Mar 26 2007
Great Olympic singles rowing video online
Rowing champ Xeno Muller posted an exciting seven minute video of his 2000 Olympic single scull race on his blog yesterday.
Regardless of his finish (2nd place), the video highlights the great technique used by world class rowers. Pay particular attention to how the body, arms and legs all finish together at the end of the drive or how the arms and back finish very soon after the legs. Also notice that the rowers do not lean way back to cause the bow to submerge at then end of each stroke. Awesome technique!
It was also fantastic to see New Zealand’s Rob Waddell during the last 500 meters of the race. At this point, most rowers are pretty smoked. Many will tell you that this is where you start to get tunnel vision because you’re exerting yourself so much. But Rob, never looses a beat, keeps a high stroke rating and you can visibly see him upping the power with each stroke. Within 30 strokes, he surges an entire boat length ahead of Xeno. I won’t discuss race strategy here, but this is why I always train by trying to increase the stroke rating and power at the end of my training pieces as well. Although it didn’t work for him this time, Xeno is also known for his super-fast, powerful race finishes.
The best part is that Xeno proves that you don’t have to be over six feet tall to be a world class rower. Like me, he’s shorter than most scullers and has a powerful, compact stroke. Unlike me, he’s a world class rower. But there’s still hope!
4 responses so far
Hey!
I found your post through google word alert again…
Alright, a little bit of history on the race. I went slower in the last five hundred meters. Actually I was crippled. I was not 100% with my health and it hit me like a bomb in the last minute of the race. I was lucky that I walked away with a medal at all. Rob and I lost our five second lead over Hacker and Porter.
All the best,
XENO
Rob is a great guy!
I also found some pretty good footage from the past world championship during which some marathon runner tries to row five hundred meters on an old Rowperfect.
Later.
Thanks for the history, Xeno!
I’d love to see that footage from the world championship. Post it to your blog.
Xeno, Paul
the ‘marathon runner’ was actually a BBC reporter who was working at the 2006 World Championships in UK at Dorney Lake. We are the Rowperfect agents and we lent him the machine to do a piece to camera.
it proves that you don’t need to be able to row in order to use a Rowperfect…. this guy has never ergged or been in a boat before. He has nice balance, and a good rhythm.
good to see some rowing bloggers out there!
REbecca
http://www.caroe.typepad.com/rebecca_caroe_rowing