The Independent Rowing News

Tom (stroke) and Peter Graves in their winning efforts at the Head of the Charles 2009 by SportGraphics.

“American Brother Peter and Thomas Graves row to an upset win the Championship Men’s Double at the Head of the Charles yesterday.” Boston Herald, Oct 18, 2009.

This caption, accompanying an overhead/ bride image of the Graves brothers, Tom and Peter, could be taken as a Boston-sized snub. Just one year earlier, Peter Graves matched up with Andrew Liverman to win the championship double over established and proven US team double of Sam Stitt and Sloan DuRoss, California Rowing Club (and Olympics 2008) double of Eliot Hovey and Wes Piermarini, and CRC double Scott Gault and Donny Simkin. Why is their presence on the podium an upset?

It is understood that at the Head of the Charles 2009, from now on to be known as the “Year of the Great 8,” the international stars of sculling descended on Boston to pull hard on one oar, not two. Nevertheless, their default position of small boats/two oars, also made them the top contenders in the championship double, where six of the 8 rowers paired up to take on the Charles course. It was expected that one of these pairings result in a Great 8 victory in the double.

It did not happen. The Tideway Scullers entry of Ondrej Synek ( a young Czech giant who can pull a 1:12 pace on a erg for a spell) and the smallest of the Great 8 rowers, Tim Maeyens of Belgium, bowman; came in second, eight seconds back from the leaders. The German national team entry came in third, and the remaining Tideway Scullers (AKA Great 8) entries came in 4^th and 5^th.

The double of Thomas Graves (stroke) and Peter Graves led the race at Riverside, Weld and Cambridge. Bow #1 in the race, they could view the slowly growing margin as the progressed down the course, away from the giants of the Great 8.

“Sitting on the line, looking at all these huge guys...I was thinking ‘this is going to be interesting,’” Peter sums it up: “We really had no idea.”

On the course, with Peter at bow, “We were rowing on the edge of the course the entire time, we almost hit every buoy and bridge, but it worked out,” says the younger brother.

‘The big thing that Peter and I always do in a race situation is to focus on ourselves, our rowing—it doesn’t matter who we are lining up against,” says Tom.

For those who follow such things, the brothers Graves were at a 33-34 into the headwind during that race, and raised it up to 35-36 when the wind calmed a bit. “As we moved away, we had more confidence,” says Thomas.

This was the most recent Graves “upset.” They have been winning, and surprising folks for some reason, for most of their rowing careers.

Harry and the Boys

It really started with Harry Graves, father of Thomas (27), Peter (24), and John (21). Harry walked-on Trinity crew in 1974, and found a passion that he carried on to his children years later. Harry won the Henley Royal Regatta’s Ladies’ Challenge Plate in 1976 with the Trinity Varsity Crew. It was a moment that stayed with him.

The younger Graves’ rowed through their high school years at Cincinnati Country Day School, and decided on following their father’s path to Trinity. A Division III school, it is a rowing powerhouse during most of the Graves brothers term there because of Coach Larry Gluckman, who made Division III rowers (many walk-on’s like their father) athletes that could compete at any level—there are no divisions for Gluckman. Brother John Graves will graduate in 2010 from Trinity and is a two-sport athlete (and captain) in soccer and crew. He was a member of the 2009 US U23 team in Czech Republic this summer in a pair with Eli Roxby. Coach Gluckman has retired from Trinity and is now the Director of Competitive Rowing at Craftsbury Sculling Center. Peter is now an assistant coach at Trinity.

On the US Rowing website, both Peter and Thomas list their father as one of their coaches, but he acts more as their logistics guy. He helps them decide on races, travel, training locations and schedules and supports them when needed. Harry and his wife Lynne, who also rows and coaches, guide the twenty-something brothers, but let others speak into the megaphone.

The family connection also extends to first cousin Brian de Regt, who is on the lightweight national team (4+ now) and also went to Trinity.

Coach Gluckman

Gluckman, featured in Volume 15, No 1 (How it’s Done, the secrets of Larry Gluckman’s success), knows rowing and knows the Graves ethos, which is part of what makes these guys so successful.

