By: Tan Suet Fong
comment: Following article published by my friend above, one of the National Rowers. For you reading & hope you learn something from it.
Just to let you know what happened during the rowing programme for asians.. It was a development programme for all asian countries athletes. We had a week and half to develop proper & basic skills. Then, remaining days were for the competitions. We went there for the training programme, and had race on the last 4 days. Although we were no where near the olympic athletes, however, we did benefit from the programme it self. We had coaches from FISA, Frank, Andrea & Stani. MAS were under Andrea. We had training sessions in the morning, then afternoon again. At night, we had theory classes with the coaches for an hour.
Training Programs:
Wed 16/4 - boat rigging
Thurs 17/4 - 3 x 2k at 21 SR, 1 x 2k at relax pace (Water)
- eve 3 x 4k power stroke at 18 SR
Fri 18/4 - 1 x 4k, drills, 10 stroke stop in middle, 10 stroke stop twice, 10 strokes normal
3 x 2k, increase SR every 500m (18, 20, 22), relax 2k then
- eve, warm up 2k, 3x2k increasing SR, with 15 strokes burst 3 times
Sat 19/4 - 2k warm up, 3x2k with 10 strokes build up SR, 5 strokes cool down every 500m, 2k cool down
- eve, 3 x 4k steady state
Sun 20/4 - 3 x 4k steady state
Mon 21/4 - 3 x 2k at 21 SR, 1 x 2k at relax pace (Water)
- eve 3 x 4k power stroke at 18 SR
Tues-22/4- 2k warm up, 3x2k( include 6x250m race pace)
- eve 3x4k relax(include drills with stops at knee bent)
Wed 23/4 - 2k warm up, 3x2k(include 4x500m race pace)
- eve Max HR test on ergo
Thurs 24/4 - 1k race
Fri, Sat, Sun - race for asian prequalification olympic for rowing
On the development programme, they emphasized on boat speed, not stroke rates. Faster SR might mean greater negative force. hence, we did slow but powerful strokes during the training. maintain SR at low rating, and always increase speed of boat. feel how the boat moves. Lock water, pull & feel the boat moves. The right timing when we lock the oar ensure no negative force, and through training, we can find the right timing.
Also training emphasized on group rowing, great way to improve skill. Faster rowers can slow down thier boat to wait for slower rower with lesser SR, hence improve balancing skill.
we also had video watching on the rowing technique as well. Hope this helps. If there is doubt, feel free to ask. I might be wrong, but will always be ready to help. This is a summary on the programme. A.Adi, A.Halim & A.Azli will be the right person to ask for more technical details.
One more, we might be lack of junior rowers. other countries are developing their juniors. upcoming event would be Hong Kong rowing championship.
Fong