Rowperfect Rowing

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 the best crews do well - they use their power efficiently; they help the boat hull to move through the water with greater efficiency - how do they do this? They manage their body mass well. Body mass is resistance to changes in velocity. This matters because the entire boat is moving forwards all the time (even though you may think you go backwards and forwards on the slide). Because of the sliding seat, the boat hull doesn't travel level, the bow moves up and down through the stroke cycle. 03:40 Maximum Boat Speed Diagram of boat speed through the water (credit British Rowing) https://fastermastersrowing.com/getting-ahead-or-behind-the-boat-speed/ Maximum boat speed DOES NOT happen in the power phase. The point of maximum velocity is after the oars have come out of the water. [NOTE: not maximum acceleration as said in the video.] At this point you are transitioning onto the recovery (arms away / body rock forwards). On a video filmed square off 90 degrees to the rowing boat - when the bow ball is at its highest point is when the athletes have moved closest to the stern (on the recovery) and the point of maximum acceleration is when the bow ball is lower and when the athlete is transitioning from the power phase onto the recovery phase. The diagram shows the boat at low and high rates (right hand side). At higher rates the point of maximum acceleration is nearer to the catch on the recovery. The boat moves differently at high stroke rates from low stroke rates. Understanding and noticing the boat acceleration feeling and how your body moves are two things you can control. If you can learn how to feel the boat movements you can make refined adjustments to how you are rowing at race pace compared to steady lower rates. 07:30 Low rate endurance rowing We get good at efficiency at low rates because rowers do a lot of endurance training. Yet athletes who race want the effect of efficiency at race rates. Can we improve our agility and how we are moving with the hull and practice in training? Periodised training plans do not include a lot of high rate work. What we can do to keep the boat skills of handling the oars and body mass at low and high rates? 08:45 Agility Drills These are key to learning the skills. Ways to move quickly and keep the handle speed in time with the boat. These can be spliced into endurance rows for short periods of time. This doesn't upset the physiological training effect. Try doing agility drills for 1 minute in every 10 minutes low rate rowing. - Half Slide rowing - go from stroke rate 20 down to half slide the rate will change to around 26-28. This forces you to prepare the handle earlier for the catch, to move with more precision around the finish - you have less time on the recovery. - Half Slide Up Twos - - Double quick hands round the recovery - - Pause drills - choose where you pause for example quarter slide or weight on the feet. Look for the moment when the boat glide begins on the slide and the athlete body is relaxed. - Double quick hands and pause at weight on the feet. Learn how to feel whether you are getting ahead or behind the boat hull speed is key to going really fast when you are racing. Get easy live streams like this https://streamyard.com/pal/c/5694205242376192

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 respect to training in UT2, UT1 etc. - Understand and use the Karvonen Method for finding Heart Rate Zones. - Beta Blocked athletes need to do this with their calculation - Is it safe to train/compete after a cardiac event or a diagnosis of a cardiac condition? Download the slides https://fastermastersrowing.com/cardiac-health-and-rowing/

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 our stride gets shorter. Strength training can help improve or maintain RoM. Weight lifting works in two planes - when you lift the weight and when you return it to the start point. Concentric muscle movements are shortening the muscle (as you lift). Eccentric muscle movements are lengthening the muscle (as you return the weight to the start). Eccentric muscle work can help improve your range of movement. Working on this part of the strength lift can use the rowing ratio as part of the movement. 03:45 Ratio in strength training The braking effect that you use as you control the weight in the eccentric lengthening muscle phase as you lower the weight down can enable you to have greater force production. When lifting heavy for few repetitions or using small muscles e.g. doing chin-ups against your body weight you may find the difference between the last successful lift and when you fail is large. Do your first chin up One way to improve your strength and do your first chin up is to start at the top of the lift with your chin over the bar (you may need a chair to step or jump up there). Then slowly lower yourself by straightening your arms doing just the eccentric part of the lift. You will gain strength more quickly by doing this slowly muscle lengthening under load. When you've done this a few times, try doing one chin up - you probably can lift yourself up. Use approximately a 3:1 ratio in your lifting. The more ratio you can manage the more you will be working the braking effect on the eccentric lift. 06:45 Improve range of movement Consider a difficult lift like a squat using an olympic bar. Getting a deeper squat - to 90 degrees or to a deep squat position is challenging. 08:00 6 week challenge to improve your ROM. 3x per week for 6 weeks. Do 6 sessions on power - increase the load you can lift. Position a bench behind you so you squat down to just touching your bum on the bench. Goal is 90 degrees. For a deep squad choose a lower block to sit down to. Start with 5-8 reps on power - increase load. Do 6 sessions on range of movement - lower the bench. You may need to reduce the load in order to do this. Have someone spotting for you and checking your movements. Do 6 sessions on speed - lower for 3 and push up fast for 1. So build your ratio into these sessions. 11:30 Take your ratio training from the gym back into the boat. Can you push the oar faster through the water so that you can take longer on the slide recovery? You may be able to increase your ratio thanks to your work in the gym.

