Holding your sculling handles properly allows for a better application of power and cleaner extraction at the finish. For good grip, place your thumbs around the ends of the handles with your fingers close to the end and knuckles slightly back from the leading edge. The only contact with the handle should come from your fingers and thumb, but not the palms of the hands. Think of how you hold a suitcase handle, suspending the weight in your cupped fingers without squeezing the handle or making contact with the palm. Watch that you are not attempting to reach too far by allowing the handle to slip out from the cup of your fingers and area under your knuckles. At first, you may need to lift your wrists to square the blades until you can roll them square with your fingers. Use your thumb to keep the handle in the cup of your fingers. As your arms draw to the release, your hands should push down to lift the blades from the water while your wrists drop for the feathering motion. Grip the handles hard enough to keep control of the blades, but not so hard that your forearms cramp. In choppy waters, the natural tendency is to hold on tightly. Resist the urge and keep it light.
Memberships Required
We all know that a gym membership is only as good as you make it. Personally, I have succumbed to a monthly membership in the hopes of getting “ripped,” losing weight, or becoming game-ready. But for one reason or another, after I sign up my feet rarely end up hitting the rubber of the cardio floor. And for those times when I do make it there, I spend too much time trying to figure out which piece of equipment to jump on and how to use it. Have you been there? If so, follow these tips and workout to make your gym time more productive.
Keep it Simple: We are easily distracted by the latest and greatest piece of fitness equipment or class. But if time is tight, stay true to what you know. Get in, get on, and get it done.
Prepped and Prepared: The night before gym day, jot down the prescribed workout on your phone and load up your favorite pump-up playlist. That way, there will be no wasted minutes of precious training time devoted to sorting out your soundtrack.
Ask for Help: Schedule an appointment with a trainer. Even if you only have time to meet once every couple months, working with a trainer will provide you with a routine you can follow in the gym or on your own. Plus, having them show you proper form will enhance results and prevent injury.
Mix it Up: A huge benefit of a gym membership is the variety of offerings available to keep you motivated. Forty-five minutes of cardio goes by fast when you divide it between the rower, treadmill, and elliptical.
The Workout:
Putting the below three disciplines together provides a full-body endurance workout that keeps the mind fresh. Throughout the 45 minutes, you will repeatedly raise and lower your heart rate—a fantastic way to burn calories and build your cardiovascular fitness.
Indoor Rower: Easy for 5 minutes at 22-24 strokes per minute; medium for 5 minutes at a 26; easy for 2 minutes at a 22-24; medium for 2 minutes at a 26; 1 minute hard at a 28-30.
Treadmill: Run or walk for 15 minutes total, going 2 minutes easy, 2 minutes medium, and 1 minute hard. Repeat three times. Note: You don’t have to adjust your speed to increase intensity. Don’t be afraid to add some incline too.
Bike/Elliptical: Go for 15 minutes, completing 4 sets of 2 minutes easy, 1 minute hard. Cool down during the last 3 minutes of the workout.
Crossing the Film Finish Line
For four years now, Adam Reist has been following women’s rowing at the high school, collegiate, and international levels. The veteran filmmaker has filmed his subjects’ wins, their losses, their countless hours of training. Now, after seeing them cross so many finish lines, Reist will cross his own when his documentary “Dare to Be” debuts later this spring.
“The biggest surprise was that pretty much nothing that I expected at the beginning happened,” he said, “but the overall theme of the movie is exactly what I wanted it to be.”
Reist was inspired to document women’s rowing after watching his daughter learn the sport and grow both physically and mentally. He sensed that rowing is unique, with some incredible stories to be told. Those stories include female rowers of all levels, from high school novices to women training to qualify for the 2016 Olympics.
An additional storyline in Reist’s film is the history of women’s rowing, which has experienced rapid success since Title IX was passed 45 years ago.
“As the focus became sharper, I saw how important that is to the story that’s being told today,” he said. “I added a history section to the film and talk about Title IX and the evolution of women’s rowing.
“I couldn’t believe that the sport is that young for women,” he added. “Women not much older than I am were enduring some tough stuff in college.” Of course, today the U.S. women have dominated the eight internationally for 11 years running.
Near the end of 2016, Reist wrapped up a director’s cut and began 2017 by polishing the final version. Although he is still in talks with film festivals, he plans to release his documentary through showings at individual boat clubs throughout the spring. He said he hopes people will watch it together and talk about what they take away from it.
“There’s a power to watching things as a group,” he said. “It leads to a way of discussion, a mutual kind of digestion of watching it. Having it in a group setting makes it a little more special.”
Dame Katherine Grainger
Rio Olympic silver medalist Katherine Grainger has been named a dame in this year’s British New Year’s Honor List. With five Olympic medals, Grainger is Great Britain’s most decorated female Olympian. This most recent honor recognizes her contributions to both sport and charity. Grainger is a board member of International Inspiration, a legacy initiative of London 2012; the British Olympic Association Athletes’ Commission; and London Youth Rowing, and has served as honorary patron or vice-patron of a several other charities. “This is an enormous honor and something I could never have imagined when I started my rowing career,” said Grainger.
FISA Turns 125
Rowing’s international governing body has a birthday coming up. On June 25, the Federation Internationale des Societies d’Aviron, also known as FISA, will celebrate the 125 mark. Founded in 1892—two years before rower and father of the modern Olympic movement Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee—FISA played a critical role in helping to standardize the sport, creating rules around international competition, instituting technical specifications for equipment, and dealing with the widespread corruption during rowing’s professional era. More recently, the governing body has focused on opening the sport to new audiences, including coastal rowers and para-athletes.
