Hey there. I’m going to start as a novice rower in a month’s time, and I’m going to be training with high performance athletes because my club doesn’t have a women’s novice crew over the fall/winter training season. I’m nervous because I believe I’m quite unfit, especially for working next to high performance rowers. Any tips about how to pick up on my fitness, so that I’m more prepared to work at my own pace, even though I’m bound to suffer? And by high performance I mean up to elite level, there are members of the NZ Olympic team with our club. There are also school kids too, but I’m not with them. I so don’t wanna be the clueless and unfit one…
The best and most basic thing you can do at this point is build up your cardio base – long runs, 45-60 minutes on the bike, etc. at least 3-5 times a week. That’ll put you in a good position when you start erging and are heavily relying on your aerobic system to provide your body with energy. I’d also do some core work (10-15 minutes worth at least) a few times a week after you finish whatever cardio stuff you do. You can never go wrong with planks but any core workout that focuses on your back, obliques, and abs will get the job done. This will help build up those muscles which will in turn help to decrease your susceptibility to injury.
You’re nowhere near the same level as the high performance/elite people at your club so don’t worry about that. No one else cares so you shouldn’t either. The elite rowers were in your position once too so if anything, you should really introduce yourself and ask for any advice they have about training as a novice or if they’d mind watching you on the erg for a few minutes and critiquing your form. I can pretty much promise you they’ll be more than willing to talk to you for a few minutes if they’ve got the time. We all want to see the sport grow and that really only happens through interacting with one another and helping out people that are new to the sport. Being clueless kind of goes hand in hand with being a novice but if you’ve got more knowledgeable and experienced people training right beside you, you can really give yourself an advantage (and boost your own confidence a little) if you approach them and pick their brains on anything you’ve got questions on. You’re almost doing a disservice to yourself if you don’t do that.
Being new to the sport of rowing, and wanting to use terminology and names correct in our club, would the term ‘oarsman’ apply to a woman rower as well as a man, or should it be ‘oarswoman’. Thanks, Regards, Rich Richard Zumbach rdzumbach@yahoo.com
I’m fairly sure that “oarsman” is a fairly dated term nowadays (I honestly don’t know anyone under the age of 60+ that calls rowers that) but yes, it would apply to women as well as men. It also comes off kind of pretentious to in most boathouses. Rowing is a fairly proper sport but it’s not *that* proper anymore. I’d probably just stick with the more obvious and common “rower” over anything else.
Can I add something? They’re just people. They have fears, insecurities, good and bad days, they get tired. Never make the mistake of thinking an elite, or in our case open, level athlete is somehow untouchable or unapproachable and don’t put them on a pedestal. If anything they appreciate a bit of grounding sometimes. And they’ll have great stories and tips, so make friends for sure, it’s always worth having someone there you can train alongside to make it all less boring, but measure yourself by your standards not theirs and be sensible. It’s a great opportunity!