RowingChat

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 they think believing in a ceiling which is not real. And limited by a brain that pulls the 'alarm cord' long before you've reached your limit.
02:00 The effort ledger
Are you paying what rowing actually costs? This is a way of measuring work and exposes pretend work. If you train by feel (Rate of Perceived Effort RPE) but feel and reality diverge with age. RPE rises as recovery slows. When you bring tiredness into training sessions your RPE can be higher even if your work output is lower.
The three columns - What you planned to do this workout, what you actually did, honest quality rating (1-5 range). Average the scores at the end of each week.
Map the gap between what you intended and your execution. Write it down and bring honesty to your training.
05:30 Your effort ceiling
Some masters may be leaving more on the table than you think. A limiting belief is that your effort is limited by age. This kicks in before your actual physical limit occurs - mind working separately from the body.
Test yourself by picking one thing on your training plan that you dislike and so avoid doing.
Am I avoiding this because my body can't do it or because I don't want to find out what it reveals about me?
Masters have more choice and may take more recovery between workouts than pro athletes.
Do that one session which you've been avoiding next week and notice if the ceiling is your body or your mind.
07:45 The repeated bout effect
The science behind your brain limiting you in an effort to protect you. Your brain lies in order to protect you - so renegotiate with your brain. Brains are survival machines and send a STOP signal before you reach your actual limit. It's conserving resources and energy reserves in case you need it.
The Central Governor Theory by Tim Noakes - brain limiting your output based on predicted cost not actual capacity.
When you expose your body once to a hard effort - your brain re-anchors what hard feels like. Next time you do it the alarm goes off later. Perceived difficulty and the urge to stop reduces on the second exposure to the same stimulus. The brain's prediction model adapts.
This is the physiological underpinning of Malcolm Howard's quote. The work doesn't just build the engine, it teaches the brain what your engine can do.
Faster Masters Rowing training programs include workout repeats in order to help you use the repeated bout effect in your training.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/racing-program/
11:30 Three layer synthesis
The ledger shows what you're actually putting in; the ceiling test shows what's still available; the repeated bout effect shows why doing it once is enough to retrain your brain.

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 more rigid you are, the lower the probability you will have a good catch." Al Morrow
Feeling you are in control in rowing can lead to tension, particularly in your hands. There's a balance between having control and being so tight that you do not have good control.
Controlled, accurate movements are your goal.
Test this for yourself by gripping your handle tighter than usual and note how your catch timing and depth is or your feather/square movement.
Poise is a balance between the right amount of control and tension to facilitate the rowing movement, Enough tension to get into the right positions but not so much that you are rigid and hamper your strength, movement and oar control.
Rigidity kills your strength. 90% of your power in rowing is below your arm pits.
When rigid it's hard to respond in real time to a gust of wind, balance issues or wake. When relaxed, the boat absorbs the energy from the wind or waves and you don't react to the disruption.
07:00 Al Morrow's drill
This is a catch drill - put the oar in the water fast so it arrives at the perfect depth under the surface.
From the catch position, push down on the handles so the oar spoon is high above the water. Let go of the handles quickly and listen to the sound the oar makes as it enters the water.
An oar arriving in the water under zero tension - you will see it arrive at the perfect depth.
The perfect depth happens when you are relaxed and do not interrupt gravity. Progress the drill by gradually holding the handle without tension - fingers extended. Make the same sound.
Move to holding a normal grip while keeping the same blade entry sound. Then take one stroke. Stop rowing and try it again.
Move towards making the perfect catch sound but starting at the finish - roll up the recovery and unweight the handle to place the oar in the water.
Work on the timing of unweighting your hands and the slide change of direction. The hand action has to precede the slide stopping.
Remove rigidity from your neck shoulders, arms and hands at the catch using this drill.
11:00 Trust the release of tension
The best possible catch at higher stroke rates comes from being proactive placing the catch - that can negate the lack of rigidity you've been working on.
12:00 Active Catches
Build trust that you won't flip when unweighting the handle. Move the moment when you release the tension to being earlier in the recovery. Listen to the sound of the blade entry.

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 quick changes, unfamiliar boats and doing a training session from another coach on top of their normal training.
These are all avoidable.
04:00 Transition from winter to summer
Let your muscles and tendons adapt to different stresses like moving from an indoor rower to a boat. The difference between a sculling erg and a sweep boat is clear in movement patterns.
All these abrupt changes resulted in injury to tendons or muscle strain.
Rule of thumb for moving onto the water is to start at 50% volume in week one and build up to full training in the new mode over 4 weeks. You won't get as fit on the water initially as you did on the rowing machine so use this time for technique.
07:00 Three injury scenarios
- An athlete with mild tennis elbow changed the grips on her scull handles. The new grips were a different size and it flared her tendonitis. Be aware of any pain (it may be a very small thing).
- Another had a glute / sacrum tendon tenderness and while somewhat fatigued did a practice with another club member and the following day was in a quad doing a race simulation. The boat was rigged high for her and she rowed the quad two days in a row doing another race simulation. This pushed the ligament strain and stopped her rowing for a month.
- Two athletes visited another club for a quad outing and found the rigging/boat changes led to a hamstring strain and the consequent race was "cautious" and not full power.
A soft tissue injury takes 6-8 weeks to heal, at best, with physical therapy.
19:00 When in an wobbly boat
The temptation is to stop rowing your normal pattern and instead to "flex" and go with what you feel in the boat. This is an abrupt change in technique and not conducive to protecting your body.
If you have a sensitive low back, then an unstable boat can cause a flare up.
Common sense - think before you do. Common sense is not very common.
For equipment make gradual changes.

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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.

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