Broken Oars Podcast

Broken Oars Podcast : Hadaway Harry

The Northern One reads Ed Waugh's classic life of the north-eastern legend, Harry Clasper.

 

 

Episode 64: Professor Andy Jones: The World's Greatest Physiologist, The Power of Doing the Right Things, and Beetroot.

We're back once again, the renegade masters ...

 

Southern One: You've done that one.

 

Here we are, the world's greatest rowing podcast, returning once again ...

 

Southern One: You've done that one too.

 

Northern One: You do realise that I write all the blurbs?

 

Southern One: I do. And a fine job you make of it too.

 

Northern One: And you do realise that we're over one hundred episodes deep now.

 

Southern One: I do. And that's why we're the world's greatest rowing podcast. Including Martin Cross.

 

Northern One: And you do know that people tune into us because they expect a certain level of insight, wit, humour ... dare I say diablerie.

 

Southern One: You can say it, but I bet you can't spell it.

 

Northern One: I can say it and spell it. Which is why I do the blurbs. Big words and schtick. And amazing guests. The very best guests in the world. Bar none.

 

Southern One: Like this one.

 

Northern One: Yeah. Another world-class guest. On Broken Oars. How do we get them?

 

Southern One: Because we're a place of insight, intelligence, keen lines of questioning, wit, humour and a certain lightness of touch ...

 

Northern One: Or they don't listen to us first, don't look us up and by the time the red light's on it's too late for them to get out of it?

 

Southern One: Well, there is that.

 

Northern One: And you do know that repetition is the hallmark of good prose; key to a marketing strategy; and also good comedy ...

 

Southern One: I find you hilarious ...

 

Northern One: Why, thank you ...

 

And so we're back, once again, the world's greatest rowing podcast, and we're back for 2024 with a world-class guest. There've been so many of them that you kind of take it for granted now, don't you? Well, you shouldn't. We might have outdone ourselves this time.

 

Because we're talking to Professor Andy Jones.

 

For those who don't know, well, you should.

 

Andrew M Jones is Professor of Applied Physiology in the Department of Sport and Health Sciences. Andy is internationally recognized for his research in the following areas: 1) control of, and limitations to, skeletal muscle oxidative metabolism; 2) causes of exercise intolerance in health and disease; 3) respiratory physiology, particularly the kinetics of pulmonary gas exchange and ventilation during and following exercise; and 4) sports performance physiology and nutrition, particularly in relation to endurance athletics. 

 

And if that sounds like we've pulled it of Exeter's website, well, we have - but you should know this stuff because if you're into sport, and you're into training properly, and you're still alive and you've been and done any of those things in the last two decades ... the way you train, the way you race and what you do?

 

That's down to Andy's work.

 

Southern One: Just tell them that we've got the beetroot guy ...

 

Northern One: I'm getting to that ...

 

In other words, we've got the beetroot guy. Andy's work on how dietary nitrate reduces resting blood pressure (eating beetroot), and therefore impacting positively on cardiovascular health and performance is not just robust, but world-leading. He's the man, basically, who actually found a superfood that worked. 

 

And boy does it work - but tied to what is world-leading (the REF results say so, as do the performance metrics and outcomes in the real world) research is also Andy's long history working in muscle energetics, fatigue and respiratory physiology with some of the world's leading athletes and high performance programmes. 

 

And we've got him.

 

So join us for the only conversation you'll ever need about training and nutrition and recovery with the only person you'll ever need to hear talking about it!

 

Get some!

 

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Enjoyed this episode?

 

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.

 

This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories! 

 

Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd

Broken Oars University: Summer Shorts Series: Getting to Grips with Mr. Kipling

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to: 

 

https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb

and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.

This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories! 

 

Welcome back one and all to Broken Oars Podcast - the Rowing World's best and most informative podcast (bar Crossy's Corner - we'll hear no bad words about that man. He's a legend).

 

As you know, while the Southern One finishes up a professional qualification the Northern One has been taking his brain out for a spin to talk about poets and poetry.

 

(Yes, it does sound remarkably like listening to paint drying, doesn't it ... ?)