Go Row Indoor
British Rowing is aiming to double the number of indoor rowers in the already-mad rowing nation over the next five years. To aid in the effort, dubbed “Go Row Indoor,” they’re partnering with Concept2, who will serve as official performance rowing machine for the national federation. Other initiatives to raise indoor rowing’s profile in Great Britain include instructor training programs, the launch of online rowing leagues, and new class models for gyms and studios. “We look forward to working with British Rowing to achieve our goal of making the sport of rowing more accessible to everyone,” said Concept2 managing director Alex Dunne.
A Coach's Resolutions
We’ve all heard the statement, attributed to Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” All good coaches go through a period of reflection on what they did in the past year and think about doing something different. Even if you’ve had a good year, there’s always room for improvement. Doctor Rowing decided that this would be a good time to make some resolutions for 2017. Here they are:
Take more video. The time is long past when it was a nuisance to take video. The bulky camera and the battery that always seemed to be about to run out of juice have been replaced by our phone cameras or iPads. It doesn’t matter anymore if it is raining; it is so easy to slip said device under your jacket. It isn’t important to film a lot of strokes. Most rowers do the same thing in five strokes that they do over the course of a practice. I’ve always been well-intentioned about this, like I am about most of these resolutions, but I have not done it systematically enough in the past.
Show and watch more video. How often have I not carved out time to show my rowers this valuable teaching tool? Yes, it’s hard to come in off the water early in order to spend the time, and it always takes more time than it should—they ask questions, don’t they? There are some people who don’t seem to get much out of seeing video, but there are others who make gigantic leaps forward in technique after a video session. When I coached the U.S. lightweight women, we used to film all the seat racing and then leave the tapes where athletes could peruse them on their own time. They loved that. In some years, I have emailed video to kids. With today’s technology, it is easy to do a voiceover pointing things out.
Give a physiology talk. The hours in between practices at our preseason are perfect for a chalk talk where you can present the fundamentals of physiology and what each type of workout is designed to do. An athlete who knows what the advantages of low-intensity are work will be better equipped to do a good job. Knowledge is power. The USRowing coaching manual has a very good chapter from Kris Korzeniowski on this. Present it to your athletes.
Mentor younger coaches. There never seems to be enough time to sit down and explain things to your assistants. But they are incredibly valuable to your program. Make sure that they understand what you are looking for and why you teach what you do. It’s also very important to listen; you will learn from them, too.
Ride in the launch with someone from another program. I’ll admit that I used to do this a lot more frequently when I was younger. I learned an awful lot from observing other coaches, including how to treat athletes. There are a lot of things that need to be part of your coaching persona: patience, positive or negative feedback, intensity, humor, fun, scolding, technical instruction, understanding of differences stemming from different body types. You can learn a lot by watching.
Do more erg tests. This is probably my biggest weakness. I hate spending the time on land that is necessary for an erg test. There’s so much to do on the water, and my goal is always to get a boat to move faster. But people can learn from an erg test, too. It’s a good idea to schedule follow-up meetings with your athletes to go over the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Coach the coxswains. A former coxswain myself, I’m as guilty as anyone about not spending enough time with them. I do evaluations, asking the rowers to write out what they like about each ‘swain and what each one needs to improve in, and I follow up two weeks later asking if they have seen improvement. I’m pretty good about coaching them on the water, paying attention to their steering and their command of a crew. But there’s an awful lot to the job that needs to be discussed, and coxswain/coach lunches are worth their weight in gold.
Keep a better log. I start out with the best of intentions, as is true of all New Year’s resolutions, but sometime around week three I end up abandoning my secretarial role. My long-time assistant reminds me that I don’t really have to write them down. She will often say, “Tuesday after the first race, work on bringing the rating up. Right on schedule. You do this every year.” Although there is certainly an element of luck to that, it’s what needs to be done, and that’s why I’m always on it. But what exactly was that great steady state practice the day the kids were so tired? I wish I knew.
Enjoy being out on the water with great motivated kids. The one thing I always do and never need a reminder. What an awesome job I have!
Mountain Time
Climbing up to the birthplace of extreme skiing—New Hampshire’s Tuckerman’s Ravine—was my way of closing out 2016. Nestled in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, on the back side of the East’s largest and deadliest mountain, Mount Washington, the 2.4-mile ascent doesn’t let up until you reach the shelter, nicknamed HoJo’s, at the base of the ravine. It’s anywhere from a 90-minute to two-and-a-half-hour trek depending on weather, fitness, and mindset. My friend Seth and I were handed a tough, but magical New Year’s Eve day: 20 inches of new snow and a deadline from our wives to get up and down before the kids were done with breakfast.
Seth and I only saw a handful of adventurers along the way—some with smiles on their faces, all a bit beaten by the mountain. We made a few stops, but pushed through tough sections and numb hands motivated by what we hoped to see at the top. When we finally emerged above treeline the view of Tuckerman’s melted the cold, the pain, and the burn we had endured. Our time of one hour and 37 minutes wasn’t too bad either. After a quick change of gear, a few photos, and the two-mile powdery ski down, all I could think of was wanting to go back up again. This day also unexpectedly set me up for my winter training. It gave me the goal to make it to HoJo’s in one hour and 20 minutes and then ski Tuckerman’s ravine when I return this April. In order to do so, I will regularly be incorporating the below two workouts—one for strength, one for cardio—into my training.
The Workout:
Power Player
Repeating this circuit will build muscle endurance needed for repeated efforts such as in hiking and skiing. Add sets as you get stronger.
15 jump squats
30 mountain climbers
15 burpees with a push-up
15 tricep dips
20 single leg lunges (10 each side)
10 pull-ups
Cardio Crusher
The goal here is to build endurance and mimic the steeps and flatter sections of a climb.
Ten minutes of easy rowing and then go five minutes medium, five minutes hard. Recover for three minutes and repeat two to four times, envisioning summiting the mountain as you approach the midsection of the last piece.
