Youth Survey

[lt.wolf]

I have been asked to post

Dear Coaches,

Hi! I know everyone's preoccupied with getting ready for various Championship events right now, but I'm hoping you can take a few minutes to address an issue that could affect us all. If you don't know who I am, let me just take a quick moment to introduce myself and then to business. My name is Zohar Abramovitz and I serve as the head coach of Marina Aquatic Center Junior Rowing in Los Angeles. I'm also on the staff of the U.S. Women's Junior National Team and have been one of five elected stewards of the Southwest Junior Rowing Association for ten years. I'm writing to you today in the hopes that you will help inform an ongoing debate by taking a moment to complete a survey (link below) regarding the USRowing Youth National Championship regatta. I am not acting on behalf of USRowing. My plan is to share my findings with USRowing, but I am acting independently.

Before we get to the heart of the matter, three things:

Please forward this to any coaches you think might have an interest in the future direction of the YNC. I am relying on a "crowd sourcing" approach here to spread the word, so I'd appreciate the help in getting this survey into every junior rowing coach's inbox in America. My fondest wish in initiating this project is that I get meaningful feedback from coaches in every district and every program that does, or hopes to one day, participate in the YNC. I understand that this may result in many of you receiving this email multiple times from multiple sources. I apologize for the spamming, but this approach is what I've got.
If you are the coach of a program that is not likely to ever go to the YNC (e.g. you're a scholastic coach whose program goes to SRAs), what follows is not likely to apply to you. If you're interested, go ahead and read on anyway (and by all means complete the survey), but if not, now's the time to bail.
I am mostly interested in hearing feedback from each program's "shot callers." Ideally, I'd like to get a survey returned from the most senior men's coach and women's coach from each team.

That said, let's get to it, shall we? It breaks down like this:

As you may or may not be aware, USRowing has recently made the decision to dramatically alter the progression system at the YNC, starting this year. Since its inception as the Cincinnati Youth Invitational, the YNC has run a heats-reps-semis-finals progression, a system favored by major championship regattas at every level of the sport across the world, from junior championships like ours on up to the IRA and NCAA championships, the World Championships and the Olympics. USRowing has now opted to replace that progression system with one in which a head race-style time trial replaces the initial heat round, with the bulk of the crews advancing directly to three semi-finals that are seeded based on finish times in the time trial. A traditional, multi-lane repechage round would be in place to allow crews who didn't perform well in the time trial a second shot at making the semis.

If you don't know anything about this, you can find information about it here in the 2013 entry packet:

http://www.usrowing.org/Libraries/Event ... .sflb.ashx

Read USRowing's rationale for making the change here:

http://www.usrowing.org/Libraries/Event ... .sflb.ashx

I and a group of like-minded coaches from the Southwest District have spent the last week engaged in a lengthy email and phone dialogue with USRowing events manager AJ Dominique III and USRowing CEO Glenn Merry about the merits of this change. In the interest of full disclosure, the people involved in the discussion out here in California are unanimously and vehemently opposed to the change in procedures. That being said, however, I want you to understand that my intent in writing you here today is not to rally you to the anti-time trial cause, but to bring your attention to the matter and give you an opportunity to take a position. Mr. Merry and Mr. Dominique have both said that there is a significant amount of support for this change in the rowing community. Finding no support whatsoever in our corner of the rowing world (quite the contrary, in fact; rabid, mouth-foaming opposition would be a more accurate description of the reactions I've seen so far), I've decided to reach out and find out just what the American junior rowing community thinks about this.

