RowingChat

Dominic Miller is on the board of the Henley on Todd regatta in Alice Springs, Australia

Rebecca last attended this event in 1984 (before she learned to row!)

Timestamps

01:00 Rotary run the Henley on Todd regatta,. It celebrates its 60th anniversary started in 1962.

02:30 A dry river regatta in the desert.

05:30 the regatta events include "bring your own boat", crews of rowing 8, 4 and single kayaks. You cannot run, you have to shuffle. Get out of step and you fall over!

08:00 Damsel in distress race

09:00 Human hamster wheel race

10:30 Special event for the Todd family - build a telegraph line.

12:00 Three crews fight it out in the grand finale with a water fight - the Australian Navy versus the Vikings versus the Pirates.

18:00 Why the regatta never finishes on time.

Rowing is a sport that rewards discipline. Book of the Month | Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowers.

Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Jess DiCarlo.

Support this show with a donation

https://fastermastersrowing.com/podcast

Timestamps

01:00 This Past Week - what we do to advocate for masters rowing.

03:05 Jess discussed her book choice

Rowing Through the Barbed Wire Fence – Rima Karaliene, https://amzn.to/2UBEPXh

What it was like rowing in the Eastern Bloc from 1960s.

13:30 Privileges came with the elite sport team membership in Soviet Union.

27:20 We discussed the concept of discipline being connected to a goal to help you make decisions and create good habits.

Book Mental Discipline: The pursuit of peak performance by Mike Livingston

https://amzn.to/3ARHume

29:00 Rule followers are one type of discipline follower.

30:00 The 80/20 type people mean you are highly likely to be successful. To get the benefits of what you are trying to accomplish with your goals.

Regular practice of discipline improves your skills.

33.00 Knowing yourself helps - do you need a team or a training partner?

Over training happens to masters too | Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowers. Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe.

Support this show with a donation

https://fastermastersrowing.com/podcast

Timestamps

01:00 This Past Week - what we do to advocate for masters rowing.

02:40 Block format racing allows more events and easier for boat sharing

05:00 squads for masters racing. Being ultra-flexible because things come up unpredictably.

08:00 Testimonials Testimonials for Faster Masters training programs

13:00 Henley on Todd - Alice Springs

18:00 Over training,. what is it?

Over-stress when your system gets run down. Increasing training volume or intensity too fast. Insufficient recovery.

If you do not rest your body creates a situation where it forces you to rest.

- Type 1 - muscular - it hurts

- Type 2- central nervous system- lack of balance, co-ordination low motivation.

21:15 When I got over-training. Be very careful. It was caused by too high training load.

We have to push boundaries in a training program in order to get fitter.

25:00 Warning signs of over training

1 - Resting heart rate is too high in morning.

Category VI (6) training is base work allows your heart to expand and contract stronger.

If heart rate is 5 beats higher - watch it if it is to beats higher for several days it's a sign of over stress.

2 - Injuries appear.

Over training goes to a weak spot - an old injury flares up

3 - You feel tired and lack motivation or slightly depressed

4 - appetite can drop

5 - Achy muscles

30:00 Using your down time profitably.

Go down to base training only. Avoid hard AT or Interval work until your heart rate is back to normal.

Do not be on your feet- row /cycle is better than jogging.

Go out in the coach boat-watch and learn.

Join them at the training sessions

Get a sports massage

Nutrition HELPS - get protein and B vitamins in. A blood profile test shows deficiencies like B- 12 and iron

Do Yoga

Do Pilates

Take a core class -sit ups, press ups, stretching and mobility work. When you start to feel better begin training again.

Rule is #days off = no of days to come back to full training.

Be conservative - older athletes take longer to rebound.

40:00 Adaptation happens at the cellular level.

Durable boats for club use | Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowers. Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe.

Timestamps

01:00 This Past Week - what we do to advocate for masters rowing.

03:00 September Programs have 3 tracks Time for good quality endurance training.

08:00 What is the normal stroke rate for a 60 year old masters in a single scull for head racing?

Maintain the best average speed for the whole race. Work out your efficiency at different rates.

13:00 if your release timing is not together. If you cannot hit the rate - look at this first.

15:30 Look at meters per second as an alternative to 500m splits.

Support this show with a donation

https://fastermastersrowing.com/podcast

19:00 Durable equipment - boats and oars.

Why do we want hard wearing boats for rowing?

How do you choose boats - we review the spread of athletes in the club group - Height, sex, weight and skill level in rowing and sculling.

Our learn to row boat is a coxed quad - wooden inside and with a carbon exterior.

After graduating from learn to row we use a flat bottomed quad which is easier to sit and good enough to race in. It is a "forgiving" boat for technique inaccuracies.

Hull designs vary - our top quad has a narrower hull - it's harder to sit and weather-cocks into the wind. Good bladework skills are needed to control this boat.

We need both beginner boats and racing boats.

23:00 Rowing boats are made from a choice of fibreglass, Carbon and Kevlar, and Wood. Modern boats are a honeycomb sandwich construction. This gives rigidity to the boat.

