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Since its launch on 24th July 2020, Broken Oars Podcast has grown into the world’s best podcast about rowing, rowers and all things related to the art, practice and magic of moving a boat backwards down a river using an oar. Episode by episode, your genial hosts Dr. Lewin Hynes (the Southern One) and Dr. Aaron Jackson (the Northern One) have been joined for in-depth and revealing conversations with Olympic and world champions, elite coaches, world-leading sports scientists, journalists and commentators, and rowers from all backgrounds and walks of life - creating a treasure trove of insight, information, commentary and perspectives on the greatest sport ever invented. Enjoyed this episode? 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. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd. Thank You! Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1 Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/ www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/ Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net
Episodes
Friday Aug 13, 2021
Friday Aug 13, 2021
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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.
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What can we say about Episode 24 of Broken Oars podcast?
Henley Royal Regatta is in full swing, God is in his launch, and we are back!
Are we talking about the world's most prestigious regatta, Agecroft's attempt to board another crew just off the start and the apparently magnetic booms that are attracting so many crews in the 2021 edition?
Well, we touch on them.
But actually we've returned with an interview we've been sitting on for a little while which we think might be one of the best and most important we've ever done.
This is not down to us, of course, your genial hosts (Posh Southern One, Illiterate Northern One), but the quality of our guest.
Professor Stephen Seiler (https://www.youtube.com/user/sportscientist) is a world-leading academic in the disciplinary fields of sports science, physiology and training. His work has been adopted by coaches worldwide (although, as he points out, not always accurately), and he's an active figure on social media, which he sees as vital for collecting data and disseminating research findings and ideas to those who really need them: coaches, athletes and programmes.
We worked up a series of questions for Professor Seiler, and then proceeded to not ask any of them, as he took us on a fascinating journey from Texas to Norway and through the world of sports and performance.
In a wide-ranging and must-listen episode, he and we discuss, among other things:
- The evolution of sporting models in Australia, Great Britian compared to the Norwegian model:
- Why Norway punches above its weight in international competition.
- That children should be allowed to have fun. Early specialisation does not guarantee success. Generalisation does.
- Why there is no sport in schools in Norway. Or schools competitions.
- How the parent-led club driven model works.
- How multi-disciplinarians achieve more than specialists when it comes time to specialise.
- Serendipity in life.
- Chance and choice, and why both are vital for success.
- His journey into the world of sports science.
- Why gladiators don't always make good crew mates.
- How baselines of fitness work, and how you can apply them to your training to make yourself better, regardless of level.
- Why social media is the next frontier for peer-driven research.
- The future of rowing in a media led market.
- And why the Vikings were nicer than we all thought ...
As a resource for rowers, coaches, clubs, athletes and anyone just interested in the science of performance on a very human level, this conversation with one of the most important and respected voices in the field is pure gold at every stage.
All delivered in an accent that makes Sam Elliott sound uptight.
Not so much a podcast, as one to listen to with a cup of coffee, and then come back to with a notepad.
Outstanding.
(Professor Seiler, not necessarily us).
Stern Four - when I said apply the 80/20 model, what did you think I meant?
Enjoyed this episode?
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Monday Aug 09, 2021
Broken Oars Indoors, Episode One: John Steventon and Rowalong
Monday Aug 09, 2021
Monday Aug 09, 2021
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Broken Oars returns with the first of its excursions into the world of indoor rowing, and boy, have we got a treat for you.
John Steventon is one of its best practitioners and the founder and host of the popular Rowalong Youtube channel.
At a time when rowing in the UK and clubs are suffering a decline in participant numbers, but indoor rowing is booming post-pandemic, John joins us for a chat about his sporting journey, his entry into indoor rowing as a means of fitness and competition, and the natural evolution of the Rowalong channel.
In this episode, we resurrect our 'house-keeping' section (or as we prefer to call it, washing our dirty laundry in public) to issue mea culpas for dropping the factual ball in our Olympics round-up; we celebrate Matthew Pinsent inventing the concept of a multi-disciplinary sport and come up with a name for it; and we ask the pertinent question: is this Broken Oars Genesis / Phil Collins moment as the Posh Southern One finally strikes out in search of a solo career?
