Broken Oars Podcast

The Northern One reads Ed Waugh's classic life of the north-eastern legend, Harry Clasper.    

It's been a quiet year for Broken Oars Podcast in podcast terms. While life happened, we only managed to interview the world's best sports physiologist, the world's best sports psychologist, the man who created the on / off test for EPO and ...     SIR MATTHEW PINSENT!     And yet, it's the End of the Island that's been nominated for best rowing podcast - probably because we didn't get 'round to nominating ourselves. Go on Fergus!      As we approach Christmas, we should understand that it can be a hard time of year for many (rowers). We get it. The summer regattas seem a long way away. The test regimen is currently brutal. The mileage is high. The weather and the water cold, and bow won't stop dragging their fxcking hands.   And in times like this it's always wise to remember the words of good St. Hodge.   And so with this in mind, the Northern One again reads The Night Before Christmas (for Rowers) - live from Kings.   Get some!

The Northern One releases an album of solo pieces perfect for meditating, journeying, breathwork, or just, you know ... listening to.     ‘Test Pieces features six pieces of music written for people and places I was missing during lockdown, recorded with those people and in those places once it was lifted.   Track Listing Charlotte the Brave and Larissa the Bold Flatpicker / Sam Bacon's Blues Resolution Cascade A Deep Sea Diver's Blues Stumpy and The Bear (Will You Not Come Back?) (©℗ A. I. Jackson 2024)   When I lived in Sheffield I got very interested in climbing, its artistry and ethics. A Test Piece is the title given to a climbing line that shows you where you are up to in your journey as a climber. Like a musical line, a climbing line is also an expression of the imagination and ability of the climber who first puts up the route. The lines in Test Pieces reflect my musical imagination and where I was in my life when they were written and recorded. Like a climb, each piece features a crux - this is usually the most difficult move, emotional moment, or technical challenge that connects the line. The album was recorded using climbing ethics: onsite, in one pass, with no rehearsal of moves ahead of time.   This made recording challenging, both the in situ parts and the final production where each piece is contextualised by moments of what was happening around the recording, and insights from people like Johnny Dawes on the links between creativity, performance and personality.   Released as the companion piece to Songs For Separation in November 2024, to find out more about Test Pieces writing, production and release go to Origin(al) Stories.   If you liked this album, tweet us, or bluesky us. For more information, go to www.thelandingstage.net

After a week away in the North Yorkshire Dales recuperating, your favourite Northen One returns with part three of this autumn's deep dive into art, paintings and songs about poo.   In this episode, we'll talk and learn all about how William Frith's work spawned a craze for 'representative' scenes of modern life, why the term post-modernism is adolescently arsy, pictures as 'texts' to be read, and the commercial possibilities that occur when the 'vulgar mob' (F.W. Fairholt) sees itself positively expressed in your work - which is why critics don't know what they're talking about, Oasis sold more than Blur, and the sound of the sixties wasn't Dylan but Helen Shapiro and Englebert Humperdinck.   We touch on Victorian hypocrisy by noting that all ages are caught between their public faces and private actions, point out that all children are legitimate, mention Harry Clasper again, and come to the birth of the cities that still inform our view of Britain.   And Mancunian exhibitionism.   There's no exhibitionist like a Mancunian exhibitionist.   Look up Frith's The Railway Station (1862), Many Happy Returns of The Day (1856), and For Better, For Worse (1880), George Elgar Hicks' The General Post Office, One Minute To Six (1860), and William Logsdail's The Bank and the Royal Exchange (1887).   Take notes.    And buy us a coffee.

It's your favorite Northern One, coming back with episode two of our deep dive into how artistic representation began to change and why.   In this episode, we sing songs about badgers; and the Northern One goes back to the early Victorian period to look at how the invention of the daguerreotype triggered an artistic revolution: when artists no longer had to strive for photorealism (because a photograph could be taken), they began to move from representing the rich and powerful to capturing and intensifying the world around them. For the first time, plebs appeared in art! And hookers! And pickpockets! And poor people!   To follow along, please look up Edward Frith's Ramsgate Sands and Derby Darby day; Cruikshank's London Comes to Town; and Rodgers, Hammerstein, Hart, Gilbert and Sullivan's celebrated South Sea Badgers musical.   Fact.   Buy us a coffee - and we'll stop doing this stuff.   Maybe.

In our continued effort to bring you, the BrokenOars viewer and listener, valued information, the Southern on has spent the last five weeks mildly toxifying himself in pursuit of a faster ergo score. There are numerous substances that promise a legal method to greater performance and in this video takes a wonder through a few of them and examines one rower's experience of trying them out. But not creatine, that stuff is filth. Better watched than listened to this one I am afraid. But give it a go. https://youtu.be/eiL5tYGEdHc

Hullo,   Can't sleep?   Me neither.   The Northern One returns with a follow-up to last year's Summer Shorts series. Inspired by a chat with a medical friend about the advances in technology in their career, your favourite Northern Monkey takes a spin through representative art, and representation in art, and how it evolved in the nineteenth century in response to the new.   Starting off with one of the nation's favourite paintings, Turner's The Fighting Temeraire, he reclaims it for all Northern Monkeys.   Like this pod? Stand us a coffee.   x

Did you miss us? Of course you did!   We're back with Robin Parisotto, the scientist behind the on / off EPO test to discuss the history of doping in sport, why testing regimens are set up to show there is a testing regimen rather than to create clean sports, and why clean sport will never happen in the current systems.   Apart from British rowers.   We're clean.   Get some!   Bowside? Do some work. Strokeside are fixing their mascara. Again.

After the glory and the dream that was our crowing achievement (talking to Sir Matthew Pinsent), Aaron and Lewin return in typical Broken Oars fashion.   That's right.   We watch Olympic races and talk about them as they're happening and then post the episode after the Olympics has finished, but before the Para Games begins.   Oh, and it looks like Podbean took all of our episodes down and dumped them back on the stream so it looks like we were really busy on the 9th August. Apologies, but look at all of the goodness you've missed in the last four years!

Ladies and Gentlemen,   Knight of the Realm, Four-time Olympic Champion, ten-time World Champion, Boat Race Winner, Henley Winner, greatest stroke of his generation, Henley Steward, Henley Umpire, Boat Race Umpire, BBC Investigative Journalist, Documentary maker, passionate advocate for sport, the reason The Northern One started rowing and The Southern One has such a fierce 2k pb ...   Sir Matthew Pinsent.   Our work here is done.   (Mic drop).

Order a copy of 'The Mystery of the Cambridge Bow' - an original Broken Oars Sherlock Holmes adventure written to celebrate the Oxford / Cambridge Boat Race:   https://www.lulu.com/shop/ai-jackson/the-mystery-of-the-cambridge-bow/paperback/product-m222pkn.html?q=the+mystery+of+the+cambridge+bow&page=1&pageSize=4   -----   We return!   We return in time for WEHORR (what's left of it); the Boat Race; and a summer regatta season just around the corner with the perfect episode ...   Why?   Because we return with Lucy Denyer - whose Telegraph article on returning to rowing at York recently went viral. Extolling, as it does, the reasons why we row, the joy of moving a boat through flat water and still air (and occasionally in the UK through lumpy water and air that's basically an upright sea with slits in it), and the importance of exercise, community and just getting out there and getting on with it ... ?   Well, we just had to sit down and have a chat.   So join as Lucy takes us through her early rowing experiences on Tyne, the Tyne, the mucky Tyne the Queen of all the rivers with NUBC; and her subsequent shift into life, and an American sojourn that led to a career in journalism that culiminated in an editorial role at The Telegraph (one of the few broadsheets to cover rowing, tbf). Staying active all the while, while dealing with the things all rowers deal with when life starts getting in the way of rowing (work, marriage, children, moving around for career), Lucy talks about her decision to come back; going freelance; rowing and identity; getting on the water again at York (we've all binned a single, right? Right?!?!); and rowing on a river that Lewin I once charged down for Agecroft, complaining that for somewhere that floods everytime it rains it's a very narrow river for an eight to steer down, and the fun she's had since.   And then AI generates some totally random pictures of our interview that gives Lewin and I abs again ...   And it's out in time for the drive to WEHORR, the weekend's events, and the drive to the boathouse tomorrow?   We're too good to you!   Get some!   -----    

