Discover how to adjust your blade parallels when rowing in a mixed crew to get the oar arcs as similar as possible.
Timestamps
01:00 Goal is to align the blade arc
Set up the boat for a comfortable row - ideally with all the oars moving through the same angles. Know the dimensions of the athletes - how tall are you relative to your wingspan (fingertip to fingertip).
04:00 We do not have to be rigged identically in the boat. Start with the basics - ensure your set up in the boat is good. Start with getting the finishes parallel. Set up your back seat wheel to the same distance behind the face of the work. 58-62 cm is a normal range in sweep. In sculling, it's done by getting the gap between your handles the same at the finish. This assumes you are using oars / sculls which are the same length and inboard.
05:30 Rules for adjusting
Equipment - foot stretchers can be moved easily; can also adjust shoe height to compromise the seat rolling forward (make full compression shorter). Check catch and finish angles for each person.
Rigging - change the span/spread of the pins - a tighter span gives a longer arc at the tip of the blade at the catch. Change the oar length and inboard - for a shorter person shortening the oar length and inboard has a similar effect to tightening the span.
Athletes' bladework - tall people shorten catch angle, less layback at the finish, tap out oars early at the finish. Shorter athletes can row a sequential power phase - using legs before legs and arms rather than simultaneous sequence. Keep arms wider at the catch (sweep use body rotation; sculling use thumbs to push handles sideways over the side of the boat). Hold arms wide in sculling as you initiate the drive for as long as possible. Get the feeling of your feet pushing underneath your handle for as long as possible before the handle starts to move towards you.
12:00 Adaptations are needed
Meeting in the middle is worthwhile - tall people row a little shorter and shorter people row a little longer. Use video to assess how you are rowing - record this at firm pressure to get the best insight.
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How to make swapping easier, the differences, visible signs of what goes wrong and drills to help you swap sides and codes.
Timestamps
00:45 Switching sweep and sculling
Masters frequently get asked to swap - first couple of times you are clumsy and have lost fine motor skills. Differences are about oar handling, movements up and down the boat and round the rigger.
01:30 List of differences
Sweep - grip on recovery, feathering, hands away (outside hand), body rotation towards the rigger, hand height at catch, elbow position at finish.
Sculling - grip on recovery, thumbs, left hand lead, nested hands, Left hand getting higher at catch, elbow position at finish.
02:50 Visible signs of what goes wrong
Get videoed or ask the person sitting behind you to tell you what they can see.
Sweep - feathering with both hands, holding on too tight with the inside hand, both arms straight, leaning away from rigger, outside elbow flares sideways, inside shoulder higher than outside shoulder. Causes of the main issues - getting the correct hand to do each job - in sweep feathering with inside hand and outside hand controlling the handle height.
Sculling - hands hit each other, crossover with wrong hand in front, stacked not nested hands at the crossover, air gap between handles, elbows tucked to the side body.
07:30 Drills to help you switch
Practice these in the warmup.
Sweep drills - wide grip / inside hand down the loom isolates the hand, inside hand holding the seat top behind your back, press down with the outside hand, inside hand on the backstay (square blades), eyes looking out to your side of the boat.
Sculling drills - left hand lead, pausing at hands away, pause at finish with blades on the water to check your elbows, slap catches to train handle height at the catch.
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Discover how to overcome your natural biology which resists movement pattern changes in rowing technique.
Timestamps
01:00 A coach was frustrated his athletes forget from one workout to the next. The cause is not necessary wilful, it's not your coaching skill - it's biology. We are hard wired to keep to the muscle memory we already have.
Rowing Muscle Memory and neural pathways
The solution is multiple repetitions of a drill during an outing is important. Your brain prioritises familiar patterns when under stress. Automaticity means we revert back under pressure.
- Insufficient repetitions is the cause.
The challenge here is inconsistent reinforcement - if you can self-coach this can help. Understand what the coach is teaching - ask questions. Provide drills to the athlete to isolate or exaggerate the movement you are teaching. Increase stroke rate or the power through the water to test your skill under pressure.
Cognitive overload leads to frustration
The solution here is to practice both thinking and doing. Row for 10 strokes without thinking about anything. During those strokes the athlete is maintaining the new movement pattern. Check after 10 strokes if you are doing it right - if not, adjust and do 10 stroke more not thinking.
