Q&A with Coach Cat (Part 2)

Transcript

*This is an automatically generated transcript*

Kristi Wagner 0:04
Do you remember screaming at me in 2019? In the parking lot before we had to do our fake trial before going to Florida to do trials, you just yelled at me louder than I've ever heard you yell before.

Eric Catalano 0:19
Yeah. I'm constantly thinking about what we can do to make you better. And when you question it or don't want to do it, it hurts more. I think that's what makes me frustrated.

Kristi Wagner 0:31
Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream, they want to turn into a reality. This week on the podcast, I am sharing part two of my interview with my longtime rowing coach, Eric Catalino. But I call him cat. Most people call him cat. We talked for a while, like an hour and 45 minutes. So we thought we would do a part two of the conversation. And this is mostly a q&a based on questions people submitted via Instagram for cat. So people had great questions, and it spurred a lot of fun conversation. The questions ranged from pretty serious rowing inquiries to funny and random topics. So it was fun, it kind of went all over the place, and then around around the block. If you haven't heard part one of my conversation with cat episode seven that was released last week, I'd recommend going back and listening to that first, and then coming back here and listening to this episode. But before we talk to cat, here is an update on my current training. So I'm still in Aruba, Italy. We've been here about a week now. And now the whole kind of US team that's going to race at the Second World Cup. Not this coming weekend, but the next weekend, and very say Italy is now here. So it's fun. There's a it's not that big of a group people but a bigger group of people, we have to go in two sessions down to down to practice now. We were going in one session, and now we are in two sessions. But it's been fun. We had a day off on Sunday, which was really nice. And we got to do some non rowing things, we went for kind of a more intense hike on Saturday afternoon as our second workout. And then on Sunday, I went for a little bit of a more relaxed hike. But it's nice to get out and see a little bit of the what it's like here. It's fun being a passenger driving up into some of the towns because the roads are like crazy, tiny and wavy. And I'm very impressed. They're driving our drivers on some of our coaches and staff and stuff driving these vans up these tiny roads. It's a little treacherous, but the road has been good. We've been rowing in our quad, and then also breaking out into doubles sometimes. So mixing it up. But it's fun, we get to do pieces with all the other boats. And yeah, just trying to keep getting better and making things a little a little smoother, a little quicker, so that we can really tune it up before before we go and race which is actually pretty soon. The entries come out on Wednesday of this week. So they'll have already come out when this podcast comes out. But I don't know what they are yet. So we'll kind of make all of our final decisions once they come out. But yeah, before we know it a week from on the 14th. We're going to go over to every SE and then be fully in race mode. So it's really exciting. It feels like it happened pretty quickly that we're already racing again. But it's it's I'm excited. It's super fun. And it's it's going to be have feeling it's going to be a great, great weekend of racing one more week plus here in Aruba before we travel and just eat up all the pasta and cappuccinos and gelato that we can. So now we will do our review of the week. So this week comes from Jay nasty one ad great, great name. He says so inspiring. They say so inspiring. A huge Olympics nerd I stumbled on this podcast super insightful and motivating. Can't wait for more episodes. Thank you, Kristi. So it's very nice. I'm also an Olympics nerd. So we have that in common. Yeah, so if you want to leave a review, it might get read on the show, which is very exciting. So please rate review on Apple podcasts and on Spotify, really appreciate it and you might get to hear your view on the podcast, which is fun. So now it's the moment we've all been waiting for, we get to have part two of my conversation with cat. And maybe there'll be a part three. If you want to have a part three, then let me know, reach out to me, you can reach out to me on Instagram. My handle is Kristi number one. Or you can send me an email at the other three years@gmail.com. And let us know if you want a part three, and if you do what you want it to be about. So that further ado, here we go. I thought that maybe we could talk a little bit about you coaching me specifically. And then I do have some listener questions that range from a variety of topics, so okay, but yeah, I mean, you've coached me for a while. And how many years now? Oh, like too many don't. We're both young.

Eric Catalano 5:54
Not too many. Not just enough.

Kristi Wagner 5:57
I really don't at seven. I've been rolling for a Ryan for seven years. But I met you when I was

Eric Catalano 6:02
right. And we did six we did maybe

Kristi Wagner 6:06
one two summers to two summers in college, like 10 years. Yeah, yeah.