The world's greatest rowing podcast makes a further claim to be regarded as the world's best sporting podcast by returning with yet another world-class practitioner.   Honestly, how many have we had now?   Hundreds. If not thousands. Hodge. Eric. Sally. Drew. Jack. Jezz. Pete ... the lists are long, the tapestry of episodes and insights vast, colourful and eye-catching.   And following on from Professor Andy Jones, the beetroot guy, we're back with Professor Andy Lane.   A competitive boxer and athlete who transitioned into sports psychology, Andy has been a leading-edge academic and practitioner for over two decades - a man whose work with athletes, academics, and programmes has identified the mental strategies all athletes develop on their journey through their sporting careers and refined how they can be developed, implemented and used by all of us at any stage.   We talk about Andy's own trajectory - his life as a competitive athlete, continued competitive nature, his academic career, work with outlets like the BBC and luminaries like Michael Johnson and James Cracknell, and deep dive into concepts like associate / disassociative training strategies, visualisation, pros and cons of music as a training stimulus, when too much data is too much data, the powers of false positives, the necessity of ownership of process, journey, engagement and outcomes ... and the automation of the sports psychology process.   It's basically your one-stop stop for everything you'll ever need to develop mental strength as an intrinsic part of your physical training programme.   A fascinating and wide-ranging chat with one of the best in the business? Get some!   -----   Enjoyed this episode?   To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.   This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd

Your favourite comedy duo, and quite possibly the best commentators rowing has ever had on and about the sport of rowing return!   In this episode, following the Southern One's three weeks of constant bugs and the Northern One's ongoing Long Covid we talk about getting back into exercise after illness and injury - and no, it isn't what we used to do: grade two muscle tear? Should be fine tomorrow then? Two weeks in bed with D and V? Shouldn't affect my 2k too much tomorrow.   Being an athlete is a weird thing. For a start, it's an identity - which means when we can't do the thing that defines us, it upsets us and leads us to do crazy things (like not appropriately recover from illnesses and injuries properly). Part of what makes us an athlete - the learned ability to push into pain and in doing so extend our limitations - is the very thing that makes us a danger to ourselves when we've been, as they say in the North, a bit crook.   We talk about graduated returns to training and racing; point out the many times we've failed to follow our own advice; and then skip merrily on to the reality that since Covid participation numbers in sport and exercise, and in rowing, are down. We talk about time, snobbery (not what you think), and ... whisper it ... that doing other sports might just be an option.   Get Some! -----   Enjoyed this episode?   To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.   This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd

We're back once again, the renegade masters ...   Southern One: You've done that one.   Here we are, the world's greatest rowing podcast, returning once again ...   Southern One: You've done that one too.   Northern One: You do realise that I write all the blurbs?   Southern One: I do. And a fine job you make of it too.   Northern One: And you do realise that we're over one hundred episodes deep now.   Southern One: I do. And that's why we're the world's greatest rowing podcast. Including Martin Cross.   Northern One: And you do know that people tune into us because they expect a certain level of insight, wit, humour ... dare I say diablerie.   Southern One: You can say it, but I bet you can't spell it.   Northern One: I can say it and spell it. Which is why I do the blurbs. Big words and schtick. And amazing guests. The very best guests in the world. Bar none.   Southern One: Like this one.   Northern One: Yeah. Another world-class guest. On Broken Oars. How do we get them?   Southern One: Because we're a place of insight, intelligence, keen lines of questioning, wit, humour and a certain lightness of touch ...   Northern One: Or they don't listen to us first, don't look us up and by the time the red light's on it's too late for them to get out of it?   Southern One: Well, there is that.   Northern One: And you do know that repetition is the hallmark of good prose; key to a marketing strategy; and also good comedy ...   Southern One: I find you hilarious ...   Northern One: Why, thank you ...   And so we're back, once again, the world's greatest rowing podcast, and we're back for 2024 with a world-class guest. There've been so many of them that you kind of take it for granted now, don't you? Well, you shouldn't. We might have outdone ourselves this time.   Because we're talking to Professor Andy Jones.   For those who don't know, well, you should.   Andrew M Jones is Professor of Applied Physiology in the Department of Sport and Health Sciences. Andy is internationally recognized for his research in the following areas: 1) control of, and limitations to, skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism; 2) causes of exercise intolerance in health and disease; 3) respiratory physiology, particularly the kinetics of pulmonary gas exchange and ventilation during and following exercise; and 4) sports performance physiology and nutrition, particularly in relation to endurance athletics.    And if that sounds like we've pulled it of Exeter's website, well, we have - but you should know this stuff because if you're into sport, and you're into training properly, and you're still alive and you've been and done any of those things in the last two decades ... the way you train, the way you race and what you do?   That's down to Andy's work.   Southern One: Just tell them that we've got the beetroot guy ...   Northern One: I'm getting to that ...   In other words, we've got the beetroot guy. Andy's work on how dietary nitrate reduces resting blood pressure (eating beetroot), and therefore impacting positively on cardiovascular health and performance is not just robust, but world-leading. He's the man, basically, who actually found a superfood that worked.    And boy does it work - but tied to what is world-leading (the REF results say so, as do the performance metrics and outcomes in the real world) research is also Andy's long history working in muscle energetics, fatigue and respiratory physiology with some of the world's leading athletes and high performance programmes.    And we've got him.   So join us for the only conversation you'll ever need about training and nutrition and recovery with the only person you'll ever need to hear talking about it!   Get some!   -----   Enjoyed this episode?   To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.   This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd

  At this time of year, when the summer regattas seem a long time away, the days short, the nights cold and the miles long, it's always good to remember the wise words of St. Hodge.   And so with this in mind, the Northern One reads The Night Before Christmas (for Rowers) - live from Kings (shortly before the carol singers arrived and had him arrested). 

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.   This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   You didn't ask for it, so here it is ... The Broken Oars Podcast Christmas Special - Part Two!   Where's Part One, we hear you ask?   Well, it's on its way. But in the meantime, come join as we do Christmassy stuff!   That's right, Broken Oars Podcast discusses all things Christmas, including:   Title Nine, Trans, grown men breaking girls knees playing football, 'fessing up to our rare mistakes when it comes to who won what and where, and then going on to the year in review: who won what and where ... ? Why? Why watching Drew Ginn and Duncan do a practice 2k piece was so magical it caused one of us to retire from rowing; the brilliance of the Men's Four Final in 2012 (again), and our favourite race of the year - hint, they happened at Henley - reliving Clare's Court vs. Redwood Scullers; our favourite guest (you're all our favouite guests, btw); the winner of the inaugural James Widmer award for the podcast most likely to make you fall asleep on a motorway (Step forward, James Widmer); the healthy state of club representation in the UK; guests we'd like to talk to next year and our usual ... whither rowing ... ? convo.   Christmas, innit!     Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Instagram: www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Website: www.thelandingstage.net

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.   This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   Welcome back to Broken Oars podcast - the world's leading rowing podcast and self-publicists.   Today we're joined by Alfred Campenaerts, CEO of Salty Lemon Entertainment, creators of the EXR rowing app.   For those who don't know, EXR is the world's leading multi-platform rowing and training virtual arena - a place where you can, on any rowing machine, choose to row down the Henley Reach, take on the Head of the Charles course, or sprint across Lake Bled - whether by yourself, with your crewmates or against others in the virtual world.   We've tried it, and we're both converts. It's an intuitive, encompassing experience supported by training logs and programmes that's are easy to use, fun and immersive.   Alfred takes us through the genesis and evolution of EXR and explains the rationale behind EXR - wanting to make people row more together. Being Broken Oars we ask why Belgium - a flat country with lots of rivers tends to produce cyclists rather than rowers (culture, apparently ... ), before deep diving into why EXR is the leading app for rowers, indoor rowers and gym-goers who want to expand their training experience, get fit and have fun doing it.   Being tech nerds (well, the Southern One is. He's designed a widget, you know ... ) we talk about the difficulties of synching up the power output measurements of the world's varied rowing machines to the virtual representations of your stroke (power meters, PM5's, cables and bluetooth interruptions ... ), and look at where EXR might go next given it's an app that appears designed for clubs and crews who want to train on the water they'll be competing on - whether that's Head of the River, Henley or the latest Olympic or World Championships course.   This leads us into a chat about things as varied as real time stroke rate readouts for boats you compete against in EXR, special Henley Week maps, the ability to compete in real time against boats on the Henley reach as the events unfold, crew races, seat racing matrices ... and the elephant in the room: making sure that cheats can't 'game the game' by dropping their weight to take advantage of weight-adjusted split outputs.   And oh yeah, we've said the best to last:   With Christmas coming, and land training ramping up even as we start thinking about New Year Resolutions we've wangled a discount for anyone wanting to give the app a spin. Trust us, it's as easy as logging in and sitting on your rowing machine. So give it a go, go to EXR and use the code BROKENOARS for 10% off your subscription.   Full crew, from backstops. Get some!   ----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Instagram: www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Website: www.thelandingstage.net

