row, masters, junior learn to row, etc. - as well as give them practical, hands on mentoring. I think the worst or at the very least, most boring and least effective way to mentor them is to run the program and have them watch. Instead, I want to have them sit down and draw up the training plans together. We'll meet once a week to discuss their plans, I'll advise them, and then help out and watch them implement their training. I've spoken briefly with the director who likes this plan, but my idea is that I'll allow them to do 90 percent of it, offering help, or guidance, and then we'll talk about it either after practice or during a weekly meeting. And I won't step in unless there's something no bueno going on - injury, safety, etc.
I'm looking forward to the summer here. There's weekly concerts near my apartment - one is happening right now - and we just gained access to a local gym to help with space for land training. I'm hoping that this means I can access it and train without needing to find a gym - I can also use the current Old First Ward building. I'm also looking forward to seeing Niagara Falls, and two more of the Great Lakes that I haven't seen as well as getting some more coaching under my belt.
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