Painting the outside of the boat covers the joins and overlaps in the carbon fabric layers. Gelcoat is the transparent outer layer of protection.

The materials it is build in reflect how heavy the boat will be when it's finished.

25:30 Boats have minimum weights allowed for racing by World Rowing FISA.

A single scull is 14 kg.

Look at the boat builders plate - it has the boat weight as well as the athlete weight (average) it's designed for.

Under-weight boats require you to carry extra weights - lead weights added to the foot stretcher.

28:30 Flatter based boats for learn to row are sometimes a little heavier. A single can be 17 kg.

Stiffness of rowing boats has increased since wing riggers became popular. They attach using a flange along the length of the boat. This allowed boat builders to remove the internal 'shoulders' for the boat and to redesign the cockpit.

32:00 Buying a boat- consider the prices. Often the hull design is the same but materials differ.

33:45 Composite materials changed our design and manufacture. Skinny oars have extra soft flex. Heavier oars are built with heavier materials.

Oars are made from Aluminium, Wood and Carbon fibre.

40:00 Marlene's "Old trick" to give more weight in the hand is to wrap lead tape around the shaft to create weight in the hand. Gives more stability to the oar.

43:00 Boat maintenance is key to durability. More than the construction type.

Check your boat regularly - is everything tight?

Wash the boats regularly - especially the slide tracks.

Boat storage - indoor or outdoor?

UV light slowly deteriorates the hall. Cover your boat if stored outdoors.

47-00 Rowing in salt water requires daily washing. We recommend regular strip downs to remove salt residue.

Good stress and bad stress - what they are and how to handle rowing stress | Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowing.

Timestamps

one thing to improve masters rowing.

02:00 This Past Week - Marlene met Tony, a faster master from Shurebrook, Canada.

04:00 Good stress / bad stress

A good stress helps you grow , challenges you. Something unfamiliar but which stimulates you to improve.

It pushes you in a positive direction.

Bad stress is too much of a challenge which causes breakdown.

Coach tells stroke "you are responsible for the outcome of this race". Putting athletes into situations which are way over their heads is inappropriate

10:45 Learning to push yourself into situations where you are vulnerable and uncertain is part of the rowing journey

12:30 Integrating new people into the club as an outing plan.

Good stresses - training with incremental goals. Raise the bar gradual.

A more challenging boat balance situation. It was clear we had gone too far so we switched boats.

18. 30 Four Stress Mantras

- Do nothing

- Let It Go

- Let It Be

24:30 When I push off the dock all the bad stresses stay on land. This is a skill. Learn to leave them behind.

28:30 In racing when starts are delayed can you do anything about it? How can you use the time profitably?

Acquire Resilience Mental skills.

32-00 Why does Let it be work best as a stress mantra?

Percentage of people reporting reduced stress from the 3 mantras

Do nothing 4% - this represents Passive Denial

Let It Go 24% - this represents Active Denial

Let It Be 45% - this represents Stoic acknowledgement

34. 50 Daily things which impact you in the boat.

36. Irene's Question:

"Could you maybe talk about how to best behave in an eight to support steering? Some curves are so tight we need to dampen the power on the inside, but do we lean in a direction, do we adapt our stroke length or something? And what about in longer curves where we can continue rowing at full power on both sides but still want to support the cox - how do we best do that? Or do we let her do her thing and just row?"

4 things for steering in an eight round a sharp corner

- Know the boat's pivot point and use pressure from 2 on bow side and 2 on stroke side PLUS - early catches on one side and less pressure on the other side

- Lateral pressure on the gate on the side you are turning towards to maintain a level hull

- Short strokes on one side to use the acute catch angle and a hard catch to pull the bows round

- More pressure on your inside leg works well for a less sharp bend

Miranda is a former national team rower turned coach. She is interested in mental health and how it affects rowers and coaches.

Timestamps

03:00 Miranda's background in rowing

06:00 A congenitial heart condition diagnosis

07:30 Transition to coaching. Be open minded and do as much as I can.

Going out in the launch with other coaches

Read books

Try things

09:00 What can I see? What do they see?

Training my eye to see things in the boat.

Communication skills - what do they say.

12:00 Rowing and leadership coaching

Each year everything is new

What does this group need? A laboratory.

Intangible leadership

Tangible things - what you can measure

15:30 Leadership coaching - putting everything on the line is an awful strategy as a leader.

Individual, team, organisations - all have leadership skills and support career transitions.

This generation wants more - break out of a traditional role. What energises and excites you?

23:00 mental health for rowing

Curiosity and compassion.

Egos can be big - naming and shaming happens.

We can be black and white in our approach.

The best coaches wonder why the athlete went drinking and what they might need.

How to have that conversation... what I'm noticing is... do you want to share with me? Is there something else you need?

27:00 https://www.mirandaholder.com/

Individualised coaching for transitioning into Leadership.

Leadership - know yourself, make choices

Group coaching, speaking and facilitation.

How to connect to your body.

Balancing a boat is easier with personal balance skills | Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowers. Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe.