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. Measure the spot, return the oars to land and transfer that measurement to all the other oars and put white tape on them too. While rowing you can look sideways at your oar to see if the white tape is going under the water and where in the stroke it goes too deep (and you can no longer see the tape). 03.30 Causes of rowing too deep Usually it's caused by the athlete holding the handle too high. Modern oar designs naturally sit at the correct depth. If you row 'over the barrel' the path of the handle is too high mid-stroke (and usually too low at the finish so your oar spoon washes out). The water is flat and so the path of the handle in the power phase should also be flat. At the catch if you take the catch by lifting your shoulders it can also cause the oar to go too deep. Tension in the hand grip also can cause the oar to go too deep. In sweep this is often the inside hand holding on too tightly. 05:55 Drills to help you correct blade depth - Backing down into the catch. Push the oars from the finish backing down and then leave the oar in the water and take the stroke. Go backwards and forwards gradually lengthening from half slide to full slide. This helps you to work out the correct handle height. - Row in circles. One person row in sweep and look out at your oar as you row so you can see the depth. In sculling just row with one oar and get a friend to hold the boat steady. - Half blade depth rowing. Row with only half the oar under the water - feel the depth by controlling the handle precisely with very small movements. - The amount of power you put on can affect blade depth. So try alternating light and firm pressure strokes to help you work out depth.

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 learning the subtleties of rowing timing points. 03:00 Yawning is contagious When I yawn the chances are you will too. This is your mirror neurons. Dr Laby from Sports Vision researched if you watch correct performances and see the technique being used. He noted that the video needs to be as close as possible to reality. This means you get best results watching at race stroke rates, not slow motion. Try to create a race situation rather than a training row. You need both - understand the movement first and then be able to do it at stroke rates comparable to a race. 05:50 Watching video Find videos online to watch - they need to be good athletes, rowing well in high cadence high stroke rate situations. Check out MostynARC YouTube channel for Penny Chuter's video collection. 07:00 Coaching demonstration When a coach tells a story about rowing, your mirror neurons activate as you listen. They make you feel that you are experiencing what the coach describes. Neural coupling with the story teller. First get the athletes to observe the task done well - demonstrate the task first yourself. This is more likely to trigger the mirror neurons as the athletes think themselves into what you're describing. Then explain the action at the same time as demonstrating as a second stage. Our Drills Compendium uses this method and adds written captions as well. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/drills/ Real-time observation and real time skill correction improves skill acquisition. The experts recommend peer-to-peer observation as a further stage. Teach observation and comparison to good technique - this also has a permission-based feedback structure allows the athletes to see if they are getting the movement right.

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 limit us are tight glutes, hamstrings or back muscles. Injury prevention gets more important as we age - a good range of motion supported by strong musculature helps prevent injury. Muscle capacity for the rowing movement. It's hard to teach rowing to people who cannot sit with their legs straight, who cannot get into the catch position or whose arm extension is insufficient to get the oar handle around the arc. 03:00 Things to do to improve range of motion (ROM) Active isolated stretching is different from a traditional stretch you get movement more of the time and it's a short stretch and hold. One muscle group works (agonist) and the opposite muscle group (antagonist) is relaxing and lengthening. https://fastermastersrowing.com/active-isolated-stretching-rowing/ 04:45 Decline with age We lose our full movement potential as age causes our bodies to change. Natural connective tissue elasticity reduces with age - strive to retain what you have; joint cartilage reduces too, and muscle flexibility lessens. Scar tissue from prior injuries may also exist. 06:00 Range of motion Things you can do to improve - know what ROM you have at the moment. 10 tests for yourself and video exercises / stretches you can do. Free webinar https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/functional-movement-assessment/ Simple changes to your rigging which help you to get into the correct rowing positions when you have movement limitations. Adapting rowing rigging for masters physiology https://fastermastersrowing.com/adapting-rowing-rigging-for-masters-physiology/ Start a practice to improve your range of motion - do it with your rowing friends. Get easy video streams like this https://streamyard.com/pal/c/5694205242376192

