[PSS #3] A Secret Weapon For Your Training

You might have heard that proper training is critical for a rower to get fast. A few rowers have stepped up their training and have a secret weapon they use.

The year was 1812 and Napoleon was having his way with Europe. Basically all of it was under his control. Then in April he turned his attention, and armies, towards Russia. As he invaded, the Russian general in charge played a game much different than Napoleon’s.

As the French marched forward the Russians retreated. The Russians destroyed their crops, livestock, and homes as Napoleon advanced because they knew that an integral part of Napoleon’s successes had been having his troops live off the land. As Napoleon prepared to take Moscow the Russians evacuated the city, burned it, and then let him have the city.

The Russians seemingly had just let Napoleon and his troops walk into their country—and then the tide turned. The Winter arrived and the French found, as did Hitler many years later, that the Russian winter is a deadly and unforgiving foe, as are the Russians. Napoleon was forced to retreat and his army was destroyed.

Ellen Langer uses this story in her book Mindfulness to bring home a very specific point—very often, and often in critical times, we act mindless.

Mindfulness and Your Training

According to Langer mindlessness is a human tendency to operate on autopilot, whether by stereotyping; performing mechanically, by rote; or by simply not paying attention. And unfortuantely for Napoleon this is what he did. Being comfortable in easy wins in a different type of war he failed to be mindful about the Russian’s scorched-earth strategy. And he and his army paid dearly.

In competitive sports, especially rowing, many athletes and coaches do the exact same thing with their training—they act mindless.

Granted, today it is often difficult to be anything but mindless in our training. Life is coming at us at 173 miles per hour. It is constantly streamed, beamed, and blasted at us. It is hard to find a moment to stop and think. On top of that many of us do not have any background in exercise physiology or biomechanics. And when we turn to the web, books, and experts for help we find a wealth of information that is either unhelpful, bad, or just plain harmful.

However to be fast you need to be very mindful about your training program. It can be your secret weapon.

Why Be Mindful

Langer defines being mindful as:

[Having a] heightened sense of situational awareness and a conscious control over ones thoughts and behavior relative to the situation. It is not just about paying attention. It is making a conscious effort to be “in the moment” and to not ignore the environment.

I believe strongly that every coach, rower/coxswain can greatly benefit from a training program that is mindful and especially follows those last two points: being in the moment and not ignoring the environment. [Here the term environment is meant to mean the physical and mental surroundings of the athlete and not the common term an area in which something lives.]

Why? Well one obvious reason is decision making. Whether constructing a program for yourself, or a team, or getting ready to participate in an ongoing program there are decisions to be made, such as:

• do I have the time for this
• can I physically and mentally handle this program
• does this training fit in with my vision

Mindless training ignores these important decisions. Mindful training does not.

Another reason to be mindful is too often we follow what others are doing, or what we have done in the past, because, well, because that is the way it is done.

You probably have heard the urban legend of the woman who would cut the end off of the pot roast every time she cooked one. She would put it in the pan and trim off the end. Her daughter asked her why? She had no idea so she asked her mother who had taught her to do it. Her mother did not know why so she asked her mother, who had taught her. The grandmother explained that she cut the end off because the only pan she had when young was too small for the roast, so she cut off the end so it would fit.

The grandmother was being mindful, but her daughter and granddaughter were not.

So What Training Program Do I Use

It is past the scope of this blog to suggest what specific training plan you should use, however, I would like to make a few suggestions about things that can make your training more mindful.

Recommendation #1: The training program, the intensity, and the workload should be geared specifically to you, or to your team. That means consider your fierce vision (step 1) and your rock-star athletes (step 2) and gear the training and program to them.

It would be crazy for a 54 year old who has been rowing for one year, or a junior with 2 years of rowing experience to use the same training program that the US National team uses to prepare for international races. Crazy yes, but it happens quite often.

Recommendation #2: Make sure the program is not based just on what coaches have done before, but instead is based on current research, advances in technology, and best practices.

For example, in her book, Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life, swimmer Dara Torres details how she mindfully adapted her training and program to her age, abilities, restrictions, and environment. Swim coach Terry Laughlin, in his book Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier talks about new and quite mindful methods to train swimmers.

