RowingChat

How gripping tighter makes you slower. In this episode you’ll discover why the tightest grip on the handle is often the slowest stroke, and what to do about it instead. The idea comes from Tai Chi, not the boathouse, but it applies directly to your hands, wrists and shoulders on the water. Here is the reframe. Softness is not the absence of power. It is how power actually travels through the body....

How little energy you burn in one race - about one banana. The real skill is racing more than once in a day - what to eat and drink. Timestamps 00:50 Fueling at regattas If you have more than one race in a single day you need to fuel appropriately. A single race barely touches your "fuel tank". The key is timing your meals and recovery between races. A race is not a big calorie burn - about 150 -...

The cause and cure for feeling low in energy during racing. A 5k race burns only about 350 calories. Timestamps 00:45 Mid-race low energy Most rowers think they've run out of energy half way through a race. Most races aren't energy-depletion events (porridge is 350 calories; banana is 95 calories). You likely aren't running out of fuel. 02:00 The misconception The feeling of distress in sprint rac...

Weight on the feet is one of the three key concepts for rowing and sculling mastery. How it's a key transition point in the stroke cycle and the giant advantages for crews who can all get there at the same time. Timestamps 01:00 Weight on the feet This can be hard to understand how to do weight on the feet. After learning how to do this you will learn slide control (stop rushing) and how to move y...

Repeating workouts to improve your skill at doing them - how to sharpen into the piece, count down, ways to swap with bow four. How not to waste strokes and ways to start on the right stroke rate. Execution quality is a performance variable in its own right. Timestamps 01:00 Execution quality matters What do you think is happening when you do a workout? Execution skill improves with repetition. Th...

Three fixes for your indoor rowing technique faults. Timestamps 01:00 The unforgiving erg Interrupt the fault before it becomes a habit. Foot connection gets lost at the finish as your toes come away from the footstretcher. When you lose connection you aren't moving the boat forwards, same on the erg because the feet are the only connection to the boat. Take a $10 bank note and put it under the to...

Three cheap and simple hacks to help your sculling. Small clever fixes to real problems that scullers deal with all the time. One for your head, your wrists and your blade depth. Timestamps 01:00 Sculling Hacks for self-coaching Sculling technique faults are very subtle and you can't always feel them from inside the boat. These three hacks move that feedback from external to the boat (from your co...

Limiting beliefs can hold you back due to fear of failure. Is this the biggest hurdle for your rowing progress? Timestamps 00:45 Fear of failure I would love to go and race at (this regatta) but I don't want to come last. What is it that they are frightened of? Would you like to do the world masters regatta? 02:30 Redefine failure What holds us back? Feeling well prepared for your event is importa...

Three cheap and simple hacks to help your sweep rowing. Small clever fixes to real problems that sweep rowers deal with all the time. Timestamps 00:45 What is a rowing hack? Tricks and techniques for your own rowing - a low cost, improvised fix to a persistent problem. The best hacks give you physical feedback in the moment as a constant reminder so you don't have to keep something front of mind....

The marks your blade leaves in the water after every stroke are one of the most honest pieces of coaching feedback you’ll ever get — and most rowers row straight past them. Today you’ll learn what a good puddle actually looks like and why size has nothing to do with it, what your puddles are telling you when they go wrong, and a practice tool that removes puddles entirely — and why that can be exa...

The anger caused by a gap between expectation and reality. This episode is for intermediate rowers who are learning how to race. How to turn your anger into something useful. Timestamps 00:45 What happens if a race outcome isnt' the result you hoped for Should you suppress the anger or spiral into it? Or neither. 01:45 Identify it Anger is expectation minus reality. The bigger the gap, the bigger...

The role your head plays in correct posture and form. What happens when your head moves away from your work and why your body will always follow where your eyes are looking. Timestamps 00:45 The importance of your head Normally a neutral head and neutral spine is desirable in rowing and sculling. Your head should be square above your spine and shoulders. If you drop your chin down it collapses you...