After that, John takes over, tracing his trajectory from early life as a squash protege, through cycling that saw him eventually meet his competitive counterpart in the wild and wonderful world of indoor rowing. Talking about his progression from fit and fast to fit, fast and technical in the land of big beasts, and the ethos and ideas behind the fantastic Rowalong channel, it's a wide-ranging and interesting chat for anyone interested in rowing, getting fitter, getting better and being part of a community.
Including:
- Teaching people to row indoors better - Why is it important, and How?
- Who follows Rowalong, and what do they get from it?
- How does indoor rowing interact with Water Rowing Clubs and National governing bodies.
- Is Water Rowing in danger of being eclipsed by Indoor Rowing?
- What would get more people into ergos and rowing?
- What would make the ergo better?
All this and it's not even a weekend yet?
Get some?
Stern Four? This is called a Concept II. You will eat with it, you will sleep with it, you will train on it. Bow Four? You're beyond redemption ...
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Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
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Where your hosts genially navigate their Sunday morning tendernesses to ask if GB Rowing came home without a win due to the absence of Gingers (of course that's the reason, every boat needs a Ginger) and ask the question that seems to have escaped everyone in the shitstorm: are things really that bad? Is it all down to granddad bed-blockers not letting the young 'uns have a go in Rio? Will it all be okay in Paris?
Recorded in one take without any of our usual editing process in place, and thus with more moments of brain-fart in it than usual, we also ask:
- Can Matthew Pinsent please stop telling crews he knows exactly how they feel after getting fourth place in the Olympics (A great attempt to display sympathy if not empathy, but he doesn't. He won. Every time. Sometimes by quite small margins, but still ... )
- Do we need to solve a problem like James Cracknell? (No, is the short answer. James Cracknell is the watchman who watches the watchmen. And not only were no James Cracknells were harmed in the making of this episode, but we also didn't steal his motorbike).
- Can anyone, anywhere, say anything bad at any time about Helen Glover?
- Is it all the fault of a 70-something year-old man who had frankly already earned his retirement ten times over (aka was this all a long plot by the GDR conceived during the Cold War to bring down British Rowing in the twenty-first century?)
In setting the British Rowing world to rights with a level of nuance, understanding and bluntness plainly absent from better-placed and certainly better paid commentators, we also ask if the Posh Southern One survived being lured by mermaids to his death; the ennervating properties of salt water, and what Rick Savage from Def Leppard can tell Josh Bugaski about four-year projects, success and working with a demanding producer / coach ...
... and is a gold medal always a gold medal? (Pip says yes, Northern one says otherwise. Quel Surprise).
Strokeside? Bowside? This is unedited material with potentially a high level of bollocks being talked. You have been warned!
Enjoyed this episode?
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Thursday Jul 22, 2021
Broken Oars, Episode 24: An Alternative Tokyo Olympics Preview
Thursday Jul 22, 2021
Thursday Jul 22, 2021
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Ladies and Gentlemen ... !
Children of all ages ... !
The counter-intuitive Olympics Episode!
Featuring:
Becoming Masters D, meeting old friends and finding they've got bigger guns than you, being a boat tart, rhythm and timing, the difficulties of being funny AND quirky (it's tough, but we make it look easy ...), and what to do if your Chapman, your Chapman suddenly turns into your cox.
And that's all before we get to the Olympics!
What does a sixteen-month pandemic, very little out of competition testing and the invention of 'magic shoes' mean? Is Flo Jo's perfectly natural record (among others) is finally in danger of falling? What was the dirtiest games in history? Do Redgrave and Pinsent's Gold at Atlanta suddenly look like significant achievements?
Should Tokyo go ahead? Is the IOC only in it for the money? (Bears. Woods. Shit. Popes. Catholics). Should we all go and visit the nearest village with Bubonic Plague and see what happens next? (Go on, we dare you). What would have been a better alternative, and is it the Posh Southern One's conception of a global sustainable Olympic movement? (If the answer is yes, can we have some money, please IOC, even though we've just called you blood-sucking leeches?).
Then we get to the Glover Paradox: how can a woman with Helen Glover's measurables move a boat so fast? Is Fabian Cancellera making her boat? And if the answer is no, and British Rowing's coaching team can't work it out and transfer it to the rest of the squad, are they doing their jobs?
And that's before we get to how much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck ...
Nope, not that. How much training does it take to win an Olympics? If Helen can win after nine months back, is the 4-year cycle we've been told is a necessity simply there to keep coaching staff in jobs?
