Masters Rowing in Delaware, USA - Faster Masters Rowing™

Ted Pytlar joins Marlene and Rebecca to talk about his club masters group and their experience of rowing, racing and training | Faster Masters Rowing Radio – the podcast for masters rowers. Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe.

Timestamps

04:00 This Past week Rowing News Magazine published Marlene’s article on Periodisation of Technique.
08:00 Merijn Soeters new Book of rowing photography
10. 30 Our podcast name – we emailed a question to all newsletter subscribers

Swan Creek Rowing Club

11:30 Ted Pytlar’s background in rowing
13:30 Moving to the single scull – the ultimate boat. The club mix of boats has changed as the interest in rowing singles has changed.
16:00 Delaware River is rocky and can get shallow so we lose skegs often
17:00 Training Goals – focus on head race preparation. We organise ourselves as a group of 4 we know where the rocks are. After hurricanes we re-survey the river
22:00 after hurricanes we get high flow and use peripheral vision to steer and avoid landmarks.

Learn to row organisation

23:00 We have a LTR annual program with a waiting list. 16 people limit.
We don’t have enough coaches and 10 sessions is not enough and so we added a plus plan to integrate them into experienced boats.
26:00 We have a plan to beef up the masters program structure with regular outings
Customise a track for each person’s flexibility.
28:00 the board has a LTR co-ordinator and organised coaching roster.
Scullers have a skills test for 1x use and also a masters program co-ordinator with input from members. We bring in a professional coach a couple of times a month

Switching from sweep to sculling

31:00 Swapping from sweep to sculling
I didn’t realise the importance of stability at the catch and release in 1x in order to get the rest of the stroke to work well.
Subtle mistakes you can make on port /starboard can really mess you up. It took a while to figure them out.
Loose hands is critical in sculling.

33:50 you have to be at a certain point in your rowing journey to realise or hear certain things. As you get better you realise what the coach meant.
35:00 Try to get an understanding of the complete stroke. Mine is 4 pages long.
A picture in your head
37:30 Some adapt technique which is a coping measure because they are afraid of tipping over
39:30 The swirling vortex behind the blade isn’t needed – just bury them deeper. Differences of opinion between people happen in rowing – it’s good to know them all.