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.   This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   We are joined on Broken Oars Podcast by Xeno Muller.   Olympic Single Sculls Champion at Atlanta in 1996 in one of the all-time great Olympic finals and finishes, Xeno was also an Olympic Silver Medallist in 2000 and a multiple medallist at rowing's world championships in the single sculls discipline.    Xeno has gone on to be one of the world's most successful high-performance coaches, working on a one-to-one basis with individual rowers to help them fulfil their goals and ambitions through his www.elite-rowing-coach.com platform.   In this fascinating and inspiring conversation, Xeno touches on the ways that modern coaching can coach the passion and joy out of rowers, qualities which he sees, rightly, as being intrinsic to life and going fast.   Talking about keeping the passion and joy by staying curious and being open to learning, Xeno identifies the value of simplicity, of everything in rowing and life flowing from getting the fundamentals right; the vital importance of breathing; how what your bows are doing tell you what you are doing; and why Mahon, Spracklen et al had it right in the first place.   And why you should use the mirror in your erg room - every single stroke.   This is one of the most important and inspiring conversations we've ever had with one of the true originals, deep-thinkers and passionately engaged people we've ever met - in or out of rowing.   Bow Four? This is one to take notes from.   Get some!   -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Instagram: www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Website: www.thelandingstage.net

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to:    https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page. This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   Welcome back, dear listeners, to the world's greatest podcast about the art, practice and lifestyle that is pushing a boat backwards down a river.   Today, author Gavin Jamieson joins your genial hosts of the Northern One and the Southern One to talk about his fantastic new book 'Water's Gleaming Gold' - a biography and celebration of the life of Hugh 'Jumbo' Edwards.   This is not just one of rowing's great untold stories - Jumbo was a Boat Race winner, Henley winner, Olympic champion and one of the great rowing thinkers and coaches through one of the golden ages of British Rowing - but a story of a rich and full life rich and fully lived.     We explore the reasons that led Gavin to research and tell Jumbo's story and the world and lives he uncovered on that journey and brought into the light. We talk about British rowing in the 1920's and 1930's, back when it was one of the sports the nation stopped for; look at the challenges Jumbo faced; and talk about how he not only met and overcame them, but rose to become the greatest British oarsman of his generation, and with it, the world's greatest.   It's a fantastic chat with a fantastic guest about a fantastic chapter in rowing history.   Listen to it, and then go and buy the book. We've managed to wangle you a discount!   To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to:   https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb   This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    And Christmas is coming? All eight, what are you waiting for?   ------   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net  

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to:    https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page. This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Thank You!   -----   We return as swallows to the eaves of your ears to build our muddy nests in your auditory canal, right next to your tympanic membrane with another episode of what most rowers call ..   Who are they?   The swallow metaphor works, so we're keeping it, based as it is on the similarities between birds of the family Hirundinidae returning as spring does and us getting a podcast out on a bi-weekly schedule.   In this episode, we launch the Broken Oars Podcast Widget - an interactive device which, if you input your training data, will help you to track your effort and predict your likely power outputs for a given time, distance or session. Designed by the Southern One, who knows science, it's an accurate training tool for those who like their darta - which is pretty much every rower and coach out there.   The Broken Oars Podcast Widget is part of our latest drive to add value to your support of Broken Oars Podcast, coming as it does hot on the heels of the Broken Oars Training Plans.   We love that you listen to our podcast (our podcast is your podcast. You row, we row, we all row together); and we really appreciate that you've responded to our asking for the odd donation to help cover our running costs. We aren't Wikipedia - we're more accurate than that - and we don't make any money from Broken Oars - and your help and support helps us keep it going. We just thought that we'd give you something alongside the podcast in return for your support, and we have a chat about how to use your new widget.   This led us onto a brief discussion of Broken Oars Podcast - a section that might be labelled the 'whither Broken Oars Podcast' bit. The Northern One and the Southern One started this for something to do during lockdown, and it's become a bit of a going concern. We've got to meet some of our heroes and heroines, been inspired, learned an awful lot, pissed off bikey twitter, and love that talking about something we love has brought us in contact with people who love it too.   And then we get on to a discussion of what 'talent' actually is.   This was sparked by a recent debate on Twitter about what talent might be; what meaning the cultural freighting of the word has given it; and how we interpret it in different contexts.   The Northern One and the Southern One thought that we should definitely end our friendship over this chestnut, given one of us is a Humanities Grad and the other a Science Grad. So, we get into it. The Northern One talks about internalised learning, cultural meanings and baggage, opportunity and pathways; and the Southern One talks about genetics and genes and predispositions and variation ...   ... and we come to the surprising conclusion that what appeared diametrically opposed positions actually share a lot of overlap, and that the discussion of talent often means different things to different people and groups, but what it actually manifests as is as something that we recognise when we see it in others, and which inspires us in ourselves.   Get some!   Stern four. Look at bow pair. That's talent!   ------   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net  

