Monthly Archives: April 2012

What is Competition?

Posted on by
5

Competition

Competition is the basis for all sport.  People play sports because they’re fun.  Sports are fun because every participant is given a chance to compete.  It’s not the outcome or the opponent that matters.  People enjoy competing because they’re given an opportunity to test themselves and their abilities in order to experience the thrill of an improvement toward a goal.  Competition can be both individual and team oriented.   By incorporating competition into everyday practice, Renegade Rowing allows us to track progress toward our goals, but more importantly to have fun and experience the journey.

In order to compete, athletes must develop mental toughness.  Firsthand athletes are developed through competition when they harness the power of the mind.  Our thoughts affect our feelings and our feelings affect our actions.  Anyone can develop an ability to do work with regards to fitness and rowing, but when work capacity is combined with mental toughness, athletes can control their actions and reach their goals.  Mental toughness is an athlete’s ability to commit to competition with a belief in oneself, to have a positive focus on the things they can control, and to embrace challenge as an opportunity for learning and self-improvement.

While the thrill of intrinsic motivation should be what drives us, we should not forget about the power of the opponent or the teammate in competition.  We can push ourselves as individuals, but the opportunity to push ourselves against others will only make us better.  I’m a competitive guy and I like being pushed and challenged and testing my abilities against others.  There’s honesty in giving it all you have against others, especially knowing they’re doing the same.

Rowing is an Olympic Sport that elite athletes train for year round.  Some athletes may only compete 5 to 6 times per year and of those competitions they might only peak for one race.  Most other sports have seasons filled with games allowing for learning and development during competition.  Renegade Rowing incorporates daily competition so that athletes have the same opportunities that other sports have.  Renegade athletes will have the confidence needed to perform on race day.  By providing many opportunities to experience race day competition in practice, athletes will have a wealth of experiences to draw from when race day arrives.

Daily Challenge 4/27:

Compete!  Challenge the next person you see to a thumb war!

Let us know how it goes and why you enjoy competition…

Adventures With Food!

Posted on by
4

Post courtesy of Renegade Dietitian Alex Black.  Checkout the Daily Challenge below!

Helen Keller once said: “life is either a daring adventure, or nothing “, and I’d have to say I agree with her. If you think about it, everyday presents a new opportunity to learn something new or for something completely awesome to happen. And of course we always have the opportunity to make our own adventures. As part of the Renegade Challenge, we’ll be learning and trying all sorts of new things over the next month on our journey to become better athletes and better people.

So if we think about life as an adventure, shouldn’t we think about the food we eat everyday the same way? Some already do. Over the past ten years the food industry has gotten pretty creative about what they offer. They try lots of new stuff, like cereals that look like cookies, bagel “stix” prefilled with cream cheese, pink milk, white chocolate flavored peanut butter, purple ketchup… I could go on. If you’ve ever walked down the snack aisle of a supermarket, you know what I mean. Food companies spend millions of dollars coming up with creative new “food” items. But when you start eating more healthy unprocessed foods and making meals and snacks yourself, it can get a little more difficult to be creative. How often do you pack the same sandwich for lunch? Make the same breakfast for a month straight? Eat the same post workout snack every day? It’s so easy to fall into a food rut. But that gets boring. And when your diet becomes boring, it’s all to easy to start letting the food companies be creative for you. Enter the nutrition bar with 19 ingredients and the TV dinners that don’t taste nearly as awesome as home cooked meals.

But today’s challenge is about BREAKING FREE! Get out of the food rut. Do something different with food. It doesn’t matter if you try a food you’ve never tried before, eat a food you eat all the time in a different way, make something from scratch that you normally make with packaged ingredients, buy something completely weird and try it out, or just eat a food you used to eat all the time and haven’t had since you were a kid. Just do something adventurous! And of course, tell us how it went in the comments.

Daily Challenge 4/26:

Eat Something Adventurous!!!  Share your experience!

And to help get your creative juices flowing, this week I am sharing the recipe that inspired this post: chocolate pudding made with avocados. Because who would have thought you could make pudding with an avocado?! But it’s delicious! And it’s pretty rich so a few bites will satisfy that sweet/chocolate craving with some healthy fats and less sugar than regular pudding.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding (Courtesy of Kelly Alice)

Ingredients

2 small hass avocados

1/3 cup cocoa powder

¼ cup honey

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup almond milk (optional)

Just mix it all in a food processor or blender until smooth and enjoy! If you don’t have a food processor, you can just mix it all up in a mixing bowl with a potato masher. It may come out a little lumpier but it’ll also make clean up a little easier.

Agility and Neuromuscular Training as it Relates to Rowing

Posted on by
4

Rub your head and pat your tummy!  Just kidding, but really, your ability to do two things at once is something you can work on to improve your movement in and out of the boat.  Checkout today’s Daily Challenge and read part 2 of Judith Vogel’s post  on Agility and Rowing.