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 coaching. 04:00 Rowing teaches skills Matt was running Google in Africa, Middle East and Europe for the past 10 years - he tells a lot of anecdotes about rowing. Steve Gunn (a harsh coach) taught how to take responsibility for what you are doing. Are you a piece of sh*t on the end of the oar? When the mindset is right but the self-appraisal was not. The things Matt learned at rowing were the human things - more useful than Business School, Consultancies and University. I wouldn't be where I am in the business world without the rowing lessons. 08:30 Act like an owner The unique side of rowing is that when I'm seat racing, I'm against you. When we are in the crew, I'm with you. Act like an owner at Google - take responsibility for what you're doing and win as a team. We collaborate hard - and sometimes a collaborative competitiveness gives a better outcome. 11:00 High Pressure Situations The start line of a Henley Royal Regatta final is where Matt felt the most intense pressure. Take confidence from the feeling of nerves and the adrenaline surge - this is a sign you are ready for a big performance. Get the attention off yourself - focus on the process is helpful. Know there is someone there who wants you to succeed. 14:45 Henley Royal Regatta Progress Matt is a Henley steward - he marks the progress over recent years. Sir Steve Redgrave asked Matt to help the committee to plan a 10 year strategy. It looks unchanging yet it's always evolving. Three new womens quad scull events were announced - near parity in Open events and Womens events. Since 2015 every race has been on YouTube live and on demand. You Win or You Learn. 20:00 Returning to Rowing It has been a joy and a recalibration too. The gains as you come back are lovely - rediscovering the joy. A lot is about remembering the feelings. How to balance training and travelling for work. How you manage your time at work is important. Matt blocks his diary to take kids to school twice a week - the most important time of the week. He does the same for rowing training. The discipline when traveling of visiting the hotel gym. The more senior you get the more important it is to show up refreshed and feeling great - in good shape. Leaders need to be in the moment and to have time for staff. Matt is planning to mentor people in business, improve his sculling, rowing strength training this year. Masters rowing is "running up the down escalator". It doesn't have to be the same each year - unlike younger rowing years. Choose something fun to plan for your future rowing.

