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How to streamline your workouts in order to maximise your time on the water. Learn how be a good student and arrive prepared for your workout. Timestamps 00:45 What's it like arriving at your boathouse? Imagine parking your car and walking through the front door, what's the signage like, is it clean and orderly? Is the lineup clear? Is the coach boat ready? What about cox box and life jackets? What do you need to do before you can get safely onto the water each practice? Masters are often time-poor and busy people. Anything we can do to streamline the necessary tasks means more time on the water for your workout. 02:15 The night before Get prepared early - get out all your clothing, gear. Know your departure time from home and list all the things you have to do before leaving. What's the weather report - does this affect traffic? What's on the training program? Who is in your crew lineup and which boat/oars are you using? Have your rowing electronics, gloves, cap, rain jacket ready and your post-workout clothing too. 03:45 When you arrive Get to the boathouse in enough time to get everything ready. Be clear about the time of the practice is pushing off from the dock (not walking through the front door). Know what needs to be done and find out what remains to get ready from others who are already there. Put everything onto the dock. Ideally, nobody goes back into the building after you have put your boat on the water. Water bottle, oars, stroke coach, PFD, light, cox box etc. Put them on the back of the pontoon so they aren't trip hazards. Sign out in the safety register - names, boat, circulation, time going out. Be friendly - say hello to others. In your crew agree the seating order and who will steer and who will do the calls. Know the workout and the warmup as well as the focus point for the outing (heart rate, effort, technique points). Confirm hazards like buoys and other water users - where could clashes happen? 07:30 Diverging from the plan Know about when should you change the outing plan? Weather conditions are often the deciding factor and running out of time. How do you cut it down - the repeats, the rest, turning round early? Decide together what to do in your crew. Wind direction changes and waves can make it unsafe. Where can you go for safety in flatter water? Can you see other crews and what decision are they making when a change is needed? Where will you cut across your planned route? Experienced rowers will know what to do if the wind or tide changes, how to make changes to your safety plan. Remember the water is safe until that you forget that it is dangerous. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Get better at extracting the oar without being splashy and frantic. And why your elbow position is of critical importance. Timestamps 00:45 Finishes for sweep The goal is to get the oar out of the water in a smooth movement and as efficiently as possible. Start with the correct set up at the finish. Your handle end should be in line with the side of your rib cage. Check the position with our outside hand pointing to the stern and across your side body. (see video). Check your handle height when the oar is squared and buried under the water. Ideally your outside hand should be on your lower ribs. Check your elbow position - the outside arm elbow should be pointing backwards towards the person behind you. You do not want your elbow flared out to the side over the gunwale of the boat. Because the most efficient way to pull on the handle is at 90 degrees to the handle. with your elbow flared sideways this is inefficient in terms of the ergonomics of how much forece you can put onto the handle. 03:45 Drills for finishes Pause at the finish with the oar flat on the surface of the water. This helps you check the height of your handle and your outside hand should be brushing your shirt. The handle height is the same as when your oar is under the water a the end of the power phase. Check you are drawing your finish to the right position. 05:15 Check your hands are doing the right job Outside hand drawing through with pressure and controlling the height of the handle; the inside hand is squaring and feathering. Outside hand pushes down to extract the oar from the water and then the inside hand turns the oar to feather it. Practice this slow motion or in fours/pairs. 06:30 Wide grip drill Wide grip (inside hand down the loom) helps to teach you which hand controls the handle. By isolating your inside hand closer to the oarlock pivot, it makes it harder to control the handle height with that hand. Control each hand by altering the grip tightness on the handle - loosen the grip alternately to keep the focus (inside/outside). 08:00 Elbow position affects your hands If your elbow is lower than your wrist it's hard to push down on the handle with the outside hand. Progressively move your hands back to a normal grip starting from wide grip. There's a tendency for may athletes to have too much control with the inside hand. You're also unlikely to be only feathering with the one hand. Keep pressure through to the end of the stroke, holding your oar under the water 1 cm longer. Work your inside hand at the very end of the power phase - the outside hand loses effective power at the end of the power phase because it's at an increasing obtuse angle to the oar handle. Whereas the inside hand can stay at 90 degrees to the handle. Give a n extra pull with the inside hand at the end of the stroke. Stationary stability drill free video joining bonus in our Coach Mastermind Group as a joining bonus. Get yours here https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/coach-mastermind/ 12:00 Bring focus to elbow timing And to your hand grip tightness while rowing. Ensure your aren't dominating with the wrong hand.

How to coach the finish so that your finishes are not frantic, splashy or messy. Timestamps 00:45 Finding room to tap down before squaring. Start with the correct set-up at the finish with blades buried. Where are your handles? What's the gap between your hands? This is how you ensure you have room to tap down. If your handles are too close together at the finish, you cannot get out of separation and there's no space to push the handles down without them hitting each other. 02:45 Check your elbows are level with your wrist (or higher) at the finish when the oars are buried under the water. It's hard to tap down if your wrist is cocked and your elbow is lower than your wrist. 03:15 Drills for finishes Stationary stability drill stage two has a tap down and then feather. Learn how to do this whole crew without anyone holding the boat level for you. Videos of all these drills are in the Coach Mastermind Group as a joining bonus. Get yours here https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/coach-mastermind/ Pause drill at the finish - it helps to check you are finishing the stroke at the right position. Take the oar out of the water and then feather and return the oar to resting on the water surface. The reason is that your handles are at the same height as at the finish. Helps you to check how high your handles are actually rowing to in the full stroke. Goal in the consecutive strokes is to get your handle to the same place before you tap down to extract from the water. J-Curve Drill - tap down before feather. 06:30 Check finishes while rowing During continuous rowing, get your athletes to check handle heights at the finish while rowing - look down or feel where your thumb brushes your shirt. Hold onto the finish for 1cm longer while rowing. Helps them to keep pressure on the spoons until the end of the stroke before the extraction.

How to train in the week before the regatta race. Timestamps 00:40 A taper is a reduction in training volume so you're ready to race on the regatta day. You should feel you are super-energetic, enthusiastic, you should feel ready for anything. You should find your adrenaline is up in anticipation for the event - this can also be due to nerves. When we train it puts our bodies under stress. The taper removes those stresses. 01:50 How to tapers work? In rowing we have one or two big events in the year - winter long distance and summer sprint racing. You can do more than one sprint peak in the year, remember after every peak you have to rest, reduce training volume as a reset before you go back into hard training again. The taper reduces volume, frequency and intensity of your training. Generally it starts one week before your event, if you're at a multi-day regatta, choose the day of your main event race as the peak day. Count back one week from that event. Depending on your normal training frequency, the taper varies. The workouts in the taper include shorter practices - less time on the water, workouts at higher intensities at or above race pace. Duration of the outing is less but intensity is high. If you train 6 times a week the days of the week you train should be continued in the taper week. 05:00 Travel is the big problem You have to load a boat trailer, fly or drive to the regatta venue and this can disrupt your normal training days. You often cannot train after the boat trailer is loaded. In the Faster Masters Program we recommend you train 3 days a week - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If you follow this pattern you get a rest day in between each workout. So your taper doesn't need to change from this pattern because you are already getting a lot of rest. Athletes who train 6 days a week do a different taper - the program has an asterisk on the 3 key days. 06:50 Practice your starts Each workout during the taper, you must practice your start sequence. If you are doing many different crews this is good because you get to do starts in your single, pair, quad etc. We also do race pace pieces which mimic different parts of the race. Some from the first half, some mid-race and some in the sprint for the line. Additionally it's great if you can do at least one of these practices on the race course you will be racing on. Familiarise yourself with the course, the warm up area, the start pontoons and rowing in between buoys. Practice backing into the start too. 08:30 Roll over the course workout Do every push you have planned in the race plan at race pace and row at firm pressure, SR 24-26 in between the race pace pushes. This gives bursts of intensity, practice on the course, keeps your blood going and makes you familiar with the race course. Your taper has to cover off your recovery - more rest than normal. Also optimising your psychological and physiological performance like race visualisations. Injury prevention is also part of the purpose of a taper because you're doing less and resting so you're less likely to get injured. Mental and physical freshness brings good energy levels to the event - overcome anxiety and nerves. Hormonal balance is also a benefit. 10:30 Tapers can also produce viruses As athletes taper they can succumb to viruses or allergies as the training pressure comes off your body. Do take extra care over personal hygiene, hand washing and face masks on a plane. Be protective of your own body - you've worked hard for this race event. Don't undermine your performance by succumbing to something which is preventable. Control the things which can be controlled.

The policy leadership masters sport needs if it is to grow. What can public policy measures do to improve and grow masters rowing? Timestamps 01:00 Public policy for rowing Sophie Harrington is researching recommendations to improve access to womens and girls sport using public policy measures. Her focus on the male/female side opened up masters sport as a new area where sport for life outcomes could work. To grow masters sport requires finding the inhibitors which exist and prevent improvement. Some are structural - how we organise, think and run volunteer sport. 03:00 Growth inhibitors Ways to improve access and people's enthusiasm and interest in masters sport. Constraints include memberships - many clubs are annual fees/dues. Can we offer pay-to-play memberships? Also what about time of day pricing as our rowing equipment lies idle for 22 hours a day. Training at quieter times of day between early mornings and school afternoon sport times. Sweat your assets to get more money in for use when not in demand. 05:15 Coach education Teaching methods used for youth are not as appropriate for older adults. Consider psychology and physiology of athletes so coaches know how to work with a broader range of athletes. Competition structure is a growth inhibitor. We need 3 layers - local / regional and national competitions including those which are participatory not races e.g. Park Run. What is the rowing equivalent? Scrimmages, touring row or visiting another club. Some people take years before trying racing. Competition for those new to competing needs to be organised so you can go to hyper-local events with low friction (no equipment trailer). 08:00 Athletic pathways for masters Ways for those of limited experience to go to races against those whose experience is similar. Age doesn't work as a level playing field when years of experience is considered. Having plural athlete pathways which incorporate fitness rowers with challenges (not necessarily races) that move folks into competition gently. Social inclusion - having a coffee after the workout is important to build friendships and encourages them to stick around as a group. Facilitating sport for life is the outcome goal.

