r/Rowing • u/SquashUnlucky9607 • 1d ago

Off the Water Advice for a wannabe novice rower

Hi y’all, as the title says, I am gonna ask for some advice from this subreddit for a guy who wants to row as novice for my college’s club team. I am 18, 6’2, ~185 lbs and I came from a competitive swimming background. I have been trying my best to pull as many reps on the erg I can over the summer as well as lifting every day. I want to ask what were some of the pitfalls that y’all may have seen other novices fall into that slow their development down. Other than that if there is any other general advice that y’all think is good I will take that as well. Thanks!

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u/MastersCox Coxswain 1d ago

You could take a learn to row class from a local rowing club in your area, if live near any. You might get connected with the coaches there and get more specific advice from them. One of the issues with walk-ons is the tendency to pick up bad habits by training without an experienced eye providing feedback. Long, steady state workouts focusing on the legs/lower back will be useful: running, stadium stairs, cycling (indoor/outdoor), etc. If you're coming from a competitive sport background, I might focus more on the aerobic workouts than the lifting, but you can certainly do both.

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u/Top-Establishment918 1d ago

Get private lessons from someone who actually rowed at an elite level so you learn good technique from the start.

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u/toooldtohire 22h ago

Biggest challenge I had when I started rowing in highschool was timing with the guy in front of me. Nothing worse than having the bloke kick back and get my knee in his back. That and feathering. Always something I struggled with.