Alex Wolf & Sam Dutney in conversation. Two leading thinkers and innovators for masters rowing discuss strength training for masters. The principles around maximal force applies everywhere. Teach athletes how to express maximal force. Learn the ceiling of what you can do. Turn muscles on and off. Practice being forceful really quickly. Building habitual capability. your day to day. Take a small change from what you do now and a little bit more than you can already do. That's enough. Strength training is one of the most potent stimuluses for our health. The only thing which can repair your muscle structure is targeted loading, not rest. The kenee takes a load of up to 2 times body weight for rowers - masters it will be 1.2 to 1.7 times body weight. When squatting the leg is not the limiting factor - the lumbar spine tolerance is the limit. This is not the case in a rowing boat because the forces are horizontal. The 7 stroke max test has a strong correlation to performance. Increasing this has got a 1:1 correlation with improvement. How can you know if the improvement will come from force production or maximal force? The rowing stroke is primarily concentric force production. Does eccentric have an effect? Yes, it's a long stretch shortening cycle. The end of the drive back to the catch has a significant contribution to boat speed. The Reactive Strength Index. How you control a decelerating force and turn it round into an accelerating force. Rate of force is how much, when and how quickly. Utilise each exercise efficiently is key. The king of exercises is the one that reaches your outcome. You must lift enough to create an adaptive response. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Defensive protectors for oars and sculls to prevent the paint wearing off and the spoon degrading. Things you can do to preserve the spoons and handles. Timestamps 00:45 Oars get wear and tear You paint the spoons in the club colours and the paint wears in the middle of the back of the oar and the tips of the blades get worn off at the corners (so you no longer have a sharp corner). Defensive protectors for oars Our dock is wood and the surface gets greasy and is a slip hazard. We put non-slip matting onto the dock - water drains through the holes. The brand is Ako Matting and is recommended for ice, snow and water uses. The downside is the surface is abrasive on oars because of the non-slip elements. 03:00 Rules for oars We have a rule that when you land and leave the dock we always put our oars tip side down on the dock. This helps to preserve the paint and stop the wear patterns on the back of the oars. Tips down meant we got wear on the tip of the blade. Croker Oars have tip protectors - little triangles which fit over the corners and you superglue in place. https://www.crokeroars.com/product-page/row-tip-protectors-pair-4-tips The plastic takes the wear rather than the carbon oar. Concept2 oar users can use the vortex edge - it's a strip which goes along the length of the oar tip. https://www.concept2.com/oars/sculls/blades#vortexedge The wear on the tip of the oars reduces the surface area of the spoon. And the wear is always in the same direction - my sculls ended up thinner than 3mm. This is the legal minimum for World Rowing rules - I had to sand down the tips of the blade to restore the minimum 3mm. 05:30 Protective decals A scuff pack kit made to protect the back of the oar from rubbing when your oars are on the bank. Defensive protectors for oars https://crayfishrowing.com/shop/ols/products/scuffpatch-kit-for-two-oars and the Croker oar corners Lastly - blade wraps - vinyl that is pre-printed with your club colours and they are cut to the oar spoon shape. Use a heat gun to apply them and it also gives some protection to the oar spoon. https://regattaprint.com/blade-wraps-team-sweep-oars/ How to wrap oars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxcaeTeOz_g&t=10s Take care of your oars to make them last longer. If you paint your oars the old fashioned way is to sand them and use marine-grade gloss paint with undercoat and topcoat paint layers. Others have used spray can car paint too. We had stickers (decals) of the club logo made to put on the shaft of the oars so that they can be identified - helpful if you don't paint your oars and they look the same as every other club. Easy for them to get lost at a regatta. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Ways to improve speed of the oar through the water. Keep the stroke rate the same and increase the speed. Timestamps 00:45 This is a long term project. Less experienced rowers push the oar less hard than the more experienced and you need to train this. Time through the water at stroke rate of 20 is approximately 3 seconds per stroke. Pushing the oar through the water on the power phase takes 1.2 to 1.5 seconds and yet we row with a ratio of at least 2:1 at low rates. Experienced rowers get more rest every stroke. They push the oar with high intensity through the water and so they have more time with the oar out of the water. 03:30 Same rate more speed How to row at the same stroke rate and deliver more force into the boat hull. The key to training this on the erg was to start with a focus point once every 5 minutes for 10 strokes. For ten strokes push harder through the power phase but you're not allowed to take the rate up. This showed us how much harder we could push and how much more rest we got as a result. It depends on your muscular strength and fitness. Then we moved to doing this for a minute. After each intense stroke period we allowed 5 strokes to recover and take a little rest. Over time, you don't need to take that rest. 06:00 Up one: down one Taking the same principle of increased intensity into the boat. We call "Up one down one" which means take the stroke rate up one point in rate through the water and down one point in rate on the slide. So at rate 20 you move to rate 21 through the water and rate 19 on the slide - which averages to 20. This has the effect of intensifying the power phase. Train yourself to do this and it gets a better ratio in the stroke - you learn how to relax more as you rest on the recovery. The benefit is slightly more boat speed, slightly more rest and this helps to keep the boat moving fast through the water. Here's an earlier episode which covers this topic further of how to train yourself to relax. https://fastermastersrowing.com/get-more-speed-on-the-recovery/ Do this for short periods to begin with as it's tiring. Introduce it to your warmup just for 5 strokes at each stage in the pick drill. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Three ways to get faster (or avoid slowing down) in training. Timestamps 00:45 Can you increase the average speed of your boat? The net of how fast it accelerates in the power phase and how much it slows in the recovery phase. Our past episode about how to get speed on the recovery https://youtube.com/live/RRF3o7LxNXM 01:45 Row to the Conditions Pay attention to the water surface, to the wind and waves, to the water swirls under a bridge. This allows you to make subtle changes to how your boat is moving. Rowing in a headwind - at the start the waves are highest (they've progressively built up) and these lower as you get closer to the end of 1k. With large waves you cannot rate high. When rowing to the conditions as you notice the wave height reducing, push on and increase the rate by half a point. You can also change the ratio (intensity through the water compared to relaxation up the slide). 04:30 No huge moves If you do a big push the chances are you will suffer a large fall off in boat speed after the push is done. Choose moderate moves and you are more likely to be able to hold the new boat speed after it ends. Make your moves sustainable longer. Pushing hard means you may compensate by trying to save energy and your pace judgement may suffer. 06:00 Avoid rowing in dirty water The puddles of the crew in front are disturbed water. When the water block is churned by someone else's oar it makes the water unstable and hard for you to get your oar to grip the water. This affects the boat run and your ability to put energy into pushing the boat forwards. When rowing near other crews, put their puddles under your riggers - between the hull and your spoon. The disturbed water will neither affect the run of your hull nor your spoon grip on the water. Rowing in dirty water is hard to avoid if your eight has an unconventional rig (Two people on the same side in sweep eights) this may result in bow and stroke being on the same side. Only the fastest mens eights can avoid stroke rowing into bow's previous puddle. Want live streams like this? https://streamyard.com/pal/c/5694205242376192

