Barb Kindig, novice head coach and director of Pittsford Crew's summer the learn to row program, has coached thousands of kids in the Rochester area over the past 11 years including London Olympic bronze-medalist Henrik Rummel, national team rower Ryan Monaghan, and sisters Jessica and Emily Eiffert.
But she's never had to coach for an audience of 6.1 million people.
Monday night's episode of the hit NBC series The Biggest Loser featured show host and personal trainer Jillian Michaels and 16-year-old contestant Sanjana "Sunny" Chandrasekar learning to row with Pittsford Crew.
"Rowing is a full body workout," said Michaels in the segment. "I thought we would try crew. It's great; it's a team sport. At the end of the day, I'm not an experienced rower, so it's going to be something fun for the both of us. Exercise for kids should be fun, and rowing is just one a hundred things I can think of that would be great for her to try."
Kindig led Michaels, Chandrasekar and about a dozen other novice rowers through a tank workout before going out on the Erie Canal in an eight.
"Rowing is not easy," said Kindig during the episode. "It takes a lot of concentration. I think it was a little bit harder than Jillian thought it was going to be."
Chandrasekar, who was placed in stroke seat for her on-camera rowing debut, agreed.
"Rowing is difficult and you have to get that perfect technique to actually get the boat to move," she said. "I probably wouldn't have tried something like this in the past because I would have been nervous that I wouldn't have been able to keep up with the rest of the team.
"Today, I surprised myself. I did something I was really proud of. It was cool to work with the team, everyone was fun and supportive and nice."
Betsy Twohig-Barrett, Pittsford Crew Vice President of Operations and Programming said that despite the rainy weather, the team was excited to represent youth rowing.
"We were delighted to have them here," she said. "It's fantastic. Pittsford has one of the largest indoor rowing centers in the country right now. For being a land-locked area, we have a very successful team here.
"The club was just delighted to have Jillian come in. Even though we're a competitive program in season, to bring this much attention to the sport was an opportunity we couldn't pass up."
Check out the full episode, "Pay it Forward" on NBC's website here.