RowingChat: Jurgen Grobler biography authors, Hugh Matheson and Chris Dodd interviewed by Rebecca Caroe.

Timestamps to the show

01:00 Introduction and background in rowing

3:00 What attracted you to writing this book without Jurgen's collaboration?

07:00 Jurgen's one defining quality as a coach is thoroughness - how this shows and how Bob Janousek enabled its establishment in UK rowing.

13:00 Moving from East Germany to UK rowing system was difficult for Jurgen - why?

17:00 How Jurgen builds a squad of athletes over an Olympic cycle.

21:00 Building a squad where the athletes have the ambition to get into Jurgen's podium crews.  Train hard or drop out.

30:00 What other British coaches have learned form Jurgen Grobler's methods

49:00 Hugh Matheson - how do you feel about losing a possible Olympic Gold Medal in 1976 to a doping East German crew?

42:00 Leander club had fallen out with British Rowing and didn't ask the question about East German drug use

50:00 What trade offs is Jurgen willing to make that other coaches don't?

54:00 What are the flaws in the British Rowing system?

Julien Bahain is a former international who is vehemently anti Drugs in Sport, and in favour of allowing athletes more say in lane draws at WorldRowing regattas.

Timestamps to the show

1:00 Introduction and background in rowing

2:00 Falling in Love with Rowing

05:00 Comparing rowing with horse riding

08:00 The double scull is a complex boat comparing it to the quad

15:00 The only race we didn't perform well in 2012 was the Olympic regatta

17:00 If you only live for rowing it's a trap.  

21:00 Retirement was brutal.  Who am I now?

35:00 Comparing the French [dispersed] and the Canadian [centralised] rowing systems.

40:00 Our Rio performance was stolen.  I've never been so fit before.

43:00 My favourite boat manufacturer

47:00 Doping in sport. Rowing has values as well as results. I'm an advocate for jail and life bans.

54:00 The FISA Athletes Commission and the Lane Selection programme change we are lobbying for now.

RowingChat is sponsored by www.Healthiq.com/rowing intelligent life insurance for athletes - get a quote and support us.

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Timestamps to the interview with Eric Murray - half of the Kiwi Pair

1:00 Introduction and background in rowing

2:00 The 2004 Olympics when I made the final. Beijing 2008 we dead heated in the semi-final. We didn’t know how to replicate our 2007 success.

07:00 How Hamish and I decided to do the pair. I would have loved to see what we could have done against George Bridgwater and Nathan Twaddle

09:00 Hamish ad I are buddies - you have to have trust

11:00 I am optimistic, Hamish is pessimistic and perfectionist.

16:00 Have you ever lost it completely in a boat?

18:00 Who is your most influential coach? Chris Nilsson has a sense of boat feel, Noel Donaldson - we’ve had a great collaboration with him

21:00 Dan Plews physiologist worked with us. A rowing programme is a one-year experiment.

27:00 Being the new boy in the group. Respect your elders. There’s an element of fear

31:00 “Last man standing” 500m on and 250m off

34:00 How Dick Tonks will go in Canada

39:00 Strong leg drive - hanging under your armpits

40:00 Mental preparation - normal training will suck, so get used to it. Get rid of your superstitions. Be flexible.

42:00 How to get a better erg time - do more ergs. If you can train at 80% of your race speed consistently, you only have to increase it by 15-20% to hit race pace.

44:00 I didn’t keep a training diary but I have got a list of my 2k times over the years

45:00 You cna spend too much time on an erg. 90 minutes and your output reduces to survive.

46:00 Our average daily distance is 36-40 km

48:00 Do you do weight lifting? In 2010 we stopped. Before that we did lots. We did band work, plyometrics. Dick Tonks said we will go faster by being fitter rather than being stronger. We still did core work.

51:00 I’ve been lucky not to get badly injured

53:00 Why didn’t you go round in circles? Hamish pushed 350 watts in mid race, his power was more than I could product - but I could pull him round at the start and finish. So I had the steering and used it a bit. We were slightly out of tine in our power application. The stern fishtailed a bit.

57:00 How to get to the Olympics - ergs - be quick.

58:00 What do you do in a 2k when you think you’re dying? Breathe. Start on your target number and use rating to hit the number. Listen to the machine, am I rowing coherently?

61:00 Synek does short intensive workouts. What works for different people is different.

63:00 Transitioning out of sport. I worked before I rowed professionally. I now do sales for the Laszlo Boats team.

iCrew.club Software was developed by Kevin Goyena for use with his club, MBRSC.com where head coach Helen Tilghmann helped specify and improve it through active use.

Timestamps to the show

01:00 Introductions

05:00 Helen coaching skills as she transitioned from athlete to coach

08:00 Club structure at Mount Baker Crew - the white board with magnets for crew selection line-ups

12:00 The crisis of necessity - 35 minutes to get on the water

15:00 iCrew is a web system initially for practice lineups

21:00 Juniors we use iCrew to check attendance

23:00 Regatta and boat / oar allocation management

30:00 Kevin demonstrates iCrew from a rowers perspective including "My dates away" feature

34:00 Kevin demonstrates iCrew from a coach's perspective including erg scores and weight adjusted scores.

