Anyone else do sweep rowing or sculling? Certainly helps with fitness, strength and the mental aspect.
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no - but use the Concept C2 (and skierg) quite regularly for general fitness. Have both at home.
ETA: never rowed on water - just never appealed - although Mrs FB did.
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Same as FB use the c2 machines, can get in a good hard workout without being beat up afterwards. Would like to try on water sometime too.
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Rowing was my main sport from 1991 to 2005. I trained and raced in everything from singles to 8s.
My last race was at Henley in 2005, but I only finally sold my single last year. It was my dream boat when I bought it and I kept telling myself that I would take up rowing again but never found the time. I loved the 8 years that I rowed on the Tideway, but itās not a good place to try to learn to scull again after a long layoff 
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Used a C2 a lot when i trained. Should really get one now.
Would love to have rowed on water. (The youngest in the household is learning to row with Leicester).
Am currently coaching a former German international rower (and Oxford President) as she transitions to triathlonā¦it is an interesting piece of coachingā¦
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I would imagine that sheās used to suffering a lot in her training and racing and can dig very deep 
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very much soā¦she collapsed 400m from the finish of a recent half IM whilst secondā¦
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Iām racing all sorts of Masters races. Masters head of the river, Henley Masters, British masters. Bigger plans next year. Itās a different kind of pain and intensity. I recommend it, as once you have learnt to row, and get the power down, the fun/pain begins.
Always wanted to try the straight line kayak racing also (K1). Looks so smooth, fast and crazy knackering.
So many sports to try, not enough time in life.
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i coached a woman to do that (not the technical stuff - itās not my sport - but general conditioning). Got to top 3 in GB but they wouldnāt enter her for the worlds and so she walked.
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Rowing is a funny sport because most people give it up in their 30s, either because family commitments mean they canāt spend all of their evenings and weekends training or because natural aging means you start to lose the top end and become uncompetitive.
I donāt know what itās like now, but when I stopped āseniorā rowing there was a big lack of depth in the younger masters categories until you were in your 40s, so you either dropped down through the squad to the lower boats or you had to find some old blokes who you could row with without dragging the average crew age down too far
I loved the social aspects of being part of a crew and a club. Some of my best, lifelong friends were made at rowing clubs. I was fortunate enough to meet Mrs W at a rowing club and we raced in the same crew many times
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for the C2 guys out there - fucking amazing
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Thatās crazy fast.
Currently working with a guy whoās about 30 now and still rows at a decent level. Heās trying to break his 2000m pb of 6.09 to meet the GB olympic qualifying time. Seems like a lot of work.
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1029 watts average 
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My wife has just taken up gig rowing - sheās only done two learn to row sessions so far but is loving it.
It seems quite different to what most of us would know of rowing and looks to be nearly all upper body based.
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Master eJC rowsā¦
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Yeah, I think the action for gig rowing is very different to normal competitive rowing. I donāt think they have a sliding seat so it will be pretty much all upper body.
Iāve seen people racing in Cornish gigs in the Great River Race and it looks like hard work. The race is 21 miles from Richmond to Greenwich and is for ātraditional ā boats, so no sliding seats. I raced it in a 6 man Thames cutter skiff, so basically sculling but with a fixed bench seat. Thatās not good on the arse
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I couldnāt work out where to put this, but came across it via LI. Not even sure why I read it, but it suggests that the PD has been shafted?
Is rowing in a bad place?
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Itās 21 years since I last raced and Iām a bit remote from the sport now and I donāt really know the details of what is being alluded to here.
I think there was an expose a while ago about the alleged treatment of athletes and people being burned out and discarded.
Like other lottery funded sports, funding is dependent on medals at the Olympics, so the coaches probably focus on that over the welfare of individual athletes.
Rowing is a slightly different sport in that you have a pool of athletes who essentially all do the same thing and you select them into the crews that you think you have the best chance of winning. At the Olympics you have 14 seats in the sweep squad and 7 seats in the sculling squad for men and women.
The people at the top of the squad will go into the best boats. At the other end of the squad you have people who are probably more interchangeable and potentially more physically fragile. If someone at that end of the squad gets injured, thereās probably more people outside the squad keen to take their place.
I think thereās probably lots of athletes at that end of the squad that get chewed up and spat out without anyone really noticing 
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Like many sports itās set up to āwinā and then gets shot down because it doesnāt reward non successā¦
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