How to improve your rowing using self-diagnosis coaching and progressive drills. Timestamps 00:45 A powerful coaching tool for both coaches and athletes. Masters rowers like autonomy. Enabling the athlete to work things out for themselves facilitates mastery in a self-directed environment. The change is more likely to stick. Canada research by Derrik Motz, University of Ottawa on athlete coach relationship Coaching Masters Athletes – Advancing Research & Practice in Adult Sport https://fastermastersrowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MOTZ-Faster-Masters_Rowing_webinar.pdf If you don't have regular coaching, this is a tool to try. 02:00 Start with a model of good rowing This has to have common understanding across your group. The rowing stroke cycle diagram is a good place to start. Where your rowing goes wrong - an example of a boat going "wonky" which was caused by the athletes stamping hard on the foot stretcher. 04:00 Progressive movements Start by working out when you do not have the problem. In this case increase the pressure progressively from 60% pressure, 70% etc and work out when the issue started to happen. Discuss this with your crew about the cause of the problem. Then decide what fixes the problem? Can you make the change in 1 stroke? 1 - identify the problem is happening 2 - what to do to fix it 3 - fix it in as few strokes as possible 4 - row in the new way so the problem doesn't occur 06:15 An example from sweep rowing - balancing the boat. The boat is balanced generally when the oars are under the water and the imbalance occurs on the recovery when the oars are out of the water. Our model of good rowing has the boat balanced throughout the stroke cycle. Is the boat balanced as the oars come out of the water? Yes. Is it still balanced when we get our arms straight / body rock forwards / roll up the slide? Work out where the problem starts to happen and then decide what to do to effect a change. The cause might be timing of the oar handle movement at the finish transition to the recovery. What fixes this? Probably handle heights or sequencing of the finish body movement. If handle height is the issue. Choose a drill like rowing with the oar flat on the water on the recovery. Then progressively change this to increase the depth of handle push down to take the oar out of the water. Then keep the handle at this height throughout the recovery until the next catch. The progression is to start with a 1 cm tap down; move to 2 cm and 3 cm. Can you keep the boat level at these stages? The self - diagnosis method helps us to diagnose the issue, fix the problem and then row in the new way. Use your autonomy to try to fix the issue and see if you can make it work in practice. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Masters rowing is about rowing with adaptations. Timestamps: 00:45 Grant Faulkner quote: The speed the clock moves forwards and the things it takes away. Masters learn to enjoy age and the things we have to adjust for our rowing. 01:45 Recognising when you need to make the next adaptation Nobody told me it was going to be like this! Strength and Mobility are the main things you will notice first. Strength diminishes differently between men and women 50s versus 60s. Your 60s is a 'hold steady' decade. Read article. Use the Facebook group to post questions and get answers from people who have the same issues. https://www.facebook.com/groups/595853370615544/ 04:00 Mobility and aging Range of movement in joints is important - pelvic mobility in the hips to get into the rowing stroke positions. Flexibility is also key. Programs Page "FREE STUFF" How to test your functional movement and strengthening exercises. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/functional-movement-assessment/ David Frost's webinar on Functional Strength and Movement is a deeper dive into exercises for body strengthening for daily life - essential for older women who find it hard to lift a boat. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/functional-strength-and-movement/ If athletes can't get into the right positions for rowing it's difficult to teach them. 05:15 Technique changes with age Adjustments to take account of mobility issues. Adapting Rowing Rigging For Masters Physiology article https://fastermastersrowing.com/adapting-rowing-rigging-for-masters-physiology/ Try to maintain your technique and range of motion as you age. Adjust rigging to accommodate physical limitations - some are easy, medium and hard - they take tools and more time to set up. We can still always improve our technique as we age. Despite losing strength, masters rowers can always be more skilful at the catch, get the blade in without slip, get a full leg drive, recruit extra muscles to add to power delivery. Technique has no regard for age - you can improve at all ages. What is the next horizon for you? https://fastermastersrowing.com/rowing-and-aging-each-decade/ Most of us delay making changes - if you are losing strength, you should be shortening your oars (Volker Nolte Rigging Webinar has charts for oar designs, Men and Women). Most masters row on oars which are too long for their strength and capability. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/rigging/ This webinar includes - Volker Nolte's oar rigging chart – learn how to rig your oars correctly based on the oar make and spoon design - Mike Purcer's Masters 1x rigging chart (span, oar length, inboard) different for men and women. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Slowing down makes you faster in the future. What is rowing circles good for? Timestamps 00.30 Rowing in Circles I know I could make a lot of progress if I could just practice my stroke over and over. Yes, this is the purpose of rowing in circles. Get the intense, focused practice in a stable environment. 01:30 One person rows at a time in sweep; in sculling you row one side at a time. Often done in small boats so that the effect is all about what you're doing - the boat movement isn't muffled by what others are doing. It gives direct feedback and a strong learning outcome. 02:15 What is rowing circles good for? Level bladework - are your oars going into the water at the correct depth in the power phase and are they staying at the correct height above the water in the recovery phase. If you row "over the barrel" this is good. Catch placement - how to time lifting the handle so your blade goes into the water when your seat is just arriving at the change of direction at full compression? Get the oar under the water before the seat stops moving. Recovery height of blade above the water - Sweep align which hand does the height and squaring/feathering. Single hand or wide grip rowing can be practiced in circles. How to row square blades - see exactly what is needed to get the oar out of the water square. 05:00 Increase the challenge Learn the basic skill at light pressure, then make it harder by moving to firm pressure rowing. Try not watching your blade while rowing to keep the same technique. Remember when you are learning something new - there is a ladder of learning. Step up to make it more challenging but if this isn't working well, step down to re-establish the pattern of technique movement before trying to make it harder again. 06:15 Do it 3 times It takes time to acquire a new skill - repetitions help you to learn. Rest and reflect while your partner tries the rowing in circles. Many people learn in an interesting way - your brain processes the movement between practices. It may be better at the next practice. 08:13 Coaching rowing circles Watch this video to see Marlene Royle coaching a single sculler on Rowing Circles. https://youtu.be/1Jaqv1eiN5Y?si=c6KaXwnAE1pFo4by&t=133 To see the video of this podcast (if you're listening audio only) head over to https://youtube.com/live/_RfJ7Ku3Qe8 Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Why thinking like a scientist will fix the voice in your head and harness it to coach yourself in a rowing boat. 00:30 Positive self-talk coaching When you row you are thinking about what you do - it's the voice in your head. The devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other. Masters work best when thinking about one thing at a time. Create the outcome you want with different ways of saying it - how will you do it, when will you do it. 02:30 4 competency stages - unconscious incompetence - conscious incompetence - conscious competence - unconscious competence When you no longer need to use your brain to think about one technical point, you free up your mind to think about other things. Acquire the skill, learn it and put it into the background in your mind so you can do the skill without thinking about it. The voice in your head is working hard. 04:30 Objectivity is key The voice in your head can be devilish. It talks subjectively to you which can make a negative spiral of thoughts which do not help you to row better. Train the voice in your head by thinking like a scientist. They are objective (no value judgements), it's an observation only. Assess if you did or did not do the movement e.g. squaring early. It's not "good" or "bad". Keep the voice in your head 'on task'. 06:15 Can you self coach in a rowing boat? Watching your blade is a good way to start self-coaching. The blade is a good indicator of how you are rowing. Look at it at the catch, blade depth at the mid-stroke, look at the finish. Row in circles watching one oar at a time. Play games with yourself - on the water have some fun. Take a small challenge - little goals give a focus for self-coaching. Try exaggerating part of the stroke so your body moves with precision and consistency as if you're demonstrating to a beginner. Notice how this impacts your stroke and how the boat moves. You can do it deliberately wrong too. That's great fun. It creates a contrast between the two - find a happy mid point. 10:00 Positive Self Talk Enable your brain to be a positive thought that adds to your rowing. Try rowing for 10 strokes without thinking of anything. After those ten, allow your brain to focus on your technique point and do the scientist observation again. If yes, continue rowing without thinking; if no, make a small change to get back to the technique and then continue rowing without thinking. Use this skill to train your brain through the 4 competency stages towards unconscious competence. A useful article https://www.craftsbury.com/blog/self-coaching-in-the-single Train a rowing mindset https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/rowing-mindset/ Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

The three stages of masters rowing and a checklist of the skills learned in each stage - Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. Timestamps 01:00 What will happen next for me? When learning to row you move up through experience and grades. Beginners - learning to row and getting familiarity with the boathouse, equipment and people. Be open to different frequencies showing up and learning styles. Progress is varied based on how much practice they do. 02:40 Clubs miss opportunities with intermediate rowers. Intermediate - often very keen to assist and engage with running the learner group. Include them in the learner program so they're included as tutors / helpers. Challenge them to try something new like being in stroke seat, small boats, toe steering or doing the calls for the crew. New horizons make rowing more fun and challenging. 04:00 Advanced The number of athletes is quite low - but does your coaching accommodate their needs? These people need specific training if they are racing - a program which builds up to a peak performance at key regattas. A coach needs to understand racing skills, periodisation for the program, how to read a race and respond. Long distance racing needs include steering, overtaking tactics, varied race rate and pace. 06:00 Rowing Skills Checklist The major stages of learning to row. This is a summary checklist - you can get a more detailed one if you join the Coach Mastermind Group - customise this to suit your waterway. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/coach-mastermind/ Beginner skills - follow traffic navigation, emergency stop, turning on the spot and backing down. Intermediate skills - bladework skills, stroking and following in a crew, consistent rate / pressure. De rigging a boat, loading a trailer and do oar gearing adjustment. Diagnose faults and suggest drills to improve. Advanced skills - Add to the above lists - safety in weather/wind; launch in rough water, row square blades at firm pressure, catch start pick drill, using a pitch gauge to rig, measure span/spread and do a trailer loading diagram, confident coaching inside the boat - peer-to-peer coaching. Know where your skills are now and where you want to go next. Download the summary skills checklist https://fastermastersrowing.com/the-stages-of-learning-masters-rowing/ Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

