THE SPORT OF ROWING him some video, and he would give us comments by email and phone.”8151 Bryan: “I learned a lot from James. His approach to rowing is to be really smooth and continuous, really patient with the whole stroke. “He’s like that in life, too. He surfs a lot. He’s really laid back. His wife is laid back. “After I met him in 2001 and all the way to 2004, I didn’t care if we won the Worlds or not. All I cared about was making sure that my teammates and I weren’t burned out by the time we got to the Olympics.”8152 Bryan Volpenhein is not a student of rowing history. When his life came crashing down at the 2000 Olympics, he was only barely aware that something similar had happened four years earlier. He had no idea how many times it had happened in the past. But to his credit, Bryan Volpehein didn’t need half a century of history to know that he never wanted to experience the pain of 2000 ever again. Bryan: “All I cared about was making sure that my teammates and I weren’t burned out by the time we got to the next Olympics. “It’s definitely a wave, and you’ve got to make sure you’re at the peak at the right time.”8153 J.R.: “When it came to workouts, Bryan always wanted to go on the lighter side, and I think that was James’ influence. “James stressed being more efficient during all phases of the stroke. He told us, ‘The whole world knows the Americans know how to pull, but pulling is only 50% of the battle. You have to move the boat for all the effort you’re putting into it. “‘Drew [Ginn] and I8154 know we are going well in our pair when we can row 2:00 8151 Read, op. cit. 8152 Volpenhein, op. cit. 8153 Ibid. minute 500-meter splits at half-pressure at 20 strokes per minute. Just a nice relaxed paddle. “‘Everything else will fall into place. Keep your eyes on the Speed Coach®, and shoot for that.’ “After that, if the schedule Mike Teti sent us said to do 95% for twelve miles, we would do 65% and just make it really good, just being super efficient in every part of the stroke. “So Volp and I kept trying to figure out how to make that 1990 Hudson pair move. We did a lot of drilling, having this nice suspension between the fingers and the foot- boards.”8155 Lifeguard Rowing Bryan: “During 2001 and 2002, we would push the legs and then open the body, push the legs and then open the body, Italian Style, but J.R. had also rowed on the Jersey Shore in lifeguard boats [without sliding seats], so eventually he got us to try, ‘Swing the back like that’s the only thing you have to do,’ like in a lifeguard boat.”8156 J.R was not the first person to connect “Olympic rowing” with lifeguard rowing. Stan Bergman, long-time rowing coach at Holy Spirit High School in Atlantic City, New Jersey and the University of Pennsyl- vania, got his start in lifeguard rowing, and Bob Kaehler,8157 who rowed at Rutgers, was a surfboat fixture in the mid-to-late 1980s. A three-time Olympian and multiple World Champion in the men’s eights, Kaeh- ler was introduced to the surfboat side by a college roommate who coaxed him into try- ing out to be a lifeguard.”8158 8154 See Chapter 131. 8155 Read, op. cit. 8156 Volpenhein, op. cit. 8157 See Chapter 155. 8158 Scott Larsen, Endless Summer, Rowing News, October, 2004, p. 58 2286