 

But fear not, this is the Northern One - a man incapable of uttering a snooze-inducing sentence, finding a subject he can't make a quip or point about, or being boring generally. And it is in that capacity that he's created the perfect series for people to dip into while the nights are long, the air balmy, and the weather perfect for sitting out in the garden and doing some culture.

 

Yeah.

 

Cultchah!


Having whistle-stopped through Thomas Hardy and A.E Housman, detoured into how a Brian called Geordie (should that sentence be the other way 'round ... ? Ed) is to blame for guitar heroes and all of their widdle, and then leapt back to look at Charles Dickens ... a theme is emerging ...

 

That's right:

 

How did we get here from there.

 

Or to put it more simply, why Britain today is largely the same as Britain then?

 

(Isn't this fun? We're learning all about caesuras and enjambments and what happened when and where and to who and asking cool questions! Who said no, when's the rowing stuff coming ... ?).

 

In this episode we engage with one of the most problematic writers in the canon: Rudyard Kipling.

 

An Anglo-Indian, with a deep apprehension of the realities and mythologies of Empire, Kipling was more famous in his day than Steve Redgrave (largely because Steve Redgrave hadn't been born then) but is rarely read now.

 

We learn why; explore why it's a short step from denying or revising books to burning them; and look at why should and what we can learn from engaging with a racist, and imperialist ... and the most important English writer since Shakespeare. We explore how Empire was not a benevolent force for good, or a civilising mission but instead always and forever an economic enterprise; and illustrate how its expansion ran alongside technological expansion - something Kipling was keenly aware of.

 

Examining Kipling's status as an Anglo-Indian, and thus a second-class person, we look at the way he explored and exposed the myths of Empire to show its realities: the overt racism of The White Man's Burden, the sham of Britain standing alone given its reliance on its connections to the world in Big Steamers; and the people who work alongside or create the technology that sustains the whole endeavour in McAndrew's Hymn and The King. We reclaim Mandalay from Boorish and see how Kipling's wide-ranging work in poetry, short stories, children's stories and novels should be engaged with if we are to overcome our cultural amnesia and beliefs about the missing 300 years of our history that we don't talk about or teach. 

 

And that's before we get to Tommy - as pertinent now as it was then.

 

And it's out in time for the weekend? And there's a rowing episode coming out too?

 

Get some!

 

Bow? You're a jelly-bellied flag-flapper. Take a tap.

Episode 65: Return to training protocols, rowing's growing numbers crisis and ...taking up other sports?!?!

Your favourite comedy duo, and quite possibly the best commentators rowing has ever had on and about the sport of rowing return!

 

In this episode, following the Southern One's three weeks of constant bugs and the Northern One's ongoing Long Covid we talk about getting back into exercise after illness and injury - and no, it isn't what we used to do: grade two muscle tear? Should be fine tomorrow then? Two weeks in bed with D and V? Shouldn't affect my 2k too much tomorrow.

 

Being an athlete is a weird thing. For a start, it's an identity - which means when we can't do the thing that defines us, it upsets us and leads us to do crazy things (like not appropriately recover from illnesses and injuries properly). Part of what makes us an athlete - the learned ability to push into pain and in doing so extend our limitations - is the very thing that makes us a danger to ourselves when we've been, as they say in the North, a bit crook.

 

We talk about graduated returns to training and racing; point out the many times we've failed to follow our own advice; and then skip merrily on to the reality that since Covid participation numbers in sport and exercise, and in rowing, are down. We talk about time, snobbery (not what you think), and ... whisper it ... that doing other sports might just be an option.

 

Get Some!

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Enjoyed this episode?

 

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.

 

This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories! 

 

Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd

Episode 66: Professor Andy Lane, the world's greatest sports psychologist on mental strategies, automating psychological interventions and how many guitars are enough?

The world's greatest rowing podcast makes a further claim to be regarded as the world's best sporting podcast by returning with yet another world-class practitioner.

 

Honestly, how many have we had now?

 

Hundreds. If not thousands. Hodge. Eric. Sally. Drew. Jack. Jezz. Pete ... the lists are long, the tapestry of episodes and insights vast, colourful and eye-catching.

 

And following on from Professor Andy Jones, the beetroot guy, we're back with Professor Andy Lane.