Recommendation #3: Get help when building a plan, good help. Unless you have a background in physiology, physical eduction, or biomechanics putting together a sound plan can be daunting. Like building a business from the ground up, some folks will find success doing it on their own but the success-rate greatly increases with good help. This is a case where standing on the shoulders of giants can pay off handsomely.

Take Action Now

If you are in the midst of designing a program, or participating in an established one, find time to be mindful about exactly what you are doing. If you make changes, or realize that your plan and training are right on track, then it will be time well spent.

Coming up next is Step 4.

Leave a comment and tell us what you think.

• Post 1: A Hunt For Speed
• Post 2:  A Cheater’s Guide To Making A Boat Go Fast
• Post 3: Coxswain’s Head Explodes. Too Much Speed The Cause
• Post 4: Step 1 of Your Personal Speed System: Fierce Mindset
• Post 5: Step 2 of Your Personal Speed System: Rock-star Athlete(s)
• Rowing Slow: The Secret For Going Fast And Getting What You Really Want From Rowing

Step 2 of Your Personal Speed System: Rock-star Athlete

I’d like to share a letter I received a few years ago:

Hey Coach—

The team wanted to let you know it’s been a real interesting year. We had ups and downs and they all were interesting. We learned a bunch.

One thing that stuck out was what you said at the beginning—people make boats go, athletes make boats go fast, rock-star athletes can make boats fly . . . Or something like that.

That rocked.

We look forward to next year. Thanks, have a great summer.

Team of ‘88

That letter was from a college men’s team I was coaching (many seasons ago). They were not the fastest team around however they had gotten much faster than they had ever been. A lot of development happened that year.

The specific quote they referred to was something that I read on the wall of a bathroom at a race course (expecting maybe Buddha from his racing days?), and it seems to summarizes exactly Step 2 of your PSS (personal speed system)—the importance of an athlete and their athletic ability.

It doesn’t matter if you’re coaching a team looking to dominate the river or you just want to row faster than the fish that swim in your river—the person in the boat is the second most important thing in your hunt for speed (second, that is, only to the fierce mindset that athlete has).

And if you really want speed a rock-star athlete is what you are after.

The Rock-star Athlete

Eric Clapton is an amazing musician. A great talent that has also dedicated years of his life to perfecting his skill to becoming an authentic performer.

It’s been very important throughout my career that I’ve met all the guys

I’ve copied, because at each stage they’ve said, ”Don’t play like me, play like you.’

In essence that is what I mean by a rock-star athlete. Someone who has the ability, who will dedicate themselves to improving that skill, all the while becoming the person that is really them. That is where speed comes from.

The Indy 500

It is not too great of a stretch to compare a rowing race to the Indy 500. The top placers at Indy usually are the teams with the best drivers with the best motors. They might not win every single time (for instance, taken out by a crash) but usually you will find them in the winners circle more often than drivers who aren’t as skilled or cars with less powerful engines.

And that is how it is in rowing.

So What Does This Mean?

It means that if you’re after speed then you need rocking athletes. It means if you want to go fast a good investment of your time is finding the athletes who have a fierce mindset (or are open to building that mindset) and have the athletic ability to go fast. It means the person on the end of the oar (or the end of the mic) is really dang important if you are chasing speed.

And as a coach it means that recruiting the athletes and retaining those athletes needs to be near the top of your *to do* list.

What Should I Do?

This all makes sense, right? Yeah, well it sure took me a long time to really grasp the importance of this, and I see the same happening to many coaches today. To help, let’s distill this step right down to a few actions:

If you’re coaching a team I might suggest:

1. Find the rock-star athlete(s) that can help you attain your vision
2. Recruit the athlete(s) to your team
3. Keep the athlete on your team
4. And then do step #3 (coming out in three days)

If you are the athlete (for instance, a single sculler) then I might suggest that you come back to your mindset (from Step #1) and make sure that your athletic ability is in alignment with your vision.

So what might you be looking for in an athlete? Well, if you are looking to make the next World Championship awards dock then you might want to look for these physical traits (might but you don’t have to):

• Characteristics of elite female junior rowers
• Characteristics of elite male junior rowers

And in terms of mental traits . . . look for rock-star athletes. Those who are (or, again, can be) intense, strong, untamed, and authentic.