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to:    https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page. This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Thank You!   -----   We return with another episode that looks like it might have been hand-tooled for the start of the new season - precisely because it has been.   Great changes are afoot in the Broken Oars world. Not content with being the world's best rowing podcast (Crossy aside), the Southern One (Lewin) and the Northern One (Aaron) would like to spread their wings. We'd like to carry on with the Broken Oars Podcast as you know and love it: wit, charm, irreverent asides, profound points, amazing guests - quite simply the best, funniest, most informative and pertinent podcast about the art, craft and life that is shoving a boat backwards down a river (they said, modestly).   But if you've listened to us before, you'll know that for all of their badinage, your genial hosts are men of wide-ranging interests. You've already heard the Northern One claim the guitar hero for Newcastle, for example; and you've heard the Southern talk about genetics and millimoles with the elan and insight of a qualified scientist - because he is.   As we move into our third year of podcasting, we're really keen to add on new elements: deeper dives into deeper subjects, adding to our fantastic guests with more fantastic guests to add the expertise in their field, and so on.    And so, we return to Broken Oars University for a conversational chat about getting old; not wanting to do something you love badly; the psychology behind that (which is the psychology of why rowers row, really); how we now feel about racing, having always loved it; whether we'll still do it; male TRT; PED's and the nonsense that are the Enhanced Games. We look at what the Enhanced Games thinks it means vs. what it actually means; talk about what TRT as a cultural phenomenon means for rowing at all levels; male menopause; and what winning becomes if it's only something that happens to those who get the medals.   Class is in!   Get some!   -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Thank You!   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to:    https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page. This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Thank You!   -----   Welcome back to Broken Oars Podcast, the world's best rowing podcast.    In this episode, to celebrate the start of the new season, the Southern One and the Northern One take a deep dive into coaching and coaches.  With that new season stretching ahead of us like a book full of chapters waiting to be written, with plans to be made, schedules to be agreed, and training and racing getting back to full swing, we get deep and philosophical on what a coach actually is; where a coach's responsibilities begin and end and the role of a coach within the club.    We look at the legals, the morals, the ethicals, as well as the technical and organisational requirements of coaching, and explore what makes a good coach.   Drawing on our experiences with various coaches and various clubs, we look at how good coaches organise, delegate and educate, aligning a club / coach's ambitions to a club / coach's resources, and ask the question: what should a rower / crew / squad / club expect from their coach, and what should a coach expect from their rower / crew / squad / club?  We look at the degree to which a coach is responsible for training plans, workloads and race schedules; how coaches select crews, and what crews should expect from their coach in terms of input and selection; and the thorny question of taking on responsibility for your own development and outcomes.   Exploring ideas around coaches having favourites and why they do, as well as looking at what happens when their favourites stop performing at the required level, we talk through the issue of whether a coach is responsible for setting the tone of a club's culture, and if a coach has responsibilities towards their rower / crew / squad / club ... what are the rower / crew / squad / club's responsibilities towards themselves and their coach?   Yeah.    There's a reason why we're the world's greatest rowing podcast.    No.    We don't know what it is either.    Get some!  -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Thank You!   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to:    https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page. This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Thank You!   -----   The world's greatest rowing podcast returns - and it couldn't be more timely.   As some of us head back to school (quite literally) and all of us head back to the water at the start of the new rowing season we are joined by Dr. Michael Cannon to talk about the impact on rowers, rowing and rowing clubs of balancing resources against ambitions.   (Right at the start of the season?   When every club in the land is setting its season goals and agenda?   Thank you, Broken Oars and Dr. Cannon! You're the best.   Yes.   Yes, we are).   Beginning rowing while at The University of Durham, Dr. Cannon went on to row, coach, and captain, helping out at college and university level before going on to teach and coach at schools level before moving on to row at and for Staines, Eton Excelsior, Maidenhead and Vesta.   One of nature's natural organisers and administrators, Michael's journey through the sport has taken in the side of the sport without which we wouldn't have a sport: the running and administering and organising of clubs, squads, boats, fleets, heads and regattas.   And while this all might sound about as fun as watching paint dry, not only wouldn't we have a sport without the Dr. Cannons of this world, but it (and a quick look at the books on offer at Companies House) raised the question:   What happens when clubs start raising their ambition levels above the levels of their resources? (Or to put it more bluntly, what is UK rowing's current obsession with making Henley Royal Regatta costing clubs?) We talk about the costs of running and maintaining clubs, membership levels and running a fleet. We discuss the perception of what a 'club' is supposed to provide and offer to its members, talk about how some clubs have gamed that and the current system to provide 'successful' programmes, look at what 'success' might mean, and what that means for the UK-wide representation within the sport. And we look at the impact of 'professionalism' on a volunteer-run and led sport, before addressing the realities of member turnover in metropolitan areas, and how cost-of-living / housing / work changes over time has impacted the sport as a whole.   Yeah.   We are the original and best.   But that's because our guests are.   Get some!   Bow Four! Provide a sunk-cost analysis by the end of this piece, or swim home.   -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Thank You!   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to:    https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page. This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!    -----   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd   Thank You!   -----   Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to Broken Oars Podcast!   It's often been said, usually by us, that Broken Oars Podcast is the home of world-class rowing and rowers on the web ...   ... and we prove it yet again in this episode as we are joined by the one, the only, the incredible ...   Elizabeth Gilmore.   For those of you have been living under a rock, Eli is the world-class rowing athlete who has been tearing up the record book since starting in the sport barely two years ago.    Eli joins us for a chat about her sporting background, how she got into indoor rowing, and her transition to the water.   Hardly covering ourselves with interviewing technique glory, Lewin and I basically fanboy gush over an incredible person and athlete who had smashed several world records immediately before our conversation. We explore the vital importance of good and supportive coaching in Eli's journey, the pressures young athletes face regarding body image, weight and performance, and look at where Eli's rowing journey might take her next (we suggested Henley Royal and Henley Women's, but that's just us ...).   We've always been blessed with amazing guests on Broken Oars Podcast, but that's largely because we talk to rowers ... who are, basically, amazing people.   And Eli is one of us.   Just considerably faster than most of us.   Get some!   ------   Enjoyed this episode?   Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd.   Thank You!   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/   Read more Broken Oars Podcast: www.thelandingstage.net  

Two of the Big Beasts of the Sub 7 Indoor Rowing Club sit down with us for a good old Trans-Atlantic chinwag, about Indoor Rowing, Type II fun, Long Covid, the C2 Cross Team Challenge, trying (and failing) to bring others into the sport and why belonging to and indoor rowing club is good fun. Albeit Type II fun.  

Your genial hosts, Lewin (Southern, posh) and Aaron (Northern, illiterate) returns as warriors of old who have journeyed beyond the circle of firelight to gain the knowledge that men know not wot of and return with it for the general benefit and edification of the tribe ...   ... and lo, the tribe turned around and said:   Where the hell have you two been? You've slid out of doing the washing-up again, we see ... ?   But we return with the secret that men ...   ... and women ...   ... and women, that men and women know not wot of and we ...   That's all very well, but no-one's done the floors, and there's nothing in the fridge for tea ...   ... but we return with the secret that men ...   ... and women ...   ... that men and women know not wot of, and ...   Shush. Henley's on.   Ah.   Yes, we return just in time for Henley's weeks.   It's like we've got access to calendars and watches and diaries and the internet and stuff.   So, in this episode there is:   No poetry!   No dead authors!   A couple of living ones ...   And a brief discussion of killer hayfever; people trying to outfox the strict liability rule, the death of wonder in sports, the joy, absolute joy of small regattas, the wonder of Hexham (where Lewin asks why our Victorian forebears decided to take representative slices of Surrey and the better bits of the Upper Thames Valley and put them as Southern embassies in the North in the case of Durham and Hexham); racing while gypsies wash horses in the river next to you; Appleby; why the correct number of boats, horses and guitars is always 'one more ...'; and why Women's Henley could now be considered as 'proper' Henley now that Henley Royal has become a superslick paean to elite athletes and clubs ... But because it's us, we don't leave it there, diving into the cyclical nature of success; the art of commentary (and why we both want to do more of it); why stockpiling elite athletes in HP programmes (Hi, OB ...) like America and Russia stockpiled Nazi scientists after WW2 does not lead to global armageddon but does cut down on the pathways to rowing at Uni that many of our best and brightest and stalwartest came through ... before we do something amazing:   We invent a whole new regatta.   And it's the regatta you've always wanted to do.   Simply the world's best rowing podcast, bar none (We reckon we can take Crossy now ... (Oh, who are we kidding. He could still have us over the time and distance ... )), we run this on nothing more than wit, spit and elan, so buy us a coffee. We don't charge for this podcast, but it does take us some time and effort to produce, edit, resource and so on so the odd hot cuppa and biscuits wouldn't go amiss!   Get some!   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/ So, bow, you tell me that you have rhythm? And you also have music? And yet you still dare to ask for anything more ... ?

This is the audio version of the video we put up on YT some months ago about how to go about and what to look for in the purchasing of rowing coaching.  The Posh Southern One looks at - Why you should and shouldn't buy coaching. The Pete Plan The Concept 2 Interactive Training Guide RowAlong with John Steventon Dark Horse Rowing, YouTube Asensei Rowing What types of coaching and programming you can purchase. https://www.rojabo.com/ https://www.live2rowstudios.com/ https://ucanrow2.com/ https://www.aliciarclark.com/ https://tonylarkman.com/indoor-rowing/ https://edgerowing.com/ https://fletchersportscience.com/ https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/about-us/faculties-schools-and-departments/faculty-of-science-engineering-and-social-sciences/sportslab/services-for-teams-and-individuals https://www.erg.zone/ What your initial interaction with a coach should be like, and the basics of managing the coach athlete relationship.

Having previously examined the science informing the debate around Trans inclusion in Women's categories in sport, Broken Oars Podcast returns with an updated look at what remains fast-moving, ongoing and highly-contentious issue.   During a recent conversation, Lewin and I turned again to discuss what had happened since our first discussion of these issues, particularly with regards to highly-contentious issue of natal-men being allowed to compete against natal-women in sport; the pressures faced by NGB's to promote a sport-for-all approach in the face of quite incendiary activism on the Trans side and pushback on the women's side; and the questions of fairness and inclusivity that must be at the heart of every discussion.   Upon reviewing our intiial conversation, we decided that, on occasion, we had been too flippant about what is a serious subject. You will know, as regular listeners, that we take very little seriously, including ourselves, and treat everyone as fair game, including ourselves.   On this occasion, however, we realised that given how inflammatory some of the rhetoric, language, case-making and arguments have been in the discussion to date, what was needed was a sober look at the facts and realities of Trans biology, inclusion, and the current policies of rowing's regulatory bodies - and what they mean for the current state of play.   So here it is ...   Full Crew. From backstops. The first movement is down and it doesn't have to be fast. You aren't grabbing the last sausage roll at the party. Attention ...