Speaking for myself, I object to the time trial format on the following points:

Fairness - There are a host of issues that can affect a crew's time that are completely outside of their control and that do not affect all crews equally (Examples: changes in wind force or direction over the course of a time trial; problems arising from breakage, crab catching and steering issues in leading boats that affect (i.e. slow down) the boats coming up behind them; etc.). These are issues that could lead to "stacked" semi-finals and situations in which deserving crews, crews that would have advanced to the final through a traditional progression, do not make the final, and slower crews do. We all know that time is a tricky thing in this sport. With the time trial system, time becomes the be all and end all, and with so many uncontrollable variables in play, I don't think that's wise, especially at an event of this importance.
Athlete experience - I think a time trial format greatly diminishes the fun of going to a national championship. The kids have trained all year to race side by side with the best crews in America, not run down the course by themselves. It cheapens the experience and turns it into something completely foreign to the experiences of most junior rowers. I'm aware that New York Scholastics and the Stotesbury Cup run time trials (I'm sure there are others?), but those are regional regattas with a participatory mandate (61 crews raced in the time trial in the Boys Junior 4 at Stotes in 2012!), whereas this is (or at least was) a highly selective championship regatta charged with identifying the fastest junior crews in these United States (with apologies to any of you SRA people - much respect; I ain't tryin' to start nothin'). They're different types of events and it is my belief that a championship event should look and feel like a championship event, not a regional, everybody-gets-to-race event.
Logistics - I am deeply concerned that the challenges arising from needing to launch 20+ crews and recover 20+ crews simultaneously in that tiny little lagoon in Oak Ridge could quickly turn nightmarish. It will be even worse next year at Lake Natoma in Sacramento.
Safety - I am not, in principle, opposed to static refereeing. But USRowing has for years opposed any move towards static refereeing at masters events for one reason: safety. But at YNC '13, the plan is to use static referees during the time trial, stationed at 250m intervals as wave after wave after wave of 15, 16 and 17 year old athletes charge down the course in singles, doubles, pairs and straight quads, time trialing for their championship lives. Not hard to see the potential for problems there. And if something did go wrong, referees swooping in to attend the problem would kick up wakes that would doubtless affect time trialers still on the course.

So it comes to this. The regatta has grown to the point that it is bursting at the seams. As more and more events approach the 24 entry limit (an eventuality that requires 4 heats and 4 reps on the six lane course at Oak Ridge), the regatta has reached a crossroads moment. As I see it, and to quote Led Zeppelin, "there are two paths you can go by" at this point, and it boils down to what I see as a philosophical choice. What is this regatta going to be? What do you want it to be? Your options are pretty clear:

Maintain the course we're on. Continue to grow the regatta and bring in more and more athletes and more and more boats. Inclusivity is the name of the game here. Grant every petition, roll down unused entries to crews that didn't qualify at their district championship, add events (4-, anyone? L1x, perhaps?), etc. If we want this, the time trial format is a necessary reality.
Cap entries at a sustainable level and re-establish the regatta as a traditional national championship regatta that brings only the best crews from each region together for a clash of the titans. Maintain a traditional progression system. No time trial. This course will require lengthening the regatta or capping entries so as to make it feasible within a three day framework. In this scenario, exclusivity is the name of the game. It's an elite regatta.

Which brings us to my little survey here. Please, please, please fill it out (it'll take less time than reading this email probably did). And while you're at it, if you have questions or concerns, I encourage you to contact Mr. Merry and Mr. Dominique. Contact info is available on the USRowing website as well as in the links above. It is my understanding that this change was enacted with a fairly limited amount of input from the coaching community (the first anyone in the Southwest heard about this was about three weeks ago). Let your voice be heard!

Again, I'm not saying that you should believe what I believe or want what I want. Read the USRowing rationale above, consider my counter arguments and think it over - draw your own conclusions. And then share them. Once I've compiled enough data, I will distribute it back to everyone who contributed. I honestly can't wait to see what everyone has to say. Obviously, my hope is that the majority will agree with me and that we will collectively work to reverse this decision and return the event to its traditional roots. If that isn't the way the wind is blowing, I'll gnash my teeth, but will ultimately learn to live with it.

But speak up, people! Filling out this survey is the first step towards taking ownership of this regatta and making it a true reflection of the desires of the junior rowing community at large. Here's the link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F2358F5

Best regards,

Zohar Abramovitz
Head Coach
Marina Aquatic Center Junior Rowing
Assistant Coach
U.S. Women's Junior National Team
coachzohar@gmail.com
310-279-6525