I Suck...help Me Get Better

[[old] rickscafe]

I started rowing when I came to college back in September. I have made little improvement since and I am STILL the slowest rower on the team. I need to build strength and endurance. I'm not sure where to begin and our coach adn upperclassmen keep conflicting each other. Has anyone any advice that helped them improve their time. Right now, my best times hoover around 2:00.0 while everyone else makes 1:56 or less.

[[old] FrankJ]

If you told us a little more about yourself it would help. Age, height and weight for starters. You say you can only do 2:00 pace but for what distance? Are the other rowers on your team all taller and heavier than you? What kind of training are you doing now? Have you tried S10PS (strapless, 10 meters per stroke)?<br /><br />Frank

[[old] Xeno]

Where do you row and how old are you. What sport have you done before you started rowing?

[[old] rickscafe]

To elaborate on myself, I am 23 and a junior in college (had to take a few years off for family reasons) and I stand at 5'4" & about 160 lbs. (give or take a cupcake). I've been rowing since September when I transfered schools and was looking for a physical and social outreach. I know it's only been about 5 months and I never really did any sport before this; little leauge, martial arts and hiking when I was much younger, but nothing really during high school (AV Geek) or my first two years in college (bigger AV Geek). Perhaps I am expecting more than I should since I seem to be coxswain height on the edge of heavyweight class. Our team does alot of weight training and sprints to get ready for the spring season. It just seems that everyone else has improved and I've been stagnet. My coach just says to relax and be patient, but I'm a little to type A for that. If anyone has any training advice to boost my performance or even just advice to build myself overall would be great. There's only 8 seats in our boat and 9 oarsmen so competition is high. Thanks for anything you have to offer me.

[[old] FrankJ]

It looks to me like one important thing is missing to this point and that is base building. While sprinting is important to get the last bit of speed you need a good aerobic base to build on and I don't see much of that in your schedule. Do you do any long distance rows at a comfortable pace? Can you fit any longer rows into your week. I think a 10K to 15K row a couple of times a week would help you a lot.<br /><br />Another thing that helped me quite a bit was to learn to row more efficiently. One way to do the is S10PS. Strapless and 10 meters per stroke. Watch your monitor and time it so you start the catch whenever you see a 0 for the low order digit. Rowing strapless can be a bit scary when you first try it. I suggest trying first when you are doing a slow cool down or possibly leaving the straps loosely in place as a safety net.<br /><br />There is one thing I find intriguing about your posting and that is you say that most of the team rows at 1:56 pace. That is the pace I use for an aerobic hour row with my heart rate in the mid 140s. That just seems too slow to me for a group of college age rowers.<br /><br />Frank

[[old] Xeno]

Hi<br />I agree that there is a need for more base training.<br />Where do you row and what is the coache's background?<br />Putting in more KMS with good torque, as mentioned 10 meters per stroke, will be a good beginning.<br />XENO<br />

[[old] ljwagner]

Is it your erg performance that is really bad, or is your on the water technique really poor ? Your lack of apparent improvement during the training season was probably due to your poor conditioning going in relative to the others. You improved as much as you could, but had started behind everyone else.<br /><br />At 5'4", you will have a short stroke, so to compensate, I'd say you need to be stronger than the others in your boat. My junior year in college, the Frosh 8 had a guy at either 5 or 6 seat, was 5'7", but had the biggest biceps, thickest back and shoulders on the entire team. He swam and did martial arts in high school. The guys rowing in front and behind him in the boat were about a foot taller. But he was in the engine room, and deserved to be there.<br /><br />At my height and weight, people took my participation as a joke. But I played basketball daily against a guy 50 lbs heavier in high school (shoving him around, and him me), was an excellent sprinter, did my weight workouts with dedication, and always pushed myself to the limit. My excellent cardio conditioning let me build sufficient strength to make the crew in spite of looking more like an oar than an oarsman. <br /><br />You need to improve your cardio and strength. On the water, you need good technique as well. With a short stroke, you can't miss water at either end of your stroke, and need power when your blade is in the water. If you've been unathletic for a long time, you should appreciate that they even let you participate, and plan to work long and hard if you hope to compete someday.<br /><br />If you are that 9th man, you'll only be appreciated when someone else is unavailable. Meanwhile, train as if the boat's success depends on you, not any of the others in the boat. That way, should they need you, you'll be as prepared as possible, with no regrets from anyone. You'll earn their respect from your hard work and improvement. And you just may push someone else back to being the 9th man.<br /><br />Good Luck