 

A competitive boxer and athlete who transitioned into sports psychology, Andy has been a leading-edge academic and practitioner for over two decades - a man whose work with athletes, academics, and programmes has identified the mental strategies all athletes develop on their journey through their sporting careers and refined how they can be developed, implemented and used by all of us at any stage.

 

We talk about Andy's own trajectory - his life as a competitive athlete, continued competitive nature, his academic career, work with outlets like the BBC and luminaries like Michael Johnson and James Cracknell, and deep dive into concepts like associate / disassociative training strategies, visualisation, pros and cons of music as a training stimulus, when too much data is too much data, the powers of false positives, the necessity of ownership of process, journey, engagement and outcomes ... and the automation of the sports psychology process.

 

It's basically your one-stop stop for everything you'll ever need to develop mental strength as an intrinsic part of your physical training programme.

 

A fascinating and wide-ranging chat with one of the best in the business?

Get some!

 

-----

 

Enjoyed this episode?

 

To purchase a copy of 'Water's Gleaming Gold' with an exclusive Broken Oars Listener discount, please go to https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/biography/waters-gleaming-gold-hb and quote " BROKENOARS " at the checkout page.

 

This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories! 

 

Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd

Episode 67: Lucy Denyer on Life, Random American Living and Returning to Rowing at York

Order a copy of 'The Mystery of the Cambridge Bow' - an original Broken Oars Sherlock Holmes adventure written to celebrate the Oxford / Cambridge Boat Race:

 

https://www.lulu.com/shop/ai-jackson/the-mystery-of-the-cambridge-bow/paperback/product-m222pkn.html?q=the+mystery+of+the+cambridge+bow&page=1&pageSize=4

 

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We return!

 

We return in time for WEHORR (what's left of it); the Boat Race; and a summer regatta season just around the corner with the perfect episode ...

 

Why?

 

Because we return with Lucy Denyer - whose Telegraph article on returning to rowing at York recently went viral. Extolling, as it does, the reasons why we row, the joy of moving a boat through flat water and still air (and occasionally in the UK through lumpy water and air that's basically an upright sea with slits in it), and the importance of exercise, community and just getting out there and getting on with it ... ?

 

Well, we just had to sit down and have a chat.

 

So join as Lucy takes us through her early rowing experiences on Tyne, the Tyne, the mucky Tyne the Queen of all the rivers with NUBC; and her subsequent shift into life, and an American sojourn that led to a career in journalism that culiminated in an editorial role at The Telegraph (one of the few broadsheets to cover rowing, tbf). Staying active all the while, while dealing with the things all rowers deal with when life starts getting in the way of rowing (work, marriage, children, moving around for career), Lucy talks about her decision to come back; going freelance; rowing and identity; getting on the water again at York (we've all binned a single, right? Right?!?!); and rowing on a river that Lewin I once charged down for Agecroft, complaining that for somewhere that floods everytime it rains it's a very narrow river for an eight to steer down, and the fun she's had since.

 

And then AI generates some totally random pictures of our interview that gives Lewin and I abs again ...

 

And it's out in time for the drive to WEHORR, the weekend's events, and the drive to the boathouse tomorrow?

 

We're too good to you!

 

Get some!

 

-----

 

 

Broken Oars Podcast: Episode 68: Sir Matthew Pinsent

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Knight of the Realm, Four-time Olympic Champion, ten-time World Champion, Boat Race Winner, Henley Winner, greatest stroke of his generation, Henley Steward, Henley Umpire, Boat Race Umpire, BBC Investigative Journalist, Documentary maker, passionate advocate for sport, and the reason The Northern One started rowing and The Southern One has such a fierce 2k pb ...

 

Sir Matthew Pinsent.

 

Our work here is done.

 

(Mic drop).

Broken Oars Podcast, Episode 52: BUCS, Staying Safe, and Giving up the Dream

Welcome back our friends to the show that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside ...

 

We're back, the original and best rowing podcast and this episode ...

 

We celebrate the magic of BUCS, the importance of knowing your responsibilities on and off the water and staying safe; why youth is not wasted on the young but why you only realise the aphorism is right once you aren't actually young anymore; why Alan Rickman's diaries are unreadable; why you should keep a diary and what you should put in it; when and where it is appropriate to use the N-word ...

