RowingRelated

'Racing the heat' (Illustration: B. Kitch) The following is Part One of Joe Abrams's account of his trip to the 2012 Masters Nationals at Lake Quinsigamond: Driving West on I-90 in an oversized rental car, three thousand miles away from home, we were enjoying the freedom of a 4-day road trip. Marcus was his usual jovial, chatty self—the perfect antidote to my anxiety. We were still tired, feeling the effects of our red-eye flight two nights earlier, and it didn’t help that Marcus had stayed up till 4am the previous night, finishing up a project for work. But, after several cups of coffee, this morning’s trip from Cambridge to Worcester was going by quickly—we were absorbed in discussing our racing strategy. In truth, we knew exactly what we needed to do. Hundreds of hours and countless loops on Lake Merced in San Francisco had prepared us for this trip to take on the fastest boats in the country. Finding a parking spot along the road leading to Lake Quinsigam...

If you haven't seen this yet, it's well worth a watch. The above video, which splices together footage of Drew Ginn and Duncan Free rowing the pair prior to the Beijing Games (as well as some of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray training together in the lead up to London) with a now famous discussion of rowing technique, which Ginn recorded while driving home from a training session.  The approach he suggests is well thought-out, and based on years of personal testing with various crews at various speeds, and the results reflect the level of thought and empirical data behind this discussion.  As Ginn mentions, too often in rowing we find ourselves doing things simply because that is the way we were taught to do it. This is something we've touched on here before , and it bears further thought—to achieve to the best of your abilities requires constant analysis and evaluation.  Are there some aspects of your program that might not stand up to the question, "Will it make t...

For most, it's holiday break time, and, here in the Northern Hemisphere, that means lots of training indoors as we build strength and fitness through the winter months for spring racing season on the water. So, we figured we'd give you a bit of inspiration—the above video shows the French U23 squad nailing it down via weight circuits, indoor cycling, and ergometer work. The key, as always is to have your eyes on the prize—as coaches everywhere are fond of reminding their athletes, this is the time of year when races are won. Wishing everyone Happy Holidays from the whole team at RowingRelated! Only a few more days to vote in our reader poll—what would you like to see more of on RR? Want to suggest the next 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com, send us your suggestion via Twitter ( twitter.com/rowingrelated ), or get in touch via our Facebook or Google+ pages. -RR

It's a game of inches We know that the most talented teams or athletes don't always win. It's part of what makes watching and competing in competitive athletics so much fun. It's when the details are handled better that a team with a little less talent can prevail. We've all heard the phrase "don't sweat the small stuff" when it comes to managing our jobs, relationships, hobbies, etc. We tend to like this advice, because it allows us to focus on the big picture while letting the details fade off to the side. The idea is to prevent yourself from getting bogged down in the minutiae of a particular problem or pursuit, when the larger scale issues have yet to be resolved, or are the issues of real importance.  While this may be valuable advice in many areas of our lives, I believe it can prove very detrimental when it comes to competitive athletics. This is true both for athletes and coaches, but especially for coaches, as they are the individuals respon...

The above (very nicely produced) video covers the eighth  African Rowing Championships , which were held in Alexandria, Egypt from 28 November-2 December, 2012, and saw athletes from nine countries compete across 16 events. While Egypt dominated the racing, taking home no less than nine gold medals when all was said and done, Algerian athlete Amina Rouba had a golden regatta of her own, as noted on the official website of FISA: The standout athlete was Amina Rouba of Algeria. Rouba picked up three gold medals from racing in the lightweight women’s single sculls, lightweight women’s double sculls and women’s double sculls. Rouba, 26, was Algeria’s sole rower at the London Olympic Games where she competed in the women’s single sculls finishing 26th. [To read the full write-up on the FISA website , please follow the link.] The event reflects ongoing efforts by the governing body of World Rowing to grow the sport on the African continent, with a recent and notable example c...

