U.S. Indoor Rowing Development Squad: Defunct?!

[Jamie Pfeffer]

Is the U.S. Indoor Rowing Development Squad really finished? Greg Cook and I (and I'm sure many others) have been training so hard to make it this year. I feel like I got kicked in the stomach.

The quote below is from the Concept 2 website. Personally, I find the exclamation point at the end to be in poor taste. But perhaps that's just my own skepticism that they aren't actually thanking me at all.


"The U.S. Indoor Rowing Development Squad (USIRDS) was a pool of U.S. citizens from which the U.S. Indoor Rowing Team was formed. Team selection was based on participation in one of the races during the winter indoor race season as well as qualifying times.

"At this time, Concept2 will not be sponsoring a USIRDS for 2008. If you have any questions, please contact indoorracing@concept2.com. Thanks!

[mmiksis]

Being relatively new to rowing and very new to competitive erging what is hte USIRDS? What was the selection process and what were the requirements?

[Rocket Roy]

I know how you feel ----in the UK we have never had a UKIRT team.

They used to be good (c2) but then lost sponsorship and it has all changed.

[Jamie Pfeffer]

Paul Smith was good enough to explain to me that, in the long run, this may actually be good for U.S. Indoor Rowing. The USIRDS used to limit itself to those rowers who beat ab age-specific qualifying score during the "previous-year's indoor-racing season." So, for example, the U.S.Indoor Team that raced in Dresden in 2007 drew from only those rowers who qualified for the USIRDS between, say, January 20-February 25, 2007.

Paul notes that now the USIRT will probably open its doors to a wider pool of potentially-interested rowers.

Roy: That's a shame. I'm sure that a U.K. team would be ferocious.

[gregory.cook]

Damn. I really wanted a shirt.

[Rocket Roy]

Who knows what the future may hold?

Maybe some great Sponsors will come out of the woodwork and both countries will be able to put up strong nationally trained teams against each other in years to come.

Just be ready for when that happens by keeping or getting to 95% fit and some great erg scores!



Maybe Bill Gates will discover the erg......

In fact in may pay the good people at C2 to send him a new E and tell him to enter a comp.

[mikvan52]

Is the U.S. Indoor Rowing Development Squad really finished? (snip)
"At this time, Concept2 will not be sponsoring a USIRDS for 2008.

Yes, I could feel this coming; even from last spring when I first became involved in the selection process for this years team.
I'm thankful, amazed, and impressed that C2 funded so many of these teams.

IMHO: One thing that figures highly on the decision making ladder is the commercial gain C2 can hope to glean from putting on such a big "to-do" ($$$$$) with an American team for a European Competition.

I was in Paris and Dresden this year as a competitor but not as part of the team. So I observed 2nd hand what went on this year.

I didn't feel that having a US team drew more competitors at EIRC (Dresden).- the competition was very thin in many events. In other words, even though Concept 2, Germany puts the event on, Concept 2 US didn't really add much by funding a team to haul away many of the medals (8 golds and such).
This doesn't take away from the superlative performance of our squad. Many set records!

I was a bronze medalist in my event... My view from the podium was of a fairly empty arena. Nothing like the Paris Open, the week before and certainly nothing like CRASH-b (which I've attended 4-5 times over the last 10 years.

EIRC will continue to grow, I predict... but commercially, having a US team funded by C2 in attendance, will probably not make any difference in erg sales abroad or the popularity of the sport in Europe.

=Mike van Beuren=

[PaulS]

Mike, are you under the impression that the USIRT is now being done away with, or merely the USIRDS? My interpretation is that it is the latter.

[Jamie Pfeffer]

Mike: Do you have a sense of how the USIRT chose particular age and weight classes to contest at the EIRC? I noticed in Lwt Men 30-39, for example, the US had no competitor. Based on the posted results from that race, Greg Cook would have had a great chance to win the gold in that event (with all due respect to the event's entrants). To me, it seems strange that this country's finest indoor rower wasn't there. (actually, no, it frustrates me -- I told my wife that I will try to identify my feeling more precisely).

Best,
Jamie

[mikvan52]

PaulS:
I'm only going on the announcement about the IRDS that I take as inclusive of an IRT.
It would be a novel idea to simply choose a team based on a trial... my (usually wrong-headed) opinion is that C2 is pulling the plug on funding any team.
Perhaps someone should shoot them an email.

What was telling: C2 did not file any reports on the IRT forum about the EIRC this year(as they did last year)... to me that was like telegraphing the knockout punch to the whole kit and kaboodle. I feel they would have written something as a way to keep the IRT in the limelight.