 

... and then we get to why rowing an eight is harder than rowing a single (sorry, single scullers, we know you like to say you're the zenith of the art and craft, but ... you aren't); and then the big question:

 

When a rower should give up their dream, whether that is a Henley run, making the squad, or just getting out in a boat ... ?

 

(Did we here someone say ... NEVER!)

 

Did you miss us?

We missed you.

 

Accept no substitutes, we are the original and best ...

 

(... and support the podcast by buying us a coffee. We both drink it: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD )

 

Bowside holding, strokeside blades ... we duel at dawn!

 

Get some!

Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.

 

Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1

 

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1

 

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/

                                          www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

 

Broken Oars Podcast Boat Race Sherlock Holmes Special: The Mystery of the Murdered Bow - Part Four

Dear Listener, thank you for your attention to our podcast, which, unlike many and most activities on the internet is not free to make. Should you be enjoying the podcast and wish to help us make more episode please consider buying us a coffee or purchasing one of our digital downloads at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd. Thank you again for listening.

Welcome back to Part Four of the celebration of Head of the River and the Boat Race that is our exclusive all-new Sherlock Holmes adventure, the first and only one to feature that noblest and greatest of sports, rowing.

 

The Mystery of the Murdered Bow - Part Four.

 

 

Called from 221b Baker Street by Inspector Lestrade's urgent summons, Holmes and Watson have made their way by train to Cambridge.

 

 

A young man is dead.

 

 

Self-murder is suspected.

 

 

On arrival, the evidence initially suggests that the facts fit Lestrade's conclusion: Mr Martin was found alone in his room, with a single gunshot wound to the head. But there is no pistol. And as Holmes examines the room, he finds a priest's hole and single button. 

 

 

Do they mean anything?

 

 

Lestrade thinks not, but Holmes is not sure. His investigation leads him to the college boathouse where a conversation with Mr. Pitman and Mr. Muttlebury, both rowers and crewmates of Mr. Martin, provides new information.

 

 

But is it relevant?

 

 

Get some!

Broken Oars Podcast Boat Race Sherlock Holmes Special: The Mystery of the Murdered Bow - Part Three

Dear Listener, thank you for your attention to our podcast, which, unlike many and most activities on the internet is not free to make. Should you be enjoying the podcast and wish to help us make more episode please consider buying us a coffee or purchasing one of our digital downloads at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd. Thank you again for listening.

In celebration of Head of the River and the upcoming Boat Race, the team at Broken Oars have put together a Boat Race special - an all-new Sherlock Holmes adventure:

 

We give you:

The Mystery of the Murdered Bow - Part Three

 

 

The year is 1886.

 

 

A young man has been found dead at King's College, Cambridge.

 

Self-murder is suspected.

 

 

Holmes and Watson have been called from 221b Baker Street by Inspector Lestrade.

 

 

When Holmes and Watson arrive, the evidence suggests that Lestrade's conclusion fits the facts.

 

But as Holmes begins to investigate, is there more to what otherwise appears to be an open-and-shut case?

 

 

Listen on to find out!

 

Long drive to HORR? Training tomorrow? Spectating tomorrow? We've got you covered!

 

Get some!

Broken Oars Boat Race Sherlock Holmes Special: The Mystery of the Murdered Bow Parts One and Two

Dear Listener, thank you for your attention to our podcast, which, unlike many and most activities on the internet is not free to make. Should you be enjoying the podcast and wish to help us make more episode please consider buying us a coffee or purchasing one of our digital downloads at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd. Thank you again for listening.

Broken Oars Podcast, the original and best podcast about the art, practice and people involved pushing a boat backwards down a river, returns with ...

 

'The Mystery of the Murdered Bow.'

 

A new Sherlock Holmes adventure written especially for and just in time for Head of the River and the Boat Race.

 

The year is 1886. All is well in 221b Baker Street. After a long winter, as February slips into March, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are called to Cambridge by Inspector Lestrade one morning ...

 

The reason?

