The New World Champion

You'll have to forgive her if she's just a little disappointed with her performance....

Fresh from breaking a world’s record three weeks ago - and celebrating her 30th birthday the following week - Ursula made it a trifecta by claiming the Indoor Rowing World Championship at the C.R.A.S.H. -B. Sprints on February 14th.

But she missed breaking another world record by just 8/10ths of a second.

"I have to admit that when I finished the race I was a bit disappointed. I mean, I broke the world record three weeks ago and turning 30 last week I had an opportunity to do something that would have been pretty special. So, just missing another world record was a little bit of a letdown."

Her first world record was in the 20-29 year old Lightweight category. Her 30th birthday allowed her to go for the world record in the 30-39 year old category. But she missed breaking it by the slimmest of margins.

As you can tell, Ursula is a very driven athlete.

Driven so much that her recent success in these indoor rowing events falls a bit outside the prescribed training of her coach, Carlos Dinares. He feels success in indoor rowing requires a slightly different set of skills than those that translate into elite performance on the water.

It goes to the heart of Carlos' belief about the need for "efficient" power in rowing.

On the indoor rowing machines, success is found in "punching it" at the front end. "Just jump as hard as you can. But that is not what you want to do on the water. If you did that the boat would stop – or lurch in fits and starts," says Ursula.

"Carlos has been trying to teach me to build power through momentum, but these rowing machines mimic more of what a typical weight lifting training regimen is good at: heavy and slow movements," she says.

Carlos has been using the Shuttle MVP in Ursula's training because he feels it "is the closest you can get to the real leg drive of rowing on the water: elastic, dynamic and explosive. The plyometric motion of landing and taking off is amazing. I've been wondering for years how to simulate the leg drive acceleration on the rowing stroke and the MVP is the answer. Coordinated power in a dynamic elastic motion is the future of efficient rowing," he states.

Unorthodox? Yes, but the results seem to speak for themselves.

With a goal of rowing for the American team at the 2012 London Olympics, Ursula needs to first become a US citizen. But even there, things are moving along better than expected. With some timely assistance from a United States Senator, Ursula is scheduled to take her citizenship test and have her swearing in on March 22nd. Once she obtains her US passport - it's official - Ursula becomes a United States citizen.

The next step is making the US National Rowing team. That opportunity will come at the end of April when there is a national selection race. But in that race there won't be any Lightweight category to row in - they'll have to compete against the Heavyweights. It will definitely be a challenge, but Carlos and Ursula have decided to go for it. They're hoping that their recent performances, coupled with hard work, determination, and a continued focus on "efficient" power will lead them to success.

We hope so, too!

If you're working with some up-and-coming athletes on the MVP, we'd love to hear about them. Please tell us your story....

You can follow Ursula Grobler's success at www.groblerjames.com

Related Articles:

December 2009 - Fascinating Five of 2009
January 2010 - World Record Broken