Support this show with a donation

https://fastermastersrowing.com/podcast

Timestamps

01:00 This Past Week - what we do to advocate for masters rowing.

04:14 The training program for August 2022 from Faster Masters

Training module - 1k program peak

5k program for Oct & November peak

HOCR specific program

Fitness is standalone 5 workouts for fat burning, endurance or strength endurance

Land training includes Balance Exercises in the gym

Benefits of having a rowing accountability partner

09:00 Body balance exercises

Supportive of our movements for ageing athletes

Balance is trainable over time.

11:00 The J-curve drill -Rebecca's favourite balance exercise in the boat

14. 30 A basic pause drill at part of the cycle. Count One 1000, Two 1000 then go

Choose a point in the recovery to do it.. Marlene prefers arms and body away. It completes the acceleration phase.

Variations you can introduce

- Square /feather twice

- Cut the cake

Do it at low speeds and low ratings but with good pressure

20:00 - Podcast offer for new supporters - make a podcast donation and want to get the video of the J-curve drill message us

24:00 Body balance exercises standing

- One legged airplane row

- The star balance tap

28:00 Single leg jump

29:30 A listener question from Bernie - balance getting into the boat - from a dock

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.

This episode is sponsored by the Faster Masters 12 week 5k training plan.

https://fastermastersrowing.com/register/head-racing-12-week-program/

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

https://fastermastersrowing.com/best-rowing-books-2020/

10. 30 Our podcast name - we emailed a question to all subscribers

11:30 Ted Pyltlar'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.

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.

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.

45.00 Rowing movie - Heart of Champions review by Rebecca

https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Champions-Michael-Shannon/dp/B09LRZR2F1?ref_=nav_signin&

Incorporating novices | Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowers. Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe.

Support this show with a donation

https://fastermastersrowing.com/podcast

Timestamps

01:15 This Past Week - what we do to advocate for masters rowing.

Rebecca's rowing hack got published on row2k - the Coxing Plank

https://www.row2k.com/features/5880/rowing-hack--the-coxing-plank/

Marlene has been teaching new novices.

06:00 Beginners joining your group. Do you start in single sculls or team boats?

The coach does a 1 on 1 session overview of the sport.

Important to get in the boat in the first lesson.

Nobody ever asks how do I turn the boat around!

First session - ensure they are comfortable, it's a stable boat, they can find where the water is with the oars.

14:00 Incorporating novices into your club

- start them in a group together. People learn at different speeds.

- basic skills of stopping, backiing, turning and rowing.

Do check how to structure your learn to row programme tuition in Volker Nolte's book, Masters Rowing. Wolfgang Fritzch wrote the chapter on novices. It's excellent.

https://amzn.to/3sYSXJB

18:00 How we learn

Just try it. We learn by discovery

People ask questions - it's best to let them do this and answer what they ask (it tells you a lot about how you teach and whether they have comprehended the information you shared).

Incorporate drills to explain and clarify.

24:00 Tell people how to do things not just what change you want them to make.

Use drills to isolate part of the stroke and practice them slowly.

- explain in words

- demonstrate the point on land

- let the athletes try it in the boat

- use a drill

Remember if you talk to athletes while they are rowing they often don't listen. It may be better to talk when they have stoped rowing.

26:00 Jam sessions - mixing abilities in crews

Build this into your club season - mixed ability groups. The novices scale up and the experienced people scale down.

It allows novices to experience acceleration in a boat.

What does swing feel like?

It's easy to improve rhythm and timing when you have been shown how to do it and felt the boat move.

30:00 Shadow rowing is useful especially for visual learners

31:00 Coaching groups of different speeds

Individual attention for people of different abilities

Give time to process the coaching advice.

Position the launch (coach boat) so the slow people go first.

39:00 Feedback from a fitness athlete on the new fitness program

When to take risks with your race plan | Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowers.

Support this show with a donation

https://fastermastersrowing.com/podcast

Timestamps

01:00 This Past Week - what we do to advocate for masters rowing. Marlene has been teaching beginners

08:00 Race Plans - these are included free in our subscription products. Check the Performance module.

09:00 Mentality for racing - it's individual.

- be committed to doing your best

- on this one day

- emotions

- skill levels

It's process based mentality and NOT results based.

11:30 Racing is 90% mental

Know yourself and make a plan to calm yourself.

A race is an opportunity to express yourself.

12:45 Your brain will tell you to protect yourself.

It will try to keep you safe. In between your thoughts, talk to yourself.

Make your mistakes in practice and in trials.

15:30 Racing is often intuitive - build your experience to improve this.

19:00 The four quarters and what to do strategically in each

- first quarter - do a start and get on a good rhythm

- second quarter - be tough on yourself. Watch your average speed

- third quarter - be tough on your competitors

- fourth quarter - your sprint finish

23:00 Mary Whipple took a risk to let the boat "breathe"

Bring the focus back to the boat - not us.

29:00 Taking an extra push after pulling level with another crew.

Put them away if you can

34:00 Pull a trick out of the bag for each situation you face.

Perfect races rarely happen. Be prepared to respond to every situation that arises.