How do you develop sculling ability in those who show potential but aren't skilled enough to go in tippy singles yet - and how do you do this without over-using your team's skilled scullers who would like to have good solid training rows rather than always teaching others in the double. Timestamps 01:00 A classic masters rowing problem! There is a 'pay it forward' mentality for many masters rowing clubs. What beginners cannot yet do - consistent hand heights - handles nested at crossover - poor timing - squaring is variable - following skill - little sense of weight in the hand affecting boat balance 03:00 What you can do Firstly put them into single sculls with pontoon floats - Revolution Rowing sell them. They give stability and balance to the single so they can learn quickly because all the boat movements are due to you. Very quickly they realise what's needed to get the boat balanced. - Teach the stationary stability drill - Squaring early - Pause drills - Legs only rowing - Square blade rowing - Backing the boat 05:00 Get the athletes fit A single is heavy to row plus the weight of the pontoon floats so the athletes work out how to push their legs and they have to sustain 40 minutes of rowing. So they get fitter faster. Single sculling helps them understand manoeuvring, turning, backing and going in a straight line - boat control skills. 07:00 Helper fatigue solutions Sharing the load is important. Member survey asked who would be prepared to help with learn to row. Find new people to help out. Mostly they want to know what to say / do and so write a lesson plan for them to follow. 09:00 Outing plans The best workouts which benefit the helpers as well as the learners. - Power strokes with half the boat sitting the boat; half rowing. - Learn a new skill yourself (steering, bow seat, doing the calls, stroking, sweep on the other side). Use the outing for yourself and improving your rowing. Get the new rowers fit is a great goal for these outings. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Meet Jonathan Drake who teaches rowing using Alexander Technique methods. Timestamps 01:00 Jonathan is an expert in rowing, Tai Chi and the Alexander Technique. His awareness of his co-ordination issues comes from being an Alexander teacher. Insights into how adults learn. His book is Rowing from the inside out: The art of indoor rowing with on the water in mind. https://amzn.to/4hCYAGz What is it like to scull on the water while you're learning to row indoors? 05:00 The Mind Body Connection Understand how rowing is "in your head" and how to connect this to what your body does. Ingrained movement habits are hard to change especially as you get older. Move more lightly, freely and less movements creating tension. 06:00 The origins of the Alexander Technique Pulling your neck forwards and downwards creates tension in the rowing stroke. Feel how the dynamic opposition of one part of the body connects or separates from another part. Using your body changes through the rowing stroke. In the power phase the spine lengthens and changes at the finish before lengthening again on the recovery. The perspective is novel - indoor and outdoor rowing combined with Alexander Technique and Tai Chi. Learn from the inside rather than copying someone else from the outside. 10:00 There's a sequence in the feet - pushing off the balls of your feet causes calves to tighten and then after your heels are down and the stroke finishes, people lift the balls of their feet again. That's why they strap in their feet tightly. The basic dynamic is through the feet - the inside of your heels means you access the whole of your foot arch, this gives you the power you need to perform rowing while sitting dynamically. 11.45 The benefits of AT and teaching rowing It gives you more awareness of when you're using more effort than necessary. Engage in the journey yourself because you cannot teach what you do not know. You can get results without all the effort. Encourage your athletes not to strap in your feet from the beginning. How to hold the handle without gripping (creates tight wrists and shoulders). When you understand about how to control the blades in the water - feather into your fingers - you can use your fingers on the indoor rower in the same way. 15:30 Using AT principles The key to coordination is the relationship between the neck, the head and the back. If your neck stiffens it creates spinal compression and tension. Our habits feel comfortable. Come to a state of quiet to help the body to organise itself. Learn to do less in order to achieve more. At the start of the drive the connection comes from the feet, then moves into the legs / hips / back and into the arms. As the recovery begins the pelvis takes the energy into the arms and body. Ed Coode, rowed for Great Britain in Athens 2004 - he was taught AT. 20:00 The book is very clear on how you teach. When Jonathan is on the rowing machine he views each stroke as a potentially new experience. Use them as an opportunity to be constantly refining and improving your movement patterns. It's never too late to make improvements. The book has links to video clips on YouTube to show what to do. Contact Jonathan jossdrake@gmail.com www.everydayfitness.co.uk Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Handling varying levels of dedication to the sport in masters clubs. How do you give the both the person who wants to practice once a week and the person who trains daily a meaningful race situation? Timestamps 01:00 This is normal for masters rowing. Training and practice commitment isn't an issue usually until it comes to racing. When going to a regatta you want to be in a crew where you're the 'worst' in the crew. Competitive people want the best possible crew. 02:30 Coach selects lineups In most youth rowing clubs the coaches do selection - this takes the emotion out of the lineups. Types of race - in your calendar there are local events and bigger events like the masters national championships. Each year you will have 2 or 3 peaks which help you manage your training load. Typically most masters will do 3 + races in a single day. 05:00 Racing Priorities In local regattas your racing priorities may be different. The more experienced people can race both with less experienced (mixed ability crews) as well as their own regular training group. To get the racing priorities accurate, the single scull is the best measure. The outcome is up to you alone. Regatta organisers can enable a pathway into racing for masters - novice - new masters - age group. Differentiate based on rowing experience, not age for the first 5 years of racing. 07:45 Preferences and compromises Aligning can be challenging. Fitness matters a lot in racing; bladework skills are also important. Enabling compromise as part of your lineup selection can help give a meaningful experience. The fitter athletes find compromise less palatable when rowing with less experienced people. There is satisfaction to be had from a mixed ability crew. Skill judging stroke rate and technical calls through the race is a worthwhile endeavour. "That was harder than childbirth". Achieving the best possible outcome for this crew. Can you mentally set yourself up to see satisfaction from both types of races with experienced people and less experienced people? 14:30 Regular training groups Folks who always train together means there is no way in for a newcomer. Club priorities can enable coaches to make selections and validate their choices with the Captain (who's independent). A goal could be to enable your groups (elite, intermediate, new masters, novices) to all have at least one event in which they stand a chance of being competitive. I've found this is a method which helps to bring on less experienced people so that in future years they advance faster than if you just leave them to race in their skill group. 17:00 The art of compromise is discussion without emotion. Rebecca invites people to choose a priority crew which she tries to guarantee that race. Everything else is secondary. This means some events are "sub-optimal. The competitive spirit drives racers to selfish outcomes. This is an attribute of successful racers. It can be hard for athletes to accept their perception of being put in sub-optimal crew lineups. Independent lineup confirmation and discussion of compromises helps to frame these decisions. Balance our priority against the opportunity of this one regatta. The club is the entity which should set the goals (3-5 years) and how this impacts regatta entry choices. Tell us how your club manages their crews for regattas. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Three innovations to improve your learn to row classes and prevent drop-outs. Time to get your club organised for LTR 2025. What's new that you could do this year? Timestamps 00:45 Innovations in adult learn to row Clubs do these to grow their membership. New joiners are an investment in time and effort - it takes time before that pays off. Around one third of all masters rowers started to row as adults. There are two pathways into masters rowing - people who started in their youth and then come back later in life, and those who start as adult beginners. 02:00 How to run a good adult learn to row class. Buy the book Masters Rowing by Nolte & Fritsch - the chapter on how to structure and teach LTR is really good. Masters Rowing – Training for fitness, technique and competition – Volker Nolte & Wolfgang Fritsch https://amzn.to/3sYSXJB 03:00 First Lesson Experience The experience of your first lesson is very important to the success of the program. Can paperwork be done ahead of time? Rebecca starts with an interior tour of the boathouse, the oars, the boat types, the changing rooms. Handling the oars - how to hold the oar handle. How to put the oars on the dock, positioning so nobody trips. How to do the sculling crossover. Parts of the boat - how to open an oarlock, the button position, how to adjust the foot stretcher. Carrying the boat, getting in and out of the boat safely. 06:00 They start rowing. We don't give instruction about how to row in the first lesson. They do some confidence drills and then start rowing - working it out for themselves. This may sound like they've being pushed quickly into doing something they haven't been told how to do. This method serves a purpose - they work stuff out for themselves - take personal control. There is a lot of rest and waiting while others row in the first lesson. Short periods of rowing then stopping and talking or watching - a learning from Tony Buzan (the Mind Mapping man). 08:00 Involve the club You need volunteers to help, give support and be alongside the beginners. Ask those who did the prior learn to row class to be the helpers - they know enough. It helps the new beginners to see how quickly they'll learn. Invite them to coffee after the lesson. 09:40 Pricing a learn to row class Don't be afraid to charge for what you deliver. Do check prices of courses in nearby clubs. You do not have to be the cheapest class. You can offer payment plans. 11:00 Innovations in adult learn to row Bingo game - Michael Merwin gives a card to all participants - they have to do a lot of different things during the course. As they complete each cell, they check it off and a line of 4 wins a prize. Flexibility - teach in different types of boat Pontoon floats - enable a lot of different configurations of experienced and novice athletes. Each lesson, move people one seat down the boat. When you get to bow, rotate into the cox seat next lesson. Crew Bingo card https://fastermastersrowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/bingo.png Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Researching masters physiology - aging from 50 to 70 affects your rowing. Timestamps 01:00 Guests from Athlone, Ireland Lorcan Daly and Paul Gallen Lorcan is a sport science researcher starting with his grandfather, Richard Morgan who was an erg champion. Uniquely he was sedentary for most of his life, was a smoker and at 73 took up indoor rowing. He was tested aged 92 and some of the tests were on a par with a 30 year old. Three world champion indoor rowers were his next test subjects https://www.rowingireland.ie/why-masters-rowing-is-a-game-changer-for-healthy-ageing/ 04:00 Testing Paul Gallen Dennis and Ken were recruited after winning their divisions at the 2024 World Rowing Indoor Championships. The tests were done over 2 visits - diet, lung and muscle function and sporting history. 06:00 Paul Gallen rejoined masters rowing He took 30 years out of the sport and his first event back was the Head of the Charles Regatta. Learned to scull aged 60 and indoor rowing competitions. His 8s crew includes school friends. For the winter season he does a 10 week lead in to the Irish Indoor Rowing Championships. The three age gaps gave a good framing for the study. 10:00 Most remarkable findings Lorcan found that their muscle oxygen take-up was similar to an Olympic champion. The deterioration over life is much flatter than non-trained people. Paul has 10 years of his splits at the indoor champs 6:59 - 7.14 times over ten year drop off. Paul does daily Yoga for rowers - 12 moves a day. Off season 2 weights; mix of high intensity and longer rowers. At least one high intensity per week. 13:00 General advice on aging well The principles for healthy aging - keep your full body system going is a mix of resistance exercise and the mix of aerobic exercise is key. The two together is the winning formula. 15:00 Returning rowers Paul the big thing about people coming back to rowing - it depends on how busy your life is. Start at recreational level and not commit fully to being in competition. Build up if your life gets less busy. Lorcan's paper is called Toward the Limits of Human Ageing Physiology: Characteristics of the 50+, 60+ & 70+ Male Indoor Rowing Champions Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Is biggest fear you have doing a rowing race for the first time? How to prepare, what to expect and the aftermath. Timestamps 00:45 Fear is real First races and how you can help your crew mates facing their first race. As adults it's unusual to get into a situation we've never seen before. Children are different. Kim Mulvey wrote to us saying "I'm not ready to race." The first race fear is mostly about the unknown. You feel out of control and it triggers the flight-or-fight response. Practice in training The way to overcome this is to get familiar with the situations you'll encounter in a race. One way to do this is to practice in training. - Do workouts in the crew lineup you will race in. - Know your seat number, which are your oars? - Know where you adjust your foot stretcher to. 03:15 Practice the racing distance find a simulation as close as possible - how long is it and how intense will it be? Practice being alongside another crew as you race. Discuss the race plan within your crew - how to approach the stages of the race. Coxing your first race episode will also help you understand what to expect. Have a checklist for the race day and the night before. Rowing Regatta Checklist article explains the different elements of the list. https://fastermastersrowing.com/rowing-regatta-checklist/ 05:00 Do a race The things which help you feel most ready for racing are practicing ahead of time and actually doing a race. Once you've done one race you know what to expect next time. Stories of first races are fantastic. How the unexpected came about and what they did after it happened. Learn by hearing from your crew mates. Read Rowing against the Current – Barry Strauss https://amzn.to/438F8hm What you experience is unique to you, but you'll have a lot in common with everyone else's first race. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Daunting? Hell yes. Listen to our guide which shows you what "tricks" you need to have and how to use them with your crew. Timestamps 00:30 2 essential calls What's expected of you - steer the boat to the best possible route. The straightest route and when you steer, make as tight a turn as you can without disrupting the rhythm. Think of the river as if it was a road and you are driving a car. In general you want to be in the middle - judge the distance between the tip of the blades and the bank on both sides of the boat to see if you are positioned well. Going round a corner to your right side - the deeper water is on your left side where the current has scoured out the bank (a slip off bank on the right and an undercut cliff on the left). The fastest water is nearer the cliff. So position your boat towards the left hand bank and get one third of the river between the boat and the left hand bank, two thirds of the river on your right hand side. After the corner you're on the straight - re-position the boat so you are in the middle 50:50 of the river on each side of the boat. Rowing against the stream - it's the opposite Steering is likely what you won't have problems with as you are an experienced steerer. 05:00 Motivating the crew Have two calls - technical call - pressure call (working harder). What motivates your crew and what they are skilled at doing. The pressure call will increase your boat speed. Your job is to work out what the right technique call is that supports the pressure call. Speak to the coach and crew - what are the aspects of the stroke technique which they find harder to do when they're tired. You only need ONE technical call. Use the calls in combination - pressure followed by technique or vice versa. If you do the technique call first - improve the technique over 10 strokes and then follow that up with a pressure call so they hold onto the technical aspect while they add the pressure. Or do pressure first to increase the boat speed and then use the technique call to maintain the higher boat speed afterwards. You must practice this in training. 08:30 Landmarks When to use these calls in the race? Landmarks like a building, a bridge or a bend in the river are good markers. If the landmark includes a steering change - you have to do the call before you start to steer because the boat slows when you steer. Get increased speed before the steering manoeuvre. As you finish the steering, do another call as you are straight and have passed the landmark. Get the crew to look at the bridge / landmark so they can see it moving into the distance. 10:30 Quarter the race You have to know what's the beginning and end of each section. Have a focus for each quarter. 1 - off the start and into race rhythm 2 - maintain boat speed, good run & efficient movement 3 - make it hard on the competitors to get past you. 4 - push for the finish Other things - overtaking / being overtaken. Build these into your race plan. "Walking" the crew past another crew - what to say. 13:45 Speed as a horizontal line Your average speed in the race - the boat speed will change. Your job is to take the crew back up to the horizontal ideal speed line. A good cox can motivate and encourage. Do not talk all the time - silence for 5-10 strokes gives the crew greater focus and clarity of purpose when you do speak. Give the crew enough time to do the things you have called - 10 strokes minimum. You must be able to judge how many strokes it takes the crew to cover a certain distance. Look at a landmark and estimate the stroke count - practice on your home course against a buoy or tree. You must be accurate to decide when to start the call as you lead into landmarks and the finishing sprint.

