What, my rest is already over?

I coached a junior today.  We did rowing specific resistance work. Without getting into the detail of the workload, a new blog topic came to me:  Why stress over rest when the pieces are hard enough.

Five days before the Olympics

Once I quit my competitive career and began to coach privately, I started hearing from rowers' hellish stories of interval training with little to no time to rest between pieces.  The first few times I heard of these brutal beatings I exclaimed by saying how sorry I was about being subject to such senseless abuse and that it must be hard.  Then after hearing such tales over and over, I started growing a thicker skin and simply responded, by saying: "This type of training leads to nothing else but physiological plateau, mental burnout, technical stagnation, and injury; your coach should be beaten (figuratively speaking) and drug behind the coaching launch (also figuratively speaking) for the amount of pain he or she puts you through."

Hard pieces are meant to teach the athlete to move the boat as efficiently as possible through the water no matter what level of pain is felt.  Therefore giving a break between pieces that is "too" short sabotages the ability to find maximum efficient speed.  Some coaches will argue that the shorter break brings more stress to the rower or crew and makes finding maximum speed in the boat even harder.  Yes.., but what does the rower or crew get out of it when they are barely conscience of their movements... the experience of living with pain and keeping the body moving.  Well that does not make you win races...

I follow the 100%+ method.  No matter how hard or long the pieces are, the rest time is of same length if not more depending on physical distress.  My goal as athlete was always to execute my pieces with the best possible technique and greatest aggression.  I made sure that I kept full control over the boat and that the blades were set in the water as the hands moved to the stern.  It was crucial for me to feel the draw of my hamstrings as I moved the foot board back to my seat.  Thanks to the appropriate rest between pieces, I was able to deliver a sound accelerating stroke, a single scull gliding on the water like a skate on ice with puddles quickly passing the stern.

Xeno
I coach rowers worldwide on www.xenorowingcoach.com and make it easy for others to use their rowing machine at www.row2go.com.

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.