We look ahead to the publication of the documentaries The Mother of All Comebacks and The Road to Tokyo and ask if British Rowing has missed a trick in pushing macro-narratives in the age of micro-narratives and multiple broadcast opportunities, citing our own conversations with them months ago about getting as many athlete stories as possible out there from BRITAIN'S MOST SUCCESSFUL OLYMPIC SPORT (No, British Cycling. You don't count any more).
Oh, it's all here. The death of the belief fairy, what sport means to those who watch and participate in it, dragons on the precipitious cliffs of the North, and being on the outside of the tent pissing in.
You missed us?
Yeah. We know.
We missed you all too!
Bowside? Strokeside? GET SOME!
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Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
Broken Oars Broken Thoughts Bonus Episode: The Full Jess Eddie
Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
Literally two old rowers talking utter nonsense about controversial stuff, being able to judge the mood of your rowing compatriots from the set of their shoulders; how to get into Henley Royal Regatta by naughtiness; carpet-bagging, and how it makes the boat go faster; and a certain young lady smashing the hour record.
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Friday Jun 11, 2021
Friday Jun 11, 2021
The one where Lewin and Aaron spitball about the pernicious influence of AAS's and other PED's on the issue of ideals of body image.
TL/DL we are against them.
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Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Broken Oars Podcast, Episode 23: Kate O’Sullivan - British Rowing and Community
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
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------
Ladies, Gentlemen, children of all ages!
Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends - the Broken Oars Podcast!
Well, it might seem like it's been a while, but that's only because after a year of talking about this wonderful sport of ours, we're all finally allowed back on the water.
Yes, it might only last a few weeks before lockdown number four is imposed - as it surely will be - but we've been somewhat neglecting our duties and responsibilties towards you, dear listeners, while we've enjoyed the delights of shovelling a boat backwards down a river on flat water.
You can be harsh if you like, but we're sure you've been doing the same. Is there honestly anything better?
No. We don't think so either.
However, as the Posh Southern One recovers from the horrors of Teacher-Assisted Marking and the Grumpy Northern One recovers from finding out his Northerness is terminal, we found time to get together and catch up with a chat we had with the one, the only, the inimitable and the incredible Kate O' Sullivan - deputy chair of British Rowing, Teesside alumna, and all-round amazing force-of-nature.
That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen we've gone Full Establishment!
We know that you love Broken Oars Podcast because we say the things that other rowing podcasts don't; and that we can't be bought and we won't be muzzled.
But as always happens with British rebels when they can't kill them (Boudicca, Hereward the Wake, Bagpuss), they make them part of the furniture. Look at Sir Steve - started out an upstart being told he'd never row for his country again, won five Olympic golds and ended up a Knight of the Realm.
Well, they haven't given us a knighthood.
They've given us something better - a chat with the Deputy Chair of British Rowing.
So, sit down, strap in and buckle up!
Quite frankly, we always talk our guests up because, (again quite frankly), they've all been amazing. After chatting with Kate and listening to her trajectory through the sport, however, and her experiences within it and without it, we can honestly say that we've come away feeling that we could be a bit more like Kate.
And it's perfect for those long 100k rows that seem to be so fashionable at the moment.
GET SOME!
Bowside? Strokeside? This is the person we want you to grow up to be. Pay attention!
Enjoyed this episode?
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Friday May 14, 2021
Friday May 14, 2021
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Thank You!
-----
As we always say at these moments, we're back!
Given that's the case, a question might be raised as to why we actually say it. After all, you know it's us, you know we're back because another episode of arguably the world's greatest rowing podcast has just popped into your inbox.* Why do we feel the need to burst back onto the airwaves with all of the energy and brio of an over-sugared toddler?
Well, it's us. This is what we do.
Also, life, life events, work and other things have meant that for the first time in our short but illustrious history have meant that there has been a longer than usual gap between our last episode and this one.
But we're back, and we bring you a fantastic discussion with Dr. Valery Kleshnev.
The founder, owner and driving force behind BioRow, Dr. Kleshnev is an Olympic silver medallist and World Championship bronze medallist. Following on from his elite-level competitive career, he carved out an outstanding reputation as a sports scientist, going on to work with the Australian Institute of Sport and the English Institute of Sport. His work focuses on the hows and whys of performance in order to make rowers and crews better and faster, using scientific analysis and feedback to achieve measurable results.
