Reply To: Welcome to rowing.zone – Introduce yourself

[NicoB]

When biking along a canal here in my hometown in the Netherlands in 2021 I sometimes saw rowers there. That looked like a lot of fun to this 53-years old.
So I joined the local rowing club in spring 2022. Having done some windsurfing when I was 16-30 I thought I would be able to master rowing quickly. Nope. After more than 18 months, what I do on the water is just barely starting to look like rowing. “Ten times as difficult and 100 times as much fun as I thought” is how I summarize those 18 months though.
2022 was the C4. This spring we started in the C2/C1. And I had about 10 training sessions in a skiff. As it’s getting colder now, I’ve returned to rowing in the C2/C1. No problem because there is still enough to learn in those boats for me. I’m 1.90 and 80kg, not particularly strong. This week I was able to the 1K in 4:55 in a C1. Nevertheless the ambition is to do some competitions next year, or at least train for them.

They call me Inspector Gadget at our local club. I like the apps and the cameras that you can use. Rowing in Motion is my favorite app. And I also arranged walkie talkies and an adapter cable so coaches can give instructions over the coxbox while cycling along. (They still used the old fashioned megaphones, yes the ones without electronics, just the copper tube.) My goal is to film a rowing session with a 3d camera on the boat, someone cycling along and a drone. And then combine all those images in one synchronized video along with the Rowing in Motion acceleration curve. 🤓

I’m hooked, and I want to become the best rower I can within the obvious time (and money) constraints I have. But for me this comes with some frustration sometimes. All the tips and instructions look so simple, but for me they are so difficult to implement. How hard can it be to keep your arms straight during the first have of the rowing stroke? Well, for me it still takes a lot of concentration. And along that one there are 10 other things I need to focus on. But I can only do 1 or maybe 2 at the same time. And when my focus slips for half a second I’m back to the ‘autopilot’ stroke with all the mistakes to can imagine and then some.

But I think even simple videos can be of great help for rowers over every level. My theory is that 90% of the rowers in our club think they have much better technique than they actually have. Seeing a video of their rowing, although confronting, would help them a lot in improving their technique.

I’m far from being an expert. But after watching quite a few video analysis from you (and Decent Rowing to be honest) I can find some of the weak points. I need to slow down the videos significantly though. I’m always amazed how, even less experienced coaches at our club, can spot the mistakes after seeing someone rowing for 10 strokes.

I just watched the video about ROWING TRAINING PLANS. The last few months I mainly worked on my technique. It feels like I made a lot of progress there, but still a lof of room for improvement. Main takeaway for me was to work on all pillars the next months. Strength, flexibility (please, please, make that video), endurance and technique.

(We have 8 concept2’s at our club and I’m lobbying for a Biorower, but no luck so far.)