05:00 The competence model of unconscious competence is your goal. Train yourself by managing your cognitive overload. The challenge is you can think you are regressing because it feels different and awkward. Learn to overcome this to achieve the end goal.
06:00 Athlete receptiveness
You must test your skill under pressure with increasing challenge so that when you're at your most pressurised in a race you are also tired and stressed yet you maintain the technique.
Fear of failure as the new technique is untested. Overcoming this is hard - athletes try hard to perform well.
Poor communication undermines an athlete's ability to take up what you're trying to teach. Explain what you're trying to do and why as well as how to do it.
Peer Pressure - the difference between style and technique. If a leader in the group disagrees they can refuse to change and if you're following someone who is rowing differently it's hard. This requires a different intervention. Ask me if you need this.
09:30 How to coach change and prevent reversion
Approach the change in micro steps. Take a small first step - do the drill in a stable boat with others sitting it level, isolate part of the stroke, row one person at a time.
External cues - can you use video, physical markers, feel, or hearing to assess when you are getting it right?
Train under duress - make it harder for yourself progressively by adding duress to test your skill.
Accountability - crew feedback by asking others if you are doing it right. Agree together to be accountable.
Gain buy-in as a coach so the athletes trust that your teaching will be beneficial. Explaining the why.
Normalise the struggle - we are on a journey seeking the perfect stroke. We are in this together.
By Bruce Ware, President PWRC and member of the Coach Mastermind Group.
The Prince WIlliam Rowing Club's season is off and running; a small subset of the Club is prepping for our first 1K sprint regatta - I am entered to row a 2x with my wife, and we're the oldest boat in the group with the biggest handicap!
In my role as President of the Club, I've been trying to incorporate some of the great ideas that have come up in our discussions on this Coach Mastermind web-chat. Yes, Rebecca sets up a main topic for the session, but when I join in, there's always something else I need to talk about, to get advice about, and maybe even just to vent some frustration.
The other participants bounce ideas on how to handle some of the usual challenges each of us faces as masters rowers and coaches of masters, and I make frequent use of those suggestions.
"People join in because they know how broad and multi-faceted our discussions become. And what can I do to boost those numbers, to get more people to join the discussions?"
Image credit: Georges Lippens
Like I said, the topics are multi-faceted and change every session. For example, I know that one of the best ways to recruit and strengthen a masters rowing club's numbers is to market the club as a "fitness for life" approach that can meet the health and fitness needs of many differently-abled people. One corollary method is to offer a "pay-to-row" option, where people can come out to row as their work-schedules and other commitments allow.
My Club has not offered this option, but we are starting to see some requests coming in asking for this sort of arrangement. With a Club of nearly 100 members that has a mixed mission of "high-performance" racing, recreational and "social" rowing, and a large learn-to-row novice component, I have to recognize that I cannot just open the floodgates to "pay-to-row" without impacting our coaches' ability to set line-ups, especially the racing squad coaches.
How would you handle such a request?
My treasurer says "no way! too much of a headache!" I know my racing squads and their coaches would object, so I have to exclude them. And LTR novices have claimed a "seat" in a boat that someone else who we had to leave on the "waiting list" (club resources and assets being limited, we had to cap our LTR novice group at 32 for this year) could have purchased and used.
How do I allocate financial resources to a Club equitably? The LTR novices don't need anything special, as they already have boats and a full coaching staff. The intermediate "recreational/social" squad only occasionally has some small teams that want to compete in a regatta, but they don't require a lot of extra resources. The sculling squad is small - 7 or 8 of us, we have our one coach and plenty of shells to use - a 4x, 3 or 4 2xs, and a half-dozen 1xs - so our major additional expense would be for entering and traveling to regattas, and those are not frequent events.
So, the racing squads, which make up only about 30% of the Club's numbers, routinely claim over 70% of the Club's funds. Is that fair that a large percentage of the members' dues is used to "subsidize" that rowing activities of a minority?
These sensitive topics are the kind of things we talk about on Coach Mastermind!
You should be there {{ subscriber.first_name }} because you might have encountered these sorts of situations in your own clubs, and could offer suggestions on how to handle it. I coach juniors and high school kids, not masters. I've offered to coach masters, but don't want to give up my own rowing!
