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 the coxswain of the Navy Heavyweight Varsity 8+, Brandon Karpf.

Princeton Hot Seat - Why are you in Princeton?

Brandon Karpf - I'm here for Navy's final regular season race of the spring on Mercer Lake.  We are racing George Washington and Hobart, and it's a bit of a homecoming for me as I was born and raised here in the Princeton area. 

PHS - Is there anything you're terrible at and will probably always be terrible at?

BK - Let's see, I'm horrendous at playing basketball, absolutely horrendous.  I don't think I've ever made a basket in my life.  Maybe someday in the future I might try and play with my kids, but in my adult life right now, it's just too embarrassing!

PHS - What's some of the best coaching advice you've received?

BK - The best advice I've been given as a coxswain is, that what you specifically say matters just as much as the general message you are trying to convey.  The example that I was given was to remove all negative words including "not" and "don't" from your vocabulary.  Remove every single negative connotation and find a way to say that same message, but in a positive way.  That advice really impacted my style as a coxswain and now whenever I'm coaching rowers, I put what I want them to do in a positive way so that I'm directing them into the change I want to see.

PHS - If you had to make an 8+ lineup of US Presidents, what would the line-up be?

BK - I would put Clinton in stroke because I like strokes that I can goof around with and I feel like I could really joke around with Clinton.  George Washington HAS to be in there.  How could I put a line-up together without him, especially being a member of the military.  Eisenhower for sure, if he had a job to do, he'd get it done.  Ulysses Grant would be the coxswain, because he was just absolutely nuts and you need a coxswain that's a little bit crazy.  I'd put Lincoln in there because he's tall and lanky.  Teddy Roosevelt, he's another wild one, and I feel like if you put him in the middle of the boat or even in bow he would just go nuts!  I'm a huge Thomas Jefferson fan.  He was stoic so in the middle of a race, he would just push through the pain and get the work done.  Lyndon Johnson because he's tall and a hard ass; very serious and very intense.  Last one, William Harrison.  We'll put him in 3 seat. 

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