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Original post by manchild007
That's the thing, I've only just started, so can't say I'm anything near a national level competitor yet - but where can one go to get a good coach (its a bit like rock and hard place situation, I want to improve and train with people who can help in this goal of being a really good rower, but I have to be a really good rower to start off and get this)? I envisage at university you'll have these calibre coaches as its university, but before then (as I'm hoping to get as good as I can by then), I just want to train and make the best of the time.

I've started a lot later than most, as some people I know my age have got into Leander, but they've been rowing since they were like 13/14; I only started about 6 months ago :frown:


How old are you now? If you can get your hands on a single then just smash up and down in that. You really dont need that much coaching, just someone to tell you what youre doing wrong and how to correct it a couple times a week. The rest of the time you can work on it alone. Also hit the gym/erg a lot.

Leander is only really for people who row and dont do much else. Even if you could join now I wouldnt bother because you might decide a few months down the line that training 5 hours a day isnt your thing. Also you probably wouldnt be able to handle the training load for quite some time, youd need a lot of time to build into that sort of weekly mileage.

From my experience of uni they like people who can pull their weight. Hitting the U23 erg requirement for your size would probably put you in a better place than being slightly better in a small boat.
Original post by JordanCarroll
we got damn close to :wink:

was an awesome race, really enjoyed it, and your RUMS A guys are a pretty cool crowd as well :smile:



You guys were actually really good, when you rowed past the cheering RUMS crowd your boat was really getting loads of send underneath. I was convinced you were going to beat them from that, my heart sank a little.

I love our RUMS novice boys, all so sweet, I had a great time with them at the pub crawl. Thought it was cool that you all shook hands as well. Girls didn't do that to us last year :p: we got some disgruntled "well done guys" from them but other than that they completely ignored us (didn't help that at one point we did three cheers for queen mary and it was actually Barts and they thought we were taking the piss- we genuinely weren't :o: ) They said you guys were cool too :smile:

I don't know if you remember/saw a shortish girl with curly hair wearing a white coat with a furry hood and red tights wandering around but that was me :p:

In other news- my GOD I'm hungover.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by Jessaay!
You guys were actually really good, when you rowed past the cheering RUMS crowd your boat was really getting loads of send underneath. I was convinced you were going to beat them from that, my heart sank a little.

I love our RUMS novice boys, all so sweet, I had a great time with them at the pub crawl. Thought it was cool that you all shook hands as well. Girls didn't do that to us last year :p: we got some disgruntled "well done guys" from them but other than that they completely ignored us (didn't help that at one point we did three cheers for queen mary and it was actually Barts and they thought we were taking the piss- we genuinely weren't :o: ) They said you guys were cool too :smile:

I don't know if you remember/saw a shortish girl with curly hair wearing a white coat with a furry hood and red tights wandering around but that was me :p:

In other news- my GOD I'm hungover.


Why thankyou :colondollar: yeah we let ourselves down towards the end, I have a feeling not everyone is up to scratch fitness wise :grumble: the guy at 4 in my boat was talking about how he's not up for commitment etc today, quite annoying :angry: would like to be around people who actually want to row..

My girlfriend was marshalling, recorded a decent video of the final, not sure whether you can see...
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=465783059388

never, ever, refer to us as queen mary :p: honest mistake I knoww

I didn't see you! I may have been a little preoccupied :p: did you do the pub crawl?
Original post by JordanCarroll
Why thankyou :colondollar: yeah we let ourselves down towards the end, I have a feeling not everyone is up to scratch fitness wise :grumble: the guy at 4 in my boat was talking about how he's not up for commitment etc today, quite annoying :angry: would like to be around people who actually want to row..

My girlfriend was marshalling, recorded a decent video of the final, not sure whether you can see...
http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=465783059388

never, ever, refer to us as queen mary :p: honest mistake I knoww

I didn't see you! I may have been a little preoccupied :p: did you do the pub crawl?


I hate that too. People in my boat keep saying they don't want to commit and some keep dropping out of races etc. It'd be nice to have a stable crew for once. I think everyone's fine in terms of fitness but our technique isn't great because we've never really had a full crew. If you can't commit, don't bother at all. That must be particularly annoying as a novice considering every outing matters in order to learn vital stuff. When you're in a senior boat some people are better than others but if you need a sub it doesn't always make a massive difference because they can at least do the basics.

I can't see the video, which is a shame :frown: My friend was marshalling but forgot her camera. She was useful for calling us to tell us results though.


Yeah we know the feeling, if people start calling us UCL we're never happy :p: It only happened because we raced them in the first round and so we were on automatic (where we nearly crashed and they were ahead at first but still beat them, shocker). At least this didn't happen during your races:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs052.snc3/13932_612515788320_202909117_36601746_5399705_n.jpg

My god we look out of time, I was an AWFUL stroke for rushing my slide, and I'm looking at my blade. I'm really not sure how we won in retrospect.