When British Rowing published the revised selection criteria for athletes on the GB Squad, Dr. Kleshnev was vocal in questioning these revisions.
We sat down with him to discuss the potential ramifications of these changes, resulting in a wide-ranging chat on a variety of topics. These include what these changes mean for selection policy; where the buck stops in British Rowing now; what good coaching actually looks like; how to blend a crew beyond looking at the data sets; the cyclical nature of performance, and whether British Rowing is reaching the end of its imperial phase; how all regimes pull down their monuments; why transparency and accountability are vital for HP programmes; and what boats are actually scientifically better than others, but how 'feel' can't be discounted.
A cracking, thought-provoking episode that proves once again that Broken Oars Podcast goes to the places other podcasts don't, possibly ill-advisedly if we ever want Leander to consider our membership ...
Bowside? Strokeside? Yes, none of us will ever work for British Rowing after this episode ...
(* we always argue that it is)
Enjoyed this episode?
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Friday Apr 23, 2021
Broken Oars, Episode 21: Tim Morris: Northerner in Charge!
Friday Apr 23, 2021
Friday Apr 23, 2021
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Thank You!
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We're back!!!!
(Imagine Aerosmith's 'Back in the Saddle Again' playing in the background. It'll help).
Returning after a brief Easter Break to deal with life, Covid, the Universe and Everything, Broken Oars Podcast returns with its twentieth official episode (or 22cnd in total if we're including our one-off specials).
And have we got a guest for you?
Well, of course we have otherwise it would just be your genial hosts (the tall, posh Southern one and the short, oppressed Northern one) picking a subject and running it wildly off the rails.
Some artists (bands, groups, writers, movie-makers - pick your own poison here) can be variable in quality. For every Appetite For Destruction, there is, unfortunately, often a G n R Lies EP that should never have seen the light of day. After our last episode with Eric Murray and an outstanding run of exceptional guests, it would have been easy for us to put our feet up and do the 'What Dog Breed Would You Put In What Seats In An Eight' Episode.
Not us.
In the episode, you will find to your delight and delectation that our commitment to making each stroke as good as it can be (little rowing wisdom for you there) remains far more in place than it ever was at the end of long outings when scallies were shooting us with air-rifles.
In this episode, you will find the Posh Southern One giving the Northern One his P45; the Northern one will find that a stutter that he thought he'd successfully dealt with in his teenage years has returned, making him sound like he's being remixed by DJ EZ Rock; and the Southern One admitting that his day job involves being a character in Middle Earth.
Luckily, though, our guest Tim Morris rides to the rescue and brings wisdom to the party.
We chat about his trajectory through rowing from his earliest days as cox through to his coaching roles now; the development of the sport in that time; rowing as a toolkit for life; race strategies; composite boats and blades; how sport can develop your personality and your personality can find an expression in sport that serves in everything else you go on to do, and the future of the sport in the UK.
Designed as a rowing podcast for the people by the people with the people, this is a Broken Oars Podcast of the first rank. We've been incredibly lucky with all of our guests, and Tim is no exception. With him, as with everyone else, what's clear is that when you get rowers together, what we love to do is talk about this amazing sport of ours.
And it's out in time for the weekend!?
GET SOME!
Bowside? Strokeside? You were told this was a tidal river. You were told to bring wellies. None of you did. We will leave you stuck in this mud as a warning to others. Bow, stop crying. You brought it on yourself.
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Friday Apr 02, 2021
Friday Apr 02, 2021
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
This discount code will allow you to buy the book at a 15% discount - and enjoy one of the great rowing stories!
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Thank You!
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
Eric Murray.
Bowside? Strokeside? Sit still, you're in the presence of Viking Antipodean Rowing God Greatness.
(And for those who need the chapter headings:
- Why you should always have a beer before doing fine glosswork.
- What drives positive or negative athlete welfare experiences.
- What hard work actually looks like.
- Losing your ego and failing in order to succeed.
- There's no such thing as a paddle, you're racing all the time.
- Promote yourself and your sport, don't wait for your organisation to do it for you.
- Why the Kiwi Pair missed Hodge and Reed when they left for the Four.
- Why you should start preparing for when you're going to leave the programme when you join it, and how.
- Why if it's a choice between another gold medal and family, it's no choice at all.
- How rowing can change to keep the sport vital and alive).