Up Next

Coming up next is Step #3 in your PSS. See you in a few days.

And if you have a moment, leave a comment. It would be great to hear from you.

• Post 1: A Hunt For Speed
• Post 2:  A Cheater’s Guide To Making A Boat Go Fast
• Post 3: Coxswain’s Head Explodes. Too Much Speed The Cause
• Post 4: Step 1 of Your Personal Speed System: Fierce Mindset
• Rowing Slow: The Secret For Going Fast And Getting What You Really Want From Rowing

Step 1 of Your Personal Speed System—Fierce Mindset

In the last post, Coxswains Head Explodes, I wrote about being fierce and mentioned if you want to find speed being fierce is a key ingredient.

A natural follow up question would be, “So how do I become fierce?” All in good time, but right now let’s take the discussion one notch further and dive into the first step in constructing your own Personal Speed System (PSS).

Step 1: Create a Fierce Mindset About Speed

Over the next several posts I will specificaly lay out a Personal Speed System that you can use as a foundation to improve how fast you row. Now realistically what you do with this system is up to you but you should know that its foundation is based upon conversations and interactions I’ve had with numerous coaches, along with distialtions of books, podcasts and lectures, and my own person experiences (both fast and slow).

In those posts I will detail the 7 steps that compose your PSS. The first one, if you want to be fast regardless of your level or experience, is the most critical component. And that step is the creation of a fierce mindset about speed.

Remember, fierce in this context means to be intense, be strong, be untamed.

There are four parts to creating a fierce mindset about speed. None are difficult, really, and actually they may just require you to think a little differently or at least creatively about being fast. I’ll briefly go through each of the four parts here and give a resource for each one. But please keep in mind that this post is only an introduction to this topic and just knowing about these parts and actually mastering them are two vastly different things

Part 1: A Vision

Pretend for a moment that your body is actually run by a computer operational system (such as Windows or MacOS). If this was the case then a computer programs would be the mechanism that gets your body to do things.

Want to climb stairs—put in a program. Hit a baseball—a different program. Wanna go fast in a rowing shell—pop in a program, and in this case the program would be the one marked “Vision.”

That probably sounds funky but the vision that you have, in our case the one about generating speed, is critical to getting your computer (your body, or your team) to find the speed. Your vision helps you achieve a task, or in this case get a goal, that of being fast. No vision, no achievement.

Now many rowers and coaches do have visions but the difference I see between fast rowers and those who aren’t is the fierceness of the vision.

A Resource: There is a simple and free resource that can help you fine tune and become fierce about your vision. Should only take a few minutes. Simply enough, just answer these three questions:

1. How much speed do you need?
2. Why do you need the speed?
3. What price are you willing to pay for the amount of speed you need?

Stop and really think about those answers.

How fast do you actually need to be? Row a 2K at 6:20? That is fast and a significantly different amount of speed then needing to row a 2k at 7:40. Or 10:00. Investing time here figuring out exactly how fast you need to be can save you hours of wasted or unproductive training, and some heartache.

Why do you need the speed? Is it to satisfy your life-long yearning to make a boat and then win a World Championship? Again, a much different reason than wanting to beat the boathouse time from the dead tree on the shore to the dock that has stood for 30 years. Or it is just to see how low you can get your Speedcoach to read. Knowing why you need speed will be a great help to get you through tough workouts and keep you focused when the distractions popup.

What price are you willing to pay? The hardest question of all to answer. Would you quit your career/schooling and dedicate your life to going fast, risking all you have? Interesting. I saw a recent documentary about a retired pro football player who is, in essence, crippled. It took him over an hour to get out of bed each morning, and he could not dress himself. When the reporter asked if he would do it again (play pro) knowing what he would  be like now (at the age of 40) he responded, “Heck yeah!”

What price are you willing to pay?

Answer these three questions truthfully and honestly and then build a vision. When you do, if you were truthful, you will be well on the way to having a fierce vision.

Part 2: Love Failure

We live in a failure adverse society. We are surrounded by people of all ages who don’t give their all. They hold back. A major reason is that they don’t want to fail.

