New rower looking to improve

Englishman116 · Post by **Englishman116** » April 17th, 2007, 12:51 am

Hey i'm new to the forums and was wondering if i could get some advice from some experienced rowers.

i am a junior in high school and am a varsity wrestler at 189 pounds. i have always been involved in athletics and would like to continue them in college. however, wrestling in college would be too difficult for me, as i am about 6'4'' and my height puts me at a disadvantage for collegiate wrestling.

after talking it over with a few people, my doctor told me i had the build to be a competitive rower. the only experience ive had is using an erg at my local ymca for the past 2 weeks. im not even sure if i have the right form.

my best time for a 2k is 7:20. i want to greatly improve my time by summer.

i am very disciplined and would like to row at the collegiate level. what can i do to improve my 2k time? which camps should i attend this summer (near the boston area)? and lastly, what is an eligible collegiate time for a 2k on an erg?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

jamesg · Post by **jamesg** » April 17th, 2007, 5:37 am

Your shape indicates excellent rowing potential, as also your 7:20 for a 2k as a beginner. If you did it at less than 26, your style or form will also be not bad. But if you want to row (i.e. go afloat), you need to get among the boats soonest. Rowing does NOT come natural and has to be learnt from a coach and in a crew on water. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that by training on an erg you are learning to row - you may be doing just the opposite.

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » April 17th, 2007, 6:20 am

Find a Summer rowing program in your area, Boston has been known to have a few.

"Community Rowing" comes to mind. The sooner you can get technique worked out with the help of a good coach the better. It may even be worth a call to a couple of the University coaches to see if you can attend some of his crews workouts that are happening now. Seeing what they do will give you a great idea if it will be for you or not.

Englishman116 · Post by **Englishman116** » April 17th, 2007, 12:26 pm

thanks for the help. i am planning on meeting with Tom Bohrer next weekend to check out his camps and rowing team at wayland-weston.

i went to the gym this morning and got a new time of 7:18 for the 2k. i struggled in the beginning but ended up holding a 1:48 split for the last 1k. i had the fan setting to 5 and i am wondering whether or not this hurt my performance. which setting is most reccomended? and what is the difference between setting the fan to 10 and setting the fan to 1?

Kangaroo · Post by **Kangaroo** » April 21st, 2007, 7:40 am

Well a damper setting of five sounds about right - it depends on the coach really, but the difference won't be too great from coach to coach.

I don't want to confuse you or anything, but most coaches use something called a drag factor to set the resistance when doing trials. For PM3/4 models, you go to MENU >>> MORE OPTIONS >> DISPLAY DRAG FACTOR and with PM2/+ models you press READY + REST together. To make it show, pull a few strokes and a number will display (in the middle of the screen for PM3/4 and bottom-right for PM2/+). This number should be around 120 or so I'd say for a 2km trial.

For more info, I found this page that might help: Click Here