Boat weight classes across your fleet can be assessed against members' weights. Timestamps 01:00 your boat fleet should match the needs of your group. Many masters group 'inherit' boats but for optimal club alignment match the boats with the membership needs. Assess the current fleet - look for the manufacturer's label - serial number, year of construction and athlete weight. Log these for your whole boat fleet. Different boat moulds accommodate the water displacement for heavier and lighter athletes. Variations can be built in by lowering the deck or the saxboards. When my club did the survey we added in a "state of repair" for each boat. Some are used more than others. And the frequency of boat use - we have some which are favourites and get used a lot more than others. 05:45 Athlete weight survey All members were asked anonymously what their weight is in kg and if they are men or women. We had fallen into the habit of calling boats "mens boats" or "womens boats". This was erroneous - we had men and women in three out of four weight categories. Masters do a lot of mixed rowing and so we need boats suitable for mixed and single gender users. 08:00 Do your boats mach your membership weights? We found a spread of needs across 4 ranges of boat weights. Remember crew weights are averaged to align with the boat. 4 Sizes of boat - Lightweight 60kg boats - Mid lightweight 70kg boats - Mid heavyweight 80kg boats - Heavyweight 90kg boats 48% of our members could fit into a lightweight boat; 60% of our membership can fit into a mid lightweight boat; 44% can fit a mid heavyweight boat; and 23% fit a heavyweight. Our club is skewed to female members and older females who are smaller in height and lower body weight. This affects the fund raising, boat purchase plan and the boat maintenance plan where club resources are focused. 10:30 Considerations for purchases The resale value of second hand boats is important to consider. This is not just about the boat's age and state of repair - it's who wants to buy this type of boat. Resale values for coxless quads is high in New Zealand due to a lack of supply. Few clubs choose to buy 60kg double sculls because lightweight rowing is being phased out of schools and international rowing. 12:00 Boat builders' weight ranges Boat builders can advise what size of boat they typically build. Size inflation has happened in boat weights - classified at one weight but will fit a bigger range of athlete weights than previously. It used to be +/- 5 kg and I believe it's larger than this now - maybe 10kg range. I believe that you want the oarlocks to sit half way up the pins for the average weight of the athletes when they sit in the boat with oars squared and buried at the finish. Too heavy athletes in a boat and you find insufficient freeboard to get the oars out at the finish or to row square blades. Too light athletes in a boat and you find you have to hold your handle higher up your chest in order to keep the oars buried at the finish and you cannot keep your wrists level with your elbows in the power phase. Gain an understanding of the number of years you use a boat before you replace it. Plan a replacement strategy so you can get the right range of boats for your needs. For example, we boat a lot of quads and now have a quad in three of the four weight ranges. Champagne tastes on a beer budget - we always want more equipment than we can afford to buy! Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Why the blade pathway from crossover to catch is so different between the left and right hands. If you aren't going straight, three things to check. Timestamps 01:00 What generally causes difficulties? Beginner errors are straightforward to work out if these are affecting you. 1 - squaring late 2 - balance issues 3 - missing water at the catch 03:30 Know if you are going straight Look from your stern to the horizon and line up your stern with a fixed point (house, power pole, tree) and watch the wake off your stern. You can see if the vee is symmetrical. 04:30 Blade extraction - are the blades coming out at the same time and are you pressing down symmetrically? If one blade drags that affects the boat course. 05:30 Blade crossover - from extraction to handle crossover it's important the boat is level. The rig is left higher than the right - your handle heights have to reflect the difference in oarlock height. Ensure your hands are "nested" close together. 08:00 Blade catch - the handles have to be symmetrical around a similar arc from the oarlock so the tips of the blades are the same distance from the side of the boat. The right hand has to move a greater distance from crossover to the catch than the left hand. It's probably 2 cm greater distance. Practice the fine motor skills to make subtle adjustments to the handles using pontoon floats on a single scull. Your arms have to go out to the same distance at the catch (not the same handle height). Listen to the sound of the oars going into the water - you can hear if one oar goes in before the other, Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

As a developing sport, there are aspects of masters rowing which we need to improve, change and adapt. Three signs of dysfunction and four solutions. Timestamps 01:00 What are the symptoms and cures to move our sport forward? Most clubs now have a masters group and a good waiting list of people wanting to learn to row. 02:00 Signs of dysfunction Rowing is designed to take a beginner towards higher performances. As we age we generally have diminishing strength each decade. Many of us love rowing but don't want to compete - so masters rowing is different. 1 - Cliques - people who only row with the same other people all the time. This is a long term limiting factor for the whole club group. Isolationism is antithetical to a successful masters group 2 - Club Priorities are Inflexible - they focus on juniors and young people. This means boats cannot be shared, it's hard to get a trailer to go to a regatta. Combining juniors and masters is an innovation. 3 - Skills Progression - if you think you aren't making progress it could be because there is not flexibility to enable you to progress. Failing to solve these leads to sclerosis, group size falling, limiting your ability to form crews across age groups, buy new boats. 07:30 Enabling solutions 1 - Have a pathway for masters to enable "looping" in and out of the sport year by year. Allow flexibility to change training groups and come back over time. 2 - Structure of the skills in your group. Starting from beginner, intermediate and advanced. Almost everyone wants coaching and to advance their skill. What are the entry requirements for each group - give transparency. 3 - Agreed club priorities across all groups. Measure actions and budgets against the priorities to see if you're achieving them. 4 - Racing classes for masters. Insert a step between novice and age group racing because it takes us longer to acquire the equivalent skills as a young person novice. A New Masters racing category allowing up to 5 years of learning to compete against similar people would smooth this path to racing. 12:00 How can these be set in place? How to bring your board / committee along with you so they understand what the masters group is trying to achieve. What are solutions we haven't yet thought of? Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Go on rowing camp! The pros and cons of going on training camp. You'll either love it or hate it. Timestamps 01:00 Going on a camp refocuses your attention on rowing. Are camps useful? There are lots of different types of camp - training camp - selection camp for racing crews - finishing camp before a big regatta 02:20 Three camp benefits You don't have to go with your whole club. Doing a camp at your own club has disadvantages - people keep their other life commitments and so tend to rush off after the workout. So you lose one of the good aspects of going away to camp which is the luxury of un-pressured time. 1 - gives you focus 2 - sense of purpose 3 - make decisions 4 - refresh your attitude to the sport and your involvement. 03:45 Coaching on camp Athletes get a lot of individual attention on camp compared to home training. There's time for debriefs, for mini tutorials, one-on-one time, sit next to coaches at meals and pick their brains. Coaches get a captive audience of athletes and can get messages about focus points across to them all. 05:00 Camp issues Increased training load - if normal rows are 60-90 minutes once a day camp workouts will be shorter. But you may do two or three workouts a day. Overtraining is not an issue in the long term. Camp is only 3-5 days plus travel days when you're resting. Schedule an off day when you get back home while you rig boats. Then pick up your regular training volume. If you come into the camp injured or recovering - that's a big red flag and needs management. When athletes don't tell the coach that they are injured that causes problems. Doing only part of the camp program is still beneficial. Getting injured on camp does not mean your time is wasted. Volunteer to go in the coach boat with the coaches, volunteer to film crews, volunteer to help the coaches. Hanging out with coaches, you learn by listening to their discussions. You can train your eye watching crews rowing to find out where improvements are needed. Illness on camp - take care a virus doesn't spread to everyone. Good hygiene practices are needed, 08:30 Camp outcomes Crew bonding and learning accelerated in a focused period. Plus fitness gains and technique input from coaches. Camp also allows you time to work on technique on your own. Self-coaching discipline and practice is also good. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

A key concept needed for sculling well, this challenging skill is essential for setting up the recovery. One drill to practice which helps teach how to control the oar handle heights. Timestamps 00:50 Teaching a singles course for those who can already row and want to try single sculling. There are 4 key concepts for essential skill in rowing and sculling. Weight in the hand is the most challenging key concept. 02:15 What is weight in the hand? Hold your handle and keep downward pressure on the handle to keep the oars off the water. It starts by controlling the finish as you extract the oar using a downward "tap down" of the handle. Use the outside hand in sweep; use both hands in sculling. Keep stable at the finish and keep pressure on the pin. If your button comes away from the oarlock at the finish you have not got this control. Facilitate the transition from body weight into the bow towards body weight towards the stern on the recovery. 04:15 How do you know if you can do weight in the hand? If you can do weight in the hand, you can row square blades. And you can feather high over the waves and keep your boat level in a side wind. 05:00 How to learn weight in the hand The stationary stability drill teaches you how to control the handle using weight in the hand. Sit the oars square and in the water at the finish. Then press down on the handles twice so just half the spoon comes out of the water. Then do a full press so the oar spoon comes fully above the water and hold this position in a pause, then return the blades under the water. Stage two is to do the same two half presses and a full press and then feather. Stage three is to add straightening the arms after the press down and feather. Your body and legs stay stationary throughout this drill. Sculling Intensive Camp https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/sculling-intensive/ A self-guided tutorial to improve your single sculling skills over 7 days. Includes drills for the whole stroke cycle including checklists to take in the boat with you. If you want to learn how to row square blades, take our three-part mini course [free]. https://fastermastersrowing.com/square-blades-challenge-lesson-1/ Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Meet Chair of the Indoor Rowing Commission, Filip Ljubicic and hear about the future of indoor rowing including an exciting announcement about the e-sports Olympics in 2025. Timestamps 01:00 The global World Rowing strategy for indoor rowing - rules, events, innovations, collaborations with erg manufacturers, digital apps and new tools. Indoor rowing is important - around 20-25 million people use a rowing machine at least once a year. A pathway or goal is part of the strategy for all participants. 2018 was the first Indoor Rowing World Championships. 03:30 The goal is to do both physical in person events and virtual events. Being able to compete is an opportunity for those who cannot travel. A new format for 2025. All the age categories are offered in addition there will be a World Champion for Indoor Rowing for the first time. It starts with open heats where everyone submits a time. Top 150 in each continent plus top 10 age category races progress to local timezone races the next weekend. Expect more tactical racing and a different mindset and challenge. First score submit date is 20th January 2025. There are endurance and sprint relays being offered including an age group 40-44 and 45-49 age group relay championship event. 08:30 Are drag factors recommended? No you choose your own. Finals day the top 50 will race live at once. The top 20 go through to the Grand Final giving the World Champion top 3 placings as well as age group champions if you get through to the last races. From this global standings will be produced for everyone. 11:00 Innovations for Indoor Rowing Looking at sport as entertainment. We are competing for the audience's leisure time and how to make the sport interesting. Other sports like athletics have different distances, formats that suit different types of athlete. We are enabling this for indoor rowing. The Versa Challenge - 5 events over 2 days with points (like heptathlon). A 20 minute race, the person with fewest meters every 2 minutes gets cut - enabled tactical racing and new uncertainties as it was unpredictable. 15:00 Indoor rowing as an E-Sport In 2025 there will be a virtual series through the year including standalone monthly challenges. Also World Rowing has submitted it to be part of the Olympic E-Sports - Virtual environments and physical activity category. World Rowing is waiting to hear next steps. The plan is to grow the ecosystem around indoor rowing. Saudi Arabia is the host country for 2025. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Hear how people deal with an illness but keep up their rowing. Overall advice is "do what you can". Timestamps 01:00 Many masters try to keep on rowing after a major illness or trauma diagnosis. Getting out on the water feels good - the challenge is around what is possible for you. 02:00 What is possible? Cancer treatment often has regular chemo and radiotherapy and you know the frequency of each session. One solution is to go rowing immediately before the hospital visit. Row when you can with a supportive friendship group. For surgery - muscular rehabilitation and strength training follows a simple pattern over weeks. After a stroke - lingering physical restrictions continue months afterwards. 05:00 Rowing with adaptations As we age our bodies may require us to adjust / adapt our stroke. For hand tremors difficulty holding a thumb on the end of the handle was hard. Suggestions include occupational therapists advice, gloves which tape onto the handle, hand exercises using old grips at home, para rowing has many solutions (adaptiverowinguk.com), baseball grip adhesive on your hands, use the little finger or side of your hand to make lateral pressure instead of your thumb. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a repetitive stress condition - the suggestion was to hold your handle with thumb and index finger curled around the end of the handle and to turn the oar with the middle and ring fingers. Lady with bone cancer continues to row and to go to regattas to enjoy herself with her friends. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Midlife brings challenges. Rowing is a pathway for getting your spark for life back. Join bestselling author, Rachel Marie Martin for tips and to hear her journey. Timestamps 01:00 Rachel has a long background in technology and she uses this to communicate her message about life, motherhood and the ups and downs that life has dealt her. 04:00 the overnight success takes 8 years. Be diligent and keep on trying. Get your spark back book is about Rachel's realisation that she'd lost her spark for life. What made her realise that life wasn't sitting 'right' with her. During the pandemic she said she didn't know who she was any more. Were was "me"? She was uneasy and went on the journey to re-find her soul without realising that was happening. In mid-life how to find your soul's journey. As a runner Rachel had to push past uncomfortable. 07:45 What were the clues? When you're young you have all the time to do something in the next decade. Looking at her friends and parents she realised time is finite. She couldn't keep postponing things. It was an awakening, not really frightening. 09:00 Choose to set your bar in the present, not based off the past. Why do I believe this to be true? Is the key question to ask yourself. We aren't taught to challenge our beliefs - we don't have the introspection to think. The story of the Easter ham. Why we do things? Are they applicable to your present? Choosing to do things that keep you 'small'. Review your own story and where is your bar - low or high? 12:00 Limiting beliefs I hear these in athletes' rowing frustrations - their mindset shows how their beliefs are limiting. Be willing to wonder about your beliefs. What is within your realm of possibility? Pay attention to the words you say. Are we keeping ourselves from something greater? This is the only shot I have in this life now. The audacity and risk of learning to row and not telling your family. Ask your community to help you spot your potential. What do they think you could do? 18:15 The story of the green shorts Rachel used these as a "benchmark" size. The person who wore the shorts didn't do what Rachel had done. Her success and happiness is defined differently now. https://shop.findingjoy.net/get-your-spark-back/ Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