That is backwards. Failure is something we should welcome—a great assest and tool to have. Fierceness can come from learning to love failure.

Tom Peters and Seth Godin have both written in detail about failing and how important it is. They are two smart and well respected business leaders who certainly have failed, and have they great (and fierce) visions.

Resource: There are a wealth of books, dvds, podcasts and websites about how to push yourself and get past your fear. Most are good. However, in my mind the one (and it is a wonderful story) that gets right to the core of what many of us are trying to do is a book by cool friend Brad Alan Lewis. If you have not read Assault on Lake Casitas, stop whatever you are doing, and go get the book.

Part 3: Give Up Control

The speed world seems to be divided up into two distinct categories. There are those items you can control. And those items out of your control.

A critical part of a successful speed mindset is to figure what goes into those two categories and then focus on the things you can control.

For instance, you cannot control the weather, the wind, illness, or other people’s commitment. You can’t control the stockmarket.

Focus on the things you can, let go of the things your cannot, and invest that extra energy into making your vision fierce.

Resource: Zen Habits, by Leo Babauta, is a fantastic resource about control, what is important, and vision. For instance he was one of the first bloggers and web writers to make all of his writers copyright free. So what does that have to do with giving up control? In essence he knew that his material, once on the web, was being used (stolen, in copyright terms) and he could not control that unless he wanted to spend tons of money in legal pursuits. So he just gave it away. In fact, here is his disclaimer to that effect:

Just to clarify, this post is an official notification that my writing here at Zen Habits and in the Zen To Done ebook are now in the public domain. I hereby waive all claim of copyright in this work; it may be used or altered in any manner without attribution or notice to the me. Attribution, of course, is appreciated.

He knew his writings were being used, he could not control it, so he gave up control and it has proved to be a very wise business move for him.

Part 4: Find Joy

Long time readers know that this is one of my reasons for being online. Too many in our sport, heck—our world, find little joy in their undertakings. It is really a sad state of affairs. I see way too many rowers turning in garbage miles and rowing with scowls with little or no joy.

Why?

You cannot be fierce with little or no joy in your heart.

Resource: I recently released a free ebook specifically on this topic. To get your free download just click here.

A Review

Developing a fierce mindset for speed for your PSS will take some work, but less than you probably think. However the rewards will be quick and strong if you do it.

The next step will be coming up in a few days.

Why don’t you leave a comment and tell me what you think.

• Post 1: A Hunt For Speed
• Post 2:  A Cheater’s Guide To Making A Boat Go Fast
• Post 3: Coxswain’s Head Explodes. Too Much Speed The Cause
• Rowing Slow: The Secret For Going Fast And Getting What You Really Want From Rowing

Coxswain’s Head Explodes. Too Much Boat Speed The Cause

(No offense to any coxswains, but isn’t that the type of news headline we would love to create?)

Let’s get down to it—we are after speed. Gut-busting, face-melting, head-exploding speed. Regardless if the racing is big time or something simple like trying to beat a time from the tree to the dock—speed is what we’re talking about.

And to get speed you need to be something special, you need to be fierce.

Be Fierce Then Speed Will Come

Several years ago Susan Scott wrote a thoughtful and popular book Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time. It detailed how people can better achieve success by having critical conversations, ones that she describes as fierce.

In the beginning of the book she elaborates on what fierce means to her:

“. . .  ‘fierce’ suggest menacing, cruel, barbarous, threatening . . . Sounds like raised voices, frowns, blood on the floor, no fun at all. In Roget’s Thesaurus, however, the word fierce has the following synonyms: robust, intense, strong, powerful, passionate, eager, unbridled, uncurbed, untamed.”

Those last 9 words describe being fierce beautifully. And more to the point, if you are fierce you are intense. You are strong. You are untamed. Those are 3 things you need to find speed.

For instance . . . on the Savannah plains in Africa a hungry lion chases an antelope. The lion runs for dinner, the antelope runs for her life. Let me ask you, of the two animals which is more fierce? Which is more intense, stronger, untamed?

Of course the king of the jungle—right? As fierce as they come.