Welcome back one and all to Broken Oars Podcast - the Rowing World's best and most informative podcast (bar Crossy's Corner - we'll hear no bad words about that man. He's a legend).   As you know, while the Southern One finishes up a professional qualification the Northern One has been taking his brain out for a spin to talk about poets and poetry.   (Yes, it does sound remarkably like listening to paint drying, doesn't it ... ?)   But fear not, this is the Northern One - a man incapable of uttering a snooze-inducing sentence, finding a subject he can't make a quip or point about, or being boring generally. And it is in that capacity that he's created the perfect series for people to dip into while the nights are long, the air balmy, and the weather perfect for sitting out in the garden and doing some culture.   Yeah.   Cultchah! Having whistle-stopped through Thomas Hardy and A.E Housman, detoured into how a Brian called Geordie (should that sentence be the other way 'round ... ? Ed) is to blame for guitar heroes and all of their widdle, and then leapt back to look at Charles Dickens ... a theme is emerging ...   That's right:   How did we get here from there.   Or to put it more simply, why Britain today is largely the same as Britain then?   (Isn't this fun? We're learning all about caesuras and enjambments and what happened when and where and to who and asking cool questions! Who said no, when's the rowing stuff coming ... ?).   In this episode we engage with one of the most problematic writers in the canon: Rudyard Kipling.   An Anglo-Indian, with a deep apprehension of the realities and mythologies of Empire, Kipling was more famous in his day than Steve Redgrave (largely because Steve Redgrave hadn't been born then) but is rarely read now.   We learn why; explore why it's a short step from denying or revising books to burning them; and look at why should and what we can learn from engaging with a racist, and imperialist ... and the most important English writer since Shakespeare. We explore how Empire was not a benevolent force for good, or a civilising mission but instead always and forever an economic enterprise; and illustrate how its expansion ran alongside technological expansion - something Kipling was keenly aware of.   Examining Kipling's status as an Anglo-Indian, and thus a second-class person, we look at the way he explored and exposed the myths of Empire to show its realities: the overt racism of The White Man's Burden, the sham of Britain standing alone given its reliance on its connections to the world in Big Steamers; and the people who work alongside or create the technology that sustains the whole endeavour in McAndrew's Hymn and The King. We reclaim Mandalay from Boorish and see how Kipling's wide-ranging work in poetry, short stories, children's stories and novels should be engaged with if we are to overcome our cultural amnesia and beliefs about the missing 300 years of our history that we don't talk about or teach.    And that's before we get to Tommy - as pertinent now as it was then.   And it's out in time for the weekend? And there's a rowing episode coming out too?   Get some!   Bow? You're a jelly-bellied flag-flapper. Take a tap.

Broken Oars Podcast returns with its celebrated Summer Shorts series.   After the fever dream that was Thomas Hardy as social climber; the weirdness that was A.E Housman inventing England; and an exploration of how a Geordie called Brian invented the guitar hero (true ... ), on our summer shorts programme we dive back to the early Victorian period ...   Why? That was you, wasn't it, three? It's always three ... Because a theme is emerging, an exploration of something that might loosely be called the condition of England. This is a term that hasn't been in fashion since before the First World War, but it's helpful in understanding why Britain is the way it is in the third decade of the twenty-first century if we also understand that many of the things we struggle with today were things we struggled with then ...   Step forward, Charlie boy! Pour a glass of something nice, put your feet up, load an air-rifle in case the lady-next-door's determination to keep hens has led to a sudden increase in furry visitors (as it has in at least one of our cases) and we'll get into why imaginative leaps forward rarely come from elites; how the British national character has always been defined by a tension between the drive to be modern and the urge to look back and why it was originally the Conservative Party who were seen as the party of the meddlesome big state - and how that perception has flipped around in the last 150 years.   And yes, I know that this might sound as dull as ditchwater, but it's me - you know it won't be. Think of Broken Oars Summer Shorts Series as being like In Our Time but without Melvyn Bragg's hair, portentiousness and bevvy of researchers doing the heavy lifting and far more quips, asides and insight.   We'll look at why free markets didn't work then and don't work now - and how they've never been free in any era. We'll explore how and why Britain hasn't changed in 200 years; investigate why everyone's working class regardless of whether they know how to make their own pasta or not; explore what literature was considered to be back then; and see how Charles Dickens, through luck as much as acumen, tapped into a new audience; and in doing so, how his belief in the fundamental kindliness of human nature, embraced by this audience, helped to balance the undoubted issues and iniquities of the age and prompt some of them to be addressed. Sounds good? Of course it does! And it isn't all doom and gloom. After all, if we hadn't been in such a terrible place back then, people wouldn't have left and as a result we wouldn't have got to talk to Drew and Berge and Macca - because they'd still be making shoes in a Leceistershire workshop somewhere for tuppence h'penny a decade.   And in the end, it really is true that kindness is all. We're told to be kind to ourselves nowadays - and being kind to others wouldn't hurt either.   Back soon with more rowing?   You bet!   Get some!   Yes, I know he's not a poet, three. There'll be more poetry along soon too.   -----   Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

I (Northern One), have thought of so many ways to introduce this:   The finest rower of his generation is joined by Drew Ginn, Andrew McNeil, Anthony Bergelin and Lewin Hynes to ...   You know - that tongue-in-cheek quippy thing that you've come to expect from your Northern Correspondent while your Southern Correspondent (Lewin) does all of the science-y bits and the intelligent questions.   Or, something like:   The world's finest rowing podcast (Crossy's Corner excluded. We'll not hear a word said against Martin. He's a living legend) returns and gives three unknowns from a land down under a chance to talk about shovelling a boat backwards down a river ...   You know - the self-deprecating / self-aggrandising stuff that we do so well on Broken Oars Podcast (while also being, you know, the best rowing podcast in the world ... ).   But I can't.   Because, ladies and gentlemen (and children of all ages), we bring to you:   THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN ROUNDTABLE!   It's our first ever roundtable, and we're not sure we'll ever be able to top it. Why? Not just because it's taken over a year to organise, but because your genial Southern One (Lewin) and your genially-grumpy Northern one (Aaron) are joined by Anthony Bergelin, Andrew McNeil and Drew Ginn.   Yes, this is an absolute brains trust of rowing and performance, and you, like us, get to join in with one of the best conversations about rowing you're every likely to hear, but unlike most in the field, Berge, Drew and Macca come at these elements from the refreshing perspective of engaging with and enjoying what you're doing first, and connecting who you're doing it with ... because if you tick those boxes, the first two will surely follow.   So, strap in, buckle up, and tune in to hear about the early years, why culture is not something you write on a piece of paper but live through your values; why lightweights are bitter and twisted; why the club system is so, so important; about how connection is all, not just to the water, but to those around you: how you build trust by empowering people to have a voice; why why is the most important question you can ask (and if people say 'because I say so' you're in the wrong place); why feel beats data in rowing when data in rowing doesn't also feel; why more mileage doesn't equal better rowers but buying a frisbee just might; how great coaches give of themselves, while lesser ones might take or look to over-control; that being fast going in straight lines is great, but rowing on rivers where there's a beer and bbq waiting for you at the end might just be the thing you're looking for; how jumping in a boat with the juniors or the masters lads and lasses doesn't take away from you as a senior (believe us, if one of the greatest to ever do it is not just willing but vocal about diving in with a mate's daughter and enjoying it, you should be too ... ); music, patterns, rowers vs. athletes, the athletic mindset, running thought experiments on yourself, and training back in the curiosity and love of life you had trained out of you by the 'this is how you do it ...' approach.   Seriously, get a notebook, get a pen, get a cup of coffee and take notes.   Berge, Macca and Drew are about to change your lives.   The Broken Oars listenership is a generous and giving one, so if you could follow back to vsk.org.au, and support their and Drew's work, we'd appreciate it. Cancer will hit 1 in every 2 of us at some point in our lives, so if it doesn't hit us, it's likely to affect someone close to us ... so let's get in this fight and push back.   And hit the guys up on Twitter with your comments, thoughts and feedback - or just to let them know how much they absolutely SMASHED this: @Bergeonline @drewginn @andrewsmcneil     Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you:     THE GREAT AUSSIE ROUNDTABLE!   A year in the making? Totally worth it!     (Redgrave, Pinsent, Cracknell ... ? Or more likely Hodgey, Pete and Alex? The ball's in your court ... ). Stern four? Quiet. Bow four. Easy oars. You're in the presence of greatness.

