Re: Gotta share this!
Mike,
It was with great amusement that I read you post as it combines my current
athletic interest, unicycling, and a past career, coaching rowing.
Most rowing coaches in the US usually follow along behind their crews in a
motor boat. On man-made courses and along rivers with tow paths on the
banks coaches will follow their crews on the shore on bicycles. The first
place I coached from a bicycle was at the World Rowing Championships in
Nottingham in 1975.
Coaching from a bicycle can be fairly distracting at first, but you soon
become absorbed in the rowing and the cycling is done in a somewhat
distracted fashion. I’m sure the coach you saw was oblivious to everything
but his crew. While I never had any disasterous experiences I have seen
coachs run into one another, drift off the path and into things. I have
even seen one guy lose control and wind up in the water. I can understand
how he wandered out into the path in front of you.
I taught myself to ride a unicycle as a distraction from coaching. It is
very easy to become obsessed about coaching, especially when the stakes are
fairly high. Unfortunately, unicycling during my coaching career never
progressed beyond what I later learned was Level 2. But, I always kept my
unicycle in the trunk of my car and would bring it out to ride every once
in a while. I never brought my unicycle (a 24" Schwinn which I still have
BTW) on any of our trips to Europe as I already had a mountain of equipment
that had to shipped, but I did bring it to the Olympic Games in Montreal in
1976. It was a short bus ride from Dartmouth College, our training camp, to
Montreal; so I threw it on the boat trailer and kept it at the boathouse
along with our coaching bicycles. The rowing course in Montreal is
man-made, and not unlike the one in Nottingham, and all of the coaching was
done from bicycles. I didn’t actually attempt to coach from a unicycle as I
wouldn’t be able to keep up with the crew. But, pretending to do so was
good for a laugh, and helped to relieve the tension, the crew’s and mine.
In 1979 I published a small book or rowing cartoons (another story and
another career.) A friend wrote an introduction that included: “…provides
the rowing community a reminder of a lesson sometimes lost in the worry
over 500 meter times, strokes per minute, and medals…” To accompany the
Introduction I drew a picture of myself coaching on a unicycle, holding a
megaphone, clipboard and several stop watches. The caption read: “Coach
Hooten taking 500 meter times, strokes per minute and medals far too
seriously.”
John Foss is going to put the cartoon up at :
Thanks for pleasant reminder of times past. It has distracted me from
uneasy thoughts about the trip I have to take tomorrow, flying from
California to Maryland.
All the best,
John Hooten
Mikefule wrote:
> Yesterday, on my Coker steaming around the tarmac strip around the
> National water Sports Centre rowing lake in the twilight…
>
> It’s not dark enough for my head torch…
>
> The tarmac is smooth, and the tyre is almost silent…
>
> There is a man … see the man… he has a megaphone, and is giving
> helpful advice to a distant rower…
>
> Advice given, the man turns and walks across in front of me to his
> bicycle…
>
> As I approach, flat out, I watch him stand the bicycle up, put his left
> foot on the left pedal and start to ‘scoot’ out onto the tarmac across
> my path, megaphone in hand…
>
> I’m going too fast to stop…
>
> This is a National/ international facility… does he speak English? Is
> ‘Watch out there’s a big unicycle coming?’ simply going to confuse
> him?
>
> Would shouting ‘Oi!’ be rude?
>
> So, in a moment of bizarre humour, I did that realistic Klaxon horn
> noise I learned 25 years ago at school… ‘Haroooooga!’ It sounds like a
> submarine about to dive…
>
> He looks up, his eyes widen… his bike settles gracefully onto its
> right side, his foot stays on the left pedal, and his other foot goes
> through the frame… one hand clutches at the handlebars, which twist
> almost from his grasp… the megaphone drops to the floor…
>
> ‘Thanks!’ I say, grateful for his last minute attempt to avoid a
> collision.
>
> Then on my next lap, I see him teetering along the lakeside, megaphone
> in hand. this time I have a light, and so does he. He sees me, his
> eyes widen, his eyebrows raise… then in a rather camp tone of voice,
> he says, ‘Hoooooh!’ which doesn’t sound much like a Klaxon at all.
>
> –
> Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling
>
> ‘I left it next to your bumper book of original quips. I hope you don’t
> mind.’
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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