The long, strange journey of Ursula Grobler
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
HEAT ONE DOWN
Made it through to the Semi-Final on Thursday. The girls are fast and ready to go. So will I, be ready.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
The Entries are UP!
Check it out, the Entries are up: http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2011-world-rowing-championships
Here is the schedule for the racing : http://www.bled2011.org/en/event/programme.htm
Here is the schedule for the racing : http://www.bled2011.org/en/event/programme.htm
Friday, August 19, 2011
The challenge of fundraising continues
Ways you can contribute:
1. Paypal (on line)
2. NRF (on line and mail in cheque)
3. Full Email Campaign
National Rowing Foundation (tax deductible)
Mark the boat selection as LW1x and it will be used towards my fundraising efforts.
Or by cheque to:
payable to: National Rowing Foundation or NRF
mail to: National Rowing Foundation > 67 Mystic Road > North Stonington, CT 06359
memo: LW1x boat class
Thank you to everyone who voted in the BMW athlete voting poll. The results will be announced at the end of August. If you would like to still vote, or view the results here is the link >http://www.bmwusa.com/performanceteam
Funding Elite Rowing – a conundrum by Mike Sullivan
As I continue to fund raise, some interesting thoughts have been shared on the google groups of rec.sport.rowing. One post that came from the dilemma's of funding was posted by Mike Sullivan. You can read some of his thoughts here >. Carl Douglas also comments on this thread
His first post on the subject went a little something like this:
The US elite program is sadly dysfunctional, and the biggest problem is simply money. Masters' Nat'ls are happening in Okla City right now, you'll see old slow farts like me there with millions of dollars in spending money for shiny new shells, top of the line hotels, air travel, fine wining and dining. In the meantime, a year ago I helped a few elite men over the winter with their training in sculling, and they put together in a pair to race at the Speed Orders in Princeton. These guys were Stanford grads with the potential to make a lot of money in real jobs, smart guys, and absolute athletic studs. They had the presence and look of pro athletes that could be making millions on a pro team, or could go out and work in Silicon Valley and make a fortune by the time they turn 30. They scraped together
money from parents to travel, and from working part time (good jobs but part time), and even then
they had to scrounge for a pair to race in at Princeton, I believe it was a 6 year old Wintech from Yale. They got moved four times in a year and a half to uncertain rowing futures, chasing wherever the nat'l program, coach, and other athletes were supposed to train and have found it very difficult to see where their long term path to success is. No I didn't get paid for coaching them for that 4 month period, but I
get offers all the time from Masters' people who want individual lessons, get them ready to go butt-slow over 1k. My response was, "no I don't have time to coach you or any other masters, but would welcome you paying me to coach our US Olympic team candidates". I would take that money and chip it in to their travel anyway, I don't need the money.
If I sound bitter, I am... :^)
The Graves bros trained on their own in Newport the last year. It's possible they got some help from the Newport foundation, I'm not sure, but they won trials, are going to Bled, with very little support from the US rowing community. Bless them but their road was difficult in ways that had nothing to do with simply the training and racing.
Ursula Grobler might be the single best rowing talent in the US, and perhaps the best chance the US has for a gold in rowing outside the women's eight. She's gotten some great help here and there, Rebecca has been doing good, but has been bounced like a pinball, been scrutinized to the Nth degree, criticized, and exploited. If she were making a pile of money like pro athletes, then some of this scrutiny might be warranted, but she's scraping the bottom like every other elite.
The poor ppl at the local club that have to deal with me. A guy told me he had $5k to spend on a new
single. "what should I buy?".
"you should buy a $2500 Maas 27 and give the other $2500 to the US
Rowing Foundation toward the nat'l team effort".
Then I shrug. I suppose he could raise $10k, buy a used Empacher for $5k, and give $5k to NRF. That would be cool. When I coached out of Newport years back, there were just beginning to be some guys who had singles that wanted to keep them in the rather limited one bay boathouse. My rules were
simple. You can have a spot, give us a little money but I'm going to give your boat to use by an athlete who has nat'l team aspirations that cannot afford his own boat. I'll pick the guy, there'll only be one, and these are the hours where he will row it, and he can negotiate with your schedule
for additional hours.
We insured the boat, and my boatman fixed all dings no matter who dunnit.
Most boat owners liked that arrangement and accepted it, Not sure if I'd find many takers these days if I did that again. Sort of a commie act, I guess.
I want to append the rant with the following. I know some masters are offended deeply by my attitude,
clubbers in redwood city see my attitude as 'elitist' and get bothered by some of my advice on boat
purchases, I've seen it here. I should point out that I teach hundreds and hundreds of new scullers, adults and kids to scull at two different clubs. In the past three weeks I've introduced a dozen adults to sculling, treated them with the same respect I treat elites, taught them all the same things, the
exact same approach and discipline to boat handling on and off the water I expect of a competitive elite.
My attitude is peculiar, but is definitely not elitist. I've spent too much time with raw, old, out of shape, unconfident, uncoordinated non-athletes who really want to learn to scull, and learn to scull correctly for me to accept that criticism.