Eric Catalano 6:13
And a couple of Christmas camps. Oh, my gosh, yeah. A couple of camps. Do you remember row the single have a little pond? I remember

Kristi Wagner 6:20
rowing the single that summer or that winter, and I had no idea how to row the single and I don't think it was very good. But that's okay. It was fun. Yeah. Yeah. So tell the truth. When you met me, did you think this girl is probably going to be part of my life for the next 15 years? No. Do you think but I did God's gift to rowing. She's gonna grow up and be an Olympian and

Eric Catalano 6:56
God's gift to rowing? No. grow up to be an Olympian. Yes. Wow. Really? Yeah. It's

Kristi Wagner 7:03
just saying that's me. Nice. No,

Eric Catalano 7:05
I'm I'm saying that because we're going to, I'm going to make the story a little bit longer. So a couple of couple of years ago, we were training in Texas, and it was Kristi's birthday. And Meghan Goodman, who's a nicest person, Mike Goodman was on podcast, Meg. Yes. She was on the podcast. Anyway. She was like, let's all say something nice about Kristie. Cat, you start. And I proceeded to talk about all the times that I watched her get knocked down. And

Kristi Wagner 7:39
other girls were like, cat, did you miss the assignment? This is supposed to be something nice. Yeah. Not failures. Yes. Like, it'll come around, don't worry.

Eric Catalano 7:49
But it came around with like an extreme level of resilience that I think is like your superpower. And seeing that. That's when I thought you'd go a long way in rowing? Or whatever you do.

Kristi Wagner 8:06
Thank you. But we've had some trials and tribulations true. People tell me that you don't yell. And I know that's not true.

Eric Catalano 8:18
I felt the old ones at Kristi.

Kristi Wagner 8:23
Do you remember? Probably do you remember screaming at me? In 2019 in the parking lot before we had to do our fake trial before going to go to Florida to do trials? You we held an internal trial.

Eric Catalano 8:42
Okay, do you remember this? No, probably not the way that you do.

Kristi Wagner 8:47
I'm sure that you yelled at me. Okay, we're in the parking lot. And I was like, why are we doing this? This is so stupid. I don't want to do this. Like you already know who the people are. That should go and you were like, well, if you think you're the fat. If you think you're fast enough to go, we were only going to send four people to Florida for the trial. Yeah. And so we were going to hold a trial in Saratoga. Yep. Before to see who the fastest four people were. And I don't know why. But I didn't want to do it. And we went back and forth. And then you just yelled at me louder than I've ever heard you yell before. And then I'm pretty sure I won the time trial.

Eric Catalano 9:28
Yeah. That sounds like something I would do. It sounds like a level of it sounds like I got to a frustrated point. But I don't think I would have I don't raise my voice very often. I don't think I actually raise my voice. I think I probably spoke a little bit louder than normal and said something you didn't want to hear and you interpreted it as yelling at you.

Kristi Wagner 9:51
I guess my question is, do I push your buttons more than other people?

Eric Catalano 9:56
Oh, probably. Yeah. But that's also because I feel like, you know, my responsive, we've had, like, had enough time together. I feel like you know how I feel about things. And I feel like when you're pushing my buttons, I feel like you're almost doing it on purpose. Because you know, that will get me upset.

Kristi Wagner 10:21
I'm horrible.

Eric Catalano 10:24
No, I mean, I'm sure you're not doing it to get me upset. But I don't know, maybe maybe it's just a level of it's a level of expectation. And it's just a,

Kristi Wagner 10:35
but I feel like we've had some hard conversations. Yeah.

Eric Catalano 10:38
And, and I also think I have done a lot, and I do a lot in our training program. And it's, I'm constantly thinking about constantly thinking about what we can do to make you better. And when you question it, or don't want to do it, it hurts more. And I think that's, I think that's what makes me frustrated.

Kristi Wagner 11:04
I'm trying to question you last.

Eric Catalano 11:07
I don't know. It's like, if I, you know, if I sit down and I design a practice, and I think, Alright, I think we this is, this is the plan, and this is what we're going to get out of it. This is how it's going to run. And then. And then it's not just Kristi, but anybody like is like, why do we have to do that? Or can't we do this instead? Or, you know, questions in some way? I appreciate that people are like, comfortable enough not to not to just be like blind to do everything. But but when I do put so much into it, and people question it. That's what gets frustrating. And then and then the closer there, the closer the relationship we have, the more frustrating it is.

Kristi Wagner 11:48
Yeah. I think that's been a hard thing to and like, I don't know, navigating coaching adults maybe and like me being an adult, like, I mean, I'm not most of my, like growing up, you know, I had coaches, and it's very clear that the coach is like, in a position of authority, you know, because when you're a really little kid, they're kind of also babysitting or whatever, you know, like, and then in high school and college, I also think like, the coach is in charge, you know, and you listen to them. And now, like, also, this is my whole life. Yeah, and that's true for my teammates too, like, right, so when I fail at something, like, it's not like, I can just brush it off, like, it really hurts, you know. And I think that that's also why sometimes I've had like a more intense reaction, or maybe feel like I want to have more of a voice and things because it just feels like the stakes are higher.