 

An apparent self-murder at one of the oldest and most venerable colleges of one of the world's oldest and most venerable universities ...

 

... but is all truly as it seems?

 

With new episodes building up all of the way to Boat Race Day, follow each twist and turn and find out ...

 

(No Coxswains were hurt in the making of this story. This might not be the case in real life).

Broken Oars University: Module One: Infinite Stories - Narrative in the Age of Constant Content Creation

Dear Listener, thank you for your attention to our podcast, which, unlike many and most activities on the internet is not free to make. Should you be enjoying the podcast and wish to help us make more episode please consider buying us a coffee or purchasing one of our digital downloads at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd. Thank you again for listening.

'Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside ... '

 

A new branch of the Broken Oars tree, Broken Oars University was dreamed up over the summer as an occasional series for your two stalwarts to explore some things other than rowing ...

 

... 'What?' I hear you cry. 'There are no such other things!

 

Well, ordinarily we'd agree with you, but the Northern One is working through some projects at the moment that mean that the subject matter of this one is pretty close to hand and heart ... and the best way to learn anything is to try and teach it, because then you're forced to break it all down.

 

The Broken Oars University tag was inspired by so many of our friends on Twitter et al heading off to University - which is an expansive experience, not just in terms of the teaching and the course, but also the new perspectives and understandings it can bring.

 

We (he, Northern One) hopes that the Broken Oars University will be a similar experience, giving fresh perspectives on some things that perhaps you already know, but which might also be new to some. An occasional series, we'll introduce things we're working on or thinking about in our professional and other lives that might entertain, inform, tickle or make you throw things at the screen.

 

Sound like it might be fun ...

 

It might be.

 

So, to kick it off, Module One sees the Northern One exploring how stories work in an age where narratives no long end but instead roll into the next content output.

 

In his usual fashion, he will self-deprecate his expertise in this area to the point where you'll think 'who the hell is this person', but essentially this opening episodes touches on the following points:

 

 - Expertise: what is it, why is it more defined by knowing what you don't know rather than what you do.

 

- Polymaths: what are they, why he isn't one, and neither is Stephen Fry.

 

- Narrative: why stories have a beginning, middle and end, and why it doesn't matter what order these elements come in.

 

- Why this isn't a discussion of the pathetic fallacy of individuals and their output.

 

- What Netflix buying up Roald Dahl's Intellectual Property means and why they've done it.

 

- The 'Exploring the x Universe' idea: why it's a nonsense and a fallacy.

 

- How the reality that stories have a beginning, middle and end is important for structure, motive drive, engagement, immersion and imagination.

 

- What happens if you disregard this and start endlessly colouring in the map.

 

- Tricks, licks and conceits - how and why they don't work if the narrative's motive force are lost, or the internal logic and consistency are lost.

 

- Why platforms need content, but content doesn't need platforms.

 

- Why we now live in the age of the never-ending story as a reaction to market mechanics. We're looking at you, MC universe / DC universe / Tolkien Universe / never-ending everything universe.

 

- How a never-ending story leads to audience disengagement, a fall off in quality, and diminishing returns in all senses.

 

- Why stories that have a beginning, middle and end (in whatever order) are more emotionally and intellectually satisfying and more culturally representative - and why, as I work through my projects, I'll be keeping this very much in mind.


And if you're thinking 'wtf!', don't worry. There'll be some rowing along soon.

Get some!

 

Try listening to us with a coffee - and if you're feeling generous, stand us one.

 

Buy us a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsD?new=1

 

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1

 

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                                          www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

Broken Oars Podcast, Episode 49: The Technogym Skillow Review - The World’s Best Rowing Podcast Returns

Why is Broken Oars Podcast the world's best rowing podcast (Crossy's Corner excepted ...)?

 

Because no other podcast can move from grumping to an analysis of the status statement piece that is the Skillrow to the emancipation of rowers in the South East of England to the Wombles to the Second World War and escapism for wounded minds with such grace, elan and diablerie. 

 

And we would take the time to point out that whilst not exactly unbiased this is a genuine review, based on the posh Southern one paying to go to a gym that has a Skillrow, and giving it a thrash a couple or three times.

That's why.

Get some !