42:00 Regattas in iCrew allow multiple events and boat allocations on a single day plus integration to RegattaCentral for event timings. It calculates crew average ages.

49:00 Future enhancements include boat logging and on-water safety logs plus document signing for permissions and memberships.

54:00 Helen's research into core practices for good coaching - build relationships, social and emotional growth and achieving peak athletic performances. Ask a question instead of telling bad news.

Access one month free on iCrew software www.icrew.club

Full interview on https://www.rowperfect.co.uk/eira-parry-parenting-athletes-on-rowingchat/

Timestamps

01:00 HPP is for any parent of a child who rows

05:00 Top dos and don'ts for parenting sporting children.  Open communication with athlete and coach, Embrace making mistakes.  It's their game not yours.

07:00 Effective dialogue - protocols for communication

09:00 New group induction topics - use parents as allies in the support network

15:00 Sport / life balance - don't give up things because rowing has a high training load.  Periods of under-recovery are normal.  Morning monitoring.

19:00 The sporting journey should be fun for parents too.  Find out likely race outcomes and prepare your own emotions.

22:00 Nutrition for athletes - protein eaten regularly in meal and snacks - recovery snacks of carb + protein

26:00 What causes conflict in sport.  Selection decisions are hart to do transparently in rowing.  Empathise with your child, accept their disappointment.  Encourage then to ask the coach for feedback.

32:00 Can young people understand and learn from disappointments?  Are you going to be in sport for the long term?

37:00 Learn sporting heroes' journey stories

38:00 How can a coach make fair selections?  Have a policy readily available. Key events, how the event crews will be selected.  The coach has final say.

40:00 What is the difference between sport and an unfair situation?

44:00 Dispute resolution - allow both parties to be heard.  Redress or not?

48:00 Peer group friendships and racing up an agegroup

51:00 Workshops for parents, nutrition, sport life balance, psychology, how to talk to your child about sport, recovery snacks, supporting your child.

Rowing New Zealand athletes join us for RowingChat - Robbie Manson is World Record holder in Single Scull 1x, Michael Brake and Tom Murray have been in the 8 and Pair.

They talk about training, mental strength, the numbers they look at in the boat, what happens when you're injured and their coach, Noel Donaldson.

Rowing strength coaches Will Ruth and Joe Deleo discuss movement assessments for rowing. How can we evaluate an athlete’s movement and use that information in our coaching? We talk application to strength training and rowing training so that you can get the most out of your movement in the weight-room as well as on the water or erg.

This is episode #1 of a new podcast series. From here, we’ll discuss how we strengthen each area of a rower’s body to build a stronger, healthier, faster, better rower. Future episodes will include squat lifts, hinge lifts, core and total body power, and upper body.

https://www.rowperfect.co.uk/strength-coach-roundtable-11-movement-assessments-for-rowing/

Guest coaches Karen Calara and Caitlin McClain join the Roundtable for a discussion of how strength coaches, physical therapists, and rowing coaches can better support each other and work together to solve common rowing technical problems and ultimately build better, faster, healthier rowers. Tune in for specific advice for common technical problems of the stroke as well as general advice for the rower or coach who wants to begin incorporating strength training and physical therapy principles into their training.

Timestamps

01:00 CTL is a preventative service for athlete retirement

08:00 The genesis of CTL - addiction post sport to dopamine and seeking subsitutes

06:00 Do clubs see coach education as their responsibility?

11:00 The stigma of asking for help - a grief process of retirement when it's not your choice (injury or deselection)

14:00 CTL has articles and resources on transition - Headspace (mental), Careers (passion and purpose), Tools for Life (skills to repurpose)

20:00 Federations have a responsibility for athlete development

22:00 Everyone can benefit - start working with junior teams to learn the skills young

26:00 Conferences on mental health, career development with Greg Louganis (diver), Ben Johnson (sprinter), Kim Brennan (rower)

28:00 Greg's story - he was HIV Positive at Olympics and diving was a refuge for depression as well as battling his sexuality

32:00 How to handle depression - Mental Health First Aid Course

34:00 Symptoms of depression - withdrawing, distant from the group, performance declines.  Solutions depend on acuteness.

40:00 Drugs in rowing - we'd be naive to think rowing is immune

42:00 Ben Johnson's story - taking drugs at the Olympics.

46:00 Athletes make the choice to dope Joerg Jaksche ASADA video. What is good decision making?  

50:00 Whistleblowing on doping - sign the WADA code.  Reporting is an obligation.  Protect your right to a fair race.

52:00 Should doping bans be for life?

56:00 CTL Webinars and Drop-ins - monthly live chats.

Coach Tara Morgan of Seize the Oar Unified Rowing in Seattle WA joins the Strength Coach Roundtable for an in-depth discussion of strength training for adaptive rowers.