Eric Catalano 12:54
And I'm sure I bring a lot of that on myself, because I do want to keep a relationship with the athletes where, where I'm not where I'm not a dictator, where I'm not like, you can lead people in two ways, like from behind with a whip or from in front with a banner. And I prefer to lead from in front with a banner. And, and so, you know, if I'm never behind with the whip, it's easy. It's easy for people to, you know, question, whatever, because it's because it's not like, I'm not going to beat you up for it, you know. And so I do want you to have agency over your training and all of that. So it's only hard when it's a really hard one. I I feel like, I feel like we've built a lot of trust, and people can trust me in things. And then if they kind of jump out and surprise me that they're not trusting me on that particular thing, then it just, you know, it just it half doesn't necessarily I take it personally, but but I'm sure half of it comes from like what you're thinking that day. Not you like

Kristi Wagner 13:57
anybody. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And I feel like you've I mean, I don't know, I obviously think you want us to win. Like, I think I know that I want I know that. You know, you want success in that way. But I think you do a really good job like, I think not like celebrating the wins, but it's doesn't seem like it's like all about winning. Like, I think you celebrate lots of victories along the way and like see that success is different things to a lot of people like at the end of the day, yeah, we're trying to win an Olympic medal. But like, I don't think you're just like anything below that is a failure. You know, like, I feel like

Eric Catalano 14:43
Yeah, I mean, I obviously like want to celebrate growth and every, every way that every way that it comes and the higher you get, the more that the the the growth goes from like being able to move at a I move a boat at an international level to like a world record level like, so the growth obviously is in that area gets higher and higher. So I'm gonna keep celebrating every bit of growth that that we have. But there are also a lot of growth in other areas of life to celebrate, as well.

Kristi Wagner 15:21
Yeah, but one time, in 2017, we were raised with Kara at doubles trials. And we got second to Jeffy and Mary Jones. And it was really close. But like, we were like Nobodies, and they are like, an Olympic silver medalist. And Mary had probably been to worlds like a bunch of time, you know? Yeah. Like, I thought it was pretty good result, like I remember. And we were driving home in the van. And you were driving, and you were like, Oh, can you like look for somewhere to eat, or whatever? And Chase texted you? Or like, I don't know, that was on your text with Chase. And you were like, I really wish Kristi and Kara had won. Or like they almost won. Like, I really wish they had won. And I like remember in the moment being like, Oh, my God, like, Is he disappointed? Like, I had never experienced a time when I thought you were like disappointed in me. Or like, you read my private text? Yeah, I read your text message. And now I'm telling you about it many years later.

Eric Catalano 16:25
This I didn't know this was a confessional.

Unknown Speaker 16:29
But like,

Kristi Wagner 16:29
I don't know, like, I just

Eric Catalano 16:32
I mean, I am. I'm ambitious. And you know, want to want to win as much as as the next guy.

Kristi Wagner 16:41
Yeah, but I think it was impressive that you didn't like, I don't know, I feel like you were like, aware enough to know that, like it was a win for even if it wasn't the win that you had wanted from us. Like it was a win for us, like so you didn't feel the need to like, bring us down? You know, I don't know, like you could have your own moment of okay, well, I still want to keep improving. And obviously we'd wanted to keep improving to like, yeah, I don't know, I feel like a lot of coaches would have been like, if their desire had been to win the race. Right. And that had been the goal and like, the, the athletes had failed, they would just be like, No, you didn't do what, you know, you didn't do what I want. And so like it's a fail.

Eric Catalano 17:20
Yeah. Okay. I think I think I'm pretty good about having a low ego on like, I don't, I don't feel like you're like when you if you win that race, I don't take a lot of credit for that. But if you lose, I don't take a lot of credit for that either.

Kristi Wagner 17:38
So yeah, take credit for me.

Eric Catalano 17:41
I'm very proud of you. I'm proud to have been part but I don't like when when you show up at a race. Like, there are so many things that go into that, that go into that moment. It's not just like, my desire that it's going to make you win or lose that race.

Kristi Wagner 17:58
Yeah, but I still feel like you're a pretty big part of it.

