RowingChat

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

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https://fastermastersrowing.com/podcast

Timestamps

02:00 This Past Week we launched our Advocacy page - if you want masters rowing articles to go in your club newsletter sign up here

https://fastermastersrowing.com/advocacy

04:00 Rowing Tales call for articles. If you

07:00 Figuring out club integration

- self organising masters and welcoming new members

Welcome lesson includes orientation, boats, oars, racks, carrying boats. How fit are they, co-ordination, allocate to a training group.

13:30 Integrating different technique styles in sweep

- look at the body and stroke lengths. Agree as a crew what to focus on

- set the finish position first - where you adjust to. Measure on the deck 58-60-62 cm behind the pin

- timing the finish first using pause drills. Check the correct hand is doing the right job - squaring, tapping down

- agree a reference point when to square the blade

20:00 In the crew half are tall and half medium height would it make sense to put them bow 4 and stern 4?

23:00 How to identify and "fix" shoulder lifting in rowing and sculling

- how to spot shoulder lifting.

Watch the shoulders rising at the catch.

Handles also rise up.

Blades going deep at the start of the drive.

Legs - look for knees moving away from the chest or the chest lifting off the knees

24:30 Use the big muscles first

You can only use each muscle group once in a stroke.

26:00 How to correct shoulder lifting

You could be holding tension in the trapezius muscles in the shoulders.

Make a connection between the legs and handle. Hold the lats strong.

27:40 How to teach the legs only rowing drill.

Start with the blade feathered - mime the movement and keep torso still.

Start at the finish and move up the slide to full compression (feathered) in stages.

Move rhythmically doing this feathered.

Then add in the squared blade and keep the body doing the same thing (square blades)

Train the legs to work on their own.

30:00 Norm Graf's image of holding the grapefruit. Try to hold the angle a little longer.

31:30 How to know when to swing?

It depends on keeping the pressure on the blade. Consistent pressure is key.

34:00 Put you hands under your arm and pull your shoulder blades down. You can feel the lats engage.

Coach of the New Zealand Olympic gold medal winning eight - Tony talks to us about his journey as a coach.

Timestamps

01:00 My journey as a coach - Trinity College Dublin women and novices squads. I became a better rower because of having coached.

03:30 Coaches speak a lot of rubbish.

I learned quickly not to say anything that doesn't add value.

My little notebook of ideas.

06:50 Rowing drills - your only limit is your imagination

The Steve Fairbairn influence

09:30 Do all athletes become coaches? Being a learner and a teacher is different

13:30 My final race as an athlete was 2002 LM2-

I became the coach of the national team alongside Thor Nilsen.

I felt guilty about jumping to the top of coaching to justify myself in I coached novices

2017 I coached the New Zealand junior - Alan Cotter and Barrie Mabbett invited me to discuss my future

19:30 I got approached again in 2019 for an eight to qualify for Tokyo - a 3 month engagement.

21:00 Qualifying didn't happen in 2019. We need to move together better.

Finding the middle ground to get a boat moving.

25:00 If the crew had qualified in 2019 I don't think we would have won the Olympic gold medal. The project almost came to a halt.

Sending a crew to Final Qualification Regatta - we were closer to the gold medal standard than others who had medaled and qualified in 2019

27:00 We instilled a better culture in the team

The women's team were our shining light - everything they did with positivity and honesty.

Pivotal discussions, arguments, tears, shouting matches - we did them all.

The tight team - teach the rower to teach themselves.

Tom Macintosh is 22 and he stood up and said wha he thought which took courage.

32:00 Know who you are working with - put your dreams in their hands

34:00 seating decisions. We weren't happy at selection.

We took 21 days and we tried everything.

In any crew there is a magical seating that can gain you distance

39:00 Moving Shaun Kirkham from 3 to 7 seat.

45:00 In Tokyo we went into the repecharge - this was a key moment.

You can put some mistakes to bed in a repecharge.

The 250-500m section of the race was scratchy. Rate 41 and really in our head 2nd was a good result behind the Dutch. We agreed to chat tonight.

It was a "schoolmaster moment". Our next time of the water before the Tokyo Olympic final we did 2 drills - in pairs doing feathered rowing to feel the boat work.

