Winter 2013 Squaring the blade A Newsletter for MIT Crew Alumni These exercises aren’t difficult, but meet regularly one-on-one with Director’s Message they only work if done correctly. freshmen to help with academic by Tony Kilbridge The athletes’ technique in perform- issues. A number of years ago when I ing this warm-up is one of the was coaching at the University of details that can help us win. We are just entering the second Virginia I attended a talk by UVA year of this leadership training football coach Al Groh. Before I believe that the best way to experiment, and I expect our ap- coming to UVA, Groh had coached control these details is to create a proach will change as we figure in two Super Bowls, winning one team culture in which older ath- out what works and what doesn’t. with the Giants and losing one letes model correct behavior for It has already made me a better with the Patriots. Groh had a lot the younger ones and everyone coach to have conversations with of interesting things to say about understands that being on the team my team about matters that were team building, but one which stuck means doing things right. This is rarely mentioned before. Likewise, with me was the importance of easier said than done, and having I hope that the athletes will absorb understanding the things that can often been frustrated in trying to the concepts of leadership and use help you win and the things that create such a culture through top- them when they leave MIT. How- can make you lose. Groh wasn’t down coaching, I, and the other ever, the leadership program will talking about the obvious variables MIT crew coaches, have decided prove its worth only if it helps us of how good your athletes are and to try something different. At the make a better team, and put faster how hard they work. I believe he suggestion of Paul Dill, MIT’s very boats on the water. That, after all, meant that the coach has to un- successful volleyball coach, we is what we are all about. derstand the important details of have embarked on leadership train- preparing a team, which, over the ing with our teams. Each squad has course of a season, can add up to approached this differently, but the the difference between winning general idea is to teach principles Director’s Message 1 and losing. of leadership to every athlete, and to put the athletes out front in set- New Staff 2 One small example from the men’s ting and implementing team goals heavyweight crew is our mobil- and culture. We are hoping to make Team Culture 3 ity warm-up. Every day before our captains more effective, and we row the crew does a series to teach every athlete to act as a Dock Rescue 5 of exercises that are designed to leader, whether they have a title increase range of motion. The goal or not. For example, on the men’s Florida Reflections 6 is to decrease the risk of injury by heavyweight team, in addition to ensuring that each athlete has the meetings and exercises to teach Fall Recap/ range of motion needed to row and leadership, we have a mentorship Spring Outlook 8 lift weights with good technique. system in which upper classmen New Additions Previn Chandraratna dous success, including over sixty By Holly Metcalf medalling performances, ten state championships, and a national MIT crew welcomes Previn championship. As a Director of Chandrarata as assistant women’s Programs and Head Coach at Row openweight coach, replacing Aaron New York, he was a founding Benson, who left last summer member of the US Rowing Task after 7 years with the program to Force that focused on broadening be head coach of the Puget Sound access to the sport of rowing, he University varsity men’s and earned the 2008 PASEsetter Award women’s program. for excellence in youth develop- ment across all New York City Previn Chandraratna brings over non-profit organizations, and his fourteen years of coaching experi- program earned the 2011 US Row- ence to the MIT staff. ing Anita De Frantz Award. No stranger to the collegiate level, A 1997 graduate of Columbia Uni- Chandraratna was the freshman versity, Chandraratna was a three- men’s heavyweight crew coach at time member of the first varsity his alma mater, Columbia Uni- heavyweight eight, a team captain, team is on an upward trajectory and versity, from 1999 to 2003. As and a Most Valuable Rower Award has done so with a combination of Director of Recruiting, he tripled recipient. He was an accomplished walk-ons and recruits. The team en- the size of the varsity squad, and sculler with Riverside Boat Club vironment is one of high challenge he coached his crews to some of and Union Boat Club High Perfor- and high support, so that “anything the program’s fastest results in mance Camp and won a National is possible” becomes a reality and decades, including finishes ahead Club Championship with New not a pipe dream. Previn’s positive of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and York Athletic Club. Shortly after energy, superb technical coaching Cornell. graduating, he trained with the skills, and experience bringing the U.S. National Team at the National best out of his athletes are the as- As a coach of juniors at Com- Sculling Center in Augusta, GA. sets needed to help bring the MIT munity Rowing, Row New York, openweight Engineers to the next and PCRA, Chandraratna helped level. We are very lucky to have his squads to achieve tremen- The MIT openweight women’s him! Dan Baker Cape Cod Rowing, Dan has held a diverse mix of jobs, including life By Tony Kilbridge coach at an equine therapy facility MIT crew was very pleased this and deputy sheriff in Barnstable past December to welcome Dan County. Dan is also an endurance Baker as our new part-time boat- athlete with an impressive racing man. Dan is a Cape Cod native, resume, including the Hawaii Iron- who was employed as a wood- man, road racing and cyclo-cross worker and head coach of Cape events. Dan’s excellent skills and Cod Rowing, Inc., before accept- cheerful personality have made ing the job with MIT. In addition him a great addition to the boat- to his long-time involvement with house. Team Culture words, the coaches consistently High Challenge, High Support: reflect back to their team a steady, Engineering a Culture of Success at MIT matter-of-fact picture of its accom- plishments, what is missing and By Holly Metcalf the mantra question, “What are you Both the Lightweight Women’s lia Booth] wanted to get us to take going to commit to individually and the Lightweight Men’s Crews, more ownership for individual and and as a team to move to the next coached by Claire Martin-Doyle team goals. We held more meetings level?” and Will Oliver respectively, have to establish them.” She pointed out had notable success this fall. While that the team “is pretty young. And The result: many miles rowed, it appears from the outside that look what we did this past fall!” sharpened focus on what is es- each team has its own identity and sential to individual improvement, thrives in its own individual way, We talked about the growth of the and, therefore, overall team im- both have prospered over the last team and what contributed to its provement. Lauren’s energy, posi- few years, growing in size and success. What Lauren chose to talk tive attitude, and belief in possibil- success. I interviewed a captain about was not the types of work- ity are palpable. Her coaches exude from each team to discuss what outs they are doing, the technical the same sensibilities. factors have led to their squad’s improvement. While on the sur- face the accounts seemed quite different, I started to contemplate the significance of the distinctions and how important it is for coaches and student-athletes to be allowed the time and freedom to establish their own identities, ceremony, and process. Lightweight Women Lauren Ayers, co-captain of the Lightweight Women’s team, sat down with me after her morning workout. She has been coming in every day along with fellow team- mates to put in extra aerobic work focus, or results in general—those Lauren sums it up succinctly and before her regular evening practice. were givens, but hardly the com- poignantly: “We belong in Division The first thing she shared with me plete list. She spoke again of Mar- I rowing, and we’ve earned the was how lucky she felt to be able to tin-Doyle and Booth’s leadership: right to compete against anybody.” row on the team and to be a part of “They never show worries about the speed the squad is enjoying af- speed. They coach us to focus on Lightweight Men ter following coach Martin-Doyle’s ourselves—we can’t do anything vision for the program. about other boats. The question Senior, captain, and four-year asked of us is what we’re going to rower, Stephen Freiberg, met with I asked Lauren how that leadership do to make ourselves faster. They me after his morning workout. played out in her opinion: “Claire pound into us ‘Don’t waste time on You can usually find him working and Amelia [Assistant Coach Ame- what can’t be changed!’” In other out down in the boat bays, getting Team Culture in two years, the effort seems to it, insisting that the team remain Challenge & Support be paying off.