Eric Catalano 18:02
Yeah, I, I feel like I'm a big part of it. But I also I don't, I don't I don't think I feel as much ownership over your wind or your loss as you think I do. Okay, I have, you know, I've designed you know, I have goals for myself and goal goals for the program. But we talked, what was it, it was actually last week, I think I sent a I sent a long spiel to the athletes about about your circle of concern, and your circle of influence and, and really paying attention to the things that are inside your circle of influence, you have a lot of things inside of our circle of concern, but you want to spend your time inside the circle of influence, to let that grow. If you spend your time inside of a circle of concern that it kind of crushes out your circle of influence. So I kind of drew a little picture and said, you know, sent this along to the athletes last week or two weeks ago, something like that. And and I feel like when we show up at a race like you know, I just want to focus inside of my circle of influence there. My circle of concern is definitely like how you do but my circle of influence is much more like how well prepared you are.

Kristi Wagner 19:22
Yeah. Let's talk about your essay texts you send

Eric Catalano 19:27
Okay, that's a catechism I will I will admit to that cat as am I mistake texting for email sometimes.

Kristi Wagner 19:36
Yeah, I don't know if you guys know this, but you can send a text so long that you have to like hold it down to read all of it. Like it enters another screen. Like there's this

Eric Catalano 19:49
like on your screen. Oh my god, like on my screen.

Kristi Wagner 19:52
It's crazy. It's like lit I didn't I never knew it existed until I interacted with cat.

Eric Catalano 19:58
So basically what happened? more text than in person maybe? Yeah.

Kristi Wagner 20:01
Well, what happens is say I have some sort of issue or like, I don't know, something has come up like some something's not going well, or whatever is happening. And I go to talk to Cat about it. So I kind of like pour my heart out, tell him how I'm feeling. And he just kind of looks at me blank stare, blank stare, kind of says, okay, whatever. Maybe I cried. we part ways. Two days later, at two in the morning, I receive the longest text I've ever gotten in my entire life. traverses mountains, that

Eric Catalano 20:40
is that I will own up to every bit of that,

Kristi Wagner 20:44
I appreciate that you don't just that you collect your thoughts before you respond.

Eric Catalano 20:49
I have always been a slow processor. I take my time thinking about something. And, and I don't like I don't like my immediate response a lot of times, so I do try and process slowly. But I process. Yeah, I do. Think about it. Probably far after you're done. You just wanted to vent on me. And two days later, you

Kristi Wagner 21:16
know, I always appreciate it. It is funny though. The essay texts.

Eric Catalano 21:21
Yeah. Somebody should have somebody should like, hold on to all those like principles, a little principle, a little book, and then we can we can read it later.

Kristi Wagner 21:30
Yeah, you've already written a book, Apex.

Eric Catalano 21:33
I think Yeah. That'll be that'll be my next side hustle, just collect the essay texts.

Kristi Wagner 21:41
Okay, we'll start off with a somewhat easy question. How do you deal with people crying slash telling you all of their issues?

Eric Catalano 21:50
I think Kristi just No, I? Well, I stare at them blankly. Probably make them more uncomfortable. But I listen. And I think that they know, I listened because if not right away, a few days later, I will have processed and shared shared a response. But these days, I'm trying to not just stare blankly and say thank you for sharing that with me.

Kristi Wagner 22:25
This question is a little bit similar. But like, basically, the athletes at this level, all invest everything they can to be the best they can be as your as their coach? How do you make sure you give each of them the time and attention they need? Which is a good question. Because we have 13 people on our team.

Eric Catalano 22:44
It's a great question. And, and honestly, it's something that I continue to work on i in the rest of my the rest of my life. My my paying job is Executive Director, co executive director of Saratoga rowing. And an I have an I run around a lot. And so that is always on my mind to try and to try and give the athletes what you know, to match the level that they want to. I think that's even when I was coaching juniors, like I always wanted to match the level of investment that the athlete wanted to do. And so you know, when somebody when somebody said, I want to try and race the single at youth nationals or Junior World Championships or something, I would say, I will be here at 5am. And we can do this before school like I Oh, I never wanted the athlete to outdo me. And so I would match their level of investment. It is it is harder with a big group. And I find myself them to come to me a little more. And some athletes who don't come to me probably don't get quite as much, quite as much attention because I do because of running around people kind of need to like grab me. And I'm hoping to change that as I continue to develop as a coach, but

Kristi Wagner 24:08
I feel like you also I mean, I don't know. I feel like we go on training trips and you can spend time

Eric Catalano 24:13
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely training trips. And honestly, the thing that has really improved my coaching is joining you guys on bike rides that runs like I feel like now many

Kristi Wagner 24:27
coaches designed the athletes training plan so that they can get their own workouts and

Eric Catalano 24:33
Yeah, well I designed it so I have friends. I mean somebody's got to ride to get ice cream with me. No but I do I do feel like that has been helpful in my coaching because I get to spend because I get to like, you know captured audience whether be as captured for the for the athlete or the athlete as captured for me. It's a captured audience. Yeah, And they get to work out.