And slap catches - try to break the oar to tire out the shoulders make the crew more relaxed.

We practiced hitting 38 in our pieces.

We had re-iterated our rhythm,. We had to live or die by our rhythm.

50:00 In the final we called stride twice firstly fro 47 down to 42 and the cox Sam Bosworth called it 3 times in the final.

54:00 Sean Colgan told us that the best time to attack is when everyone else is buggered.

Tony did not watch the olympic Final but he managed to see the crew come across the line.

I don't watch rowing races.....

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

https://fastermastersrowing.com/register/podcast-supporter/

Timestamps

03:00 This past week. Regattas in New Zealand changing dates for Masters Champioships

06:00 What's in the September Faster Masters program? 3 separate training plans 1k, 5k and HOCR

11:00 Questions and answers

What's the best way to carry a single scull 1x?

Balance is critical - shoulder or waist and check the geography you have to navigate.

14:00 Racing 17 km and how to adjust 5km program?

Compare your race rate.

Number of sessions a week and choose your core sessions.

Do a 5k time trial on the water. Average split for Cat V intensity is likely 2-3 seconds per 500m slower for a longer race.

23:00 What is a dynamic recovery?

Rowing News has an article by Volker Nolte called Swing or Co-ordination of forces.

Advantageous to approach the change of direction with pressure on the feet. Co-ordinating forces so the foot stretcher is loaded.

29:00 Can drills have a negative effect if used with inexperienced rowers?

32:00 Different styles of rowing - should we be adaptable?

Coaches use different routes to accomplish change. Important to listen to what others say. How you row effectively depends on your body.

36:00 The Sequential versus the Simultaneous power phase in rowing. Leg and back drive phase.

Faster Masters Rowing Radio Planning your fall season - the podcast for masters rowers. Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe.

https://fastermastersrowing.com/register/podcast-supporter/

Timestamps

02:30 This Past Week - we had an article published on Ludum

https://ludum.com/blog/athlete-health-fitness/managing-your-training-in-masters-rowing/

06:00 Planning your fall season. First take the calendar and find the events you'd like to do. Select your peak event first - the big one. Your first race should be something local to where you live / train. You can row twice in one day and it should be low key and easy to travel to logistically.

14:00 Choosing your first race. The night before the race you may be nervous or excited. Practice sessions may be race simulations but they don't create this tension. Get your checklists sorted.

16:00 Spacing between races. Get 2-3 weeks between each race. Try to pick ones which dob't involve a lot of travel. Some people like to race the weekend before the peak event to kick off their training taper.

19:30 You can choose to race not at the peak event intensity e.g. rate limit your last race before the peak event.

23:00 How peaking works. The goal is to be fully rested before you race.

Super compensation is the principle of accumulated tiredness from a training period or block. The Taper period is reducing the volume of training. Maintain the frequency of training. The duration of sessions decreases over time. Your muscles start to recovery and replace muscle glycogen.

27:00 To tolerate pain you must be rested.

Lara is a pioneer of anatomy-based yoga. She lives in Princeton NJ, USA and has worked with rowers so she understands us!

Timestamps

01:00 What does LYT stand for? Lights You Up - be fully engaged.

02:00 Lara's background in yoga - a sporty athlete who recognised the mind-body connections after a dance injury. When she ran a marathon her mind gave up before her body.

05:30 My perception of yoga was meditation and stretching.

06:30 Anatomy based yoga. The investigation of the internal workings of our body, A big pillar is eduction - we aren't taught about our bodies.

16:00 Typical vinyasa sequences are lacking intelligence because we are carrying natural imbalances. I do a reset at the start of class - neuro-development patterns,.

12:30 Most people don't use their glutes enough. Retrain neutral pelvis and work the glutes. Stabilise the skeleton with proximal muscles - those closest to your skeleton.

14:00 Working with rowers. We use large muscle groups repetitively. If the underlying stabilisers aren't as strong there will be an imbalance.

20:00 Rowers learn with mimicry. The instruction is so clear you can inhabit and embody it.

