Warriors: An Epic Battle For Olympic Rowing Victory by Danielle Brittain is published by Bookstorm. This excerpt is published by permission.
WOLF PACK
I have seen enough rowing to grasp that it was never meant to be simple. If it was straightforward, many more people would be doing it. Any job that consists primarily of pushing the body far beyond what is comfortable will be demanding and difficult.
I remain intrigued how poorly known and understood rowing is within the broader community. It is often confused with canoeing and the concept of the boat moving forwards despite the rowers facing backwards is somewhat bewildering. There are many boat classes in which to race, but the most important to grasp is the basic division of rowing boats into sculling and sweep rowing. Sculling refers to the athlete holding two oars, one in each hand, and moving them both symmetrically and equally through the water. Sculling boats have one, two or four rowers in each boat. In sweep rowing, each athlete holds one oar with both hands on one side of the boat. With a partner holding an oar on the opposite side, they move the boat forwards by rowing in pairs, each oarsman balancing the boat with his or her body. A sweep boat always has a minimum of two rowers, but can have four or eight.
Over the years I have developed a profound respect for the degree of complexity involved in rowing a boat. It requires a complex, hydrodynamic, mechanical action using the body, arms and legs. Generally, it is not well understood that rowing relies on the legs to drive the boat more than the arms. The rower moves on a slide that runs up and down the boat and uses the power in the legs to drive the oar through the water. The arms and the body coordinate the last bit of the drive to send the boat on as far and as fast as possible. The oar, or blade, has a handle on one end and a spoon on the other. It passes through a gate in an outrigger and this point is the fulcrum by which the boat is levered along the water past the spoon. The whole body is applied to this mechanism, but the bulk of the force or drive comes from the rower’s legs. The objective is to move the boat as fast as possible.
The body’s movement in the boat needs to be controlled; if it is too rushed, the weight will kill the momentum of the boat. The more aspects of the rowing stroke the athletes master, the more efficient they become. Training and practice perfect the rowing stroke. No one is born skilled in rowing; technical talent needs to be found. A talented athlete brings an inborn natural feel for the movement of the boat and is naturally athletic, but perfecting the stroke takes discipline and hard work. In the sporting world, rowing is unremittingly tough, requiring years of physical and mental hard work. Both aspects need to be conditioned and trained.
I think of rowing as a machine made up of cogs; everything is linked. Each movement requires the preceding cog to be moving perfectly. It is a system dependent on each link for its strength and synchronicity. Rowing training is an intricate and vital combination of endurance, speed and strength on a base of technical skill. The training builds aerobic capacity as well as anaerobic tolerance. A rowing athlete has to be able to tolerate the pain of anaerobic work and sustained intensity. There is no doubt in my mind that training consistently is the key and first step towards winning. Training with purpose and application is the second step. The race is never won on the day; it is won at each and every session in the weeks and months and years before, each session completed with intent and focus. Session after session, day after day, week after week. It means pitching up at every session and making that session matter. It is not enough to just complete the training.
The athlete needs to be looking for more, searching for ways of doing it better. There is no space for complacency and satisfaction. This is no secret – but knowing it is one thing, and putting it into practice is on a completely different level. When I spoke to Matthew about training, he had great insight: ‘Training is often done when no one is watching. Then it must count and matter even more. The pressure to succeed must be internal pressure. It cannot come from outside or you will not succeed.’
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