Kristi Wagner 25:03
Yeah, someone asked, Who is your favorite person to go on an ice cream ride with? I didn't ask that question.

Eric Catalano 25:12
That's a good. That's a good question. I mean, it's all about the ice cream. Sorry. Okay, so

Kristi Wagner 25:18
the follow up question was, Where is your favorite place to go for an ice cream ride? Like, what ice cream place?

Eric Catalano 25:26
Oh, I mean, I think it's KIG dairy. Although, I really do like ice cream man as well. Just nobody likes to climb that hill. Gotta go up that hill. And now you all are faster than me climbing the hill. So you shouldn't be afraid to do it. You guys should be like, Hey, let's go that ice cream man. And I'll be like, do we have to?

Kristi Wagner 25:46
Okay, do does the coaching and training program from us rowing ever conflict with your own personal philosophy? And if so, which one wins?

Eric Catalano 25:59
That's a good question. I wouldn't say I wouldn't say it conflicts, I wholly believe that, that the training program of the US robic training program will get the athletes where they need to be when they need to be there who are ready to be there. I think for a portion of the athletes, I coach, like, there are some steps that need to be taken before they're before they're ready. Before like, if they're not going to be if they're not going to be at the if they're not ready to do the work like either emotionally or like physically. Like, I feel like my program will conflict a little bit. But it's me trying to teach them something to prep them for that. Does that make sense?

Kristi Wagner 26:50
Yeah. I mean, I feel like there's a difference between like development and then being like, at the elite level.

Eric Catalano 26:59
And I also like, I also see, in the athletes that I have, I feel like I see kind of some of the things that they need. And so a lot of my training program is not as purely physiologically correct, or doesn't work as great physiologically as a, as the program as the US wrong program. But for these particular athletes who, who need to learn this lesson to learn who need to figure out how to pull in this way, like, like, mentally or developmentally, or, you know, I'd rather you learn something in your brain that will help you then just purely get the physiological benefit out of it. And so I think that's a, I think there are some some conflicts in there.

Kristi Wagner 27:51
What is something you think you do differently than most other coaches, like, we kind of talked about that a little bit, but

Eric Catalano 27:58
I don't know about most other coaches, but I've, I've often thought of myself more as a teacher than a trainer. And I feel like there are a lot of there are a lot of coaches who are training athletes. And I don't know much about horses, but I was talking with Lauren shawl, or one of her coaches on staff who works at a horse farm and I was like, voice, horse traders must have it great. They just got they say, here's the workout, like, and their horse does the workout, and they and they get whatever physiological benefit out of running, you know, steady state or do intervals or whatever. And, you know, humans have to do like so much more. And she's, and then she was like, no, no, no, no, horses are way worse. But, but I do think this, our sport and being successful at our sport, is a lot more than just physiological. And, and I do think especially going coming from a high school coaching background, like we could, we could, if it's purely physiological, especially in the high school side, like, we would have just kept pushing the volume up and up and up and up and up to win the, to win the race. You know, if you're doing four by 20 minutes, I got to do five by 20 minutes. But I think if you can like learn how to push yourself or learn how to pull harder or learn what your limit is, I think those are the things I could have designed the program around while trying to do while trying to meet the physiological goals as as much as I can.

Kristi Wagner 29:41
Okay, the next question was specifically about how short can short women succeed in scaling and growing, but I think the bigger question like I feel like you don't judge people or like only take a certain kind of athlete or a certain body type of athlete like I Feel like you, I don't know everyone on our team has like a different BUILD and 15 different Brack background like, you see limitations in any way. Like,

Eric Catalano 30:11
I mean, I do feel like the limitations are, are like 80% in your head and 20% in your body, I do think a lot of different, a lot of different athletes can, can be successful. And a lot of different size athletes can be successful. I also acknowledge that like to move a boat at World record speed, you need a certain amount of wattage, like there's just the physics of it. And and I think that I think that is, you can't deny that, but you, you can also see that like, just because you have the wattage doesn't mean that you can move the boat that fast doesn't work the other way around. So, so I think people can, you know, people can be successful at all different at all different sizes, provided they can get to a place where they have the appropriate level of wattage and, and it is, I think it was Charlie, but that that told me about this, he's like, you just need to be strong enough in every in every like boat class like you need to be strong enough. That doesn't mean that the person who has the world record ERG is going to beat the person who's 40 seconds slower than them. You need to be strong enough to move that that boat at the world record speed. You know, I think a lot more people can be strong enough than no, they can be strong enough so that people who believe they can. I'd rather I'd rather go for the people who believe they can grow into that position than the one that just looks like they'll do it.