Nope, the antelope is—by far. That antelope is sure as heck committed to generating as much speed as she possibly can. As untamed, strong and intense as she can be.

I guarantee that if there was such as thing as a commitment meter and we could put it on the two animals, the antelope would far surpass the lion.

She is the fierce one, and if not then the hunt ends not well for the antelope.

Does Being Fierce Make A Difference

So often as competitive athletes and coaches we follow what has come before us almost blindly. Focused so much on the end result(s) we ignore the process and in the end miss the results that we could have had.

Terry Laughlin, in his book Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier, talks about how for years swimmers have done the exact same thing and “that the usual ‘swim-your-laps’ advice was not only ineffective; it could actually be harmful.” He is waking people up and revolutionizing swimming.

He is being intense, strong, untamed. He is going against the grain. That is where the speed is to be found.

Or we rationalize our desire for something and sell ourselves short. “Oh . . . I couldn’t do that because I’m (pick one here):

• too short
• too tall
• too old
• too young

(and the list goes on).

One of the main reasons we cannot find speed is that we are not fierce. And it is hard being fierce and there are so many reasons not to be fast. Yeah, well get over it and stop the excuse making. Let me tell you about one of the most fierce persons in the world.

His name is Bob. Bob Wieland.

Bob Wieland

Bob runs marathons. But boy is he slow. In fact he ran the New York City Marathon and finished dead last. Actually it took him over 4 days to finish—probably the slowest marathon in history.

So why does that make Bob fierce?

Bob has no legs. He lost both of them in the Vietnam war.

He ran the marathon on his hands. No wheelchair—on his hands. And he has run numerous other marathons, and ran across the United States. He has set world records in lifting and became a strength coach for the Green Bay Packers.

You see fierce means to take the steps that need to be taken to get you where you need to go. Bob wasn’t going to die. Bob was going to live. Bob took the steps he needed to take.

And many would say his time was the slowest marathon ever. I would counter that is was probably the fastest ever.

Bob is fierce. As heck.

How Can You Become Fierce About Speed

You can. It is not easy, but you can. In fact I’ve got a three-step process to help you become fierce.

We’ll get into that on Monday, along with introducing the details of a speed system you can start right away to help you this season.

A Cheaters Guide To Making A Boat Go Fast

This is the second part of the series A Hunt For Speed

Let me tell you about a conversation I had last month with a fellow Coach. I’ll call him Rob, because, well . . . because his name is Rob.

I was making a presentation and Rob wandered up after the talk and asked me about boat speed. Point blank he asked,

“Like . . . I know a lot of stuff about rowing but what I don’t know is how to put it altogether to make a boat go fast. Can you tell me?”

It was apparent that this was something that really bothered him so I started to tell him about coaches and their speed systems.

. . . let’s pick up the conversation there.

“ . . . So, Rob, what became apparent when I was talking to these Coaches was that each Coach had a system, but it was not the same system. Yeah, there were a few common threads but there were many more differences between them than things that were the same.

“And the crazy part about that was all the coaches I talked to are/were very successful. I mean they knew how to make fast boats go really, really fast. But many of them were doing different things.

“And I noticed two things. First is that their system worked for them. And I felt pretty sure that if it didn’t work they would jettison it right quick. Second, I think that they got much more out of their speed system than just boat speed. I mean, I think it helped them survive the grind of coaching.”

At this point Rob looked at me and said, “But that sounds like cheating.”

“Cheating? Huh? Cheating?”

“Cheating,” he repeated. “It sounds too easy. It is cheating.”

And then he ran off, mumbling something about an H1N1 shot waiting for him.

And I stood there with my mouth wide open.

A system to find speed can be a great tool—heck a fantastic tool. But it certainly is not cheating. Let me take a moment and tell you just how great of a tool a good speed system can be.

Benefits of a Speed System

As I touched on in the section above (before Rob ducked out) there are several benefits of having a speed system. One of the cool parts is that it really reduces stress. I know that when I coach and I don’t use a system I am always worried about races, and practices, and testing. (And worried is just putting it mildly.) What to do, how to do it, and when it should be done. It drives me nuts.

When I’m using a system (and several Coaches I interviewed mentioned this) the plan and methodology help me keep things in perspective. The planning gets done way before the results need to be in.