21:00 How to be better? How we execute posture, alignment, hip hinge, stabilisation in a plank. Doing it properly. Find the inner hip hinge, plank and lunge. Non saggital plane movements e.g. lateral lunges - this retrains the body.

25:00 Video of Lara's yoga flow/instruction with US Olympic Rower Brooke.

https://vimeo.com/585518380/2b0ee80f06

Connect with Lara and take a 2 week free trial of her yoga method.

https://lytyoga.com/

Faster Masters Rowing Radio 18 August 2021 - the podcast for masters rowers. Tips, advice and discussion from Marlene Royle and Rebecca Caroe.

Support this podcast from $1

https://fastermastersrowing.com/register/podcast-supporter/

Timestamps

Launch of Head of the Charles training program - included in our subscription plans.

https://fastermastersrowing.com/join

04:00 This past week

2 articles about athletes and food.

https://www.rowingnews.com/2021/08/18/exercising-to-attain-a-perfect-body-a-futile-quest/

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/lockerroom/how-our-female-rowers-ate-more-and-triumphed

Nutrition and injuries are part of this month's August Faster Masters program

11.00 Assessing your Race Performance

Take notes about each race during the regatta.

What did you do very well? Set aside the results of the race.

Review process oriented things

16:30 What do I need to improve on?

Build these into your training practice. Emotional, physical and technical aspects of your race.

18:00 Analyse the controllables.

What challenges do you want for next season?

24:00 when reviewing don't make it personal. Take the self out of the analysis.

26:30 People do what you ask then to do when coaching self-talk is important.

How do you deal with different situations? e.g. a delay in the start

29:00 Look at the process. You did the race, you deserve the credit

Faster Five Racing Principles

https://fastermastersrowing.com/faster-five/

Special Guest Greg AKA "Mustang Chef" a sculler & chef - 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/register/podcast-supporter/

Timestamps

01:00 This Past Week

05:00 Introducing our special Guest - Greg Upshur the "Mustang Chef" a passionate rower and healthy eater with top advice and a special recipe for us

10:00 Garbanzo bean salad is light and easily digestible.

Racing and eating.

The day before don’t eat anything you haven’t tried before - tested and true for your own system.

Eat a little more than you think you should the day before. Your energy needs are high - eat for the preparation as well as the race.

Avoid “gunky” food - high fat, pizza, blood sludge will slow you down.

If you are eating in restaurants you are eating a lot of sodium.

Yvonne Gill was the kiwi chef who taught Greg.

14:00 Foods to help hydration if you don’t want to drink water all the time.

Clean carbs will load your muscles and hold water for you. Pastas, rice too.

16:00 What’s in the salad dressing? - tahini and balsamic vinegar blended.

Make a slurry with garlic, cucumber and red onions all chopped small and combined.

Add celery for crunch and water.

Adding herbs - fresh basil, flat leaf parsley and chives and one red chilli diced small.

Pickles and dried dill.

The tahini makes the salad a bit creamy as you mix the ingredients.

Lastly add the cooked garbanzo beans (chick peas).

Stir to combine with the other ingredients and to distribute the dressing throughout.

Eat as soon as you like!

20:00 what to eat on the race day. I like peanut butter toast on sourdough and one cup of coffee. I eat power bars before the race - I don’t eat much before the race. That is my normal breakfast on a training day. The same food as on a normal rowing day.

Energy food during the day - walnuts and dates; small boiled salted potatoes are also good for energy and include lots of potassium and magnesium.

24:00 Greg confesses to “tasting” the salad at every stage of the cooking!

He shows off his mustang too - with a custom number plate.

28:00 I found out about Marlene by reading Tip of the Blade… an old boy I met on the water recommended to read the Boys In The Boat.

Greg found someone who plagiarised Marlene’s article and told her about it. Which is how they got acquainted.

31:00 Greg eats this salad straight up - uses as a between meal snack too sometimes. This salad is a good vegan, plant-based diet food as well.

Greg’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/upshurenterprises

32:30 Take small steps to clean up your diets. Good fats to emphasise - Greg likes olive oil but also flax seed, coconut oils are also good - go with your taste preferences. He doesn’t use butter or lard.