How the catch placement changes with the oar angle. Why an acute catch angle with the oar is easier. Ways to adjust your catch technique as the boat speed changes. Timestamps 01:00 Catches and boat speed When the blade goes into the water at the catch, it needs to be buried rapidly and the curved face of the blade needs to grip the water. the early lock on point is hard to achieve - it depends on how and where you place the blade. 02:45 Blade face to the water The boat is a single unit moving through the water - water molecules are moving past the boat parallel to the length of the boat hull. The ideal oar placement should have the smallest surface area possible to the direction of travel. At half slide your oar is around 90 degrees to the boat length. It's slow to place the oar. At the catch, the face of the work facing the water is reduced to around 15 cms compared to half slide. At the extreme, if the oar is parallel to the side of the boat - this reduces to about 1.5 to 3 centimeters width. 07:00 The smaller the face of work of the blade to the water, the easier the blade goes into the water. When the blade is in the same plane as the water movement, it goes in easiest. At very short strokes - arms only - it's hard to place the blade. With the smaller face of work area at the catch, using an acute angle, it feels easier to place the blade. 08:30 Prepare your catch angle on the recovery. From half slide to the catch, your legs and seat move in a straight line up the slides to the catch. However your handle(s) are pivoting around the arc of a circle centred on the pin of the oarlock. Your body in sweep rotates around the pin - keep your shoulders parallel to the oar handle and let your eyes look out on your side of the boat - this helps create more rotation because your body follows where your eyes are looking. In sculling both your handles are pivoting around the arc of a circle - your arms move further than your legs from half slide to the catch. In effect there are 2 speeds on the recovery - the seat speed, and a faster speed of your hands leading the oar handles around the pin and upwards to place the oar under the water. By allowing your arms to go wider at the catch in sculling, you will get a more acute catch angle. Row longer by thinking about your arms, separately from your body. 13:30 Faster boat speed When the boat speeds up and rate increases, you have less time per stroke to anticipate the catch. Often stroke length shortens as stroke rate rises. Counter this by moving your thinking earlier in the recovery. This gives you more reaction time. You need to move your body proportionate to the rate - as rate rises your body speed also increases. When you get the catch timing right the catch can feel very light (not heavily loaded on the blade). 16:00 Train yourself by trying a drill. Go from full slide to half slide - it gives the impression you're rating very high. Prepare early at half slide so you don't miss water at the catch. Then try to maintain the same boat speed you had at full slide. You move dynamically off the catch placement. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Your boat speed depends BOTH on the power phase and the recovery phase. You've done the work - now get the benefit. Timestamps 01:00 Get more speed Your net boat speed is the power you put in to the power phase and the amount the boat slows down when the oars are out of the water. Rowing boats surge through the stroke cycle. 03:15 Simplicity is key to the recovery Keep the movements sequential and well-organised. Maximum boat speed comes after the extraction at the finish and as you transfer your body weight onto the feet. A key point is when you can get weight on the feet. As your arms straighten and your body follows - then the boat gets an extra burst of speed if you can sequence this correctly and smoothly. 05:00 4 focus points. 1 - Keep the slide seat wheels moving, rolling towards the stern and full compression. 2 - Poise and relaxation, both are needed. Keep your body lifted and in a fixed state so you sit high on the front of the seat along with relaxation. 3 - Muscles get tired when they aren't getting enough rest. The more rest they get on the recovery the more we can activate muscles on the power phase. How to activate and release muscles. 4 - Continue sliding until the blade is under the water. Don't chicken out. 10:30 Common errors You must have weight in the hand - elbows have to be higher than your wrist in order to give downward pressure. Keep a flat wrist as you feather into your fingers allows you to keep weight in the hand. In sweep only the inside wrist bends. Squaring on the recovery can mess with the rhythm. If you square late or it's a large movement this contributes to losing rhythm. When to release your knees - a critical timing point to when to relax your muscles. You will get this right when you know what the feeling of weight in the hand is and the feeling of total relaxation in your leg muscles are. Increase relaxation - know how to do this will help you to improve the other focus points. 14:20 Things to try Increase relaxation by 1% and what happens to the boat run, ratio and how the recovery feels. Does the boat speed change? [Remember they average over 3 strokes].

What "should" a masters rower be able to do? Training frequency, training volume, training intensity. What is the next big change in YOUR rowing training you can expect as you age? Timestamps 01:00 When masters start rowing we are likely here for a while. Longevity in the sport is longer for masters than juniors or young adults. We come back to rowing thinking we are the same athlete as we were when we last were in a boat. Article - Rowing and Aging Each Decade https://fastermastersrowing.com/rowing-and-aging-each-decade/ 02:00 Physiology certainties Once you age past a certain point you will not be as strong as you were in your youth. This is inevitable - yet it can be delayed with careful training. This is a hard reality check. 03:15 in your 20s and 30s an athletic lifestyle can be achieved within work/family life. Many endurance sports peak in their 30s. You may be able to do 6-9 sessions per week. In your 40s this is a decade where time is often limited. Time constraints mean your goal is to get adequate training to support your goals. Quality workouts are more important than quantity workout. The strength decline starts in this decade. Focus on rest and recovery to optimise your physical benefits of 5-7 workouts per week. 06:00 In your 50s the really competitive people get going here. Regatta entries for D and E are large, and growing. Metabolic changes happen here - diet changes for weight control and for women and protein ingestion is more important. Also, menopausal changes also happen. You may need to change sleep patterns by introducing daytime naps to ensure you get enough rest. Review your rowing technique to align with your physiological capabilities - you may swap to sculling from sweep because it's symmetrical. In your 60s more metabolic changes happen. You may be retiring to row and can do more training because you aren't working full time. Your erg score remains steady in your 60s - but technique improvements have big impact here as we lose strength we can gain speed by rowing better. 10:30 There are more rowers in their 70s than ever before. The body response to exercise becomes unpredictable and so affects rest and can cause injury. Flexibility and sensitivity to your recovery needs are a new habit. Maintain muscle mass with strength and conditioning work. 13:45 To get the best out of yourself each decade, assessing your capability is essential. Test your base aerobic fitness, peak power and anaerobic threshold using the Faster Five assessment. Your training adaptations will be visible when you test. 15:00 Rigging is essential. Change your rig to suit your age and strength. The testing will enable you to determine what to do. Adjust rating and gearing to suit your capability. Webinar - Rigging for Masters has charts for oar designs, across the ages and skill. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/rigging/ Many masters prefer the long distance races as we age - it's easier to keep your aerobic base as we age - what we lose is the high rating and sprint ability. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Reflections on the 2024 Older Athlete and Aging conference learnings. Timestamps 01:00 My learnings from Al Morrow Al Morrow on developing a good "eye" as a coach. Demonstrated the importance of being able to look at your athlete and see where they way they row doesn't line up with the model you are using. First you must have a good model of rowing to compare with. 02:45 Books on sport - most have the first chapter on grip. We don't check and instruct athletes on this frequently enough. It affects your posture and efficiency. Shoulder alignment in sweep and sculling. Most masters can probably row longer at the catch. 03:50 My learnings from Greg Benning Greg Benning on the power of reducing negatives and 1% gains modelled on the Sky Cycling team led by Dave Brailsford. Review all aspects of your training and life and find places where you can make small improvements. Some are compounding and others are linear e.g. weight lifting are linear. The compounding effect of rowing in the same crew consistently gives big gains. 06:00 The power of reducing negatives - taking fewer bad strokes. Slowing down less on the recovery will make your average speed higher. Greg showed the change in his absolute strength over 12 years and how he increased his boat speed despite this - the whole picture of positives and reducing negatives. 07:30 John Leekley on when to coach the whole crew vs individuals.Everyone focusing on the same thing at the same time. How to give more to your athletes as a coach and how athletes can get more out of their time with a coach. Can the coach take two crews simultaneously? The important role of the bow person. Can my crew competitively "beat" the other crew by being better at the thing the coach was focused on. Not necessarily a race but you can do better. Buy a ticket now to watch the recording. https://fastermastersrowing.com/older-athlete-aging/ Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Diary alignment is the hardest thing for masters to figure out. Three tips for you to try Timestamps 01:00 Regular practice in the same lineups helps you to get better faster. What NOT to do. Avoid agreeing crew lineups on the day in the boathouse - fix crews ahead of time so when they arrive they know who they are rowing with, the equipment to use - boat and oars. Prevent people from only rowing with their friends in the interest of community within the club. 02:30 A masters club that has a goal to grow, to add newcomers - it's more useful to mix up crews. When you're a newcomer it can be daunting seeing a large number of strangers. In a crew you can chat to people in your crew and get to know them. 03:30 Ideally set up groups Easy division into learn to row group, intermediate, advanced, racing and fitness groups. If you have a group each needs a co-ordinator/captain. Use software to help you. 1 - Software to manage your rowing club. 2 - Software to enable messaging. SMS is immediate and people notice it (email can be lost or ignored). Rowing club software options - listed on rowing.chat/retailers the Directory of rowing businesses. https://rowing.chat/retailer/?retailer_category=software - Fitclub - Boathouse Connect - iCrew - Rowfer - RowerHub - iSportz - Hello club. 05:45 Ideally book a long way ahead of time - masters are busy people. It can be hard to organise a week ahead, two weeks ahead is better. With software, each person can check/tick the days they are available. The Club can offer different times of day for workouts. The group organiser can easily see in the software calendar who is available and make up lineups. 07:00 Keep your group regular Try to find a day when you always do the same crew - important for large boats. This helps the co-ordinator. The software sends out crew lineups ahead of time (which also serve as a reminder). Acceptable behaviours - ideally if you cannot come, find your own replacement. The responsibility is on you. 08:30 Running a regular crew You need more than 4 or 9 people to run a crew of a four or eight. It takes 12 people to run an eights group. Running a four/quad can be done with 5 or 6 people. The port/starboard preferences mean you need more people for an eight (unless everyone can row on both sides). Work with a coalition of the willing - set up the behaviours with those who are prepared to get involved. People who are keen to get better and get into another crew for racing are often the most willing. How do you enable people to move between groups? How can people find substitutes or alternates at the last minute? Can you go to another group to find a final person to make up a crew? Some athletes advance their skills rapidly by being the person available to take the empty seat. 11:15 Back up plans Work out what you can do if you need.... mixing men and women, finding people to fill seats etc. One person in charge of scheduling (allocating equipment and lineups). They don't need to be a coach, but must know each person's skill level in order to be effective. Try to avoid people hogging equipment - do you allow equipment requests? By having a person doing the scheduling they can be fair and ensure the boats get shared around. When you sign up can you request crew / boat / tie of day? How can you get consistency for your training group to get more skilful and it's fun to row with a regular group. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

The athlete pathway for masters is different from other groups. What can clubs and Federations do to enable masters to succeed by changing the structure of our sport. Timestamps 00:40 What is our goal for masters in rowing? Should masters be allowed to leave and rejoin the club? One of the differences compared to youth rowers is that we remain in the sport for a long time. Youth, school, Seniors all have a long term athlete plan for the pathway of their progress. Masters are not the same. Our goal may be to race and achieve high results - but it is not always. The long term development plan is very different. Some join for participation and to learn how to row; others are there all the time, training and racing. Others like the weekend rows and train for fitness, pleasure and friendship - they may also race but on a shorter term horizon leading up to an event. 04:30 Looping in and out of rowing Many masters remain in the sport for a long time. What is possible for you right now? Life stage is important. In your 30s you may have a high pressure job. Or a flexible worker who can train during the working day hours. Some masters retire to row - actively. If you have children, under 14s are different from over 14s and can look after themselves for a time. Care responsibilities for aging parents are also another different group of masters. Our goal is continued participation - can you manage to stay involved on a level suitable for where you are right now? 07:00 Club membership structures don't align If you are required to buy an annual membership and are injured, this makes people decide not to rejoin their rowing club. 07:30 Create enabling structures These allow members to loop in and out of masters rowing participation over time. How can you stay involved while injured? Join social events with the club group. Can memberships be by quarter, term or semester? Groups in rowing clubs - often LTR, fitness, racing groups are common. As a club how to you enable members to move between groups in a way that reflects their life circumstance? How frequently do you re-assess group members? Can people see a pathway so they can see what the next step is for them in their rowing journey? What does it take to move from intermediate to elite racing? 10:00 Long term athlete development for masters How can you make it possible for members to stay involved over the long term in your club? These structures might make masters rowing long-term participant so we can remain engaged with the sport over the ultra-long term. Athlete development needs to be aligned with an individual's goals, skills improvement, not necessarily always-upward movement towards high racing achievement. Masters pathways are not necessarily linear - people can loop into rowing and then step away and loop out for a while. Making this happen is structural, requires a strategy for leaders who are involved in masters rowing. What can you do in your club to help?