Another benefit is actually being able to find speed. I mean, why else would you have a speed system if it wasn’t actually going to help you get faster? Hmm . . . well, that makes sense when asked out loud but so often we use things in our lives that were made/built for one thing but we don’t use it for that.

For instance I’ve got an iPod on my desk that I only really use as a clock (even though it is in good working order) and I cannot accurately recall how many of my friends have paid to join gyms or online-membership sites only to quickly never use them.

A third benefit of a speed system is that it helps prepare for next year. By being methodical and recording information (detailed info) you get to see what works, and what doesn’t for this year, and then this gives you a great place to start for next year.

Where Do Speed Systems Come From?

By now a question you’re probably itching to ask is: “How did these coaches make their speed system. How did they learn what to do, how to organize it, what is important and what is not?”

Exactly what I wanted to know, so I asked them the same thing. To a one they all answered,

• Got the system from another Coach.
• My mentor gave it to me
• I go up at races and ask the winning Coaches

I like to put it this way (and so did Isaac Newton) they stand on the shoulders of a giant. Some Coach before them had developed something that worked well and so these Coaches borrowed it, and made it better.

To me this is the defining point about a speed system (and a critical part of any sort of continued speed system relationship from here on end with me and you). Successful Coaches take a system and adapt and change it to meet their own needs and circumstances, and discarded the rest. This is what sets apart many fast coaches from non-fast ones.

It is so easy—so tempting—to take what a fast coach is doing and try to apply it directly to your own rowing or team—without adapting it to your own situation. Just lay it out there, tell them to do it, and sit back and watch the splits drop.

I’ve tried it. It doesn’t work that way.

One summer I visited an elite team training camp in upstate New York to watch practice. I took notes and came away with several drills. One drill was a simple one, where an eight rows all eight and then six drop out and the remaining pair then rows hard—trying to keep up with the speed of the boat. Seemed like a good drill to take home and use.

But it wasn’t, mostly because I didn’t have elite level rowers, and even more so because my rowers were not in any sort of condition to carry that load. At the end of practice there were a bunch of fire-eyed rowers with darn sore backs.

If It Hurts When You Do That—Don’t Do That

Another step that these successful Coaches did was to use trial and error—a lot of trial and error.

I noticed that although they had a system they had enough flexibility and courage that they were not locked into just one method of finding speed. More than once a Coach said that she tried something, it didn’t work, so she then tried something else.

But they, and this is critical, gave their trials time to work. Today our society is very quick minded and short of patience. In the educational settings we will try a fancy solution to, say, retention, for one year, and then off to something else if the results are not stellar. Patience is a virtue in a speed system.

But so is knowing when to quit, and when to try something else. I will put a plug in here for probably the best resource I’ve found (and as someone who teaches courses on failure I’m always looking for resources) about quitting. That resource is Seth Godin’s book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)

Okay, so now I hope you are convinced a system can help you. So let’s discuss one really important detail of any successful system, and a detail that if you don’t use it you are never going to find the speed you really want/need.

It is time to discuss being fierce.

See you in three days.

Post #1: A Hunt For Speed

A Hunt For Speed

A Problem You And I Share

Let’s have a discussion about a problem that you and I probably have in common—speed. Specifically the need for speed, and the ensuing hunt for it.

Regardless of what your involvement in rowing is: as coach or coxswain, as sculler or sweep rower, recreational rower or national team member, at some time or another there will well-up within you the need for speed.

I call this need a problem because so often it (the need) can take away from the enjoyment and satisfaction a person can get from rowing. For instance, as I write this I’m sitting at my kitchen table on a bright sunny afternoon putting together my training plan for the upcoming season—trying to satisfy my own team’s need for speed—my two sons are begging me to come play football with them. I would much rather be playing than working on such a gorgeous day but I have a need that must be addressed.

As a college coach I’ve been doing this for 30 years—hunting for speed.

And during that 30 years the need for speed has been both a friend and a foe. A friend because it (the need) constantly reminds me that I must be the best coach I can and stay up on the latest and greatest techniques, equipment, and theories in the world of rowing. A foe because there is never enough speed. There is always someone faster and always a need for more speed to be gained. It often seems like whatever is done is not quite good enough.

