RowingTalks

A fantastic group of exceptional speakers and 72 high school rowing coaches joined us for a day of learning, sharing, and laughs.

Here’s the link to the talks, currently up on YouTube. You can watch them for free.

If you’re a high-school rowing coach and would like to join us for RowingTalks 2013, just use the sign up box in the sidebar.

You will hear from us shortly.

Row, coach, and rig well!

Mike

Another rigging question asked. (Keep em coming folks):

Eric Asked:

Q: “Here’s one: our teams share boats. How do I get the rowers to *quickly and accurately* adjust their stretchers on the water (doing so on the dock isn’t possible)?”

A: Right. So first determine in a nice quiet time what exactly is the *right* place for the footstretchers. That is probably best done in one of the earliest practices.

John Wooden used to do something similar with his basketball players. The 10-time national champion coach would spend time in the very first practice, legend has it, teaching his players how to tie their sneakers properly. Time well invest because it improved performance and reduced blisters. (Hm . . another sport with blisters. Imagine that.)

So, I suggest the same with your team. Spend time that first practice determining where the stretchers should go (I’ll leave that up to you what works best for you but one tip is that I really like the newer rowers to use the stern stops of the tracks as a landmark for where their seat should stop. A story for a different time, maybe). This article I wrote a while back might help Where should I place my footstretchers in my rowing shell?

Make sure your rowers have something to remember to help them when adjusting their stretchers, like the visible notches on the track from the stern.

Then, during your busy practices, when you are switching boats, shove them off the dock, have 1/2 of the boat set the boat up, the other 1/2 adjust the stretchers. Then rotate the groups when the first set is adjusted.

Should work, and an 8 will only take about 3-4 minutes to completely change.

Let me know if that helps.

Good question.

I wanted to get to some of the rigging questions I’ve received. So here are the first three. I’ll take a whack at more early next week.

So let’s get going.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Anne E. asked:

Q: “Does it matter if the Oar Lock is difficult to rotate by hand on land if you tighten it a lot. No right?”

And my answer is a yes, and a no.

In the yes compartment, if the oar lock is tight to rotate that means that there is too much pressure on the oar lock (usually due to incorrect rigger spacers). Once the rigger is rowed there could be extra wear and tear placed on the oar lock. And if the hardware is not placed correctly (washers especially) there could be some rather unpleasant happenings such as the top nut or bolt coming loose while rowed (that could happen depending on your rigger design).

In the no compartment, a tight oarlock will have little effect on the movement of the oar, due to the oar’s weight and the leverage that the rower has.

So, yes and no.

This post: Get the tight right, and this one, Rigger top stay question, might be helpful.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Julie R. asked:

Q: “Different rigging on different boats. Are there tricks for each boat?”

A: That’s a complex question. For example, different boats? . . . different size boats, heavy weight vs lightweight vs midweight? Eight vs pair vs single?

Need a little more information there.

And tricks. Rigging is full of what someone might call tricks. I rather call them solutions. So it really comes down to this:

What is the exact problem? And we can go from there.

You might find this post, A cheaters guide to making your boat go fast, helpful.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Bill R. asked

Q: “How do you determine if the Fat 2s are right for you? And, if not, which blades are?”

A: That’s a great question, Bill. And one that has bugged rowing-kind since the moment we had choices of different oars to pick from.

Short answer, I’d do three things. First, call Concept II. Talk to customer service and tell them what level of crew you are coaching and any other specs you can think of. Then ask for their opinion about appropriateness of Fatties.

You might find this post, The critical note after talking to Concept 2, of some help.

Second, I would get my hands on a set and do some testing.

Third, I’d get feedback both subjectively (from the athletes) and from any objective testing you can (SpeedCoach).

That should give you three data points (CII, athletes, numbers) to help you make your decision.

Okay gang, keep the questions coming, and remember, if you know of anyone who hasn’t signed up for RowingTalks yet, and you think they need to be there (high school/junior coaches only) stick this link in front of their nose (www.rowingtalks.com) and tell them to click on it.

They will thank you for it all during racing season.

More to come.

Mike

Take a  look at the headline of this post.

There’s a word we need to talk about.

The word secret screams out two things. One is that someone has knowledge that you don’t have . The other is that you’re not going to get that knowledge no matter what you do.

Remember how that felt in elementary school. When they had the secret and you wanted to know it?

Today two things are different. First, you are probably big enough that you can scare the secret right out of them, or you’re smart enough that you can trick it out of the secret-holder.

Second, you don’t need to do either of those drastic steps.

Yes, there are in fact secrets to building a fast rowing team. But . . .

You can get those secrets at RowingTalks 2012. And you don’t have to scare or trick anyone to get them.

We’ll give them to you—for free. No hassles. Right into your hand.

All you have to do is be here.

Ah . . . if elementary school had only been that easy!

(If you coach high-school age rowers and would like to learn those secrets just click here to register. See you on the inside.)