To be fair I didn't see you around otherwise I'd have been the random girl who said hi to you :p: I was preoccupied with shouting and trying to cheer up our girls who were winning in their first race but then caught a crab and then lost the next race too. I did a really good job of shouting but not so much of cheering up the girls, I didn't really know what to say :p: That and I only know a couple of them well and the others seem a little timid.

Yeah I did the pubcrawl, did any barts do it? I drank WAY too much and the pubs were quite expensive so I spent WAY too much money. I managed to wrangle a vodka and coke off one eager/slightly creepy RVC guy but that's about it for freebies. I'm rambling again, this is what I do when I'm hungover which appears to be the only time I ever venture onto this thread.
Reply 684
Original post by partoftheweekend
coooooold, definitely wasnt prepared on the saturday. The water was perfect though, practically like glass today even though we had to plough through a few sheets of ice. Races were really enjoyable too, today more than yesterday.

Looks like a really nice place to train when it warms up a little.


Actually the annoying thing is that the Tyne is a much nicer river in the winter - the cold weather helps to keep it a lot calmer so you get absolutely glorious water in the colder months - like glass as you say!

Then in the summer, although lovely and warm, you get the winds and the choppy water.

So, either flat water and freezing cold, or choppy water and nice and warm, generally!!
Considering I have a race on saturday, this is a bad time to come down with the flu (especially looking at the weather). Was going to go for a gentle bit of exercise earlier, then stepped out of the door and felt so awful I had to come straight back in.

Manned up considerably yesterday and made my way down to the boat house for rowing (I've only ever missed a single session on the water and that was because I had a heavily infected foot and my captain told me not to even think about going). Had a UL guy coaching us, he was actually awesome, he gave us a completely new way to think about things and within 5 minutes I'd fixed my usual problem of using my back at the catch. Apparently he was coaching us because he "liked the look of us". I have no idea what that means.

Quick question- one of the things my usual coach constantly points out is the fact I apparently rush my slide, however this didn't happen the other day when we had a sub from the 1sts rowing in front of me. She was incredibly easy to follow and I was told my slide control had increased by miles, yet as soon as the usual girl came back I was criticised for it again. I really hate to blame other people for my own mistakes usually, but I've found the girl in front of me is INCREDIBLY hard to follow (oh, and she also blames me for the fact she's out of time because she says she can hear me "slamming to front stops" behind her :s-smilie: ). She also has REALLY bad posture so it makes it hard to know when she's going to catch. Any tips? The coaches have actually pointed it out to her a few times, but tend to focus on me and I probably am more out of time, but mainly because I find her impossible to follow.
Reply 686
Original post by Jessaay!

Original post by Jessaay!
Considering I have a race on saturday, this is a bad time to come down with the flu (especially looking at the weather). Was going to go for a gentle bit of exercise earlier, then stepped out of the door and felt so awful I had to come straight back in.

Manned up considerably yesterday and made my way down to the boat house for rowing (I've only ever missed a single session on the water and that was because I had a heavily infected foot and my captain told me not to even think about going). Had a UL guy coaching us, he was actually awesome, he gave us a completely new way to think about things and within 5 minutes I'd fixed my usual problem of using my back at the catch. Apparently he was coaching us because he "liked the look of us". I have no idea what that means.

Quick question- one of the things my usual coach constantly points out is the fact I apparently rush my slide, however this didn't happen the other day when we had a sub from the 1sts rowing in front of me. She was incredibly easy to follow and I was told my slide control had increased by miles, yet as soon as the usual girl came back I was criticised for it again. I really hate to blame other people for my own mistakes usually, but I've found the girl in front of me is INCREDIBLY hard to follow (oh, and she also blames me for the fact she's out of time because she says she can hear me "slamming to front stops" behind her :s-smilie: ). She also has REALLY bad posture so it makes it hard to know when she's going to catch. Any tips? The coaches have actually pointed it out to her a few times, but tend to focus on me and I probably am more out of time, but mainly because I find her impossible to follow.


I hate it when that happens. My instinct is to follow the stroke, rather than the person in front because I think it'd just cause further disruptions to the rhythm of the boat.

However, I always get told to follow the person in front, regardless.
Reply 687
Anyone got any tips for good stomach exercises to do? I do far too much body lean because I'm incredibly flexible and find it hard to control. I've been told to strengthen my core but I don't know what exercises to do that would help!
Reply 688
Original post by SpamBa
Anyone got any tips for good stomach exercises to do? I do far too much body lean because I'm incredibly flexible and find it hard to control. I've been told to strengthen my core but I don't know what exercises to do that would help!