Kristi Wagner 31:47
If that makes sense. No, it does. And I I feel like I guess I wonder like, what, what do you look for in people like applying to Arion? You know, what is something that you see from somebody? And you think okay, yeah, I want I want to coach this person, I think that they could take it really far.

Eric Catalano 32:06
I think it's I think it's how people approach one is how people approach training. And add their, like, resilience. And, and people's, you know, I do think people have to be good at failing to be to ever, like go really really far. People need to be hungry. They need to, like, want to, you know what I want to make every day better than the last day and, and I obviously don't like love when when people get angry or upset about a moment. Because you know, that the failures of the moments are just moments in time. But I also I appreciate, like, and one thing, I think that you were always really good at Kristi's, like, if you came off this was even in high school, if you came off a race and like someone said, Good job. And you didn't feel like you've done a good job. You're like, don't tell me that. Don't tell me like, Don't Don't take away my ability to grieve this moment and learn from it by just saying it's all good. Like, you have to also also be okay. Like, that wasn't good. And I'm going to do better next time.

Kristi Wagner 33:26
All right. Now we have some really, people want to know weird things about you. And I think some people are just trying to make fun of you

Eric Catalano 33:34
are these all of my athletes know,

Kristi Wagner 33:37
random people are asking questions.

Eric Catalano 33:38
You know, random people don't know me. Random people don't know of me. These are my awful. Yeah.

Kristi Wagner 33:46
People don't know who you are, which I think is also hilarious. I have to ask your question. Yeah. Yeah. Christine, please ask your question.

Christine O'Donnell 33:55
Okay. So just like for background, I am producing Kristi's show. I'm a former athlete of Eric Catalino. He coached me when I was in high school, too.

I mean, I, you know, grew up to be just not an Olympian, but

good at other things. Thank you. Thank you. And so that's what I want to ask you is like your impact on people like Do you have any idea how big it is? You were talking about the coaching tree? And do you know how many kids you've coached? I mean, I was only with you for like, two years, maybe. And I learned lessons with you that I still think of every day. And I'm old now.

Eric Catalano 34:38
Don't say you're old because I coached you

Christine O'Donnell 34:41
know, but like, what is there's this like, I mean, there's seven years between Kristi and I. And so, and then she's been with you for seven years. Like it's just he's coached a lot of people. I was talking to her about the X Factor and she didn't even she even know what he's talking about.

Eric Catalano 34:57
Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember the X Back to remember the little booklet that we made was Yeah,

Christine O'Donnell 35:02
I do. And you don't do that anymore. But I still think about that. Still, he's into fads. Hmm. Well, that what that one worked for me. And I still

Eric Catalano 35:14
think I think I often tried to figure out what that group needs. Go that I also, I mean, I don't think that something that's going to work for one person is always going to work. And one group of athletes is going to work for the next group of athletes. So

Christine O'Donnell 35:32
so how do you figure it out? And how do you like, Do you know how many like rowers you've had? Or?

Eric Catalano 35:41
It's been a lot? I mean, obviously, I've been coaching. For very, I started coaching in 93

Kristi Wagner 35:49
years ago,

Eric Catalano 35:50
30 years ago, 30 years, I was a sophomore in college. Yeah, 30 years ago. So I don't know, I probably always had a group of at least. I mean, this is our this is my smallest group with like, 12. I mean, when I was coaching, the varsity girls was a heck of a lot more than that. So it's been 30 years times, I don't know, 30 people, maybe. But some of them went several years. So I don't know. I don't know what the number is. But it's been a lot of it's been a lot of athletes.

Christine O'Donnell 36:22
And a lot of them are still the best people. I know. They are great people. Yeah. And I think that like when you say you, coach, not just the athlete, you coach the person. Like it's amazing.