Lightweight standout Jérémie Azou of France has added yet another feather to his already considerably feathered cap, setting a new French record for lightweight men on the ergometer. Azou, who already holds the LM1x world best time (6:46.93, which he set at the U23 world rowing championships in 2011), blasted through the 2,000m test in 6:02.9. This result comes on the heels of his fourth place finish at the Olympic Games in London with lightweight double partner Stany Delayre , less than 0.8 seconds from a bronze medal. (The duo of Delayre and Azou had won back-to-back World Rowing Cup medals in Lucerne and Munich immediately prior to the Games.) Even more amazing? Azou celebrated his 23rd birthday in 2012. The lightweight men's indoor world record for 2k is 5:57.4, set last year by none other than Danish lightweight Henrik Stephansen (for a video of the test, click here ). In 2012, Stephansen decided to take a crack at qualifying for the Olympic Games in the men's heavy...

Barnes Bridge, Tideway, London (Photo: © B. Kitch) Tomorrow morning, Oxford and Cambridge will send their Trial Eights down the Boat Race course (from Putney to Mortlake) on the Tideway in London, in what will be an important, intra-squad tune-up for the main event, set for 31 March, 2013 at 4:30pm GMT. Dark Blue and Light Blue athletes seeking selection for the top boats have been divided into four crews. Two crews from Oxford, this year called 'Hurricane' and 'Spitfire' for the two most important British fighter planes during the Second World War, will face off against one another. Hurricane includes Yale alum William Zeng at stroke (perhaps most famous for his eloquence following the disruption of the Boat Race last year ), and GB 2012 bronze medalist Constantine Louloudis in the six seat, while the latter includes Canadian Olympic gold (Beijing) & silver (London) medalist Malcolm Howard at stroke. Cambridge will line 'Bangers' up against ...

The above video puts together some silky smooth shots of rowing, a look at cross-training, and a little background on what it takes to push yourself to become better every day in pursuit of the Olympic dream. Patrick Loliger Salas of Remo Mexico has made some waves on the international stage, and is a two-time Olympian, having finished 15th in Beijing, and 14th in London, less than one second behind Danish lightweight phenom Henrik Stephansen at Eton Dorney last summer. Here, we get some insight into his thought process and emotions as he takes on the challenge of racing at the highest level, in his own voice (for those not proficient in Spanish, there is closed captioning available). Through the winter, it's important to keep in mind that every day is an opportunity to improve–rather than looking at the coming months of intense training as an obstacle, approach each day, and each session, as a chance to make yourself, however slightly, better than you were the day, or the ses...

December 2012 issue of Rowing Magazine With midsummer approaching Down Under, a wave of retirements in the international rowing community has already drastically changed the landscape for the 2013 season, with the most recent announcement coming from Rowing Australia: four-time Olympic medalist Drew Ginn has decided to trade in his oar for a megaphone , and will be taking on a new role as joint head coach of the Aussie national team, alongside long-time coach Chris O'Brien . Not long ago, Kiwi Olympic bronze medalist Juliette Haigh announced her retirement from international rowing, as did Kiwi Matthew Trott , and it appears that Mahé Drysdale may be on the verge of calling it quits as well, after winning his first Olympic gold medal in London. Here in the U.S., Luke McGee and Bryan Volpenhein will be the new duo in charge of the U.S. men's team, as we've already discussed , while the DRV (Deutscher Ruderverband) will have to move on without the architect of their...

This week's (slightly delayed) video comes to us from the Norwegian under-23 men's rowing team, highlighting a day on training camp in Belgium . Again, here's a solid example of how to put a great recruiting video together (hint: small, waterproof digital cameras of an unspecified brand seem to do the trick), giving insight into multiple aspects of training, as well as showing multiple angles of the rowing stroke to create an overall impression of just what it takes to row on what looks to have been a three-session day for these guys in the coxless four. Submissions for our rowing recruiting video contest have already started coming in, with the final deadline set for 31 December . Submit a video for a shot at some JLRacing swag, as well as a chance to be featured on RR as our Video Of The Week to kick off the New Year. Want to suggest the next 'Video Of The Week?' Shoot us an email at rowingrelated [at] gmail [dot] com, send us your suggestion via Twitter (...