Jamie: As for having a sense about the selection process: There were only 12 spots up for grabs. C2 hoped to send 6 men and 6 women.

By only having 12 spots: not all divisions could be represented. The ones sent got golds (by and large).... what can you say... Erging has so many different human interest stories...
Paul Randall, the 90+ lwt.. who would deny him a spot. He didn't even have a challenger.
Joan Van Blom, (WR) in Dresden ---- no one there to challenge her. Doesn't she usually win by at least 10-15 seconds?
Paul Siebach and Dean Smith --- absolutely fabulous
The whole team was great!

I support C2 in their choices and indeed there were more who "should have been chosen". Isn't it great that US indoor rowing is so strong?... perhaps we'll get even stronger OTW as a result.

In the end I feel that there are so many angles in the development of indoor rowing and that C2 has a hard time keeping them all covered.

[Bob S.]

PaulS:
I'm only going on the announcement about the IRDS that I take as inclusive of an IRT.
It would be a novel idea to simply choose a team based on a trial... my (usually wrong-headed) opinion is that C2 is pulling the plug on funding any team.
Perhaps someone should shoot them an email.

What was telling: C2 did not file any reports on the IRT forum about the EIRC this year(as they did last year)... to me that was like telegraphing the knockout punch to the whole kit and kaboodle. I feel they would have written something as a way to keep the IRT in the limelight.

It seems to me that you are jumping the gun to assume that the IRT is included. The qualifications for the IRDS were quite soft — much slower than qualifying for a free Boston trip at a satellite regatta (at least in my category — I didn't really check any of the others).

However, I agree with the second paragraph quoted above. It was disturbing that there was no followup by C2 on the EIRC results. In particular, there was no mention on either forum about the spectacular performance by Dean Smith in setting an entirely new standard in the MHWT 80+ category. He not only beat the recently set HWT WR by 10 seconds or more, but he knocked about 7 seconds off his previous LWT record set when he was a couple of years younger.

Bob S.

[Mike Caviston]

It would be a novel idea to simply choose a team based on a trial...

Is everyone really so ignorant about the history of the USIRT? The first teams were simply chosen based on a trial. That would seem to be a great way to open the team to as many potential candidates as possible and discover new talent. But in trying to accommodate every person who expressed interest in making the team, it was not possible verify the authenticity of every “trial”, and there were instances of people being selected to the team who were not able to even approach their trial scores in competition. It is a completely reasonable requirement that if someone is being chosen to compete in an indoor race that they should have previously competed in an indoor race.

If there is no longer going to be a USIRDS, then I won’t be expecting another USIRT.

[Rocket Roy]

C2 in the UK are not even sending a team this year to the WIRC.


But fear not a bunch of us Brits will still be turning up to have a ball with ya'll.

What we need are top sponsors to sponsor C2.

[Yankeerunner]

A couple of random thoughts:

My understanding, overheard during that first trip in 2002, was that the team was the brainchild of Robert Brody. He floated the idea to the Dreissigakers and they gave him the go-ahead.

Robert is no longer with the company, and the impression was left that controversies that included the USIRT led to his dismissal. To my knowledge no official statement has been made to confirm or deny.

One of the second most active movers & shakers seemed to be Bill Patton, who has also now left the company to take on new challenges. Perhaps without these two the interest amongst the others at the company isn't enough to sustain it?

Another thing that seemed odd to me over the past couple of years was the relative lack of interest in the USIRDS section of the forum by the USIRDS members. A few of us tried to get some action going there but we usually ended up just talking to each other. Perhaps C2 saw that lack of interest and concluded that they too were losing interest.



I'm rambling now....... I'll shut up.

[Bob S.]

Another thing that seemed odd to me over the past couple of years was the relative lack of interest in the USIRDS section of the forum by the USIRDS members. A few of us tried to get some action going there but we usually ended up just talking to each other. Perhaps C2 saw that lack of interest and concluded that they too were losing interest.

One feature of that section was that one had to be on the squad to send messages to that section. I don't know how many members were on the squad, but there were probably not enough to sustain much action. A few non-members contributed by sending answering messages to other sections, but there was some resentment evident and not many went that route.

With 30 or more possible slots to fill in the various categories and a limit of 12 or so positions on the team, the individual squad members were all in competition with one another and not likely to be all that cooperative in the days before team selection. The squad was not a team. Once the team was selected, its members were very supportive of one another.

Just a few thoughts.

Bob S.