Welcome back to Episode Three of Broken Oars Summer Shorts Series.   Try saying that quickly six times ...   In this episode, we shift from talking about poets working in one form (poetry, obvs ... ) to the man who invented the guitar hero. This poet of the instrument, responsible for refiguring the guitar from something with six strings into a mystical weapon in the hands of its practitioners, was a man called Brian   And he was from Newcastle.   No, seriously.   This isn't the Northern One's having one of his occasional flights of linguistic fancy. It's all true.   So turn on, drop out and tune in to find out how Brian from Newcastle not only invented the guitar hero but also inspired every act of sonic magic created by six strings that happened thereafter. We'll talk about how its girls who rule the world while boys always remain boys - and why it's this reality that's responsible for the legions of spods and corksniffers who came along post-Brian to make the guitar, guitar music and guitar culture the heritage industry it is today.    But mostly it's about Brian, from Newcastle, who changed the world.   You're welcome, world.   (And if you're thinking: what has this to do with rowing, with training, with creating a culture, with leadership, with attaining goals and objectives ...   ... on one level, nothing.   But on another, absolutely everything. You see, the perceived narrative has a dominance that means we often don't question it - which leads to things just being accepted 'because that's the way they are.' But if you go a little deeper, and you actually start looking at the processes that create the end product or the output, you often find that what's driving something is not what you originally thought. And no, this is not a heavy trip to lay on a bespectacled Geordie called Brian. It's true).   Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

Welcome back to Episode Two of Broken Oars Summer Shorts Series - the book club for rowers where no books about rowing are discussed ...   (And that's a promise ... ).   Instead, to fill the golden dawns and endless twilights of summer, we're taking a whirl through some poets and poetry, leavened with the odd observation about the things that the Northern One used to know about before Covid and Long Covid bollocksed his brain: culture, history, why everything is an art, why artists are as full of crap as the rest of us, self-narration, why squaring early helps with developing a good catch ...   You know ...    Bowsider stuff.   In this episode, following on from our first episode deep dive into Thomas Hardy (and yes, we know: a deep dive into a native of Dorset is not a thing to be taken likely. We speak from experience when it comes to that, but it can be very rewarding, especially if you like rough scrumpy and cold sea swimming as the sun comes up. No, these are not metaphors ... ) we get stuck into the life and work of A. E. Housman.   A late-Victorian Classicist who caught the uneasy mood of late-nineteenth century Britain, Housman's first collection, A Shropshire Lad, appears, on the surface, to reflect the beliefs of his era: the vigour and promise of youth; that England's authentic spirit is held in her landscapes, particularly those of her countryside; and that perhaps something eternal and intrinsic has been lost in Britain's race to invent the modern world.   All of those themes are there, of course. The late-Victorian period is, after all, when the Victorian's literary obsession with little girls as symbols of purity and innocence gives way to celebrating young boys and men - fittingly enough in a culture that suggested that martial prowess had won Britain the empire.   But there is a deeper, resonant melancholy in Housman's work. On one level, this reflects the then-held sense that although British Imperial power had never been greater, there was a feeling that the best had past; that the only way to fulfil youthful promise was to die young and enshrine its potential rather see that potential failed to live up to; that something, indeed, had been lost.   On the other, it speaks more potently of Housman's own unrequited passion for a fellow male undergraduate; what he felt he had lost; that the golden promise of his own youth as manifested in those feelings had not been realised for all his professional success. From this perspective, the landscapes of the blue-remembered hills, read as England's lost pastoral spirit remaining in the land by some, are actually the internal landscapes of the heart, and what Housman himself had lost.   Sounds weird? Yeah. The Victorians were, as the youth of today say, completely mental. So pull up a chair, get a glass of something cold and good, or hot and steaming, and let's dive into an object lesson of how they might be our ancestors but they might as well be aliens for all we have in common with them.   Except for the idea that Britain's best days are behind her - that one's a hardy perennial thrown out regularly by everyone from scoundrel politicos to offshore press barons alike. Plus ca change, eh ... ?   ----- Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

Summer is upon us, the regatta season is in full swing and with both come the merry sound of everyone in the sport of rowing going 'Crap! It's x regatta next week. We need to start thinking about a start pattern ... ' And so the Northern One returns with the observation why didn't we start working on it last September, at the start of the season, given it's, you know, a technical skill to develop.   In this episode, we talk about why technical work should be as hard and engaged with as fully as physical work (because it's free speed, dummies ... and yes, I am quoting what Kev M once said to me, why do you ask?); and why we should all treat drills as being as important as mileage: rather than being things we charge through to get to the rowing,   THEY ARE ALL THE ROWING.   Broken Oars throws out how just getting moving during an outing can be used as a litmus test of where we are and what we need to work on, as well as the standards we're prepared to accept, and then gets into the magic of getting boat moving. We talk about Head Race starts and Regatta race starts, and the differences and similarities between them before getting down to it:   How to pick up a boat from a standing start, accelerate it to its top sustainable speed for the distance and hold it there.   What we're looking for in terms of feel, what we're doing in terms of technique, why we do the 3/4, 1/2, 1/2, 3/4, 3/4 dance, why it's precise brutality we're after; why we use wind and drive as calls, why the backs in call comes in later in sequences and what terms like 'swing', 'transition' or 'push into rhythm' mean and should feel like.   And why you should never, ever call 'settle.'   We're rowers. We never settle. Except for coffee. We like coffee.   We'll settle for that.   Feel free to buy us one: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   ----- Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

Welcome back to Broken Oars Podcast - and the first in what we (I, Northern One, oppressed ... ) am calling our Summer Poetry Series ...   What is it, I hear you cry (perhaps very faintly).    Well, it's me, taking a whistle-stop tour through some poets, their lives and works - perfect listening for long summer evenings, lazy holidays, long drives, rambles through the countryside, mornings sleeping in, getting the barbeque going, or chilling in the garden with a glass of something ...   Why are you doing it I hear you ask, and will there be any rowing in it? (rather more pertinently).   Well, perhaps I'm doing it because your Northern Correspondent is a bowsider by training, nature and temperament - you always find the wilder, freer spirits on the oar to the left. Perhaps I'm doing it because I'm a seven-man for the same reasons - all sevens are essentially stroke but with a brain. But mostly it's because I fancy using that brain again to see what's left of it after Covid and Long Covid.   What better way of doing that than seeing what I can remember about dead people who used to write stuff?   Exactly. Think of it like a book group for rowers.   (Really, I'm doing it because I love talking about stuff and learning. Unless we're in a boat, where our steering is impeccable, we are, like the GB Tokyo Four, a rowing podcast determined not to stay in our lane ... ).   Unlike the episodes on the Romantics, which was heavy on the theory and light on how much smack Coleridge actually did, this will be a user-friendly whirl through lives, works, loves, foibles, themes and the odd reading of a decent poem or two.   So, pull up a chair, pour a glass, and let's start with Thomas Hardy, the peasant who ended being buried in Westminster Abbey but who sent his heart to Dorset. Hardy was as famous in his age as Kim Kardashian was in hers, but unlike Kim he turned to poetry later in life after the savaging of his novel 'Jude the Obscure.' No, Kim's bum does not qualify as poetry, and although reams have been written about it, nor does it qualify as timeless prose (although the implants will probably outlive us all). We'll take a turn around Hardy's life and work, and I'll probably throw in some contrarian observations about why English Literature is a bust; why you should read what you like to read; and answer the question 'can we still enjoy the art when we know that the artist was a twat?' (No, in case you're wondering).   And there'll be some rowing along shortly ...   If you enjoy this, or listen to the podcast regularly, support our work by buying us a coffee:   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1 GET SOME (POETRY)! ----- Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

Welcome back to Broken Oars Podcast Coronation Special - special because we say nothing, literally nothing, about the coronation.   There is only one King - he's called Tom: he's got the hair, he's got the chin and by God he's got the 2k score too. When Charlie boy can tick any of those three boxes, come back to us and we'll talk.   Instead, hear us roar about:   Rowing in movies and why the epic nature of the sport has never been successfully translated to the screen; what happens when Nicolas Cage takes it on (he produces The Boy in Blue and does his own sculling); is the fact that rowing can only ever be itself the reason why movies and books about rowing can only describe it by analogy; how much introspection do elite athletes have, and is this why Redgrave's Homeric against-all-odds journey and success was rendered in prose that's a guaranteed cure for insomnia while Foster's 'Four Men in a Boat' got closer to the realities of fitting athletes and personalities into boats; the return of Mark Hancock to rowing at TURC; why waiting for coaches to praise you is like waiting for societal and cultural change in Great Britain (it hasn't happened for 1000 years, stop holding your breath); why rowing with women civilises men and why women move the boat better, or at least get in its way less - which leads to better outings; and Lewin and Aaron's recent trip to Lake Bled for a paddle together for the first time in a decade ...    Get Some!   ----- Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

My cousin Cath passed away recently, following Ovarian Cancer.   This is a brief remembrance of her and some happier times.   The moments we have are too few. The time goes too quickly; and we lose sight of what's really important and worth treasuring while we put emphasis on or pursue things that don't actually matter. Our families grew up together before, as tends to happen, we grow apart and into our own lives. In the end, the moments, though, are all we have. I'm glad I had some with you, Cath.   Thanks to Lewin for listening.   Easy Oars ...

