Help with goal

[Steveh101]

Two visits to local rowing club (LVRC) and after four or five E-mails, no reply's, absolutely no help at all! Seems like its a closed sport. Looks like its Dark Horse tutorials and hope for the best!

[Dangerscouse]

Two visits to local rowing club (LVRC) and after four or five E-mails, no reply's, absolutely no help at all! Seems like its a closed sport. Looks like its Dark Horse tutorials and hope for the best!

That's really disappointing. I've never rowed on the water, or set foot in a clubhouse for that matter, so it's not essential.

I'd also recommend Aram training videos on YouTube.

[Tsnor]

Two visits to local rowing club (LVRC) and after four or five E-mails, no reply's, absolutely no help at all! Seems like its a closed sport. Looks like its Dark Horse tutorials and hope for the best!

Very disappointing. And not at all typical for any club around here.

Funny that the very first thing in BOLD on their webpage is "LEARN TO ROW at Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club" followed by "COACHING FOR ALL" beginner or experienced. http://www.lvrc.co.uk/

Wonder what's up with them. (They seem to have only 2 active concept2 affiliation members https://log.concept2.com/affiliation/2446/season/2022 and a club total of 250K meters this season so they may be in decline or dormant.

I googled for liverpool high school rowing, found a great place, turned out it was in liverpool, NY, USA. Do check for local high school / college programs and talk to the coach. Good luck.

[Dangerscouse]

Two visits to local rowing club (LVRC) and after four or five E-mails, no reply's, absolutely no help at all! Seems like its a closed sport. Looks like its Dark Horse tutorials and hope for the best!

I didn't give it a thought that LVRC was Liverpool Victoria. Mersey Rowing Club is another option if you're still interested?

[Steveh101]

I'll have a look into mersey rowing club, hopefully get a response.

[Steveh101]

No help from any rowing club, so I'm thinking of selling my rower and opting for a Wattbike instead. Don't need a coach or set up for that, just a shame, was kind of excited to try rowing on water but obviously its just for the chosen and elite athletes. Something is wrong in my rownig technique as getting a little lower back pain and not gunna make it worse by watching videos and trying to film myself and reply reset position, thanks for your help guys but this has put me off any rowing for good.

[Dangerscouse]

No help from any rowing club, so I'm thinking of selling my rower and opting for a Wattbike instead. Don't need a coach or set up for that, just a shame, was kind of excited to try rowing on water but obviously its just for the chosen and elite athletes. Something is wrong in my rownig technique as getting a little lower back pain and not gunna make it worse by watching videos and trying to film myself and reply reset position, thanks for your help guys but this has put me off any rowing for good.

That's a shame, but I can understand your frustration and decision

[Tsnor]

No help from any rowing club, so I'm thinking of selling my rower and opting for a Wattbike instead. Don't need a coach or set up for that, just a shame, was kind of excited to try rowing on water but obviously its just for the chosen and elite athletes. Something is wrong in my rownig technique as getting a little lower back pain and not gunna make it worse by watching videos and trying to film myself and reply reset position, thanks for your help guys but this has put me off any rowing for good.

Suggest you give erging a go based on youtube videos for a few months.

Retry the rowing clubs in late march, early April -- they should be coming alive for outdoor rowing. Given the COVID closures, suspect they are just not checking email often.

And if you do end up selling the rower, at least ergs hold value nicely. You are not looking at typical (box open, 50% depreciation).

Wattbike looks great (not cheap tho -- $2,000-$3,500). Maybe get it in addition. Grin. This guy (DC RAINMAKER) does excellent trusted reviews. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/10/wat ... eview.html Rowers and cycles like this are lifetime purchases, only problem is space they take up.

edit: Also try this link to see if there is another club closer to you, etc. https://www.britishrowing.org/rowing-activity-finder/ (I really don't understand the no-response from the clubs you contacted, covid or no).

[dabatey]

I had a few back tweaks at first but train through-able ones, and they disappeared after a while. So back pain in itself might not be a reason to sell the rower. Make sure your drag factor isn't too high, 120 is plenty (4ish on the damper lever).

If you go down the cycle route, I would consider buying a smart turbo trainer and separate road bike rather than wattbike. Then, at least you can go outside on the bike in decent weather if you fancy it. My brother and his wife use RGT as their preferred indoor cycling app with smart turbo and bike and it works great.

