Post one: about

Sigh: yet another blog. But this one is about rowing. I've long had various things I want to say, and haven't written them down, partly from a surfeit of places to put the words. But now I have no excuse. Let me explain.

The purpose of this is for me to write stuff down, in a coherent and useful form, and perhaps even receive feedback and improve what I write. The audience is primarily members of my own club, and indeed a subset of that: members of our M1. We're a small provincial club in Cambridge - you can read our club blog at chestertonrowingclub.blogspot if you like. I could just write stuff there, but this blog is mine mine all mine, and I don't have to worry about people disagreeing with me. If you're reading this and aren't One Of Us, then you need to know our level, which for the sake of definiteness I'll describe as IM3, and third quarter of the men's first division in the summer bumps.

I stress our level because part of the starting point for this is was someone pointing me at the Drew Ginn "will it make the boat go faster" video. There's some interesting advice there, and if you're at the right level, potentially something to improve your rowing. Hopefully, I'll do a post here analysing what he is saying. But if you're novice, or IM3, I advise you to ignore his video entirely. It will just confuse you. Not because DG doesn't know what he's talking about - he does - but because his advice is aimed, consciously or not, at elite level rowers. Not at you or I.

The USP of this blog, if it has one, is that I know some physics. Unlike most rowers, and most rowing coaches. And DG. So some of the things people struggle to explain in terms of flow, or other vague wurble, I can translate into real words.

Note: unlike my other blogs, especially the science-based one, I don't promise not to re-write posts if I discover errors or omissions. I won't do so wantonly, but neither will I hesitate if it will make the finished product better.

Comments are welcome, as are suggestions for improvements or perhaps even guest posts, if we ever get to that level.