But running a masters club means I need to rely heavily on masters coaches, and this is one of the best places I can come and get that kind of help.
Please, when Rebecca posts next month's session, make the effort to join us.
Clare Delmar keynote speaker at our Older Athlete and Aging conference generously shared this non-exhaustive list of leaders in aging science.
Healthy ageing/longevity resources: not an exhaustive list by any means but focused on people who are accessible and robust in their work on longevity and ageing – and who have inspired me!
Clare Delmar
Science
David Sinclair, professor of genetics and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School.
Nir Barzilai ,founding director of the Institute for Aging Research, the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging and the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
How to streamline your workouts in order to maximise your time on the water. Learn how be a good student and arrive prepared for your workout.
Timestamps
00:45 What's it like arriving at your boathouse?
Imagine parking your car and walking through the front door - what's the signage like, is it clean and orderly? Is the lineup clear? Is the coach boat ready? What about cox box and life jackets? What do you need to do before you can get safely onto the water each practice?
Masters are often time-poor and busy people. Anything we can do to streamline the necessary tasks means more time on the water for your workout.
02:15 The night before
Get prepared early - get out all your clothing, gear. Know your departure time from home and list all the things you have to do before leaving. What's the weather report - does this affect traffic? What's on the training program? Who is in your crew lineup and which boat/oars are you using? Have your rowing electronics, gloves, cap, rain jacket ready and your post-workout clothing too.
03:45 When you arrive
Get to the boathouse in enough time to get everything ready. Be clear about the time of the practice is pushing off from the dock (not walking through the front door). Know what needs to be done and find out what remains to get ready from others who are already there.
Put everything onto the dock. Ideally, nobody goes back into the building after you have put your boat on the water. Water bottle, oars, stroke coach, PFD, light, cox box etc. Put them on the back of the pontoon so they aren't trip hazards.
Sign out in the safety register - names, boat, circulation, time going out. Be friendly - say hello to others. In your crew agree the seating order and who will steer and who will do the calls. Know the workout and the warmup as well as the focus point for the outing (heart rate, effort, technique points). Confirm hazards like buoys and other water users - where could clashes happen?
07:30 Diverging from the plan
Know about when should you change the outing plan? Weather conditions are often the deciding factor and running out of time. How do you cut it down - the repeats, the rest, turning round early? Decide together what to do in your crew.
Wind direction changes and waves can make it unsafe. Where can you go for safety in flatter water? Can you see other crews and what decision are they making when a change is needed? Where will you cut across your planned route?
Experienced rowers will know what to do if the wind or tide changes, how to make changes to your safety plan. Remember the water is safe until that you forget that it is dangerous.
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How to coach the finish so that your finishes are not frantic, splashy or messy.
Timestamps
00:45 Find room to tap down before squaring
Start with the correct set-up at the finish with blades buried. Where are your handles? What's the gap between your hands? This is how you ensure you have room to tap down. If your handles are too close together at the finish, you cannot get out of separation and there's no space to push the handles down without them hitting each other.
02:45 Check your elbows are level with your wrist (or higher) at the finish when the oars are buried under the water. It's hard to tap down if your wrist is cocked and your elbow is lower than your wrist.
03:15 Drills for finishes
Stationary stability drill stage two has a tap down and then feather. Learn how to do this whole crew without anyone holding the boat level for you.
Pause drill at the finish - it helps to check you are finishing the stroke at the right position. Take the oar out of the water and then feather and return the oar to resting on the water surface. The reason is that your handles are at the same height as at the finish. Helps you to check how high your handles are actually rowing to in the full stroke. Goal in the consecutive strokes is to get your handle to the same place before you tap down to extract from the water.
J-Curve Drill - tap down before feather.
06:30 Check finishes while rowing
During continuous rowing, get your athletes to check handle heights at the finish while rowing - look down or feel where your thumb brushes your shirt. Hold onto the finish for 1cm longer while rowing. Helps them to keep pressure on the spoons until the end of the stroke before the extraction.
How to train in the week before the regatta race.
Timestamps
00:40 A taper is a reduction in training volume so you're ready to race on the regatta day. You should feel you are super-energetic, enthusiastic, you should feel ready for anything. You should find your adrenaline is up in anticipation for the event - this can also be due to nerves.