After the Charles, Peter told Rowing News, “I feel strongly we can keep getting faster.” Don’t doubt it. The Graves brothers have methodically moved up in the ranks, first proving themselves in a sweep boat with a Henley win in 2005 in the Temple Challenge Cup; then chipping seconds away in doubles and singles. The older Tom competed in doubles and singles over 2006, earning a fourth in the Men’s single trials that year. Peter graduated in 2007 then started his Boston campaign. In the Head of the Charles champ doubles, Peter has come in third (2007), first (2008) then first again (2009). In the Olympic Trials and the Henley 2008, the Graves double earned second to Eliot Hovey and Wes Piermarini, who went to Beijing. The Graves brothers won the senior trials this year and went to Worlds in Poznan in August of 2009.

Trend? Absolutely. “They are well-grounded in what it means to be an athlete, they prepare to race well,” says Gluckman. He shares that both brothers earned the “Most Valuable Freshman” award on the team. “Folks were already predicting their success.” Their Henley win, below, was just shy of 30 years from when their father won on the Thames, this photo from Rowing News August 2005 sums up the emotion of that victory, Peter stroke, Tom bow.

“All three of the boys have an ability to stay on task, stay focused on what it takes to be an athlete, and they have extremely supportive parents,” affirms the former Trinity coach. “They work on what it takes to make the boat go fast...these guys really are focused on the process, not so much the results,” adds Gluckman.

“The joy of it is that they look like everybody....they just get the most out of themselves.”

In a sport that favors the long and lanky, the Graves brothers are unquestionably average-sized. On their US Rowing athlete bios, Peter is listed as 6’2” and 175; Thomas is 6’1” and 195. Hardly intimidating figures.

Their strength is their technique. Gluckman said that Harvard Coach Charley Butt (known, along with his 20+ years at the Crimson, for his coaching of Olympic silver medal sculler Michelle Guerette) saw them on the Charles course and said “they looked flawless.”

See below for video excerpts of their training here (turn down the music, looks at the strokes), then read on:

Both brothers will admit to mistakes in conversations about races and training. Tom recalls “taking bad strokes” at Henley two years ago when they fell back to the other US double in the final. He also recalls how he felt months after a bike accident in 2008. “I can’t believe I am still not in shape,” he said to himself in February of 2009. He had moved up to California Rowing Cub to train with some of the regulars there: Scott Gault, Donny Simkin, Eliot Hovey, Wes Piermarini, Warren Anderson and more...and feeling like he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t push himself to the level he needed, and he probably wasn’t impressing CRC and National Team Coach Tim McClaren. He retreated to Newport Beach and re-entered some mysterious Graves zone. Whatever it is, it works. Both brothers have continually figured out how to grind out erg pieces, cross-train, lift, row with precision, with little direct supervision and coaching.

In 2008 however, the boys were under the tutelage of Xeno Muller in Newport to prepare for Henley and Olympic Trials. They performed well with second-place finishes to who became the US Double at the Olympics. The next year, it was the Graves on top for US Trials before Poznan World Championships.

Neither of the brothers have good feelings after their first Worlds appearance. The conditions weren’t great for smaller scullers (said Gluckman), Peter felt they had better rows (and that is not a good feeling to have at Worlds), Tom was fighting massive back spasms and they had tried three different shells in workouts and heats. Their first-place position at the 500m fell to a 5^th in the heat by the 2000m. Time to go back to training. They were not making excuses or feeling sorry for themselves, they simply got on the airplane with some new information from the World rowing stage.

Within two months, and training on different coasts, the Head of the Charles championship double was theirs. They were back in the Filippi double they usually row and after a 30 minute paddle on Friday they lined up against the legends of sculling on Saturday.

2010

The brothers are still unsure where they fit into the National team system. They would go into the camp programs, but also feel they are stronger as a unit. “We are better together, whatever it is, it’s like 2 + 2 = 5,” says Peter.

“If he told me what to do, I would,” says Peter of US Coach Tim McClaren. At this point, father Harry will help the brothers select opportunities that work well for them.

Concludes Thomas, “we are happy doing our own thing too, each of us are always trying the make ourselves better so we can mold it together in the double.”

by Janit Stahl