One thing I have learned during that time is that finding speed, regardless of the sport, can be a very demanding and exacting process. And the process of finding the speed I need if not kept in check can be crushing. I’ve seen the process of speed-hunting flat out destroy several of my peers and friends.

And yet there are other peers and friends who continue to find speed (they or their team are fast) and they are not crushed. They are having fun, finding enjoyment, and doing a darn fine job of it while others around them swirl and crash.

One example of this is Coach Mike Spracklen. Mike’s teams have won numerous Olympic medals, and yet he continues to enjoy what he does. I asked him about this when I was putting together my book Finding Happiness Sitting on Your Butt Going Backwards. Mike told me:

Just being in a boat is fun.

Rowing in a good crew is fun.

The challenge of competing is fun.

But the best fun of all is winning.

Fun. Speed. Fast. Winning. Fun.

He was smiling while he told me this. It was during an Olympic year.

How do they do it?

A System

That is what I wanted to know, how do they do it? How does a sculler continue to row fast year after year, and keep on smiling, laughing and having a great time? How does a well respected coach find time to make her team fast, raise a wonderful family, and actually be a nice person? How does Spracklen do it?

I wanted to know how they do it so 20 years ago I started a mission to find out. It seemed the best way to begin the process of discovery was by immersing myself in all aspects of rowing, finding those persons, and then asking one heck of a bunch of questions.

So that is what I did.

I volunteered for every and all aspects of rowing I could, from committees to assistant coaching to driving trailers around the world. And I found folks from all nationalities who had found speed and were having a blast. And I asked them questions.

To each of them I specifically asked this question: How do you do it?

And each of them gave almost the exact same response: I have a system.

A system? What the heck? Did I miss something at the Convention? Was there some secret memo given out at Joy of Sculling while I was in the bathroom?

A system?

And the more I asked, the more the response came back—a system.

But then I began to notice something interesting, that when they described their systems there were differences between the systems. Many differences. In fact, no two systems really were the same. But there was this common thread of a system.

I Borrowed

So armed with this tantilizing bit of info (that there is a system) I went home and tried to build one for my own hunt for speed. And what I found is that no one’s specific system would work for my team (for instance using the exact same training program that University of Virginia’s team uses for my team of Division III rowers did not work). However bits and pieces did work.

So I borrowed from this coach and from that one, took a little from there and some from here and wove together my own system that I am using today.

And over the next several posts I plan to share that system with you.

Could I have been mistaken about how to make a rowing shell fast (Part 2)

24 hours after my post on how I have probably been thinking about boat speed wrong the questions that I’ve gotten at the Convention, the questions on email, and the comments have been interesting, and intense.

One question was, “Is this info correct?”

I think maybe, possibly, could be. Certainly needs further investigation. I do know that some of the smartest coaches I know sat down at the table for a demo convinced of one mindset, and a few minutes later were looking at things a little differently. (Some, not all. And that was more due to human nature than to the data.)

Another question was, “What does it mean?”

To me it means that I should take this information and act reasonably upon it. That means to do some testing. Something along the lines of training 1/2 my team with the thought that the finish is the fastest part of the stroke. And at the same time train the other half with the thought that the catch is the fastest part.

Do a pre-test (speed recordings), do some training and rigging, and then do a post-test. Do this in a short window of time (maybe two weeks), see what the effects are, and then go from there.

And I’ll also stay in close contact with Jim and his brains!

And another question was, “What if the info is correct?”

I love this question because of the way it starts, “What if . . .” To me this is a question coaches (and rowers) should be asking themselves all the time, about a wealth of items.

I think the answer to this question, “What if the info is correct?” could be, “Then there may well be a very significant impact in the way we coach, train, rig our athletes.”

Hmm . . . all good questions (not very good answers, yet).

Stay tuned and watch the web for more info. This could be a very interesting topic.

(And thanks for all the great comments!)

Could I have been mistaken for 30 years about how to make a rowing shell fast?

I’m currently at USRowing’s Convention, in Phoenix.

A convention, and certainly this one, is a great time to learn new things. And in this case one of those new things is a piece of info that may cause several sleepless nights for coaches, and rowers. It will for this coach.