David Frost reviews Practical and Personal Looks at Coronary Artery Diseases (CAD) in Master's Rowers - download the additional information link below. Timestamps 00:45 David Frost's journey through CAD Coronary artery calcification - men need checking after age 70 more than women. Even rowers who are known for being stoic - if you feel something in your chest, get it checked out. "You have the coronary arteries of a 92 year old" was my signal that I needed help. The Agatston Score is is a proxy for heart health. 04:30 Five things that cause inflammation - environmental stress - toxins stress - too much sunlight - smoking - exercise Inflammation in your arteries can cause an issue if you work too hard, too fast for too long. 08:00 Rowers have a higher than average incidence of atrial fibrillation (AFIB) Maybe rowers are doing themselves a disservice by training long and hard. What to do about this? 12:00 Heart age vs calendar age There are interesting heart age metrics - pulse wave velocity measure tells how elastic your arteries are. Heart Rate Variability - the higher it is the better you are recovering. David encourages masters to measure these and track their trends. Dr Churchill in Boston is studying masters rowers' aorta for ASCVD. Get a calcium CT scan - it helped David understand his condition. 18:00 A self-scan system Perceived exertion, rest and hydration are a good guide to how you are feeling each day. David is mindful of recovery as well. What age should you start getting the calcium CT scan done? For men from age 40 and women maybe 50. For the plus wave velocity test this could be done from mid life - age 40 maybe ladies a bit later. Note David is a layman, not a doctor. Rowing training is more 80% steady state and 20% higher intensity. This has trended upwards from about 60% when David was younger. As humans we are slow to recognise when our body moved into the "next" stage. The competitive mindset can make us live in denial of aging. It's not good for you to carry to much body fat - your waist to hip ratio is worth checking. 25:00 Burden or banish? David's new book Sloth and gluttony contribute to heart disease - 80% is preventable. Lifestyle measures can defer the onset of heart disease. Hopefully rowers can start to banish the preventable problem. STRESSED spelled backwards is DESSERTS. David's package of information https://1drv.ms/p/c/af369003831e6951/EZ82vA6IqaRAtv172PZYmW0BV8HomDD4kselkTqn1Ykffw

Three more drills to learn sequentially which will improve your recovery. These will help fix balance issues. Timestamps 00:45 Finesse really helps in the recovery Crew alignment, bladework skills and body movement. The benefit is that the boat slows down less when you achieve these. The biggest gains in boat speed can be achieved here (assuming you aren't going to get much fitter/stronger). By keeping the same peak in the power but slow the boat down less on the recovery, the average speed of the boat each stroke will be higher, and you will go faster. Our teaching method: do one drill and then layer another drill on top of it - making it progressively harder. this allows you to build your skill and also crews of different ability can row together. 04:00 Skimming drill Understand the impact your hands and handle heights have on boat balance. On the recovery - let your oars run along the surface during the recovery. This teaches where the oar handles need to be relative to each other. The water is level - so your handles reflect the correct height during the power phase. In sculling this also helps to recognise the left hand over the right hand differential. Check the "nested" versus "stacked" hands demonstration at the crossover position. Then add progressively deeper tap downs on the recovery - 1 cm, 2 cm, 3, cm. Can you keep the boat level? It can be hard to keep your left hand higher than the right from half slide to the catch (the left hand is always higher than the right). 08:45 Pauses drills From hands away / body over / quarter slide. Advanced rowers can also pause at weight on the feet. This is explained in the drills compendium. Build on the skimming drill - now check your hands and body posture at different stages of the recovery. Watch the elbows of the person in front for timing. 10:15 Reverse ratio drill The idea here is to arrive at full compression with your blade already in the water. Time the movement so the blade placement is before you change direction on the seat. Go fast up the slide and then drift your oars through the power phase. This helps you to make handle movements fluid. Buy the Drills Compendium (24 drills and 3 bonus ebooks) https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/drills/ Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