There are an insane amount of exercises you can do to strengthen your core - just do a Google search for "core exercises" or something like that to get some ideas.

However, to start you off, have you been taken through an exercise to identify your core muscles? If you haven't, or don't already know, you need to get someone to run through that first, otherwise you'll probably end up just tensing/working your abs rather than the actual core muscles. To make it as simple as possible, they are the muscles around your pelvic area - the muscles that women use during childbirth and what you'd use to stop yourself from weeing!

Exercises such as the plank (http://www.fitwatch.com/images/ab-exercise-plank.jpg), side plank (http://www.abs-exercise-advice.com/images/side-plank-exercise.gif), leg raises (http://www.bodytracfitness.com/images/core/401_Core_exercises_005.jpg) - start in this position and then extend your legs out so that they are straight but still off the floor pointing down away from you, basically like you're lying down with your feet just a few inches off the floor.

There are many many more but as I say, just do a quick google of them and you'll find loads of good examples with images :smile:
sooo any interesting news on the rowing front? Im racing next weekend and with a lot of good crews turning up it should be a really fun event.
four barts VIIIs lost all their races today! :p: we had hard draws but damn!

were going to row in Quintin head on sat, but was oversubbed (secretly relieved..)
Worst. race. ever. yesterday.

7 caught 2 crabs within the first 10 strokes. It's as though she wasn't even trying. She used to be in our first boat but dropped down out of choice. I know usually crabs are the fault of the entire boat, but also the rower has to hold some responsibility. We managed to catch up almost entirely as well so I imagine we could have won, I think we were more powerful.

Original post by JordanCarroll
four barts VIIIs lost all their races today! :p: we had hard draws but damn!

were going to row in Quintin head on sat, but was oversubbed (secretly relieved..)


OH NO WHAT A SHAME :p:
Original post by Jessaay!
OH NO WHAT A SHAME :p:


:rant:

:p:
I've just started rowing at my school. Been rowing since September, and am now in the School 3rd VIII (I had to spend a term training with Year 10s, so that I just had the basics. With 6th Formers now). My main problem is just fitness...

I can get my split down to 1:24ish if I go at it completely but obviously only for about 15 seconds or so. I can keep my split at 1:44 for 2 minutes, but then after that I'm practically useless! I struggle to do A1 ergos (2:10 split) for more than 10 minutes. I know i've got enough strength, but it's just my aerobic fitness. Any ideas on how I can increase it? I really want to be in the 2nd VIII by Upper 6th form but my fitness is holding me back, and my school is incredibly "well-known" (apparently...) for rowing. I'm having to race in a novice 8 at Wycliffe Head next week ^^
Original post by Jessaay!

7 caught 2 crabs within the first 10 strokes. It's as though she wasn't even trying. She used to be in our first boat but dropped down out of choice. I know usually crabs are the fault of the entire boat, but also the rower has to hold some responsibility.


I've just started out rowing and have caught a few crabs and I was just wondering if the above is true (not saying it isn't of course) - its just that the coach of the team has said it was b/c of my angle of the blade as I hit the water etc and then I use to much power whilst taking the stroke in the water etc. I get this and I know this is something I definitely need to work on, but just saw your comment and was interested. How much impact (% terms if possible) does say a team have when someone catches a crab? I'm usually in the 7 seat if that helps.

Also, the biggest fear when I catch a crab is less of making the boat stop (b/c we aren't in a race at the moment and just getting started etc) and more about capsizing the 8 boat - just wondering in your experience, have you ever capsized the boat and moreover, has it ever been down to a member of the team catching a crab and thus swaying the boat to one side and thus flipping it over etc. It scares me to death to be honest and I think its beginning to affect my rowing - i.e. I think constantly about catching a crab and thus constantly about how I can avoid it and thus don't actually 'enjoy' the row nor excel as well as I can :frown:

Thanks for the help :smile:
Original post by manchild007
I've just started out rowing and have caught a few crabs and I was just wondering if the above is true (not saying it isn't of course) - its just that the coach of the team has said it was b/c of my angle of the blade as I hit the water etc and then I use to much power whilst taking the stroke in the water etc. I get this and I know this is something I definitely need to work on, but just saw your comment and was interested. How much impact (% terms if possible) does say a team have when someone catches a crab? I'm usually in the 7 seat if that helps.