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Friday Mar 12, 2021
Broken Oars, Episode 19: Martin Cross - Gentleman, Teacher, Olympic Champion
Friday Mar 12, 2021
Friday Mar 12, 2021
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Thank You!
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Occasionally, when we are in the presence of greatness, Broken Oars Podcast has announced a new episode by simply saying:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
[Insert name here].
And leaving it at that.
Given that our guest this week is Martin Cross, we would be well-justified in doing the same, but we can’t.
Simply put, we know that you all out there have reached peak Pod in these years of pandemic lockdown and isolation. Podcasts have sprouted up like mushrooms after a damp night. They’re literally everywhere now, covering every niche and fighting for your attention. Poodle-faker – the podcast for people who poodle-fake. Are you a competitive pigeon-sexer? We talk with Tobias Grimethorpe, eighteen-times South Barnsley regional champion …
We get it.
You’re tired.
Your ears are tired.
You’re looking forward to restrictions easing so you can get out into the fresh air and sunshine and crack on. You’ve listened to enough podcasts to float a battleship … and, in the words of HG Wells so memorably intoned by Sir Richard of Burton, still they come …
(Dah dah dah … Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, anyone? Just us? Ok …).
The last thing you need is another podcast.
Except if you're a rower you do need to listen to this one.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Martin Cross, chatting about everything from his early days in the sport; his route to international representation; old-school training; the importance of mentors and passing on the torch; competing against known dopers; why being politically-active and taking ownership of your ambitions benefits sportsmen and women; juggling being a full-time athlete with a full-time job; the politicking and shenanigans that went into constructing the LA Coxed Four; where British Rowing was, what it’s grown into and what might happen in the post-Jurgen era.
We at Broken Oars Podcast are no strangers to flippancy, sarcasm and the teasing of some of British Rowing’s sacred cows - but we've always come away from each interview feeling lucky to have had the conversations we’ve had with our guests.
In talking to Martin Cross we met an Olympic champion and a well-known public face and voice of the sport whom we also discovered to be a kind, thoughtful man with a lot to say about rowing past and present and a huge amount still to offer the sport he clearly still loves and is passionate about.
After a week in which Broken Oars Podcast tangled with Bikey Twitter (we said female athletes deserve equal pay … and sweaty blokes in Lycra piled on) and a professional cycling writer called Fergus McKay called us children for suggesting that being concerned about athlete welfare wasn’t guff, it was the best way to welcome in the weekend!
This is one to listen to, enjoy the conversation and stories, and dip back into for the nuggets of wisdom and insight.
Get some!
Bow Pair? Hang on. Some bloke called Steve is sitting in at stroke today …
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Friday Mar 05, 2021
Broken Oars, Episode 18: Matt Langridge, Olympic Champion!
Friday Mar 05, 2021
Friday Mar 05, 2021
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Broken Oars Podcast returns with something of a Public Service Broadcast.
We were approached recently by the team at One Sporting World and Legacy 300 to see if we could help spread the word about their Athlete Experience Days.
These allow people to meet their sporting heroes and heroines in a sporting and convivial context while helping charities raise much-needed funds.
As you know, Broken Oars Podcast has no sponsors and no corporate ties - and we still don't, (although we are open to offers). As such, as most of you who listen to us know, we set our own agenda (and what a rambling, wide-ranging and interesting one it is too ...). So there is no kickback for us in hooking up with One Sporting World and Legacy 300 beyond the chance to have a chat with an athlete who works with them who we've always had a high regard for: Matt Langridge.
We've always felt that Matt was something of an undersung member of British Rowing's success and could never work out why, given that he is a multiple Olympic and World Championship medallist and champion; a long-time member of the GB rowing squad; and one of the few rowers to compete at the Olympic Games in both sculling and sweep disciplines.
So, when we were given the chance to sit down and have a chat with him ... well, of course we were always going to take it.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Matt discovering rowing and then discovering he was pretty decent at it, actually .
- How Martin Cross helped him break the J-18 record by telling him that he couldn't.
- The difficulties in transitioning from being a well-regarded, winning junior athlete to being in the senior squad at a relatively young age.
- Negotiating meshing the individualism and independence that had made him a successful junior international with the 'our way or the highway' demands of the GB squad set up.
- The realisation that success would require giving up some ambitions in order to embrace others; the difficulties involved in that; and the trade-offs made for the pay-offs.
- How shifting the mental perspective opened up the way forward; the challenges of creating crews at athletes at different stages of their journey; and the rewards when it goes right.