How to increase stroke power using three layered drills. Timestamps 00:45 Drills for power These are all part of the Drills Compendium (24 drills + 3 ebooks bundle). Masters rowers tend to row a good leg drive and arm draw but neglect the back swing. The back is crucial to joining the leg drive and arm draw. How to ensure back swing adds to the speed of the boat. 03:15 The body sequence From the catch (where boat is slowest) the stroke power takes the boat to its fastest speed. After the leg drive is half completed you need to start to layer the back swing so it overlaps with the end of the leg drive. Later the arm draw overlaps with the end of the back swing. Learn how to use each body part in turn without dropping boat power at the changeover. 04:30 Body swing only drill This is the least intuitive part! Start with legs straight and arms straight with blade in the water while leaning forwards. Swing your back to take the stroke and take the oars out when your. back swing is completed. Do this square blades and then once confident, add power to the stroke by engaging your core and glutes. 06:00 Body and arms and half slide rowing are the second and third parts of this drill. The glutes provide the connection between the legs and back. By building up the stroke progressively you should feel the spoon of the blade accelerate through the water - as you add in more body parts this must continue. The arms have to pick up already moving water (from your back swing) and make it faster still. In a crew add in more people so the boat goes faster - notice how your body movements have to change to take account of the boat moving faster. If you aren't adding to the acceleration you should feel that you have no pressure on the end of the blade. Try an exaggeration rowing at half slide and finish your legs/back/arms at the same time. 10:30 Our teaching method The way we teach is designed to work for adult learners. We teach how we row and then make it progressively harder so you can continue to challenge yourself, continue to experiment with ways to make the movement and lastly check your experience with your crew mates - am I getting the right feeling here? Even the most experienced rowers can do these alongside the less experienced. Do the drills at least 3 times in a single practice so you're familiar with the drill and can see your progress as you do it better each time. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Learn steps towards getting a good catch using drills. Timestamps 00:45 Am I done learning the stroke yet? Asked an athlete…. only once! The catch is challenging to learn – supporting your learning with drills means you can self-coach as well as getting coached. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/drills/ Michael sends his crews the drills video the night before practice. Athletes need to know what to do in a drill and (importantly) why they are doing this drill. There are two main types of drill – exaggeration drills and isolation drills. 02:15 Handle height This is where learning the catch starts – the height of the handle has to be understood so you know how high/low the handle needs to be. Describe the stroke cycle in high/low handle heights including the “ramp up” towards the catch position. Learn this stationary in the boat. When the oars are flat on the water at the catch, the handle height is the same as when the oars are squared. Teaching how to arrive at this height the drill is “Slap Catches” so the athlete knows the precise moment their handle reaches the correct catch height – and the aural sound helps to align timing on both sides of the boat. Learn when to go up “the ramp”. 04:30 Making a shape You have to actively lift your hands to make the catch ‘shape’ with the handle. Learning when and how to do this is the next stage in progressive learning. After squaring the blade, if you make the catch shape too early, the oar hits the water. If you square and your handle is too high on the recovery the oar will hit the water. An early square helps and you can figure out how high (low) the handle needs to be on the recovery so as to not hit the water. When to make the shape? Use the second drill – backsplash drill – so the lower edge of the oar hits the water just as the handle lifts. You can hear and feel the backsplash. 06:20 Catch timing This is relative to your body movement and the seat. Your seat is a good proxy for body movement because there’s a short moment when the seat rolls forward and stops as it changes direction. That’s when you need the oar to already be under the water. The third drill (sweep) is to row with inside hand holding the back of the seat so you can tell when it changes direction. In sculling row with one oar only (someone holds the boat level). Watch the height of your knees too as this is also a good visual marker. Our discussion continued around ways to keep handle moving towards the stern while placing the oar at the catch. This series can be learned in a few practice – do two each time you go on the water. Take care that you understand the why as well as the how.