Eric Catalano 36:34
Well, it's a I appreciate you saying that. It's a it's a responsibility and one that I learned a lesson several years ago. I repeat a lot of stories. So Kristi, I'm sure has always already heard this story. But several years ago, I brought a group of high school athletes to Australia. And actually, I'm not even sure this is when it happened. It was anyway, I ran into Sarah hander shot, who, who wasn't a little bit from previous from previous years, and I had coached her at a development camp when she was when she was in high school. And we had gone to an I don't remember this story, she relayed this story to be the same way Kristi told me about and I yelled at her and I don't remember. But we had gone to Independence Day Regatta. And we there was a rainstorm thunderstorm so we're all like hiding under the tree or not our Dirt Sheet that's dangerous. Or we're all hiding from the rain. And just sitting in chatting and I had had just kind of went over to Sarah, who is a great high school rower at this development camp and just been like, Sarah, you know what I love about Sarah hinder shot, she's a racer, and completely forgot it after that. years later. She's, she's, you know, rode the pair at the Olympics like one, one of the trials, one of the trials for the Olympics coming back from a long way back like, like she was down open water in this in this pair and came back to win that win that race in spectacular fashion. And I was super excited about it. But years later, even after that I ran into her, not thinking that she even knows who I am anymore. I coached her for like one summer development camp. And, and she came up and said I remember and I remember during that race, I remember you saying, You know what I love about her Sarah Hendra shot she's a racer. And I was like, me comment in passing. For her, like, made a difference. And you know, when you hear a story like that, there's like, I have a pretty big responsibility here right now. And so trying to like, take that responsibility seriously.

Kristi Wagner 39:09
Yeah, I mean, I feel like one of the biggest things that I've learned from you is like, to not judge people, but also to like, not judge myself. Like I feel like and bring others as I climb, like, at the end of the day, like being a good person. And like also that like, we're all part of each other's story and like to take, like, pride and happiness in that. And that's really hard in the moment, you know, especially like be to be a good teammate, when like things aren't going well for you. But if I don't make the next Olympics and other Arion athletes do, I will probably he'd be very upset for a while. But long term, I could probably really appreciate that, like, without me, they probably wouldn't have gotten there. Granted, I really don't. I really hope that doesn't happen. But like, I think that and I think like without you as my coach, and without you like, as a part of this program, I don't think that like, I would be able to see it that way. I don't think anyone would be able to see it that way. But like, that is the way it is like, you know, and that's why I think that's why I think like you have lasting effect on people. But Let's lighten it up. How long do you boil an egg for?

Eric Catalano 40:41
How long do I boil an egg for? Or how long is it supposed to be boiled for? That was a question somebody asked. Somebody probably heard my story of twice in my life, boiling all the pan all the water out of the pan and having the egg explode and the pan almost catch on fire. So I boil an egg for about 90 minutes.

Kristi Wagner 41:07
Interesting. People want to know about your turkey trot.

Eric Catalano 41:12
One of the greatest moments in my life. It's gonna be like Kristi wins an Olympic medal. I went on a turkey trot. Maybe footage? Yeah. So. So during COVID, I really got into running and I appreciated that they did. But post COVID I was still really running. And I went for a great long run around what we call the Baltar Ridge loop. And I run it along. And this guy is riding the loop on a bicycle. It's a popular loop in the other direction. And I'm wearing my headphones and um, you know, listen to my podcasts. And he starts just pointing at me and pointing and I'm like, what? And I he catches my attention and I turn around, and they're like five or six turkeys jogging behind me. Like, like literally lawn like we're just out for a jog be in these turkeys. And I turned and I see it like I gotta get my phone. I like I gotta videotape this. This is crazy. And I pulled the phone out and I'm bouncing around and like, Oh, you're trying to breathe while talking and like videotape the whole thing. And these guys, and then I turned around and I go come on guys, to these to these turkeys. And they all go. And then they just start following me again. So fine. It was literally so fine. It was a perfect metaphor. At the time. I was like, this is like what I'm trying to coach people. And I'm like, come on guys. And they're like, We don't want to do that. Okay. No, it is. I mean, if there was a moment that I would like to go viral on my on my non coaching thing, it would be that you're come on guys trick, Mike. Come on guys. Turkey Trot. Yeah, it deserves to be seen by a million people.

Kristi Wagner 43:04
It's pretty funny. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming on. I know that I made you feel uncomfortable by not telling you what you were going to talk about. Yes. But you know, I

Eric Catalano 43:15
am very much out of their comfort zone. I use my own words against me. I am another cat ism is anytime I have to speak in public. I don't mind speaking in public, I can stand up in front of a lot of people and it doesn't bother me at all. But because of a slow processor, like everything is written down, like word for word. I give presentations at us run conferences, and I make a PowerPoint. And a lot of people make a PowerPoint just talk. I mean, I've given away my secrets. I make a PowerPoint and on my screen, it has word for word what I'm going to say when each slide comes up so so kind of jumping in here without preparation is is not my normal way of interacting. I prefer to be prepared for

Kristi Wagner 44:07
another tick in the column of why Kristi is your favorite athlete.

