Mike and Mike attacking the 2k at the RRL – Are you ready for the Renegade Rowing League?
The Renegade Rowing League starts this Saturday, December 21st at CrossFit Boston. If you’d like to compete, have some fun, and earn that holiday, please sign up here. The registration deadline online is this Wednesday at 11:59pm. I’ll be setting the heats after that and emailing the schedule to all participants. If you have friends that would like to row last minute please bring them along. I’ll do my best to fit them in to the competition.
Looking forward to seeing everyone crush it!
Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great Sunday!
From time to time it can be beneficial to look at yourself on camera. No we don’t care about the aesthetics or the fashion. We’re looking to gain feedback and a mental picture. We’re looking for just one or two cues that might give us a smoother, more powerful stroke. What’s going right? What’s going wrong? What can we do better?
You should be asking yourself, “What do I look like now? How do I move now? What could use some extra focus and improvement next time?” Don’t dwell on to many things at a time, just find one or two things that might make your life on the erg or in the boat a little better. Go work on them. Then reassess in a couple of weeks.
The Renegade Rowing Club has agreed to help everyone by taking a look at their strokes. If you’d like feedback similar to this, post a 20 second clip of you rowing to YouTube and share it with us in the comments of this post. I’ll do my best to give you a couple of things to work on!
For each of the following videos I’ll be ranking each rower on their posture, control, and connection. I’ll use a five point scale where 1 = poor and 5 = perfect. When dealing with posture we’re looking for the torso to be stacked and strong at all times. When talking about control we are looking at the smoothness of the recovery and how the seat moves toward the catch. Does it rush forward for the next stroke? Is there control in the last few inches of the slide to change direction without pushing the boat backwards? Last and most important, connection, are the seat and handle connected and moving together into and out of the catch as if connected by a belt.
Take a look and share what you might focus on next time you row!
Posture: 3, Control: 3, Connection: 2
Feedback: Nice job getting the body over. Don’t let the seat stop at the catch. Be ready to push with the legs the second you hit the catch and keep the seat and hands connected.
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Posture: 3, Control: 3, Connection: 4
Feedback: Nice horizontal hands. Don’t let the handle pause at the finish. Focus on quicker hands away as if there were opposing magnets on the handle and your chest trying to push those hands away out of the finish.
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Posture: 4, Control: 3, Connection: 3
Feedback: Great posture and nice job getting the body over. Try not to be so rigid and don’t break the elbows as you initiate the drive. Relax a little on the recovery and make everything smooth.
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Posture: 3, Control: 2, Connection: 3
Feedback: Nice job getting the arms extended and ready for the catch. Try to not be so robotic and rigid at the finish. Focus on quick and smooth hands away. The handle should always be moving.
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Posture: 4, Control: 3, Connection: 2
Feedback: Good posture and nice horizontal hands. Don’t let the shoulders and torso reach for more at the catch. Focus on staying connected as you approach the catch. See if you can get the body over and find that reach earlier in the recovery, before you get to half slide.
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Posture: 3, Control: 4, Connection: 2
Feedback: Great work getting your body over on the recovery and getting prepared by half slide. Don’t let your posture go as you approach the catch. Focus on bringing the handle with you as you push the knees down. The first inch or two of the drive you are shooting the slide, so keep a big chest and solid abs/back as you push.
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Posture: 3, Control: 3, Connection: 2
Feedback: Nice power and push on the drive. Try to keep your hands on one level plain and don’t let them drop coming into the catch. Focus on pointing the toes as you finish and then getting the proper sequence of arms away first, bodies over, and then knees come up during the recovery. Everything blends, but that’s the order of firing in terms of sequence.
If you want to be your best you’ll need others to push you and help you be your best in training. Checkout how the Renegade Rowing Club pushes and supports each other even in their warmup. Surround yourself with good people and the possibilities are endless.
Share your team to comments even if it’s a solid training partner. They’re priceless!
Athletes from CFH2O getting after a partner 2k at the Renegade Rowing Workshop earlier this year!
This past Friday I introduced a new client at the gym to rowing. I was only using rowing as part of the warmup, but still needed to impart some words of advice on technique and “how to row” without taking the whole session. I imagine it’s a challenge that a lot of athletes, rowers, and trainers run into. What do you do with a class or client when there is limited time and you’d like to get them rowing well enough to have fun, push themselves, and walk away having learned something?
Below is a video I made when I was in the Institute for Rowing Leadership a couple of years ago. One thing I might modify for using this type of intro in a gym setting would be to say the words “Push Away” instead of “Stretch Away” in order to emphasize that rowing is a pushing sport. Try both though and see what happens.
If you have any good ideas or experiences for introducing rowing in 5min to new rowers or a class of athletes please share to comments!
Renegade Rowing 