Top Crew Academy is a coaching service run by Sam Dutney. He explains the differences and how they apply to masters rowing. Timestamps Different modes of training methodology are polarised and pyramidal. Most of the time people use pyramidal so the training intensity distribution is like a pyramid. It has a large base of low intensity, a moderate amount of mid intensity and a small amount of high intensity. Polarised training skips the mid intensity and has 20% at high intensity. 02:00 Percentages are 60: 30: 10% for pyramidal. Rowing training has been pyramidal for a long time - since 1930s. Polarised became popular in mid 2000s and is based on a study done on elite cyclists in endurance sports. 04:45 is HIIT influencing this change? The benefits of polarised training link well to the benefits of High Intensity Interval Training. What drives the benefits are the high intensity training - the top levels are very similar - the top level training is at or near top efforts. A huge amount of rowing performance comes from efficiency and time in the boat. Develop the skill in a polarised model in the low intensity sessions. 07:00 How to choose which mode is right for you Available time - if you can only train 3 times a week. Do a program with one low intensity and the other two as high intensity/ If doing 4-5 sessions a polarised model may be more suitable. Pyramidal training is effective in the early season and head racing. because you aren't trying to operate at maximum intensity. So pyramidal can be effective at this time of year. A 2016 paper on runners compared pyramidal and polarised training for 16 weeks; The results from pyramidal for 8 weeks and then shifting into polarised for 8 weeks was very much more effective than all the others. The polarised hard sessions have to be really hard and the easy sessions need to be really easy. As we get older you don't recovery as well that's where polarised training can help recovery for masters. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

The Head of the Charles and all head races demand a good performance. How to find the ideal stroke rate for your crew. Timestamps 00:30 Do you have a question in your mind about whether you've got the correct stroke rate for race day. A story about a crew and an experienced coxswain - they had 2 races in one day. In the first race he drove them hard, with pushes, focus points and technique improvements. Before the second race the crew told the cox that they felt uncomfortable and hadn't enjoyed the race. They wanted to have a stroke rate that they called "long and strong". The cox disagreed with them, but he did what they wanted. What happened? In the second race, the crew was 20 seconds slower than in the first race. 02:30 Why did the crew go slower? They felt comfortable in the second race, they felt confident and that they had everything under control. In the first race the cox pushed them close to their limits. It did not feel nice, they felt close to their limits, they felt awkward, out of breath, not fully in control and yet the boat went faster. 03:15 Your Training Pieces You will be doing workouts at different stroke rates from 18 up to race pace. Your trial test races will also be planned into your program. This is where you try different things. Training pieces are often at specified rates - get a boat speed measurement in 500m splits or meters per second (m/s). Download your workouts and put them into an analysis program like www.rowsandall.com [free] Find out how fast your boat went at different stroke rates. This is your base level of data. What was your average split in the piece. Where did you go slower or faster? Note wind and waves that upset your base speed. 05:30 Boat speed at different stroke rates Look at how the speed changes when the rate varies. Learn the inter-relationship between these two things. Our program for October 2024 includes ladders with changing rates. These show your boat speed at each rating. Rating is the only variable in the ladders. Use the data aggregated over a few weeks to review with your crew where the boat felt good and went fast. See all our programs and webinars https://fastermastersrowing.com/our-courses/ 07:00 Effective rate and boat speed Learn how the boat speed and rating combine to learn which ratings are best for your crew. Remember they may be odd numbers (not even number ratings). Then test out the best rates in trial pieces and test events. Can you deliver the same boat speed under pressure of race conditions? Use what you learn to adjust your race plan. 07:30 Learn and revise The key learning is to test your upper limit. As you train at higher stroke rates you get better at rowing at higher stroke rates, you get fitter too and more used to sustaining those rates. So your upper rate limit is changing over time. Take account of this - being good at 28 this weekend doesn't mean that next weekend you will still be good at 28, it may have lifted to 29 or 30 strokes per minute. 08:30 Three things you can do to push your upper limit stroke rate 1 - Rate higher - if you try one number higher than what you think is your top rate. Generally rowing boats move one boat length per stroke. They go faster at higher rates - but the relationship between stroke rate and speed is not linear, it does plateau. And it can slow down the boat speed at very high rates. 2 - Work harder - can you push the oar through the water from catch to finish. Improve your work rate for any given rating. 3 - Rest more - improve your ability to relax on the recovery to give your muscles a break before the next catch. If you can slow the boat down less each recovery, your average speed will have increased. Practice these three in every single workout you do. Then bring this to your training pieces as you work out your ideal stroke rate for the race. This gives you "tricks" to pull out of the bag or levers you can pull in the race to improve your performance.

What to take, make a list:- kit, tools, food, comfort, medical. Timestamps 00:50 Regattas are busy times There is a lot going on and so it's easy to forget things. There are many distractions around you and some may affect your race outcome. 01:50 Write it down on a master checklist Start with packing the night before you leave. - 3 complete changes of clothing for racing. If you can afford it buy a singlet as well as a row suit in race strip club colours. I include underwear and in winter waterproof socks; wellington boots for the boat park when wet and muddy. Buy Waterproof socks https://fastermastersrowing.com/merch/ - List the things you do before you go on the water - rigging the boat, number, crew talk, take your fluids and food. - Write a timeline back from the start time of your event. Include time to adjust your boat (oarlock heights, foot stretcher positions, check oar length and inboard). Coxswains check your electronics and plug it in to test it. - Know what time you want to push off from the dock, know if there is likely to be congestion queuing to get on the water (allow more time), check with experienced people what time allowance you should make. - Write the time of each race, boat and oar allocation, my crew and my number. - Food needs on regatta day. Arrive already fed - have breakfast before you arrive. Eat easily digestible food. Snacking food between races - gels, muesli bars, water with electrolyte and carbohydrate. Eating more than 20 minutes before a race means I can digest the food. Stuff you can eat in your hand without a knife and fork. A main meal for the middle of the race day - I choose pasta with cheese and vegetables. - For your own boat - include boat ties, a flag for the stern. Also sunscreen, towel, rain proof jacket and trousers, hair bands / hat, sunglasses and rowing electronics. 12:00 Get ready to enjoy yourself It's easy to get distracted when others ask you for help and then you miss your own crew race preparation timeline. I set alarms on my phone - an hour before my race time with the name of the alarm e.g. quad race. If someone asks to borrow your tools and you lend them they can get mislaid even if you name your tools. Ask the borrower to give you their phone or sunglasses while they borrow the tool - and they are more likely to return it. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

What is normal for you? What to expect when you track your normal waking heart rate. Timestamps 00:50 This is important as we age. It's a free way to track your physical wellbeing. I found out about it from Harry Mahon, the New Zealand rowing coach. Resting heart rate is important for masters because we are too good at "keeping going". Knowing how well you are is key to how you approach training and to give you confidence. 03:00 What is resting heart rate useful for? In the longer term it's an indicator of your fitness. The lower your resting heart rate the fitter you are. Heart rates are very individual - what's normal for you is not the same as mine. Your readiness to train today. Waking heart rates when tracked regularly show you what number is normal for you. After one week you will see your numbers and what's normal. The resting heart rate can show if you are incubating an illness - viral or bacterial. It shows up in your resting heart rate before you see symptoms. Before you get symptoms your heart is already responding to the illness. This could also be stress, poor sleep or dehydration - it's not always illness. The heart rate jumps up 10 beats per minute when suffering an illness. 07:00 After being sick and wanting to go rowing again, I have gone out when I still have symptoms but find doing a medium intensity workout helps to clear the final symptoms of the virus. The normal pulse precedes this. 08:15 How to find your pulse Two places the side of your neck or the wrist - on the thumb side about 2 cm from the wrist joint - use two fingers to locate it (not your thumb because there's a pulse in your thumb). Take a one minute reading or 30 seconds and double the score. When you start counting, make the first pulse zero and then one, two, three etc. Keep a daily record - use this free daily training diary from our website - to record your training, overnight health and hydration state. https://fastermastersrowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Daily-Diary-Recovery-Training-Tracker.pdf Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Flexibility and mobility aide our rowing. What you can do to keep mobility will help your rowing and sculling. Timestamps 01:00 How can we stay mobile as we age? Two mornings after a big workout you wake up feeling stiff, tight and tense in your body. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) has kicked in. Your body does not feel like it normally does. 01:45 Why mobility is important for rowing Mobility and flexibility are words used interchangeably - but medically they have different meanings. Mobility - ability to move through the full range of motion. The rowing positions we want to be able to achieve. Sit at the finish with good poise, no slump in your lower back and pressure on your feet. Rock forwards with a pelvic tilt so your shoulders are sternwards of your hips. Roll up the slide to full compression with shins vertical, arms wide and is your body able to take the strain of the load from the oars in the water, Flexibility - ability to stretch your muscles, tendons and ligaments. IT is possible to be mobile without being flexible. 03:00 How mobile are you now? Webinar Functional Movement Assessment - how does your body move to achieve a particular position. This free webinar can be watched on demand from this link. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/functional-movement-assessment/ 10 Screening Exercise Tests Where is your ability on 10 screening exercises? The ebook (free download) sets out the main positions for rowing and sculling. All are useful for you to work out if you can get into the positions for the stroke cycle. The webinar discusses ways to improve your score on the tests. Rowing with compromises affects many masters rowers. The webinar shows you stretches to help you change your body to improve your screening exercise results. These exercises are useful if you want to make a change in your body. 06:00 Changing your body takes time and regular practice Muscles, tendons and ligaments take time to change, to lengthen and to strengthen. Old injuries or health issues affect our body postures. Setting up a rowing boat to suit each person's physical mobility is another article - link below. https://fastermastersrowing.com/adapting-rowing-rigging-for-masters-physiology/ Getting more flexible is something we should all be able to do with regular practice. Morning ritual while brushing my teeth, I stretch my adductors. A challenge for you - improve one or two of your screening tests. 08:00 Coaches can use the tests to screen crews. Find out whether they can get into the positions you are trying to coach. If athletes cannot get into the positions, you will find it harder to teach technique. Skill stretch for masters who splay the knees out sideways as you roll up the slide. If you do not have the strength to hold legs parallel. Hold both fists together between your knees and use your legs to squeeze your fists gently. This strengthens the muscles on the outside of your legs and may help to keep your legs parallel. Find out if your body is mobile and can get into the rowing positions and watch the Functional Movement Assessment free webinar. . https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/functional-movement-assessment/ Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Do you have a split to aim for during workouts? What to do if you don't hit your rowing 500m split and does this matter? Timestamps 01:00 Psychology of chasing 500m splits on the erg and on the water? Is it beneficial for masters rowing training. 03:45 Before rowing electronics the best way to find out your boat speed was to work on a measured marked distance on your river or lake. Repeating the distance and comparing boat speeds helped to work out your improvements. Splits are a useful tool The advent of splits enabled comparability between workouts and also use on the indoor rowing machine. Concept2 erg splits are comparable to heavyweight men 4- times on water. 05:30 Splits as a comparable tool but your split does NOT equal your training zone. The physiology of how coaches write programs to achieve key athlete outcomes. Training each physiological system helps you improve. As we age our base fitness is generally more sustained (we don't lose it fast). Our absolute strength declines with age and our ability to rate high and train our anaerobic system can be more challenging. Doing testing allows you to set up training zones aligned to your physiology. The same training program can't be applied to men and women of different ages e.g. 40 to 65 years old. They cannot do the same workouts - not physically capable. Know your own training zones so you can adapt the program to suit you. In a club with diverse members, you may find that the program is too hard or too easy for you. You may find recovery is insufficient. These symptoms are caused by a one-size-fits-all training program for masters rowing. Come to Faster Masters Rowing and use our program where you can interpret the program and adapt it to suit you. Buy the testing protocols - Faster Five. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/faster-five/ 09:00 Athletic benefits of training to splits Re-testing yourself regularly allows you to measure progress and then adjust your training zones to match your new physical fitness. Use tools mindfully. It's fun to look at a number and to try to beat it - this is motivating. But moving into an adjacent training zone as a result of beating the number will negatively impact your future performance. 10:30 You can choose to focus on a split that is attuned to your body or not. The program you are following was written with a goal in mind. You aren't supporting your coaches' goals if you do not follow the program. Following the wrong split is a good example of not doing the program.

