Shorter rowers

ROWINGGIRL · Post by **ROWINGGIRL** » April 6th, 2007, 11:52 am

I have a friend who is 5'0 and only 105 pounds. She can't pull the same erg times as the rest of the team, and it's obviously because of her size. She's wondering if anyone knows any tips on what to do to improve her erg time.

almostflipped · Post by **almostflipped** » April 6th, 2007, 12:01 pm

Keep erging and hope for a growth sport. Given your age though (taken from another thread), she will likely grow a few more inches before HS is over. Here is the single best bit of advice I can give you for both situations: Keep erging in the "off-season". If you keep your eye on the long term (the next one to two years rather than this season or this week) then you can continually improve from season to season and pass many of the people who are better than you now. Most athletes at your age will take a break during the summer/winter. If you keep on trucking, you will have a major advantage and will catch or pass them.

Kangaroo · Post by **Kangaroo** » April 7th, 2007, 7:00 am

Well there isn't much that she can do besides hope that she grows. Otherwise, in the meantime just focus majorly on fitness, and technique. When I started rowing, I was shorter than the other guys but my stroke was longer due to technique. (Of course you get to the stage when everyone catches up to you though). If I was her, I'd just keep fit mainly though - see if she can learn to take her rating up or increase power through the stroke as well.