35:00 Our tips for racing - you have to get out of it what you want to get out of it. When you watch a race, you shouldn’t judge. Come away with a race which you were happy with on the day is a great goal.

36:00 the beautiful thing about masters is you get to go out there and compete and set your own goals.

We are fortunate that we have a society where we can have these races where we can have some fun and talk some smack!

37:00 Marlene recommends a book Southerners Don’t Row - the author’s wife is a really good rower and it’s the most humorous book about learning to row!

43:00 Rebecca got coxed by Dani Harrison once - George Harrison's son.

44:00 Tom McNally from St John’s Newfoundland was trying to set an Atlantic crossing record in a cork sail boat - the smallest boat crossing. He was sponsored by Ringo Starr and the Beatles Museum.

How to Get Your Blades Off the Water - Faster Masters Rowing Radio - the podcast for masters rowers.

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Timestamps

03:00 This past week. As coaches we develop too - we change our understanding over time.

09:50 How to get your blades off the water.

What causes imbalance?

13:00 What blade skills you need to have

19:00 Get the set / balance on the follow through after taking the oars out of the water. By the time the oars are perpendicular, your boat should be set level.

21.00 Drills to teach you how to get your blades off the water

Teach how to feather first

https://fastermastersrowing.com/how-to-feather-correctly/

Teach how to feel the weight of the oar in your hand

Tapping drills and progressions to different body positions

Delayed feather drill

Set a high standard for drills

27:00 Do these drills slowly - this is key. Many athletes feather too quickly and lose connection to the boat.

31:00 Consistency - in a crew build up to more people rowing as you practice getting your blades off the water.

Look at your blades to see what they are doing compared to what you THINK you are doing.

35:00 Practice concentration.

38:00 An easy reference point - if your wrist bends you are too late tapping down. Pressure in the water helps the blade to come out of the water.

40:00 When you perfect the release, the boat speed goes up.

Faster5 bladework and troubleshooting balance on the recovery - 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 from $1

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Timestamps

05:00 This past week - Australia RowTrade magazine article, FISA survey about World Rowing Masters indoor championships and Racing Starts Challenge with US Rowing

15:00 Faster5 Bladework

Know when you are squared or feathered - do the basic well

Build this into your rhythm

Learning effective squaring and feathering - what works for you

Pay attention and slow down - row circles

20:00 As you age you can't train more hours per week.

You have to row better technically to gain speed.

Pick one thing - video yourself.

26:00 Troubleshooting balance on the recovery

1 - have body awareness

2 - scullers, nest your hands on the crossover. sweep each person responsible for your rigger

3 - Connection to the oarlocks

Do the testing and proving exercise

31:00 If you fall away from the rigger pulling the collar out of the oarlock.

Elbow position at the finish - sweep rowers point your elbow back

The follow through of recovery and rhythm

Troubleshooting steering - 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/register/podcast-supporter/

Timestamps

03:00 This Past Week - we have been watching a LOT of Olympic sports.

06:30 Listener survey results

11:00 Troubleshooting steering a rowing boat.

Why are you going off course? What's happening, why and how to fix it.

Steer off a point on the bank / horizon align with the your stern of the boat.

Equipment - is the fin straight?

To find out if it's the fin causing the issue - take a few big strokes and stop rowing with oars off the water and let the boat run.... watch to see if it glides straight or goes off in one direction.

16:00 How to correct your steering.

Leverage at the catch for pressure steering.

20:00 Boat checks for steering with a wire

Is your rudder and fin straight?

Is there tension on the wires

Have a steering shoe that fits

23:00 Steering straight off stake boat with a crosswind

29:00 Steering with an integral rudder and fin. And a canard fin / skeg reduces yaw.

31:00 The club annual steering course with theory and exam - appoint a foreperson for each boat.

Head Racing book by Carlos Zezza

https://amzn.to/3C4QBi4

35:00 How to help those who cannot turn around easily? Divide the jobs so one steers and one looks around and a third does the calls.

Plan your practices so new steers people learn how to steer - half crew rowing; boats side by side; leap frogging;

44:00 Feathering with wet handles - how to do this; essential skills for successfully handling wet scull grips. You feel like you're not in control when they are wet. Loose grip is key.