Getting the correct range of boat types and boat weights to suit your club group is important. What to look for, how to assess your fleet and plan for the future. Timestamps 01:00 Boats to suit athletes Review the stock of boats and equipment in your club and how they align with the needs of your athletes. We realised we needed to workout if our boat fleet matched the masters group needs. Assess the weight class of boat to the athlete weights in your group. 03:00 What weight class was your boat designed for? Look for the manufacturer's plate - often in the bow or the front of the stroke's foot well. It shows the design hull type, year of manufacture and the average weight of athlete it's designed for. Club asset registers list all the boats in the club ownership. We added the information about the boat design weight. 04:30 List all the boats in each boat class that you own (8, 4s, 2s and 1x) and classify them to the athlete weight they are designed for. Broadly we chose 3 categories - light weight boats (under 70kg), mid-weight boats (70-85kg) and heavy weight boats ( over 85kg). Our list included boat name, age of boat, weight class of boat and whether lightweight, mid-weight or heavyweight. We added in how old the boat was and whether it was due for retirement. It was then clear where to skew of boats matched our athlete weights. 06:00 Boat gap analysis Have we got one boat in each weight class? Which are the most popular boats which athletes like to row? This shows you where you are short of boats by boat class and boat weight to align with what your group needs, frequency of boat use per week/month, and which boats your masters want to row. This is not static, it changes each year as membership and priorities change. This information was then put into the prioritisation for refurbishing boats, fund raising for new boats and spare parts / minor repairs list (consumables e.g. shoes, slides, gates). 08:00 Set out a 3-4 year programme to get your boat fleet more aligned with your group needs. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

London RC won the British Masters Championships Victor Ludorum prize in 2024. We talk to coach and captain James Sexton-Barrow about their approach to training, racing and organising their masters squad. Timestamps 01:00 The plan to win the trophy began with a tracking spreadsheet. 02:30 The common goal for masters at London Rowing Club - it's a very big club membership with 100-120 rowers. The vision to win the trophy started after the 2023 event. The rowing sub-committee set the goal in January. 05:00 There are many sub-groups within the masters membership with their own objectives. A kick-off meeting brought everyone together. The club's founding was about winning at Henley Royal Regatta. We can all do this and get our photo on the wall next year. 07:00 Challenges overcome We have a limit to number of boats and trailer space - the logistical challenge was addressed early. Also members expectations were managed as all fours had to also be quads to save trailer space. [The regatta does sweep one day and sculling the next.] Shared goals meant members had to do well in lots of events across a broad base of individuals. Time was allocated to crew boats and balanced against individual goals for the collective goal. 11:00 The members age from masters A but the youngest category race offered in BMRC is B. Crews had to be averaged out to accommodate younger members. Ages from 28 to early 70s took part. Everyone was happy to mix-and-match. Most people did 3 races over the weekend. Most crews were in championship age group racing, a few did intermediate category events. 15:15 What next? Henley Masters Regatta and next year the Banyoles World Rowing Masters Championships is a future focus. We would like to retain the trophy in 2025 too. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Learn about what it's like to row in the Netherlands from the Royal Dutch Rowing Federation Chair, Seada van den Herik. Timestamps 01:00 Seada was an international rower prior to Atlanta 1996. She organised the Junior and U23 Championships in the Netherlands before moving into more administration leadership roles. 02:30 There are about 100 masters clubs in the Netherlands. The network is very strong from age 27 upwards including "mid-week" masters groups. There is also erg rowing and coastal masters groups. A solid, enthusiastic, self-organising group of masters. 04:00 The annual calendar. The Head of the River Amstel and the Heineken Regatta in Amsterdam both in March. There are other long distance races of 5-7km and some marathon rowing events. Recreational tours (20-30) happen each year. There are active mid week rowers who organise to row at each others' clubs too. 07:00 Innovations in masters rowing include collaborations with the German and Belgian federations co-ordinate joint "wander-rudern" touring events. A recent change in masters age categories was made to encourage student rowers to stay on in the sport after they stop studying. It is a pre-masters field from age 20-30. The race rules changed so the Masters A category is an average of 27 - this allows younger rowers to take part. It gives space for ex-students to grow into masters. 10:30 Adult novice rowing in the Netherlands There are a lot of rowers joining aged 45 plus - people looking for a new sport join general clubs. They stay in the sport for 30-40 years. The Board now includes a novice master, Eric, to bring diversity to their group so they can understand the driving force for why adults start rowing. 13:00 Camps - the Touring Committee organise tours internationally (local and in UK, Germany and France). Masters want to keep on learning and developing and they see businesses offering clinics and camps for masters. 14:30 Future Plans There are 5 committees for masters - the Masters (international); Mid-Week; Marathon; Recreational; and the Touring committee. The recreational group want to both have fun, be healthy and to progress and be challenged. There will be a focus on how to promote offerings for masters recreational rowers. There will also be a new focus on coastal and erg rowing for masters. The ambitions are of the clubs and rowers, not the Federation - we stimulate their ambitions and exchange of information within clubs so we are the beating heart of the sport.The self-organisation of the network is great with super organisers and volunteers.

Meet Digger Barnes, he is on the Masters Rowing Commission for British Rowing. 01:00 Masters rowing clubs in UK - they tend to be run by masters rowers around the country. The opportunity for anybody to join and learn to row. Digger started at age 45. That's the really good thing about rowing. 03:15 Major regattas and events in Great Britain The British Masters Championships in May - has 2 categories - the masters age group or the intermediate event. The Henley Masters Regatta is in July - run in 2 lanes. Head racing in the winter includes the Vesta Veterans Head of the River in eights during March run on the Thames in London. 05:30 Innovations in masters rowing The connectivity between masters groups is changing since covid. Now the group is pre-planned lineups before going out rowing. All racing is done on points so there is no longer a 'novice' category. There is still age group racing and the points mean they select crews of similar points in separate races when enough enter. In head races the higher point people start at the front of the race. 09:30 Future plans to develop masters rowing The British Masters Champs evolves every year. Time handicaps may get updated to become different for men and women in future to ensure fairer racing. 11:00 Adult novices 80% of clubs are volunteer run and his club has a waiting list for over 100 people wanting to learn to row and the majority are masters. Until we find enough volunteers to help them, we can't take on many novices. It's important not to disappoint them through the first 12 months of their membership. British Rowing does not have a masters strategy or a masters pathway. We have to do what we can locally, the federation won't be helping masters novices. When Digger learned to row in a 10 week beginners course and he knew he couldn't row well after that. He doesn't want others to have the same experience. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Gwenda Stevens is the President of the Belgium Federation. We discuss masters rowing in Belgium, the clubs regattas and the new Masters National Championship event. Timestamps 00:45 Gwenda has been president for 12 years and she's also an umpire and masters rower. 02:30 Master rowing in Belgium isn't a big sport. There are 28 rowing clubs in the country - only a few have masters. Gent has hosted regattas regularly in April and May for many years. There has been a lack of entries recently. Until 2 years ago when changes happened. 04:45 The Federation added masters rowing to the national championships three years ago. They worked hard to ensure that there were enough entries. IN September 2023 there were a huge growth with 9 eights racing masters. The April regatta will now have a small boats champs (1x and 2-) and in September for big boats (4x, 4- and 8 as well as a mixed 8). 06:40 There is now a Belgian National Title on offer and Gwenda believes this has accelerated the change and growth in competitors. The standard is high. Gwenda thinks the changes weren't big but had a large impact. She hopes to have a separate masters championships. 08:50 New innovations - they are waiting to see how the event evolves and may have a masters only event with international participants as well from local countries.

Georg Gruetzner is the masters representative on the German Rowing Federation. Resource: Structure of masters rowing slides https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/systems-thinking-for-masters-rowing-1pptx/263741256?from_search=2 3 Value Bombs 1. Use the Block Racing format for masters regattas to enable boat sharing 2. Invest in masters learn to row pays dividends quickly (financial and participation) 3 Look to other countries for innovations e.g. combine university and masters rowers for a big regatta Timestamps 01:00 The Masters Officer in the Federation is responsible for the rules in Germany. There are many local groups who run masters events. 02:30 Masters are in many clubs. There are 55 clubs in Berlin alone - but it's variable from year to year. Some masters come to racing from touring rowing - exemplified by a Hamburg club. Most clubs have fine boat regatta rowing and also touring rowing boats. 05:00 Some touring regattas are very long like 100km down the River Rhine. There are four main events - March ergo and long distance events. Starting in June the Meister Championnnat two day regatta. Then in July the German Master's Championships happens which combines with the German champs and University champs in the same week. They use the block format for regatta organisation to enable boat sharing. There are around 650 masters participating each year. The outcome of the triple championships was well received - youngsters respect the masters and masters like staying in contact with the younger rowers. Euro Masters in Munich at the end of July is very popular internationally. Then the World Rowing Masters Regatta in early September which is in Brandenburg, Germany in 2024. 13:00 There are 85,000 rowers in total in Germany. Stimulating novice participation is important and offering them races means the future masters generations is successful. 14:00 Innovations in masters rowing - Adult Novices and young masters Many novices will race and some events also offer races for under 27 year olds. A little like the AA category in USA. They allow touring boats to be used by novices. The goal is to stay in masters rowing for life. The goal is to remove the break from 21 year old students and 27 year old masters. Wolfgang Fritsch also runs masters seminars for people who want to improve and come from club beginner/novice courses. Clubs often do beginner courses but fall short when people need to improve their technique. This gap is filled by Wolfgang's camps and seminars. 20:00 The structure of masters rowing in Germany has been examined to find the gaps and opportunities to improve. The German Masters champs are open and so other countries can participate as well. Recent years Netherlands, Austria and Belgian rowers participate. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

What's masters rowing like in Ireland? Gerry Murphy is Chair of the Masters Representative Committee for Rowing Ireland. A big increase in member registration has happened and masters are now 18% of total rowing registrations. Clubs see the benefit of having masters groups. There are many other regattas offering masters events - they will put in events entries secretaries are generally willing. Many heads of the river - Galway and Enniskillen - which include masters. Overseas guests are welcome in Ireland. Most clubs have some form of masters rowing group - including Skibbereen who started a group recently. Gerry's club, Neptune, started an adult learn to row class and most of the graduates are in the rowing leisure group - there are 70 members now. They do tours and exchanges with clubs in France and Portugal. Innovations in masters rowing. There is a coach education programme. Most clubs want masters because they see the benefits as they volunteer and grow the club. The 1k Classic (Carrick on Shannon) is a new event which Gerry hopes will become the official Masters Rowing Championships in future. Future plans - a proper structure for masters programmes development, coaching development, a co-ordinator for masters in every club who can give guidance. It would be nice to get better equipment as well, possibly dedicated masters boats. External guidance to Rowing Ireland may be possible for masters. We love it and we have a smile on our faces - folks are jealous of us. Gerry encourages people to find their level in the sport and enjoying that.