Eric Catalano 44:12
What's one thing you remember about Kristi? She made me talk and Fred on a podcast unscripted

Kristi Wagner 44:18
just floated by the Kristi is my favorite. No least favorite. No. Well, I want this girl we've never know you'll miss me when I'm gone. I will that I'm sure about I will. All right. Thank you.

Eric Catalano 44:34
Oh, a handshake. And a look at the eye.

Kristi Wagner 44:38
Yeah, when I coached the eighth grade boys I made them all shake my hand at the end of practice every day and cat loved it. Yeah, couldn't get over.

Eric Catalano 44:45
You also made them lucky with the eye which for an eighth grade boy to look a woman in the eye.

Kristi Wagner 44:52
Good handshakes when when they limp fish me I was like no, no.

Eric Catalano 44:56
Yeah, but but I also remember When the when the end of the year like everybody went to a fundraiser at Hardee's, I think chicken fried chicken shop, and, and all those eighth grade boys like snuck around the corner or having dinner with their parents like my coaches, my coaches, and they all come around. They're like, hey Kristi, my coach,

Kristi Wagner 45:23
although you're my coach, well,

Eric Catalano 45:25
I'm sure I'm sure you had the impact on those athletes in the same way that you've felt that I've had an impact on you. So pass it on down. Thanks.

Kristi Wagner 45:36
Boom. So this week, I had an Ask Kristi anything on Instagram. So last week, it was National Donut Day, which I'm a big fan of donuts. So my question this week was, where are the best donuts in New York, I'm kind of answering with my top three donut choices around the country. So something for everybody. Maybe we'll do an international version too, although I haven't had too many international doughnuts. But I'd say my top three from around the country. Number one would have to be the king bakery donut cart, which is in Cambridge, New York. It's only open once it's only open. I believe on Sundays. It might be Saturday. I think it's Sunday. And we go for bike rides out there but you can drive to it's a really cute little town in New York, upstate New York. And this donut cart is like, I mean, they make things other than doughnuts, but they are just top of the line. I'm a bit of a donut purist. I just like it to be like a really good traditional donut. I don't really care about all the fancy fillings or toppings or anything like that. And these guys do it right. My second choice would have to be Union Square donuts and Somerville mass. I actually lived in Union Square in Somerville for a while right around the corner from Union Square donuts, and I was an avid fan. Whenever I go back to Boston to see my family, I like to get some Union Square doughnuts, they are just they're top of the line. They know what they're doing. I'd really recommend them. My favorite there's the vegan cinnamon sugar, which is a weird choice. But all of them are pretty good. And I'd have to say no grinding it out when number three would be P cheese Baking Company in Sarasota, Florida. Kind of hard to nail those guys down there. Also a donut cart. So there's not like a brick and mortar store. But they are really good. I've had them at the Florida State Fair before and then also they go to some different farmers markets. They are like, really good doughnuts. They're just like a traditional like a yeast donut. They also make pretzels. But yeah, tenets, I'd say all three of those are a 10 out of 10 experience couldn't couldn't recommend them more. If you have a question for Ask Kristi anything, please let me know. It doesn't need to be food or donut related, it can be literally anything. Coming up next time is a special episode. My boyfriend Chris is going to be on the podcast, it's really hard to be in a relationship when you only get to see said the other person for like half the year. And Chris just makes it all better. I feel like he kind of gets the short end of the stick with me traveling a lot. But he like he's my biggest fan. He's He's always there. Like, if I need to pump up speech, he'll give it to me. And if I don't want to think or talk about rowing, I'll do that too. So I really I appreciate him probably way more than he even knows. And I probably don't show my appreciation the way that I should. But it's it's been really great having him in my corner needing like a while. So be sure to tune in next week to hear him share what it's really like to date an elite athlete and I'm pretty sure he tells some kind of embarrassing stories about me. So there's something to really look forward to for everyone. And close the show. I'm going to share my quote of the week my new favorite segment this one we have one from Michael Jordan who has just some great quotes. He says Why would I think about missing a shot haven't even taken yet. So thanks for listening and I'll see you next time.

I'd love to hear from you. So send us a topic suggestion or if you'd like to submit a question for our Ask Kristi anything segment, head to our website, theother3years.com