Hashway v.s. "Hoffy" and his TR Machines
This past Monday evening I was
formally introduced to two key figures in my training here in Philly. One was
Craig "Hoffy" Hoffman, my coach for the upcoming 8 weeks leading
towards the US Senior Worlds Trials. The second is the TR Machine, something
that will be causing me great deal of exhaustion in the upcoming weeks.
Hoffy is the Malvern High head coach
in PA along with last years senior worlds quadruple scull coach. Over the years
he has created a fleet of all top of the line Empacher and Filippi boats. His
boys have been successful in rowing for several years and his personality is
larger than life. When I heard about him, I was told that if you are easily
offended or hurt, he will find out and wear on you. So far so good. He hasn't
pierced too far into me.
That night all 5 of us sat down to
talk about the future, mental, technical and physical commitments he will ask
of us as well as to show us our training tools (boats, oars, weight machines).
As he shook my hand his first words to me were "so, I hear you like to
lift some heavy weights". Not the initial introduction I was expecting, but
it was good enough. I wondered how he might have acquired such a knowledge,
knowing that he has not spoken to any of my High Performance Group athletes
back in Boston. So I knew he had a "mole" back home. I retorted
"well I don't think I lift that much, but if I may ask...who has fed you
that tid bit of information?" "Peter Morelli of course" he
grinned. Of course, that makes sense. Peter was one of Hoffy's athletes at the Maccabi
Games and a current figure head at Riverside (as well as a good
friend of mine). I could see some embellishment to build up my value to the
group. Well, soon I would be put to the test.
After the introductions were done, we had our lift to do. There was the
standard Olympic weigh bar, stacks of weights to add to it, a wooden box for
several purposes, ergs, and a new contraption, a "TR Machine". This
tool essentially is a seated row machine with a hydraulic piston that slows the
decent of the weight stack so you do not have to fight gravity on the return.
Quite a clever tool if I do say so. Any boat house would be smart to purchase
one (Hint hint, nudge, nudge RBC). It focuses the efforts on the
"drive" phase of the stroke and patients on the recovery. I soon
found out that it was not in my best interests to slowly and steadily press on
the drive. Rather, I need to explode to move the weight, otherwise, at about
the last 1/4 of my layback leading into the arm phase, there is no way of
moving the weights. I thought it prudent to start light and work my way up in
weights (no sense hurting myself). Even with a "light weight" on the
machine, the subsequent activities (dead lift, lunge, step-ups) were agonizing,
showing that the machine really does pack a wholp! How much so I wouldn't know
until tomorrows rows in the AM and PM, where the true stroke and feel through
the drive would be revealed to me...
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