For all my years of coaching I went by the mantra that the hull of a boat moves the fastest at the finish, after the drive is over and the blade is just being removed.

Good chance (darn good chance) that this is not so. That I was mistaken for 30 years is a real ego knock.

Why do I think I was wrong?

I spent about an hour discussing a very interesting project with the creator—Jim Mitchell of PowerView.

In essence his combination of GPS, video, accelerometer graphs out that the fastest part of the stroke may well be the catch. (I always thought it was at the release.)

This is an image of some of his results.

I’m not going to be able to explain it well here, but he has videos and info on his site.

I’m going to really suggest you go there and check it out.

And I’m going to have a sleepless night.

(Hey—this is not some affiliate deal. It is, though, something big, a great paradigm shifting piece of info that could really make a difference to your rowing.)

(Let me know what you think!)

A Sculler Asks About Catch Length and Foot-stretcher Placement

The following is a response to a question by Tim, by our resident sculling expert, Casey Baker, from Resolute Racing.

Question): Tim, a reader from Australia wrote:

I’m a 193cm master. In my single I feel “jammed” for room with my hands at the release, but when I tried moving my foot-stretcher towards the bow it seemed to cost me significant length at the catch. Can I adjust my inboard, or is there something I can do with the span please?
Thanks and regards, Tim

Casey’s Response): You certainly are not alone with your dilemma of how do you keep your catch length without jamming the handles into your body at the finish.

Some boats have enough adjustments to do this. Winged riggers tend to have more holes to mount the wing as opposed to side mounted ‘A’ frame riggers. Which do you have? Read more

Different Size Scullers, Times, and Catch Length in a Single

Q0 Brett wrote:

Hi, I purchased your book awhile back but can’t seem to find this piece of information:
I am rowing a mixed double with my girlfriend who is very small. (5’2″ 110lb coxswain) she is having trouble getting the rate up and I’m pretty sure its the loading on her oars. What do you think her loading should be? Mine is 86.5 inboard and 290 something length. Her last 2k was around an 8:30. Thanks for the help.

A) My Response: Hi Brett. I’m surprised that she (as a coxswain) is not blaming you for the issues!! (Ahem, just kidding. . . )

Per the rigging, I would suggest that if the oars are NOT adjustable that you give her about 1cm more of inboard and about the same on the span. If the oars ARE adjustable then I would shorten the oars about 1 cm, keeping the inboard the same. And then test. And test, and test.

The big thing here would be to test (did I mention that already?), and do changes slow and methodically.

Q) Rick wrote:

I’m a sculler, who’s always been told to set my foot stretchers so that when I sit straight up, the oar handles, if butted together would meet my sternum. It’s been explained that further back and you tend to pull through too much. Closer and you don’t have the room to clear at the finish. That’s worked fine, until I’ve started to work with my son, who is 6’7″. Trying to do that with my Hudson single… his shins hit the rigger. Am I using the right approach? If so… what am I missing?

A) My Response: Rick,  I would tend to think your son is over-compressing at the catch, and he might be doing it to compensate for not enough work through the pin. I would measure the distance from a plane cutting across the sternward stops of the track to a plane that goes through the pin. It should be “0” or  even less. Go to the numbers page to find out how to measure it and to see what the numbers should be. Measure away and then follow up and let us know what you’ve got.

Q) Jack wrote:

Hi Mike,  I have recently subscribed to your email newsletter. I row in New Zealand at a school called Christ’s College we finished last season on a high note coming second at the national’s regatta in the under 16 division (15 year olds) 8+. We finished with a time of 6:09.44.
I was wondering if you could help me out with a question thats been burning in my mind for quite some time now. How would our time (6:09.44) stack up against American crews of roughly the same age? I know that there are always variables involved, such as conditions, but I am just looking for a general idea. Could you please help me?

Welcome Jack, and great to hear of your success. To find out more about your time I’m going to suggest that you go to Rowing Illustrated and chime in on one of the forums there. Lot’s of smart people, with lots of opinions. They should be able to help you. Also, look up USRowing’s results for summer racing. More info there.

Can you help our readers with any suggestions?

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