His first post on the subject went a little something like this:
The US elite program is sadly dysfunctional, and the biggest problem is simply money. Masters' Nat'ls are happening in Okla City right now, you'll see old slow farts like me there with millions of dollars in spending money for shiny new shells, top of the line hotels, air travel, fine wining and dining. In the meantime, a year ago I helped a few elite men over the winter with their training in sculling, and they put together in a pair to race at the Speed Orders in Princeton. These guys were Stanford grads with the potential to make a lot of money in real jobs, smart guys, and absolute athletic studs. They had the presence and look of pro athletes that could be making millions on a pro team, or could go out and work in Silicon Valley and make a fortune by the time they turn 30. They scraped together
money from parents to travel, and from working part time (good jobs but part time), and even then
they had to scrounge for a pair to race in at Princeton, I believe it was a 6 year old Wintech from Yale. They got moved four times in a year and a half to uncertain rowing futures, chasing wherever the nat'l program, coach, and other athletes were supposed to train and have found it very difficult to see where their long term path to success is. No I didn't get paid for coaching them for that 4 month period, but I
get offers all the time from Masters' people who want individual lessons, get them ready to go butt-slow over 1k. My response was, "no I don't have time to coach you or any other masters, but would welcome you paying me to coach our US Olympic team candidates". I would take that money and chip it in to their travel anyway, I don't need the money.
If I sound bitter, I am... :^)
The Graves bros trained on their own in Newport the last year. It's possible they got some help from the Newport foundation, I'm not sure, but they won trials, are going to Bled, with very little support from the US rowing community. Bless them but their road was difficult in ways that had nothing to do with simply the training and racing.
Ursula Grobler might be the single best rowing talent in the US, and perhaps the best chance the US has for a gold in rowing outside the women's eight. She's gotten some great help here and there, Rebecca has been doing good, but has been bounced like a pinball, been scrutinized to the Nth degree, criticized, and exploited. If she were making a pile of money like pro athletes, then some of this scrutiny might be warranted, but she's scraping the bottom like every other elite.
The poor ppl at the local club that have to deal with me. A guy told me he had $5k to spend on a new
single. "what should I buy?".
"you should buy a $2500 Maas 27 and give the other $2500 to the US
Rowing Foundation toward the nat'l team effort".
Then I shrug. I suppose he could raise $10k, buy a used Empacher for $5k, and give $5k to NRF. That would be cool. When I coached out of Newport years back, there were just beginning to be some guys who had singles that wanted to keep them in the rather limited one bay boathouse. My rules were
simple. You can have a spot, give us a little money but I'm going to give your boat to use by an athlete who has nat'l team aspirations that cannot afford his own boat. I'll pick the guy, there'll only be one, and these are the hours where he will row it, and he can negotiate with your schedule
for additional hours.
We insured the boat, and my boatman fixed all dings no matter who dunnit.
Most boat owners liked that arrangement and accepted it, Not sure if I'd find many takers these days if I did that again. Sort of a commie act, I guess.
I want to append the rant with the following. I know some masters are offended deeply by my attitude,
clubbers in redwood city see my attitude as 'elitist' and get bothered by some of my advice on boat
purchases, I've seen it here. I should point out that I teach hundreds and hundreds of new scullers, adults and kids to scull at two different clubs. In the past three weeks I've introduced a dozen adults to sculling, treated them with the same respect I treat elites, taught them all the same things, the
exact same approach and discipline to boat handling on and off the water I expect of a competitive elite.
My attitude is peculiar, but is definitely not elitist. I've spent too much time with raw, old, out of shape, unconfident, uncoordinated non-athletes who really want to learn to scull, and learn to scull correctly for me to accept that criticism.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Help Send Me to Bled for the LW1x!
USRowing Senior Trials
On the 4th August at 8:20am I raced in the Senior Trials to secure my spot on the 2011 team. The racing took place on Mercer Lake in Princeton, NJ and the calm waters welcomed me. Thunder and rain the night before left me wondering what dawn would bring. And by dawn, I really was up at 4:30am to see what winds there may be. As a lightweight, our routine starts early. Two hours before the actual race we need to present ourselves to the officials and stand on a scale. 130lbs (59kg) and no more. Making weight is the first part of the 'race'. The second part comes when you launch 40min before, row to the start line, and wait for the call-down. Ms Goldsack, Ms Grobler, Ms Daley... Attention... Holding my breathe, the sound of the buzzer catapults me into a sudden preoccupation with speed and power. Jen Goldsack is from the UK. She holds dual citizenship and raced an unbelievable race in 2007 and got a silver medal for the USA. Watch this great race here >Our commonwealth commonness gives me a sense of home when I hear her talk. But today, its all on racing and who's bow ball will signal the ending siren first. Down the course we go. My start was a little flimsy. Ok, not what I wanted I mustered, but move on, and move down. Correct. Yes. Light. Legs. These words circle stroke after stroke gaining me momentum that put me ahead. "Final Results in the lightweight women’s single sculls, Ursula Grobler (Pretoria, South Africa) won her race in 7:51.41." Results sheet
On land again, I read over my form that says, Well done, now pay up...
LW1x
Lightweight Woman Single Scull
Help me
get to Bled and back...
Herein starts the dilemma: The lightweight single is a non-olympic event. That means that USRowing will not fund any part of this opportunity to go represent in a World Championship Regatta. Not only do you train all day, with little income, you must also pay $3550.00, and that's airfare, NOT INCLUDED! A starving athlete plight, I ask if you could please consider a pledge, cash, donation, moolah, quid, $dollars, £pounds, €euro's and/or Rrands to help give me the chance to race in this World Championship Regatta.
Paypal donations here
Or Tax Donations by cheque to:
payable to: National Rowing Foundation or NRF
mail to: National Rowing Foundation > 67 Mystic Road > North Stonington, CT 06359
Note:
The IRS does not permit us to accept tax-deductible gifts on behalf of an individual athlete but we are able to accept donations to your BOAT CLASS. Please be sure to ask donors to mark the memo line of checks 'LW1X' or, if donating online at www.natrowing.org to check off "Other" in the gift designation box and type 'LW1X' in the space provided.
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