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Calling all rowers . . .
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I know i'm not the only one for whom running is the other woman in their life (as it were). . .
Has anyone else got hideous experiences of racing starts? For some reason, having been perfectly capable in the past, my crew has developed a surprising inability to get it together in a standard 3/4, 1/2, 1/2, 3/4, wind start. When it's going well, we're rating about 42 in the wind then striding at 30 - 32 for the rest of the sprint . . . all good, except we only seem to be able to do it about 1 time in 4. Any thoughts? (though probably just out of practice cos of head races and rolling starts?)
Has anyone else got hideous experiences of racing starts? For some reason, having been perfectly capable in the past, my crew has developed a surprising inability to get it together in a standard 3/4, 1/2, 1/2, 3/4, wind start. When it's going well, we're rating about 42 in the wind then striding at 30 - 32 for the rest of the sprint . . . all good, except we only seem to be able to do it about 1 time in 4. Any thoughts? (though probably just out of practice cos of head races and rolling starts?)
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It sounds like you might just need lots of practice! But maybe the following could help:
Have you tried getting everyone to close their eyes for the entirety of the start and feel the movement and rhythm of the boat? This will mean you go off slower to begin with, but as you develop a knowledge for the way it feels when it works well you will be able to repeat it more consistantly and at a higher rate and speed.
Also, on land you can do some visualisation - visualise what you want to achieve, both moving the boat and how you want it to feel. If you can find that balance and continuity in your mind you can transpose it to when you're in the boat with your eyes shut and after practice the two will match up.
Sounds like a load of hocus pocus but in actual fact it is a massively successful method- i'm an international athlete myself (and an ex-rower) and mental imagery has had a huge impact on my performance.
When it works your boat will fly!
Hope this helps and good luck.
Sorry. I'll go now.
What club do you row for and how much experience do you all have? settling to 30/32 seems very low for sprint racing, what were you doing the head season at?
I like the idea of visualisation and infact the club has a session with a coach last year which was fantastic.
Do lots of 1 stroke, 3 stroke and 6 stroke starts until you get them right, why do more if they're not working? video record them if you can, it is transition time so that could be affecting it a little, also have you looked at the gearing of the blades? Maybe they're set up wrong for the way that your crew rows?
dropped down a couple of boats to fill in for this race due to exams, as only training 8 times a week. i'm meant to be getting things moving (as it were!). their head season at ~ 28 - 30, but i've tried settling at anything up to 36 and we're getting more cover at the lower rates. (also trying to overcome some rather . . . interesting . . . issues . . . with stroke, and compensate for the fact that every time i take a full pressure stroke the boat rotates!!)
i like both the visualisation and the video suggestions, so we'll have a go at those in the next day or two. . .
We did the head season at 33/34 was going for a top 25 at the 8's head but it was cancelled. We don't seem to handle the transition period very and well and generally don't covert our head race speed into 2k speed.
How can you not put full pressure in at 42?
(though did you read about the vets head the next day - hypothermia and boats breaking - all very wrong!!)
unfortunately my full pressure has a bit more welly than the rest of the people in the boat - hence the rather unfortunate turning power
anyway, must stop faffing around on here, got to write a presentation by tomorrow and on the river at 6:15 . . .
The new PM3 has come out, so I suspect that some people may be upgrading to that one.
Let me know, cos i'm training in the dark at the mo.
thanks
Unfortunately regatta starts do seem to provoke a headless chicken mode in some people and just as bad is when half the boat are looking outside the boat to see if the oppo is that half-inch ahead of them. Get the cox/coach to scream at anyone who does anything other than looking straight ahead might even be enough.
I one rowed in a crew that was carp at starts but had a good cruising speed so we just did full full full etc.....
The first few strokes really are Draw strokes though to get the boat speed up before the wind strokes, how many you take over each section needs to be practice
Unfortunately yesterday, we were back to square one (or even minus 1)!
Having another crack this afternoon, and we'll see what happens. The other suggestion that I've had is to change to (and I have to say I found this quite bizarre!) draw x5, wind x5, lengthen x5 bringing body rock in then stride out. I think the logic with this is that it's easier to keep together, but for bumps i think it;s a bit counter-productive as they'll be bumped by the time they start winding!
Headless chickens is about right!(and that's just my desparate delve into voodoo