When we train it puts our bodies under stress. The taper removes those stresses.
01:50 How to tapers work?
In rowing we have one or two big events in the year - winter long distance and summer sprint racing. You can do more than one sprint peak in the year, remember after every peak you have to rest, reduce training volume as a reset before you go back into hard training again.
The taper reduces volume, frequency and intensity of your training. Generally it starts one week before your event, if you're at a multi-day regatta, choose the day of your main event race as the peak day. Count back one week from that event. Depending on your normal training frequency, the taper varies. The workouts in the taper include shorter practices - less time on the water, workouts at higher intensities at or above race pace. Duration of the outing is less but intensity is high. If you train 6 times a week the days of the week you train should be continued in the taper week.
05:00 Travel is the big problem
You have to load a boat trailer, fly or drive to the regatta venue and this can disrupt your normal training days. You often cannot train after the boat trailer is loaded.
In the Faster Masters Program we recommend you train 3 days a week - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If you follow this pattern you get a rest day in between each workout. So your taper doesn't need to change from this pattern because you are already getting a lot of rest. Athletes who train 6 days a week do a different taper - the program has an asterisk on the 3 key days.
06:50 Practice your starts
Each workout during the taper, you must practice your start sequence. If you are doing many different crews this is good because you get to do starts in your single, pair, quad etc. We also do race pace pieces which mimic different parts of the race. Some from the first half, some mid-race and some in the sprint for the line.
Additionally it's great if you can do at least one of these practices on the race course you will be racing on. Familiarise yourself with the course, the warm up area, the start pontoons and rowing in between buoys. Practice backing into the start too.
08:30 Roll over the course workout
Do every push you have planned in the race plan at race pace and row at firm pressure, SR 24-26 in between the race pace pushes. This gives bursts of intensity, practice on the course, keeps your blood going and makes you familiar with the race course.
Your taper has to cover off your recovery - more rest than normal. Also optimising your psychological and physiological performance like race visualisations.
Injury prevention is also part of the purpose of a taper because you're doing less and resting so you're less likely to get injured. Mental and physical freshness brings good energy levels to the event - overcome anxiety and nerves. Hormonal balance is also a benefit.
10:30 Tapers can also trigger viruses
As athletes taper they can succumb to viruses or allergies as the training pressure comes off your body. Do take extra care over personal hygiene, hand washing and face masks on a plane. Be protective of your own body - you've worked hard for this race event.
Don't undermine your performance by succumbing to something which is preventable. Control the things which can be controlled.
The policy leadership masters sport needs if it is to grow. What can public policy measures do to improve and grow masters rowing?
Timestamps
01:00 Public policy for rowing
Sophie Harrington is researching recommendations to improve access to womens and girls sport using public policy measures. Her focus on the male/female side opened up masters sport as a new area where sport for life outcomes could work.
To grow masters sport requires finding the inhibitors which exist and prevent improvement. Some are structural - how we organise, think and run volunteer sport.
03:00 Growth inhibitors
Ways to improve access and people's enthusiasm and interest in masters sport. Constraints include memberships - many clubs are annual fees/dues. Can we offer pay-to-play memberships? Also what about time of day pricing as our rowing equipment lies idle for 22 hours a day. Training at quieter times of day between early mornings and school afternoon sport times. Sweat your assets to get more money in for use when not in demand.
05:15 Coach education
Teaching methods used for youth are not as appropriate for older adults. Consider psychology and physiology of athletes so coaches know how to work with a broader range of athletes.
Competition structure is a growth inhibitor. We need 3 layers - local / regional and national competitions including those which are participatory not races e.g. Park Run. What is the rowing equivalent? Scrimmages, touring row or visiting another club. Some people take years before trying racing. Competition for those new to competing needs to be organised so you can go to hyper-local events with low friction (no equipment trailer).
08:00 Athletic pathways for masters
Ways for those of limited experience to go to races against those whose experience is similar. Age doesn't work as a level playing field when years of experience is considered. Having plural athlete pathways which incorporate fitness rowers with challenges (not necessarily races) that move folks into competition gently.
Social inclusion - having a coffee after the workout is important to build friendships and encourages them to stick around as a group.
Facilitating sport for life is the outcome goal.
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