Podbean review of Indoor Rowing YouTube Channels

Dear Listener, thank you for your attention to our podcast, which, unlike many and most activities on the internet is not free to make. Should you be enjoying the podcast and wish to help us make more episode please consider buying us a coffee or purchasing one of our digital downloads at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd. Thank you again for listening.

 

Probably best viewed on YouTube but...

 

The Posh Southern one heads out on a journey to examine the biggest winners and losers in the Indoor Rowing and Rowing channels on YT, on YT. Amongst theses luminaries are Cam Buchan , Scots Sculler Extraordinaire, Austin Hendrickson's Training Tall, Shane Farmer's Darkhorse Rowing, British Rowing's own criminally underinvested in Go Row Indoors videos, The Awesome Asensei, and the even more awesome RowAlong from John Steventon.

Cam Buchan - https://www.youtube.com/c/CameronBuchan

Training Tall - https://www.youtube.com/c/TrainingTall

Dark Horse Rowing - https://www.youtube.com/c/DarkHorseRo...

British Rowing - https://www.youtube.com/user/britishr...

asensei - https://www.youtube.com/c/asensei

RowAlong - https://www.youtube.com/c/RowAlongFre...

These are all good, the last two are awesome Oh and Ame in a Van, only has 175k subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMoX...

Its Isabel Paige, who spends a lot of time looking "Wistful" in the wilderness on a very hi def camera that has 3/4 million subs. https://www.youtube.com/user/pinsandn...

 

Broken Oars Technique Clinic: An Alien’s Guide to Rowing Well - Part Three

Your Northern correspondent returns with the third and final chapter (and last word on rowing technique and rowing well). What some are calling a work of timeless genius, others are calling how you move a boat and yet more are calling what happens when you let a Northerner on the mic without the calming presence of a Southern Overlord, this is the third instalment of the original two-part series.

 

Another writer might have titled it 'Concerning Rowing and Rowers ...' but Tolkien was never much cop on the water and had a crap 2k score, so let's only refer to Tollers when we have a question about Beowulf or Asterisk Realities in Philology.

 

So, never, then ...

 

This final episode kicks off with a mea culpa. Having played the cheerful and moronic Northern One to Pip's scientific genius, your correspondent has finally grown a set. No-one knows a set of what, but they're currently being biopsied and we're hoping for something edible. However, in Part Two, I said something to the effect that it doesn't matter what you do in a boat the most important thing is that you do it together.

Now, that episode was posted in summer, and I've been considering that statement since. And now I'm rowing back from it (see what I did there?) - because ...

 

It's just plain wrong.

 

Here's the thing: it doesn't matter how together you are if you're learning or reinforcing bad habits. That's point one. Point two is that after saying there is room in rowing for different stylistic approaches, I was wrong. There isn't. There's only one way to row a blade (and thus a boat) and that way is hard, skilfully and with reference to the actual physics and mechanics involved.

 

As I've been saying all along.

 

The point is that if that's the case, the technical approaches we take and language we use is all about getting us back to the point where we move the boat well.

 

And that's where this episode comes in. Rowing is a feel sport. We all know what it feels like to move a boat well, either for one stroke, or ten, or one hundred, or one outing, or race, or training block.

The technical calls and drills and language only exist to prompt us to make changes and develop the skills that get us consistently back to that feeling.

 

So, with that in mind, we go back to the importance of clarifying technical calls and drills to identify what they mean and what they are supposed to do rather than playing coaching and crew mood music.

Talking about the importance of precise language and understandings in a feel sport; we move onto boat physics; why talking to your boatman is vital (Hullo Duncan ...); set up; first principles; only changing one thing at a time; giving those changes time to work through; arcs and angles; and then we look at some of the fads and fashions that have come and gone in rowing ... and why mileage, ultimately, makes champions: 

 

It isn't because it makes you fit enough to row well (although it helps). It's because mileage allows us to identify the feeling of moving the boat well, learn it, remember it, chase it, and become more and more efficient at doing it.

If you listen to these three episodes, and then do the work, you'll never, ever have to watch another Youtube video again promising to make you a better rower; and you'll be able to call bs when your coach is talking bollocks.

Always a win in our book ...

Get some!