About
Hi, and thanks for visiting. I’m Ben and I live in Louisville, Kentucky, working as an assistant coach for women’s rowing at the University of Louisville. Prior to that I was the men’s head coach at Florida Tech. I’ve been coaching for 10 years now (wow that went by fast) and full-time for the last three. I think rowing is the best sport on the planet and I have sworn my fealty to it…okay, I’m a servant of the multi-headed fire breathing hydra that is crew and only a warrior’s death can extricate me from it’s scaly grasp. Seriously though, I work with great student-athletes every day and I get paid to drive around in a launch and teach women how to row faster. That doesn’t suck. Like a friend of mine said, it beats sitting in a foxhole and getting shot at.
Besides that, I’m passionate about writing, and I do a bit of freelance writing for Rowing News magazine. I was (finally) awarded a masters degree in creative writing in December of 2006. I graduated from the University of Florida with a BFA in electronic intermedia in 1999. Besides coaching, I’ve also worked as a web developer, graphic artist, technical helpdesk, and PC technician. My ultimate goal is to get into more creative projects and publish a bestseller one day. I secretly aspire to write graphic novels (ie comic books). Still working on that…
I started this blog because I wanted to write down my thoughts, discoveries, and epiphanies on the sport, and I also saw a need for certain types of content about rowing that just wasn’t out there on the Internet. Basically, I saw a need for more than straight news and I figured rowing needs to get on that Web 2.0 bandwagon. I’m hoping this blog takes off and becomes a daily stop for rowers and coaches. Feel free to ask questions, make comments, and generally flame me if I publish something dumb or out-and-out erroneous.
Besides rowing and writing, I enjoy other sports (running, ultimate frisbee, biking), playing cards, sampling the fine cuisine in my new city, and just having a good time. I’m big into books and movies, so you’ll see a lot of posts about both on this blog. Sometimes they won’t have a damned thing to do with rowing, other than me encouraging rowing people to feed their heads.
I’m 32, single, and a Gemini.
I’m also a guest blogger on greenertrends.com, a new blog about any green or environmentally friendly trends.
Comments
Comment from Jeff
Time: June 13, 2007, 12:24 pm
Ben,
Stumbled across your blog recently. I’m the creator of ErgScores.com — a free online management tool for erg scores. It’s similar to C2’s logbook — but in my opinion is much easier to use and offers better technology (but I’m biased of course).
I’m trying to get some feedback from coaches and rowers about ErgScores.com. ErgScores.com is just a hobby site. I’m working on some “social” features which allow rowers to tag their scores (http://ergscores.com/tag/pr). You can also graph your workouts and scores over time.
I really want to grow some of the individual and team features. I’m constantly adding new features that are suggested by a core group of users. But, I’m really interested in finding teams and coaches to work with.
Let me know if you have any suggestions. The site is just a hobby — not trying to sell you anything.
Jeff
Comment from Rob Swartz
Time: August 10, 2007, 8:52 pm
Great site!!
You might be interested in the 142nd Yale - Harvard race posted on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eZYljUt-iw
regards,
Comment from Stephen Harris
Time: January 9, 2008, 2:01 pm
Hey Ben,
I was wondering if you might look into some information on flexibility and stretching and post some stuff on the site. I have been looking around and found a few things and will send them your way when I see if they are decent or not but figured you might be able to have some good insight and find some fun stuff I might not know about.
Thanks and keep up the fun and interesting stuff.
Steve
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