Learn steps towards getting a good catch using drills. Timestamps 00:45 Am I done learning the stroke yet? Asked an athlete.... only once! The catch is challenging to learn - supporting your learning with drills means you can self-coach as well as getting coached. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/drills/ Michael sends his crews the drills video the night before practice. Athletes need to know what to do in a drill and (importantly) why they are doing this drill. There are two main types of drill - exaggeration drills and isolation drills. 02:15 Handle height This is where learning the catch starts - the height of the handle has to be understood so you know how high/low the handle needs to be. Describe the stroke cycle in high/low handle heights including the "ramp up" towards the catch position. Learn this stationary in the boat. When the oars are flat on the water at the catch, the handle height is the same as when the oars are squared. Teaching how to arrive at this height the drill is "Slap Catches" so the athlete knows the precise moment their handle reaches the correct catch height - and the aural sound helps to align timing on both sides of the boat. Learn when to go up "the ramp". 04:30 Making a shape You have to actively lift your hands to make the catch 'shape' with the handle. Learning when and how to do this is the next stage in progressive learning. After squaring the blade, if you make the catch shape too early, the oar hits the water. If you square and your handle is too high on the recovery the oar will hit the water. An early square helps and you can figure out how high (low) the handle needs to be on the recovery so as to not hit the water. When to make the shape? Use the second drill - backsplash drill - so the lower edge of the oar hits the water just as the handle lifts. You can hear and feel the backsplash. 06:20 Catch timing This is relative to your body movement and the seat. Your seat is a good proxy for body movement because there's a short moment when the seat rolls forward and stops as it changes direction. That's when you need the oar to already be under the water. The third drill (sweep) is to row with inside hand holding the back of the seat so you can tell when it changes direction. In sculling row with one oar only (someone holds the boat level). Watch the height of your knees too as this is also a good visual marker. Our discussion continued around ways to keep handle moving towards the stern while placing the oar at the catch. This series can be learned in a few practice - do two each time you go on the water. Take care that you understand the why as well as the how. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

What you do on the recovery affects what you do on the power phase. Timestamps 00:45 What you do on the recovery What you do as you approach the catch is likely the first thing you do on the power phase. Any errors get transitioned to the next stroke. Three common things happen - shoulder lifting, rushing the slide and the oar going too deep at the catch. 01:30 Shoulder lifting This is putting the oar in the water by lifting your shoulders to feel the oar connection to the water. To prevent this, start at the finish of the prior stroke. By getting the arms/body transition (pre-stretching) correct on the recovery you can improve your catch and remove the shoulder lift. One of the reasons we rock forward later in the recovery is that it feels like you're getting more length. But this makes you focus on the handle so when you take the catch, you're still focused on the handle and so you pull (not push) to make connection with the water. Goal is to connect with minimal body movement - ideally only your knee to ankle moves. compounding - reaching more at the catch slows it down because your body weight causes the stern to push down into the water and you have to lift the handle to make the placement but you're working against yourself because you're also leaning and create a greater height the handle has to move to get the spoon under the water. If you don't shoulder-lift you are more likely to be on time at the catch. 05:30 Rushing the slide By accelerating the slide in the second half of the recovery this causes rushing. The pre-stretch gives you time on the recovery - you can work out how quickly you want to arrive at the catch. You don't need to move anything except bend your knees. Weight on the footstretcher gives you the feeling of control of the slide speed. Check your handle speed at the finish compared to the person in front of you to ensure you are in time with them. If you row longer than anyone else (long legs) you have to slide because you're taller. Starting to roll up the slide before completing the pre-stretch gives a false timing signal to the people behind you. Ratio is another cause of rushing especially if you're doing a one to one ratio. Insufficient power through the water causes 1:1 ratio and makes it hard to do the recovery without rushing. A lack of awareness can also cause you to rush - is your body weight on the back of the seat (your bum side not your legs side). You should feel your body weight under where your thighs join your bum on the recovery (after the rock forward). Let your hamstrings relax more on the recovery so the forward momentum of the boat pushes you up the slide (with weight on the footstretcher). 11:30 Going too deep When the oar goes into the water it goes too deep initially. Starting on the recovery, if you don't push down on the handles to get the oar spoon clear of the water before you feather you will probably carry the handles too high on the recovery. The compounding issue is that in order to square without hitting the water, you have to push your handles down. You over-do the lift and so the oar goes too deep into the water. Pushing down to square also causes you to drop your shoulders and then when you get to the timing of the catch you lift your hands and also lift your shoulders (they're tense) and this causes you to go deep because your whole body block lifts up. The catch should only be done by the arms to lift the handle and the knee to ankle to push on the foot stretcher. Make a small upward movement on the handle to place the oar only using your arms. So squaring late can cause you to mis-time the catch as well. If your oars go too deep - take a look at what you do at the finish and see if that causes you to mis-time the catch as a compounding technique error. Solutions come from video - three strokes of yourself from 90 degrees square off - slow it down to watch as you compare it to a model of good rowing / sculling.