The most experienced rowers aren't thinking about every movement: they are hitting three key checkpoints only. The finish, quarter slide and three quarter slide. Timestamps 01:30 The Finish The finish is the only point where the boat, the blades and your body are all travelling in the same direction (the direction the boat is moving in). This gives the finish a stillness where you can be relaxed a...

Tapering is reducing volume while maintaining intensity. Deloading is drop volume and intensity. Remember form = fitness minus fatigue. Timestamps 00:45 How fit are you to race and train? Three ideas for your race preparation - taper compared to deloading; the form formula explained; and a practical taper blueprint. When you ease off training do you feel flat and slow in the boat? A taper is pre-c...

Dr Malcolm Howard, Canadian eight Beijing 2008 “People say it was always so easy for you, so straightforward. But it’s always been about the work. Rowing, by its nature, is a beautiful sport because you get out of it exactly what you put in. The harder I worked at rowing the more success I had.” Timestamps 00:45 Why your brain is working against you Many masters rowers are putting in less than the...

Why do so many masters rowers struggle with catch timing despite endless practice? Al Morrow's counterintuitive principle. The causes and cures of rigidity in your body and the amazing catch timing waiting for you (when you cure it). Timestamps 00:45 Rigidity problem Al Morrow's remark when talking about Good Rowing is Horizontal - the issue that rigidity kills how you approach the catch. "The mor...

The risks of abrupt changes of your training and surprising outcomes from practice lineups, rigging, and winter to summer transitions with guest Marlene Royle. Timestamps 00:45 The effect of abrupt changes Marlene sees these as a red flag for masters rowers. Her experience as a coach when racing season comes around was a trend from mid-summer on where their season got derailed. All were caused by...

Join Santiago Fuentes to discuss - the growth in masters rowing in South America (country by country differences) - the main rowing events in the region - long distance head races and sprint. — What you hope will happen next in the future

Ways to adjust your stroke to match the boat hull speed. Timestamps 00:45 The boat velocity changes through the rowing stroke cycle and you can feel these changes as you row. 01:30 Efficiency is key This is a measure of the difference between a skilful crew and less experienced athletes. When watching crews in a race you can see some crews just inch ahead of the others. Efficiency is a key to why...

Hear Becky Wilson for an in-depth review of the considerations for the masters athlete in terms of cardiac health. - Understanding your cardiac risk profile - New to rowing or returning after a long break? - How training for sport changes as we age from a cardiac health perspective. - A common mistake many masters athletes make with their training. - Age related adjustments to heart rate with resp...

Improve your rowing ratio while lifting in the gym. Timestamps 00:45 Rowing can be improved by strength training Lifting heavy has lots of benefits - today we'll talk about ratio. The contrast between the power phase and recovery phase. How to use this concept of ratio in strength training. 02:00 Improve range of movement As we age we find our muscles and tendons don't have the same range and so o...

A visual reference to aide adjustments to blade depth. Timestamps 00:45 Low technology solutions for rowing too deep. The tape goes around the oar shaft so that when the oar is under the water at the correct depth and the handle is at the correct height for you to old. Mark exactly where the shaft is level with the water surface. You can do this where the oar shaft is wet if you do this carefully....

How watching videos of good rowing can help improve your technique. Timestamps 00:45 Using mirror neurons Parts of our brain get activated when watching movement. Researchers noticed monkeys' brains were firing when watching the researchers eat lunch - as if the monkeys were also eating. Mirror neurons help you to understand and internalise actions, emotions and intentions. This is helpful when le...

Masters have to pay attention to our range of motion as we age, without it we lose stroke length and raise injury risk. Timestamps 00:45 What this is and how to get more of it. Masters rowing is rowing with compromises - we may be less mobile or carrying old injuries. Our goal is full movement potential which helps our performance - with full range of movement we get longer strokes. Things which l...

Looking backwards to go forwards: what rowing taught me about big tech and what big tech taught me about rowing with Matt Brittin. Timestamps 01:00 From schoolboy to the Olympics - from a family of ball sport heros. Matt was inspired by Martin Cross to row to a high level - he was his school teacher. Later he was President of his university club where he led the introduction of professional coachi...