Also, the biggest fear when I catch a crab is less of making the boat stop (b/c we aren't in a race at the moment and just getting started etc) and more about capsizing the 8 boat - just wondering in your experience, have you ever capsized the boat and moreover, has it ever been down to a member of the team catching a crab and thus swaying the boat to one side and thus flipping it over etc. It scares me to death to be honest and I think its beginning to affect my rowing - i.e. I think constantly about catching a crab and thus constantly about how I can avoid it and thus don't actually 'enjoy' the row nor excel as well as I can :frown:

Thanks for the help :smile:


Crabs can be from a fair few things I believe. I've never caught a proper crab in my life (I've caught the water with my blade a few times but that's probably about it really), but then when I was rowing in a mixed crew for our annual christmas joke race thing (and by mixed, I mean there were men and women rowing in the same boat of all abilities and we even had a cox rowing) I caught crabs because of the horrific balance, timing and uneven spread of power.

You can catch them because of overfeathering indeed though, which I imagine is what you're doing when your coach talks about the angle of your blade.

During the race I was talking about in the post you quoted, 7 caught crabs because of overfeathering and also because of timing issues so it was her fault but the crew didn't really help.

Crabs have a fair amount of impact really depending on the severity of the crab. Not only do they slow the boat down both because of the blade dragging in the water and someone having to momentarily stop rowing, but also because you'll throw off the rhythm and timing of the rest of the boat. It can also cause the boat to veer to the side which isn't always ideal if you're close to another boat :p:

Last year when I was a complete novice, I was absolutely PETRIFIED of capsising the 8. But soon when I got more experienced I realised it's pretty damn difficult to do. I've heard of one 8 capsising (apparently it was a team of people just starting out, they all managed to catch a crab at the same time and somehow something else went wrong and they capsised) but I've never heard of anything else capsising at all. One person catching a crab isn't going to cause the boat to capsise. I personally have capsised once, but that wasn't in an 8, it was in a single sculling boat and it was my own fault and they're much easier to capsise because they're so light and so dependent on the technique of one person. You won't capsise an 8, trust me. Just relax and focus on your technique and following your stroke, and eventually you'll stop your issue with catching crabs.
Reply 696
I've stopped rowing because I've got a research project that is taking up way too much time. Plus rowing would have meant that I'd only have 3 hours a day to myself... which would probably be spent studying for my research project.

Bit of a mare, but c'est la vie.
Reply 697
Original post by Dave_Beeston
I've just started rowing at my school. Been rowing since September, and am now in the School 3rd VIII (I had to spend a term training with Year 10s, so that I just had the basics. With 6th Formers now). My main problem is just fitness...

I can get my split down to 1:24ish if I go at it completely but obviously only for about 15 seconds or so. I can keep my split at 1:44 for 2 minutes, but then after that I'm practically useless! I struggle to do A1 ergos (2:10 split) for more than 10 minutes. I know i've got enough strength, but it's just my aerobic fitness. Any ideas on how I can increase it? I really want to be in the 2nd VIII by Upper 6th form but my fitness is holding me back, and my school is incredibly "well-known" (apparently...) for rowing. I'm having to race in a novice 8 at Wycliffe Head next week ^^


Haha, Shrewsbury? :p: Yeah they are rather well known for rowing xD.

Six of our first eight for college rowing last year were from Shrewsbury :wink:.
Original post by Mithra
Haha, Shrewsbury? :p: Yeah they are rather well known for rowing xD.

Six of our first eight for college rowing last year were from Shrewsbury :wink:.


:O really!?

Haha! Yeh, they've got great coaches. I'm hoping I can carry on at Uni, i'm applying to Cambridge who are also obviously pretty well known! Our first VIII this year is amazing, 4 of the 8 won in a 4s race for GB against France! They're in lower 6th as well, and there are definitely some good people coming up to top squad from the Year 10s (One is getting 5.5k in a Teti-Twenty already...) which College are you at? Durham?
Reply 699
Original post by Dave_Beeston
I've just started rowing at my school. Been rowing since September, and am now in the School 3rd VIII (I had to spend a term training with Year 10s, so that I just had the basics. With 6th Formers now). My main problem is just fitness...

I can get my split down to 1:24ish if I go at it completely but obviously only for about 15 seconds or so. I can keep my split at 1:44 for 2 minutes, but then after that I'm practically useless! I struggle to do A1 ergos (2:10 split) for more than 10 minutes. I know i've got enough strength, but it's just my aerobic fitness. Any ideas on how I can increase it? I really want to be in the 2nd VIII by Upper 6th form but my fitness is holding me back, and my school is incredibly "well-known" (apparently...) for rowing. I'm having to race in a novice 8 at Wycliffe Head next week ^^

Lots of UT2.

Just do stuff like an hour on the erg at r18 at UT2 pace (I'm sure your coaches can help you figure that out) to build your fitness up.

Obvs it isn't so simple, but long distance work will help your fitness...

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