When racing, how much space do you have in a buoyed boat lane? Timestamps 00:45 Boat lane width How can you fit a wide boat like an eight into a lane and why is it that you still find yourself rowing near the buoy line? An eight is nearly 12 meters long and the rules of racing state that a standard rowing lane is 13.5 meters (44 feet) wide, with a minimum requirement of 13.5 meters for Olympic and international races, though 12.5 meters may be used in special circumstances. The lanes are marked by buoys and must remain a consistent width along the entire straight course. 02:00 Width perception The outboard from your rigger is 2 plus meters at either side. Your boat is about 6-7 meters wide with the oars. This perception problem is aggravated when you think you're closer to one buoy line. Boat position within the lane matters. A toe-steered boat has more control over the alignment but you have to keep the boat straight through the race - there's a tendency to over-steer in buoyed lanes. You have to know where the middle of the lane is. Some people forget that when you steer in one direction, you have to correct the steering to go straight after the boat is re-positioned. When the boat is straight. the middle of the hull is in the middle of the lane, you have to correct the foot steering so the boat stays in the middle after completing a manoeuvre. This relies on using your perception of the mid-point of the lane as your guide. But if you're in the bow seat, the boat doesn't pivot under where you're sitting. 05:30 The vanishing point This is where parallel lines appear to converge in the far distance. This is useful for rowers on a buoyed course. The only time you don't have a vanishing point to refer to is at the start. The human eye is sensitive to width - using the horizon vanishing point you can tell if you're in the middle of the lane. But confusion comes when you use the buoys near to your boat to align with. Buoys are every 10 meters down a rowing course, and if you think your hull is parallel to one of the buoy lines this probably means you are actually steering towards that buoy line. You need the vanishing point to correctly position the boat. 08:00 Boat position When looking around during the race (to left or right) we tend to use the buoys nearest us as a steering guide. This is a mistake. You have to adjust your width perception to take account of the tips of your blades and also to acknowledge the vanishing point to position your hull centrally. Learn to ignore the buoys close to your boat. The vanishing point is the skill to develop to help you stay in your lane.

The power phase is most effective when legs drive first and back follows yet so few masters rowers do this. Why? Timestamps 00:45 Good power phase requirements The alignment of the womens double in the photo shows that the crew hasn't used their back while having legs nearly straight. Getting into this position requires having shoulders sternwards of the hips at the catch and to use their legs first in the power phase. 03:00 Pulling with arms is easy We have a lot of practice using hands and arms in daily life. We are good at this. At the catch you want to feel the oars loaded up under the water surface. If you pull with your arms you feel this earlier. By pulling with your arms and lifting the shoulders and lifting your chin you feel the workload on the spoon. Rowing is a pushing not a pulling sport in the main. Rowing legs only is 60% of the power; back swing is 25-30% of your power and so your arms add 5-10% of your power ONLY. 06:00 Small muscles v big muscles The rowing stroke uses a range of body muscles from legs, thighs and calves through to arms and hands. In daily life we use small muscles a lot - they fire quickly when we use them in daily life. We are practiced using them. The quads and glutes are slower to activate so we have to train them - we're less habituated using these. Connecting the handle of the oars through the footstretcher is unfamiliar and you have to train it. The first activation in the power phase is the calves to push the heels down onto the footstretcher, Then the quads join in to straighten your legs. When your legs are 3/4 straight you start the glute activation - hinging to connect legs to the back. Using the glutes to sustain pressure on the footstretcher while you swing your back. If you lose pressure on the footstretcher you are no longer accelerating the boat. Your feet are the only part of your body connected to the boat. As your back starts to activate you draw with your arms. 10:00 Why delaying the back is hard Connecting to the footstretcher early in the power phase is our goal. If you take the catch with the arms or swinging the shoulders/back this is a problem. When delivering power through the stroke you can only use each muscle group once per stroke. If you swing your back to take the catch you've got no back swing to use later in the power phase because you are already leaning backwards. It also prevents you from activating your leg drive - they do straighten but not as dynamically as you should. By not activating your legs this removes up to 60% of your possible total power which is a lot. And as a consequence you probably don't activate your glutes because you aren't using your legs enough. There's a correlation between the water being slower at the catch than later in the stroke. The angle of the oar spoon is also going into the slower water at an acute angle to the side of the boat. Use the slower water speed along the slower muscles to generate that early power in the stroke. 15:00 The solution to delaying your back swing Is to train yourself to use the big muscles, learn what it feels like to activate the quads and glutes early in the stroke. Then you know what it feels like to grip the water at the catch with your feet (rather than hands or shoulders). This is the beginning point to learn how to activate big muscles first and layer the smaller muscles on top as later activations. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192