Broken Oars Podcast, and your genial hosts Lewin (Southern, oppressive) and Aaron (Northern, oppressed) return ...   ... and you'll notice that we're practically fizzing with glee as we do.   Why?   Because we're joined by Peter Holmes.   We are no strangers to hyperbole on Broken Oars Podcast. Our episode blurbs are masterpieces in the art of all of its forms: hyperbole, repetitive hyperbole, deflationary hyperbole, inflationary hyperbole and (our favourite) the sort of hyperbole Han got out of the Millennium Falcon only done with oars.   (Give me ten on the legs and horizon this bunch of sadsacks, now ... ! is a call neither of us have ever used (much)).    But in this instance, we are somewhat underselling it when we say that Pete is one of rowing's great coaches, thinkers and communicators.   Beginning his rowing journey at Latymer, and continuing during his time at Cambridge, Pete's engagement with rowing developed in tandem and conversation with his younger brother, Andy - an individual who remains one of the undersung heroes of British Rowing despite being a double-Olympic champion, fierce and committed competitor and an outstanding oarsman who, among others, inspired the young Matthew Pinsent to take up the sport.   Applying the insights about boatmoving that Andy was learning, applying and developing while working with Spracklen and Redgrave as he moved on to teach and coach at Eton, St. Paul's, the University of Manchester and Agecroft, Pete developed a coaching ethos centered on empowering athletes to own and take control of their development and progression by understanding and embracing what actually moves a boat.   In this freewheeling, insightful and essential episode we discuss what actually moves a boat - pressure against the pin against the blade - and explore what the logical outcome of this means for the rowing stroke: it is the application of maximum pressure through the arc of the stroke from beginning to end that moves the boat the most efficiently.   Breaking down how we can translate that to the actual practise of rowing leads to a fascinating conversation on avoiding coaching mood music; the importance of avoiding fads and fashions; why the first step in any squad journey must be standardising equipment so that it can then be individualised to the rower later in the programme; the importance of knowing why you do the drills you do; why the search for magic bullets is part of human nature but ultimately unproductive ...    ... and why the most important question a rower can ask is 'why' (because it leads to the understanding of 'how').   Some of this might be counter-intuitive to modern orthodoxies; it might challenge some preconceptions, but this a masterclass on a par with Drew Ginn's much-heralded episode on Broken Oars. Pete puts a lifetime of knowledge on the art and practice of moving a boat well in this podcast, coaching, what makes a rower, what makes a crew, training, and more beside ...   And he's currently not coaching?   Someone snap that man up for their programme!     Get some!   All Eight? Drive the legs like you're kicking a burning dog off you... ----- Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/  

Holmes and Watson have travelled to Cambridge to investigate the apparent suicide of a college student. When they get there, however, they discover both a Priest's Hole and an abandoned button. Are they something or nothing? A visit to the college boathouse leads to conversations with Mr Pitman and Mr. Muttlebury and it is discovered that Mr. Martin, the deceased, had just been told he had been selected for the final crew for the forthcoming boatrace, beating out a Lord Denby ... Find out the final shocking truth in The Mystery of the Murdered Bow! Get Some!

We return as the mystery deepens! Holmes and Watson have been called from their chambers at 221b Baker Street by Inspector Lestrade to investigate the apparent suicide of a young gentleman at a Cambridge College. On arriving, they find Mr. Martin, the deceased, in his chambers, slumped over his desk, dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. The door had to forced by Mr. Potter, the porter, and no-one else was found in the room with him at the time of his discovery. Investigating the scene, Holmes finds a priest's hole, common enough in the older Cambridge colleges, and a button. Are they something? Or are they nothing? Further investigations lead Holmes to the college boathouse where he learns from Mr. Pitman, that young Mr. Martin had just been awarded his seat in the bows of the Cambridge crew for the Boat Race. Mr. Muttlebury goes on to explain the intricacies and appeal of rowing to Mr. Holmes ... and the vital importance of the bow oar in any boat. As they walk back to Cambridge, Holmes mulls over what he has learned ...   ... is it something, or is it nothing? The mystery deepens ... (In last weekend's men's race, the press / media liked the Parrish brothers having a father who rowed for Cambridge. Maybe turns out the more significant help was having a mother who had been a very good @ULBC cox ... ? Just saying ... ).

Welcome back our friends to the show that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside ...   We're back, the original and best rowing podcast and this episode ...   We celebrate the magic of BUCS, the importance of knowing your responsibilities on and off the water and staying safe; why youth is not wasted on the young but why you only realise the aphorism is right once you aren't actually young anymore; why Alan Rickman's diaries are unreadable; why you should keep a diary and what you should put in it; when and where it is appropriate to use the N-word ...   ... and then we get to why rowing an eight is harder than rowing a single (sorry, single scullers, we know you like to say you're the zenith of the art and craft, but ... you aren't); and then the big question:   When a rower should give up their dream, whether that is a Henley run, making the squad, or just getting out in a boat ... ?   (Did we here someone say ... NEVER!)   Did you miss us? We missed you.   Accept no substitutes, we are the original and best ...   (... and support the podcast by buying us a coffee. We both drink it: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD )   Bowside holding, strokeside blades ... we duel at dawn!   Get some! Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/  

Welcome back to Part Four of the celebration of Head of the River and the Boat Race that is our exclusive all-new Sherlock Holmes adventure, the first and only one to feature that noblest and greatest of sports, rowing.   The Mystery of the Murdered Bow - Part Four.     Called from 221b Baker Street by Inspector Lestrade's urgent summons, Holmes and Watson have made their way by train to Cambridge.     A young man is dead.     Self-murder is suspected.     On arrival, the evidence initially suggests that the facts fit Lestrade's conclusion: Mr Martin was found alone in his room, with a single gunshot wound to the head. But there is no pistol. And as Holmes examines the room, he finds a priest's hole and single button.      Do they mean anything?     Lestrade thinks not, but Holmes is not sure. His investigation leads him to the college boathouse where a conversation with Mr. Pitman and Mr. Muttlebury, both rowers and crewmates of Mr. Martin, provides new information.     But is it relevant?     Get some!

In celebration of Head of the River and the upcoming Boat Race, the team at Broken Oars have put together a Boat Race special - an all-new Sherlock Holmes adventure:   We give you: The Mystery of the Murdered Bow - Part Three     The year is 1886.     A young man has been found dead at King's College, Cambridge.   Self-murder is suspected.     Holmes and Watson have been called from 221b Baker Street by Inspector Lestrade.     When Holmes and Watson arrive, the evidence suggests that Lestrade's conclusion fits the facts.   But as Holmes begins to investigate, is there more to what otherwise appears to be an open-and-shut case?     Listen on to find out!   Long drive to HORR? Training tomorrow? Spectating tomorrow? We've got you covered!   Get some!

Broken Oars Podcast, the original and best podcast about the art, practice and people involved pushing a boat backwards down a river, returns with ...   'The Mystery of the Murdered Bow.'   A new Sherlock Holmes adventure written especially for and just in time for Head of the River and the Boat Race.   The year is 1886. All is well in 221b Baker Street. After a long winter, as February slips into March, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are called to Cambridge by Inspector Lestrade one morning ...   The reason?   An apparent self-murder at one of the oldest and most venerable colleges of one of the world's oldest and most venerable universities ...   ... but is all truly as it seems?   With new episodes building up all of the way to Boat Race Day, follow each twist and turn and find out ...   (No Coxswains were hurt in the making of this story. This might not be the case in real life).