[mitchel674]

Gone from 10k per day over 30 days to selling the rower in just one month.

These types of threads pop up frequently and the OP is often a prior triathlete or crossfitter who thinks their prior athletic prowess should just immediately translate into rowing success. The fact is that no matter how often we warn, rowing is a technical sport which requires a bit of practice and technical honing before most can go in and bang out 300,000m in their first month! Impatience and lack of attention to technique are recipes for disaster in rowing and will often lead to injury and frustration.

It's really a shame, because done properly, rowing can be a remarkably low impact and injury free exercise. It's a shame to see people give up, but it's not for everyone.

[Ombrax]

As long as someone doesn't expect to go from newbie to sub-7:00 rows in a short period of time, and is disappointed when they find that they can't, I don't see why someone should give up on the erg so easily. In fact, it's a challenge because you are working on improving just about all your major muscles and your cardio capability. It's hard work, but the results are well worth the effort. If all you wanted to do is build your right bicep you could spend 10 minutes every other day doing single-arm dumbbell curls. Done. Rowing does a lot more than that, so you have to expect a more complex challenge.

But fundamentally, if you pay some moderate attention to technique (ranging from something as simple as verifying that your force curve shape is right to checking videos of yourself) and put in the time and effort, rowing can be immensely rewarding.

Let's hope that the OP recalibrates his goals and finds that he can use the rower as the great exercise tool that we all know it is.

[jamesg]

Don't need a coach or set up for that, just a shame, was kind of excited to try rowing on water but obviously its just for the chosen and elite athletes.

Rowing certainly needs expensive equipment and personnel, not least for safety reasons. No one wants to get lost in the fog or sink.

Erging, we all start from zero; on the water no one is born élite, not even a Tour de France winner. I've seen an Olympic Kayak Gold medallist in trouble on the erg.

But ashore, there's little risk, and all we need is some understanding of how rowing is done. Basically, we stick the oar in the water and then pull long and hard. It's only a problem if we actually do it... as we soon find out; but tomorrow soon rolls around.

[pagomichaelh]

No help from any rowing club, ...

We (American Samoa) has a 'rowing organisation' which had Swift coastal singles, doubles, and quads, as well as a couple of C2s, donated to it by World Rowing. Unfortunately, they won't let anyone use the boats, and the C2's are in her fitness centre.

So, I put together a group of businesses and people, so we now have one Race1 Wavecutter that we've been sharing, another two being loaded in Auckland as we speak, and we've got a line on a used 2x in California. Hopefully, we'll be starting a kids and adults teaching program soon.

Don't let the elitist snobs get you down - if they won't let you join, create your own.

Edit: Ironically, I just stumbled into this article, "Why not start a rowing club?" https://www.rowingnews.com/2022/02/17/w ... wing-club/

[Steveh101]

Just read the posts, last week I decided this bit of kit won't beat me. So set gopro up and filmed a few strokes, looks like I was pulling a tad to early. I've started to use it for 5 min a day and gunna add 5 min each 2 weeks (upto 30min) If not comfortable then increase by 2 min. I've set my indoor cycle trainer up so that's main workout and rower to finish. Eventually I hope soon to be able to row for a full session. Been watching Dark Horse and picked up some good tips, so let's see where it leads.

[Dutch]

If your rowing technique seems all out of kilter try this link, it is priceless really, from the founder of concept2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=hiQ0Mqlk_Lo

From some of your responses you seem very frustrated, but don't give up. Try some pick drills as well, they are on dark horse and try and row a 10 min piece at something like 2.30 pace. It is so slow it is amazing but it will allow you to try and build some mental resilience to the rower and allow you to feel your technique in combo from the pick drills.

Also just try and look at this as a self education exercise, you can get lots of info and help from this forum and from you tube. Just keep an open mind to learn, we always need a learning frame of mind or we risk becoming closed off to new ideas and risking frustration.
Mostly it is about believing that you are good enough and intelligent enough to trust you own judgement, having confidence in our decisions we make for our self. We don't always need coaches to tell us, but it does help.

The rowing club near me in Leicester were very good when I contacted them and kept me on a mailing list and then contacted me again later in the year. It was just the fact I did not fancy going on the water in January and could not make sat morning training, that I did not go along.