Post
by ranger » June 7th, 2011, 5:31 am
The major dilemma in training for rowing is that easy speed is the product of good skeletal-motor habits, rowing well.
But good skeletal-muscular habits can only be established by practice, lots of practice, and because it is _very_ difficult to row well, this practice is hard to do.
Sure, certain incremental progress can be made in training by improving your fitness even though you continue to row poorly.
For instance, if you are a lightweight and normally pull 2:06 @ 22 spm (8 SPI) at UT2, by improving your fitness, you might get so that you can pull 1:56 @ 22 spm (10 SPI) at UT2, a substantial gain of 10 seconds per 500m.
But the problem is how to go on from there, e.g., so that you can pull 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI) at UT2, _another_ substantial gain of 10 seconds per 500m.
If you are a lightweight, you can pull 1:56 @ 22 spm at UT2 rowing poorly but you need to row well to pull 1:46 @ 22 spm at UT2.
You need to learn how to row.
None of the major training plans for rowing have anything to say about how to row well, so none of these training plans are of any help at all in confronting this task.
All of the major training plans for rowing focus on improving fitness--and that's all.
Like all sports, rowing is an art.
But all of the major training plans for rowing are bits of science.
Therefore they miss the central concern of the art.
For someone who pulls 2:06 @ 22 spm (8 SPI) at UT2 rowing poorly, pulling 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI) at UT2 rowing well just seems unimaginable, absurd, ridiculous, crazy, etc.
Someone who pulls 2:06 @ 22 spm (8 SPI) at UT2 rowing poorly has no idea whatsoever of how it is even possible (for someone the same size, age, etc.) to pull 1:46 @ 22 spm (13 SPI) at UT2.
ranger
Last edited by
ranger on June 7th, 2011, 6:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Rich Cureton M 72 5'11" 165 lbs. 2K pbs: 6:27.5 (hwt), 6:28 (lwt)