Getting coached sometimes feels like being told you are wrong all the time. What can you do as an athlete to enable yourself to receive critiques and not feel vulnerable? Timestamps 01:00 Criticism is part of the learning process. Improving requires us to know what we are doing right, what we're doing less well and how to change. It is hard not to feel it's personal because it's directed at you. Separate the message from the emotion and the personality giving the feedback. Peer-to-peer coaching in the boat where you don't have a coach enables you to give and receive feedback in an environment where it's appropriately received and acted upon. 03:30 John Zarao [captain sabre fencing team 1984 Olympics] quote "Competitive sport is a cruel mistress. You are competing on merit, but you can have a gad day - like everyone else. You must listen (not if) to those who know what they're talking about." 04:30 A learning opportunity - constructive criticism Do I want to improve the way I row and scull? If the answer is yes, you have to be open to hearing information about your current state and how to get to a desirable future state. 1 - What is the message being given to you? 2 - Does this message apply to me? 3 - If yes, how can I use it to improve my rowing? 06:00 How you get the information and feedback. Work with the person giving you the feedback. - repeat back to them in your own words what you think they have said to you. Clarify the message until they say to you "that's right" so there's no ambiguity. - challenge your defensiveness and work out why you are so bothered by this message. - focus on the message not the delivery. - apply the message to your rowing / sculling 08:00 Giving criticism / feedback You have to prepare the athlete to receive your message first. Few people change their position after being shouted at. Ask the athlete "May I give you some feedback?" and stay silent until they answer yes. Because if they aren't ready to receive your message it won't land. "Before I give you advice can I ask if you are interested in improving your technique?" and get the answer yes to this question too. 10:45 Coaches giving feedback Contextually it's important your athletes know that you only give feedback to athletes you think can improve. Few coaches invest time in someone who you think cannot change. See the feedback as respect from your coach that you're a worthwhile athlete to invest their time and energy in. Receiving love and respect from your coach is desirable and the pathway is changing something which isn't right in your rowing just now. 13:30 Ask your coach "Where am I standing right now in the crew and where do you see me at the end of the season?" This helps you to put a timeline onto your improvement and to understand where you stand compared to others in the group. The attention you are getting may be because you are on a good pathway to improvement. Help each other to receive messages which are not 100% positive is a good pathway to becoming a better rower. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

You're preparing to race and are concerned you aren't rating high enough. Why rating matters. Two drills you can do to get the rate up. What prevents you getting the rate up? Resource: Practicing Racing Starts https://fastermastersrowing.com/practicing-racing-starts/ 3 Value Bombs 1 - Know your ideal mid race rate 2 - Precise bladework can always be improved 3 - Over-rate drill helps you get confident at high rates Timestamps 01:15 First you must know what your ideal race rate goal is for the main body of your race. Your training programme should have increasing race rates to help guide you closer to your race rate goal. 04:20 Be precise in your bladework practice. Can you get your oars in and out in perfect time with your crew mates? Increase the quality of precise practice. Have a clearly defined sequence of the rowing stroke cycle. Do these movements slowly and then test under pressure (rate, firm pressure). 10:30 Over-rating as a test Can you practice rating higher than your race pace rate? 11:00 Three drills for rating Half slide drill - take the rate up 2 strokes per minute every 10 strokes. Find the rate where your precision fails. Do this 3 times in every outing practice. Try at increasing pressure. Double quick hands drill - double quick hands around the finish - from the extraction round to weight on the feet on the recovery. Helps develop fluidity of movement in the handle speed. Over rating drill - row and pick a target rate and accelerate up to that rate and then do 10 strokes at that rate. Then wind down to light pressure. Then try it again at rates higher than your race pace goal. Later do the drill only to your race rate goal you should feel that you have plenty of time and can manage this rate with ease. 20:00 What should your rate be in the race? Challenge your preconceptions about race rate by practicing drills regularly. Get familiar with the feeling of getting the boat up to higher rates. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Staying hydrated for training and racing can give you hidden benefits. It's very easy to become dehydrated and not realise. Performance improvements and recovery gains from hydration. Resource: Home Made Sport Drink Recipe (below in notes) 3 Value Bombs 1. Daily drink plan for hydration 2. Always use sport drinks while training for electrolyte and carbohydrate intake 3. Drinking caffeine can help on regatta day Timestamps What you are drinking and how to get fluids into your body. It's more than just drinking while training, off the water drinking matters too. 01:00 Daily Drink Plan. Start with a glass of water when you wake up in the morning. Every time you have a meal or snack, have another glass of water. Snacks might be mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Get into the habit of 2 litres of fluid a day - this includes any hot drink, shake or smoothie count too. Keep a record of your hydration - cricket notation makes it easy to see each 5 glasses of water you have. 02:30 Before during and after training sessions hydration is needed as well. Drinks need carbohydrate and electrolytes in them. This is part of your recovery from exercise. Carbohydrates help you maximise energy levels to maintain intensity through to the end of a workout. Training works to provoke adaptations. Electrolytes are minerals which get lost through sweat. The air temperature during exercise affects your feeling of thirst. Do not rely on your sensation of thirst - anticipate your hydration needs before you feel thirsty. 06:00 Caffeine drinks - these are worthy of your consideration because caffeine is a stimulant. I drank a half and half Red Bull and water at a regatta when I had a lot of races. I'd learned that Dame Kelly Holmes used this for her race day hydration. 09:45 Race day caffeine use Use sports drink only on regatta days. Use either caffeinated drinks or tablets (noDoze or Pro Plus). Have caffeine every 2-3 hours while racing - half a can of drink 30-40 minutes before your first race or half a caffeine tablet. 11:15 Home made Sports Drink Recipe From Nancy Clark's Sport Nutrition Guidebook affiliate link to buy https://amzn.to/3z6023E Flavoured with orange juice and lemon juice or cranberry/lemonade. 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup hot water 1/4 cup Orange juice (not concentrate) 2 tablespoons Lemon juice 3.5 cups of cold water. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Ever since the 2007 movie, we've started bucket lists for everything. Now it's time for you to plan your rowing event bucket list. Timestamps 00:30 Things we are going to do in rowing before "kicking the bucket". The Faster Masters Rowing self-guided training plan to help get you fit, faster and the confidence you're doing the right thing in your training. How to train as we age - masters rowers are not the same as youth rowers. If you train three times a week minimum, this program may suit you. Get a free trial download masters rowing program https://fastermastersrowing.com/rowing-program/ 03:30 if you already have a program and. want to read the articles we write on topics of interest to masters rowers, buy the monthly Masters Rowing Magazine. 04:00 Famous rowing waters Bucket list rowing is about doing things that are special and have value to you. Andrew Turner suggested this episode. Row on famous waters - places which are renowned in the sport of rowing. Row on Olympic courses - Sydney, Munich, Paris, London. The Assault on Lake Casitas by Brad Alan Lewis tells one story of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. 06:15 Famous rowing events The well known Henley Royal Regatta and Head of the Charles are well-known. These can be hard to get entries in because HRR does not have masters events. Row on the same course in different events like Henley Masters Regatta - a 1k event in July. The London Veteran Eights Head of the River Race is on the Boat Race course and run in March each year. Australia's Head of the Yarra is the premier event in the Southern Hemisphere in Melbourne each November. The Amsterdam Heineken Regatta is uniquely over several different race distances. Touring Rowing races include the Tour de Lac Leman (around Lake Geneva) and is over 100km long. Also consider the Canal du Midi in France touring event. 11:00 Famousrowing coaches What about getting a session with a famous rowing coach? Some join camps which you can join. Best Rowing Books https://fastermastersrowing.com/best-rowing-books-2020/ Troy Howell, Volker Nolte, Marlene Royle, Jim Dietz, Al Morrow - all well known coaches who work with masters. 13:00 What bucket list trip would you enjoy? Ireland with the Tribesman Head and a driving holiday afterwards. Meet rowers from a famous club in your own country - Capital Rowing Center in Washington DC. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

What's masters rowing like in the South Island of New Zealand? We meet South Island Rowing chairman, Peter Midgeley. Timestamps 00:30 South Island of New Zealand has an association who owns and runs the Twizel lake which includes a 2k rowing course. The NZ National Champs and NZ Secondary School champs (Maadi Cup) regatta are held there. The Cup was first raced in Egypt after the Second World War in Maadi, Cairo, Egypt. It was brought home by returning soldiers and is now presented to the fasters secondary school boys eight each year. 02:45 The Clubs in South Island NZ One club is only masters, most have a masters section. Many are small (20 rowers) half are recreational and half want to race. There's a year calendar which Peter sets. There are 5 major regattas a year and the masters have set events within those regattas. They use the handicap system which counts down additional seconds so everyone finishes at the same time - making a better spectacle for the crowds watching. Every second year the NZ Masters Championships are in the South Island held in September. And the South Island Masters Champs is in June - starting 22 years ago. Now it's got about 25 cups and has 2-300 participants. It's in the coldest weekend of the year! The format starts with a long distance race the first day, 1k mixed racing with a BBQ in the evening. The 1k regatta is on the second day and has a dinner/dance afterwards. Peter recalls racing in the snow at Twizel once for that regatta. 07:30 Peter explains that this year the organisers are 'testing the waters' about moving the weekend to Anzac Weekend in April - which is a bit warmer. The idea of the regatta is to go to the rivers and lakes where there used to be regattas. The size of the regatta now is limiting this. Peter recounts the story of the New Years Day regatta at Picton when the Interislander Ferry came in with a huge wake disrupting the event. Wise coxswains turned their boats sideways to ride the wave, but one boat got swamped. Joseph Sullivan is from Picton Rowing Club who won gold in M2x at London 2012 Olympics. 10:00 Innovations in masters rowing. Rules can only be changed every 4 years - it gets voted on at the AGM. So change is slow to happen. Masters need to get the clubs on board because in NZ we are very school-oriented. The majority of rowers are under 18. The masters are the backbone of clubs - they are in the sport for longer than parents. They're only there for 3-4 years while their child is rowing. Many clubs are run by masters who have the time, money and knowledge as well as the staying power. The average master stays 10 years in a club. Coastal Rowing is going to give good growth for coastal clubs to bring on masters novices. Peter sees the opportunity to advance them faster as they learn to row without balance. This facilitates moving into fine narrow boats later. It's easy to teach the basics of slide control and blade handling. 14:15 What next? How to get masters onto a more equal footing with young people in the club. Peter says most masters are seen as second rate. Get onto the committee and be positive - be the oil on the squeeky wheel - and get things done. South Island Rowing has a website with all the clubs and associations including club contact details if you want to visit. There's a club in every town and city in the South Island which has a river. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

Mis-timing the catch causes the boat to slow down. You can go faster for no extra effort. Timestamps These three things are super-easy to correct and take no extra fitness and effort. So important for masters to enjoy our rowing and so "speed for free" is great for us. 01:45 Putting the oar in the water at the wrong moment. Roll forward to full compression - there's a micro second when the seat is stationary. This is the moment when you want the oars already under the water. Too early - means you miss the opportunity to use all your leg drive. Too late - means you aren't at full slide; you waste leg drive because you're pushing air not water, and the bows are not at their highest. 03:50 The boat tilts longitudinally during the stroke At the bows' high point you are generally at full slide and closest to the stern of the boat. This is when you want to place the oars into the water. 04:50 The cure starts at the finish Get the set-up correct - refer to our earlier episode about Speed Murdering Mistake #2 The Finish. - Be prepared early for the catch. - Oars need to be square before you change direction on the slide,. - Have as few body movements as possible while sliding. - Instability compromises catch timing - Loose legs on the recovery creates poise and control during the sliding and means you are doing less - Sequence off the back (finish) arms - body - legs bend last. 08:30 Ensure you correctly understand the recovery You should not roll fully forwards before squaring. This movement needs to be earlier in the recovery. 09:15 What to do differently 1 - Look at your knees. They are at their highest at full slide and full compression. 2 - Listen for a moment of silence when the seat wheels stop moving. That's when the seat changes direction - that gives you an auditory timing point to place your catch 3 - Be active with your placement. Make a definite, active movement to place the oars under the water. Try pushing your handles away from you as a drill to practice this using your thumbs at 90 degrees along the oar handles to emphasise the pushing movement.

Following last week's deep dive into blades on the surface .... this week we take a look at Rushing Off The Back. What, how, causes, cures. Timestamps 01:00 these issues are straightforward to resolve. As a coach I can see the solution and until you realise the solution is there, you're ignorant. 01:30 Rushing off the back The transition from the oar extraction through to when you roll up the slide is our focus area. - When people rush it looks like a hustle, a race to get the oars out of the water and push the handle away. - The stroke lacks ratio (the contrast between power and recovery phases). - You lose time for a rest. - The boat doesn't run on if you rush. This is speed for free. By cutting the finish short the boat won't run on. - Problems preparing for the catch. Your preparation is left later in the recovery when the boat is more tippy. - Compromises the ability to get weight on your feet. 05:00 Cures for rushing - Finish the rowing stroke power phase in the correct finish position. Pressure on your feet; elbow position at the correct height and alignment to the oar shaft; thumbs on lower ribs; shoulders behind your hips leaning into bow. - The correct finish position sets you up to move onto the recovery correctly without rushing. - Separate the arm movement from the body movement after taking the oar out of the water. Get the arms straight first and then rock the body forwards. One follows from the other, not simultaneously. - Soften your knees to bend them slightly and your body weight coming forwards starts the slide movement and enables weight to come onto your feet. 08:30 Things to look out for - Look down and see if your elbows are partly bent as you rock the body forwards - Do your thumbs touch your lower ribs? - Are you finishing with handles horizontal or are they drawing down into your lap? Get some video so the finish and your body are in the frame. 09:30 Boat speed through the stroke cycle The fastest point of boat speed is after the finish. This may sound counter-intuitive - the second surge of speed comes after the oars are extracted and as you transfer your body weight. Rebecca calls this speed for free. Do 10 strokes normal, 10 strokes separating arms from body to spot the difference. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192