What is The Princeton Hot Seat?

The Princeton Hot Seat is a new recurring photo blog to highlight the transient nature of the rowing community in the Princeton, New Jersey area.  It's open to anyone directly involved with the sport of rowing that comes to Princeton on rowing "business".  Could be rowers, coxswains, coaches, boatmen, officials, etc.

How does the Hot Seat Work?

Each subject gets four questions to answer, the first of which is simply, why are you here (in Princeton)?  Then the subject randomly draws the remaining three from a pool of pre-determined questions, of which half are rowing related, half are not...and can be pretty random.  They get one pass.

On the Hot Seat today is world champion Grace Luczak of the USA Women's Eight.

Princeton Hot Seat - Why are you in Princeton?

Grace Luczak - I am in Princeton to train and hopefully win an Olympic gold medal with the USA rowing team.

PHS - If you could be the best at another sport, which sport and why?

GL - I would say volleyball because I used to play that up through high school.  I was a middle blocker and actually did a little bit of USA stuff, but just at the high school level.  I really looked up to Kerry Walsh.  Fear the Tree!

PHS - What is your favorite erg workout and why?

GL - I like 3k, 2k, 1k.  It's really hard, and I remember doing it in college quite it a bit.  The stroke rates work out so that the 2k piece is around 30-32 spm and a lot of people would end up PR-ing on their 2k portion.  It was a fun workout.

PHS - What do you think are three of the most important things for being a successful rower?

GL - First, having the support of my family, friends, teammates, coaches, and my host family is huge.  Second, being a good teammate is very important as we train together year round and you have to be a good teammate in order to get the best out of who you're rowing with and in turn yourself.  Then lastly, just going 'all in' in whatever you're doing is critical if you want to be the best you can be!

Coming to Princeton and want to give the hot seat a go?  Contact row2k here.