It was fascinating, illuminating and insightful in-depth conversation with one of the greats of British rowing.
And it's out in time for the weekend?
Get some!
Stroke pair? At some point today, I'd like you to find the rate 18 I asked you for.
Enjoyed this episode?
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Friday Feb 26, 2021
Friday Feb 26, 2021
Enjoyed this episode?
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.
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Thank You!
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Broken Oars Podcast Returns!
In this episode, you’ll learn such things as why God is no good at choruses; why the Northern one reads male rabbits; what constitutes a hymnal banger; why Amazonian tribesmen can sing Livin’ on a Prayer; why rowers don’t play in the NBA and why Metallica were right to sack Dave Mustaine …
‘What?’ we hear you say. ‘What is this nonsense? Where is the second part of the interview with the incredible and inimitable Sally Kettle, ocean-rower and adventuress, that you promised?’
(Yeah. We see you, Thames Tradesmen, at the back there ...).
Well, as you know, Broken Oars Podcast has always been the podcast that pushes the envelope of what’s possible in the podcast medium. Diving deep into his knowledge of post-modernism (so, a fairly shallow dive into a fairly shallow puddle, then), the Northern one has thrown away the usual conventions of a podcast (like an intro, a middle bit, an outro and some editing) and decided to leave in the pre-recording conversation your genial hosts were having before the clapperboard clicked.
Some would call it bold. Some would call it a tour de force extension of the podcast form. Some, like Thames Tradesmen, would call it two muppets talking smack ...
However, alongside our left-field insights, we have, as promised, returned with Part Two of our conversation with the ocean-rower, adventuress, author, motivational speaker, Active Pregnancy Charity Founder and all-round force of nature that is ... Sally Kettle.
Now, we know that some of you were holding off listening to this episode until you had both sections to listen to. Well, you now have no excuses. Get it downloaded and get it on!
- Learn what sort of ocean mega-fauna you can expect to meet on your average Atlantic crossing, and why no Atlantic crossing is average.
- Why thumbs and sail winches don’t mix.
- Why elite athletes sometimes don’t have the time, space or perspective to be kind when kindness is what’s needed.
- How it isn’t setting the goal or reaching the goal that teaches you the lessons that change your life, but the journey towards achieving them - even if you never do.
- Why those journeys never run smooth; but why it’s the unexpected bumps in the road and waves in the ocean that teach the biggest lessons – even if those lessons aren’t sometimes appreciated at the time.
- The importance of learning the difference between what’s in your control and what isn’t, and surrendering to the experience - and why vast natural forces are really good at making you realise this.
- Why you should write your story immediately after the event before you have a chance to intellectually and emotionally self-censor.
- Decompression after major life events and achievements.
- Why there are no female adventuresses on TV, while the pale, male and stale rack up series after recommissioned series.
- How the Active Pregnancy Foundation supports and celebrates female physicality; championing its importance pre- and post-birth, in motherhood and in life.
We always say that our current episode is the best we’ve ever recorded
In this instance, however, it is.
And it’s out in time for the weekend?
GET SOME!
Bowside? Strokeside? Sally Kettle would have rowed the Atlantic in the time it’s taken you to sort your footplates out. Go and get eaten by sharks.
Enjoyed this episode?
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.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd.
Thank You!
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1
Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/
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Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net
Friday Feb 19, 2021
Friday Feb 19, 2021
Enjoyed this episode?
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.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd.
Thank You!
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Broken Oars Podcast returns!
(Did you ever doubt that we would? How dare you!)
We are delighted to be joined by the ocean-rower, adventuress, author, motivational speaker, Active Pregnancy Charity Founder and all-round force of nature that is Sally Kettle:
https://www.activepregnancyfoundation.org/
Cramming more into her life so far than most of us would in ten, Sally was the first woman to row across the Atlantic twice from East to West, once with her Mum, before going on to compete in elite sailing races in her quest for life-changing adventures. Going on to be an author, a storied presenter for institutions and audiences as diverse as BBC Radio Four and TED, Sally is also the founder of the Active Pregnancy Foundation and a Trustee of the London Sports Trust and Chair and Ambassador of the Girl Guiding London and South East England region.
We were honoured to have a wide-ranging chat with Sally, to the point where we didn't want to cut it at all, meaning this will be our first ever two-hander.