Daily Challenge 4/25:

Read the following post about Agility and Rowing, perform 10 Agility Jumps, and share your experience.

Agility and Neuromuscular Training as it Relates to Rowing

The ability to change directions, powerfully and almost instantaneously, is a key component to the rowing stroke. There are two parts of a rowing stroke in which an athlete is required to rapidly change directions; the catch and the finish. Time spent during these transition points not only affects the rhythm of the stroke but it also disrupts boat speed. Research could demonstrate in which ways agility training decreases time spent changing direction which, when applied to the rowing stroke, will allow the athlete to better establish a stroke rhythm as well as attain greater boat speed.

The conventional definition of agility is that it is determined by an athlete’s ability to de-accelerate, change direction, and accelerate once again in a short amount of time. Agility training has been utilized in many power-based sports to increase a player’s ability to change direction rapidly. A quick search of the Internet will result in a myriad of dodging and lateral sequences for sports such as football, soccer, hockey, and tennis.

It is thought that cyclical endurance sports do not require such training as there are few, to no, points in which an athlete requires such dramatic changes in speed and direction. In actuality the transition points of the stroke, the catch and the finish, are enormously complex combinations of horizontal and vertical movements. The athlete is additionally required to complete this sequence of movements in a very short period of time while, maintaining balance in a narrow boat and sequencing their movements with other athletes. The success of the transition points depends on the athlete’s ability to coordinate their movements and control their center of mass.

In rowing, there are two transition points within the stroke, which demand a very precise sequencing of movement over a very small amount of time. These transition points are the catch and the finish. Rowing takes place on a medium, water, which is unforgiving to very sudden changes in speed. With the aim of maintaining or consistently increasing hull speed over the course of a race, any delay in the transition points results in a dramatic loss in speed.

The rhythm of the agility exercises describes the rhythm of the “place” of the blade and the “press” against the foot stretchers to initiate the drive. The blade requires a bit of time to lock onto the water. Depending on the number of rowers and the size / speed of the boat, the relationship between the place and press will differ. If we were to consider rowing in an eight, the different rhythms would mimic the following scenarios.

  1. Exaggerated slow rhythm – rowing by pairs in an eight, at a 16spm
  2. Normal rhythm – rowing all eight at a 24spm
  3. Exaggerated quick rhythm – race pace in an eight

The rhythm ties into the catch placement by allowing the athlete to coordinate blade placement with the location of pressure on their feet. To avoid a debate about whether the rower should lift their heels off of the foot plate at the catch, or not, we should all at least agree that the pressure on the feet moves from the heels towards (or to include) the balls of the feet as the athlete approaches the catch. As the athlete feels the pressure move towards the balls of the feet, they place the blade into the water. The objective is to place the blade into the water before the athlete feels the pressure on the balls of the feet. This gives them time to arrive at the catch with the blade fully buried. The athlete can then press off of the footplates knowing that the blade is fully buried in the water.

The same rhythm can also be applied to the finish, with the first beat corresponding to the tap down and the second beat corresponding to the athlete arriving at the arms away position. The slower rhythms will match a slower boat speed and the higher rhythms will match the quicker boat speeds.

The application of land-based motor skill development exercises gives the athlete the opportunity to build an understanding of the rhythm required during the transition points in a stable environment.

Daily Challenge 4/24

Posted on by
5

Are you excited to begin your day?  Rather than slump into your chair and trudge through emails change it up.  Step up your game!

Daily Challenge 4/24:

Tuck Jump To Start Your Day!

Whenever you first get into the office or back to your desk, do a Tuck Jump!

How do you feel?  Ready?  Fired UP!  Maybe you should do a few.  Get pumped for the day!

What Does It Take To Be A Renegade?

Posted on by
3

Be A Renegade Challenge

During the month of May we will be competing in the first of many challenges to truly be renegades in life and sport.  Rather than take the easy road and go with the typical norms of society we will hold each other to higher standers and work to be better people and better athletes.  To often we get lazy and take for granted the opportunities we have to make ourselves and others the people we want to be.  The Be A Renegade Challenge is our opportunity to make a change and fight for our true potential.

This week will be a trial week to see who wants to commit to the challenge for the month of May.  Every day there will be a challenge posted on the blog for you to complete and then share your experiences through the comments.  If you’re interested in competing for the Renegade Challenge Cup check out the Be A Renegade Challenge page and start tracking your progress toward becoming a Renegade!

If you would like to become an official challenger for the Renegade Challenge Cup let us know in the comments section of this post.  We’ll gladly add you to the Be A Renegade Challenge page.  

If you want to just check out how the form and challenge works, select Renegade Wannabe under the Name drop down and fill out the form.

4/23 Daily Challenge

Find a New Sport!  

Google a sport you’ve been thinking of trying.  Learn more about it.  Then come up with a plan to give it a try.  Comment with what you learned and how you plan on trying your new sport!