As promised, Part Two of our three-part deep dive into those crazy opium-eating loons in their flouncy shirts with their consumption and their poetry.   In this episode, we look at the main themes of the age, discuss how the idea of the new day inherent to revolution manifested in the poetry of the time, but also how a theory of literature, in producing a literature to either confirm or deny that theory, exposes the reality that there is no final resting place or resolution.   With added Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley, a load of French and German philosophers ... and a Roman.   Yes. we do have rowing stuff coming ... just as soon as we can actually meet up and interview our guests!   Get some!

Hullo and welcome back to Broken Oars Podcast!   As The Southern One wrestles with life and the Northern One wrestles with ... well, life too, while we look for an opportunity to recovene, the Northern One has grabbed a chunk of time to put up another Broken Oars University Episode.   This time it's on the Romantic Poets - on the grounds of why not, it's a New Year, let's get into something fresh and interesting.   But don't worry.   We'll be back to talk about rowing again soon.   So, in this part one of three, we have a chat about those crazy loons from two hundred and odd years ago who decided to start writing about feelings and perception and the inner landscape ... and who in so doing gave rise to Love Island, influencers and rampant narcissism.   We look at what the Romantics were in terms of period, poets and poetry, what they aren't, what went before them, how they self-defined and how we went on to define them.   And next week, we'll get into the poetry.   All because Stephen Graham referenced Beowulf recently.   Blame him! Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.   Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1   Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1   Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/                                           www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

Despite being the world's best rowing podcast (after Martin Cross, anyway) and having had stellar years so far in terms of amazing guests and people annoyed, Broken Oars Podcast have never done an end-of-year review.   Well, that stops now.   Here is is, just in time to keep the twelve days of Christmas going and set you up for the New Year. As usual, we throw ourselves into it with our usual gusto, so on this episode, we talk about:   Free speech, the Northern One's alcohol tolerance levels (so small as to need a microscope to view them), and how the development of the pocket Jezz Moore App is going; and then we got onto our best pod moments, best rowing moment, best workout, best outing, best race and best events of 2022.   Oh, we cover them all. Don't let our usual back-and-forth style fool you into thinking we haven't thought about any of our answers. We do research on this pod - often while we're in the middle of recording it. We talk about our favourite guests (our guests are always our favourite guests); Small Ergs, Big Dreams falls off our Christmas list for the crime of being young, good-looking, unfeasibly talented (and young, did we mention young?); the virtues of pudding are discussed; and ultimately, although it's nice to see the British Squad return to winning ways, we choose Claire Court's victory over Redwood Scullers at Henley 2022 as our race of the year.   Because that, ladies and gentlemen, was rowing as it was meant to be done.   That's right.   In a sculling boat.   GET SOME!

In Episode Two of Broken Oars University, Broken Oars Podcast's Northern One explores fundamental equivalences between being a rower, and the discipline, practice and craft of rowing and being a musician, and the discipline, practice and craft of music.   Looking at the cultural location and narratives of both, this episode looks at how we self-identify with what resonates with us; the learning trajectory of both disciplines; the importance of mechanical practice and how that leads us to states of grace in both.   Taking in figures in both arenas from Eric Murray and Helen Glover to Maxim Vengerov and Eddie Van Halen to Johnny Dawes and Eugene Ysaye, although it does get into aspects of the psychology of the self, emotional response and spiritual ground, the idea that being a rower and rowing and being a musician and playing music possess core fundamental equivalences is not as big a reach as you think; and it's not as woo as you might fear.   If you've ever been in a boat when it's really moving, if you've ever played in a band when it's really cooking ... ? You're feeling the same thing and you got there the same way.   Get Some!   This episode of Broken Oars has no swearing in it, and is safe to play around children.    (Please click the link here for the Two Set Violin and Maxim Vengerov masterclass, which starts at 31.26 in their clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsbA5KDChZw  

Harry, the spare to the heir (his own words), has been in the news recently following the Netflix show that he and Meghan have launched. The show has attracted brickbats for many things, including its appropriation and misrepresentation of other footage.   But we aren't going to put the boot in. After all, we all know that it will be Tom George who ascends to the throne when the time comes. He has the hair, he has the erg scores, and he has the jawline. Instead we're going to stand up for Harry - specifically his musical ability. Many have decried the picture of him playing the guitar with Meg in attendance, suggesting that the chord he's fingering isn't one associated with sweet music. In this, mercifully, brief episode of Broken Thoughts we say 'Au contraire, mon frere' and we salute Harry for his use of the minor sixth in courtship music.  Bold.

We return as strangers from foreign lands with tales of wonder and woe - or, to be more accurate, like two people who've been incredibly busy and decided to use the excuse of recording a podcast to catch up and check that we're both still alive. Are you all still alive? Good. Keep it that way. In this episode, we discuss that most fundamental of rowing experiences, the Head Race. Giving the historically accurate defintion of a Head Race (literally, a race for Heads (ahem)), we try and identify what makes a great Head Race, talk about some of the ones we've done, give shout out and honourable mentions to those we've also done or would like to. I (Northern One) sing the glory that is Rutherford Head, the best HR in the country by a mile; Lewin (Souther One) makes a strong case for Bedford, and we give props to HORR 2010 as it was one of the most glorious, brutally physical performances we've ever been involved in - and we rowed for Agecroft: brutal physicality is where we lived. Feel free to tell us we're wrong and nominate your favourite Head. Remember, the judging criteria are:   1) It needs to be a real waterman's or waterwoman's course. No drag racing. It has to be challenging. 2) It needs an element of danger. Seals, polar bears, tricky bends and bridges ... all considered. 3) It has to have scenery - we've all done (insert name here), and the only thing worse than rowing through a flat, featureless landscape is living in one. 4) Has to have an element of being able to win something or scalpability (claim scalps). 5) Sure there was a five, can't remember what it is, though. Perfect listening on the way to the boathouse, or on the long drive to the next race on the calendar in these cold, dark winter days.   Enjoy!   Stern four. Start doing some work, please!

'Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside ... '   A new branch of the Broken Oars tree, Broken Oars University was dreamed up over the summer as an occasional series for your two stalwarts to explore some things other than rowing ...   ... 'What?' I hear you cry. 'There are no such other things!   Well, ordinarily we'd agree with you, but the Northern One is working through some processes at the moment that mean that the subject matter of this one is pretty close to hand and heart ... and the best way to learn anything is to try and teach it, because then you're forced to break it all down.   The Broken Oars University tag was inspired by so many of our friends on Twitter et al heading off to University - which is an expansive experience, not just in terms of the teaching and the course, but also the new perspectives and understandings it can bring. We (he, Northern One) hopes that the Broken Oars University will be a similar experience, giving some fresh perspectives perhaps on some things that might be new to some.An occasional series, it'll introduce ideas that we're working through in our professional and other lives that might entertain, inform, tickle or make you throw things at the screen. It took a while to get to the starting gate, because the Northern one has been dying, again, but plus ca change ...   (Remember: He's the Northern Uncultured One. Never let the fiddle playing and Latin tags disabuse you of that notion ...).   So, in Episode One, the Northern One talks about stories in an age where narratives no long end but roll into the next content output.   In his usual fashion, he will self-deprecate his expertise in this area to the point where you'll think 'who the hell is this person', but essentially this opening episodes touches on the following points:    - Expertise: what is it, why is it more defined by knowing what you don't know rather than what you do.   - Polymaths: what are they, why he isn't one, and neither is Stephen Fry.   - Narrative: why stories have a beginning, middle and end, and why it doesn't matter what order these elements come in.   - Why this isn't a discussion of the pathetic fallacy of individuals and their output.   - What Netflix buying up Roald Dahl's Intellectual Property means and why they've done it.   - The 'Exploring the x Universe' idea: why it's a nonsense and a fallacy.   - Why the fact that stories have a beginning, middle and end is important for structure, motive drive, engagement, immersion and imagination.   - What happens if you disregard this and start endlessly colouring in the map.   - Tricks, licks and conceits - how and why they don't work if the narrative's motive force are lost, or the internal logic and consistency are lost.   - Why platforms need content, but content doesn't need platforms.   - Why we now live in the age of the never-ending story as a reaction to market mechanics. We're looking at you MC universe / DC universe / Tolkien Universe / never-ending everything universe.   - How a never-ending story leads to audience disengagement, a fall off in quality, and diminishing returns in all senses.   - Why stories that have a beginning, middle and end (in whatever order) are more emotionally and intellectually satisfying and more culturally representative - and why, as I work through my projects, I'll be keeping this very much in mind. And if you're thinking 'wtf!', don't worry. There'll be some rowing along soon. Get some!