In this episode, we touch on such topics as:
- The Atlantic rows and why following the impulse to radically change your life rather than putting it off until 'the time is right' can have startling consequences and results.
- Why it is the challenges we face, address and overcome in going for our goals that often teach us more than attaining them, even if it might not seem like it at the time.
- How the modern world has taken away rites of passage and a graded approach to risk-taking that has disenfranchised and disengaged children, teenagers and young adults, leaving them with a smaller toolkit for dealing with the challenges that all lives inevitably face.
- The ways in which society disempowers girls and young women from consistent screen bombardments that promote mental health, self-worth, self-esteem and body issues to cultural mores that disengage the same groups from developing a healthy relationship with themselves and physical activity.
- Why if your boat is attacked by a shark mid-ocean, you rarely stop to check which type is eating your rudder.
- The importance of institutions and programmes like the Girl Guides in providing 'shaping' experiences that help develop resilience, a thicker 'bark' and a more complete toolkit.
- Why kindness is more important than winning - even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.
Oh, and that's just in Part One.
Your amiable hosts at Broken Oars Podcast are no strangers to inflationary language and repetitive hyperbole, even if we pretend that we don't actually know what either of those two terms mean. In this instance, however, they'll have to make some new adjectives to describe the incredible individual that is Sally Kettle. Truly inspirational and truly inspiring.
Stern Four? A shark is eating bow pair. Leave it. We don't need them anyway.
Enjoyed this episode?
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.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd.
Thank You!
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1
Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/
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Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net
Friday Jan 29, 2021
Friday Jan 29, 2021
Enjoyed this episode?
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.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd.
Thank You!
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Broken Oars Podcast returns with what might be called 'The Performance-Enhancing Drugs and Rowing Culture' Episode - if we went in for such things as informative titles.
Following a recent positive test being returned in British Rowing, rather than risk us talking about spaniels (again), we enlisted the help of an expert in the field, the exceedingly knowledgeable Dr. Phil Hurst.
Phil is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology, at the School of Psychology and Life Sciences at Canterbury Christ Church University. An early-career interdisciplinary researcher with specialism in placebo effects on sports performance and psychosocial antecedents of anti-doping behaviours, between 2017 and 2018, Philip worked as a research associate at the University of Birmingham where he undertook two projects commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency and International Olympic Committee.
Highlights of his research include looking at the effects, or otherwise, of legal performance enhancing substances, the placebo effect, and the reasons why individuals might be more or less likely to use PEDs in competition.
He's also a Northerner, which is a bonus in anyone's book.
(This might explain why Lewin (the Southern one) conducted this interview alone: scared of being outnumbered by two articulate Northerner, he slipped AJ the wrong log-in time ... )
Neverthless, flying solo the fast lad had a wide-ranging and informative chat with Dr. Hurst, covering:
- The psycho-social reasons why people turn to PEDs.
- Why athletes and organisations use the TUE mandate to push the line on where clean sport ends and doping begins.
- Why some sports have a history and culture of doping; and why sport as part of the entertainment industry may be feeding it; with the impact of living in an increasingly image-conscious world playing into the use of PEDs.
- Why performance-enhancing drugs don't necessarily work, but the placebo effect they provide does - and how to recreate that by cultivating positive mindsets and pre-performance rituals to replace the mental boost PED's offer some athletes.
- Why rowing globally is no better or worse than other sports, but how and why British Rowing's culture and history of hard work = results have helped protect the sport.
- Phil highlights Redgrave and Pinsent's 'we work hard' approach as one that not only aligns with Olympic values, but which carried and flagged the credibility and integrity of British Rowing to the wider world of sport.
- Noting the importance of cultural narratives in defining whether athletes and various sports use or don't use PED's, Phil suggests that the perpetuation of the narrative 'we succeed by hard work' from the top-down and the bottom-up has had a preventative effect that has kept British Rowing cleaner than its peers, warning that Robert Strachan's recent positive test means we can't rest on our laurels.
This episode is a must for anyone in rowing and sport concerned with protecting clean athletes and clean sport, and provides real insight into the whys, more than the hows and whats, of illegitimate performance enhancement in sport.
Bowside holding ... Strokeside's chocolate croissants until UKAD gets back to us about whether or not they're on the banned list.
Almond croissants? Rowing on ...
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Enjoyed this episode?
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.
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Thank You!
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1
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Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net