I began my rowing career in 1997 at northwich rowing club in cheshire. My reasons back then were that I was a little overweight and wanted to get myself fit and thought that by taking up a sport i would stand a better chance. Anyway I was "bitten by the bug". We began by learning the basics on the ergo and in an eight and coxed four, we had helpful coaches who were enthusiastic and knew the basics of the sport which was enough to get us started and to have some local success. The first year was brilliant with us winning a couple of local races and i wanted more. Back then the internet was in its infancy and i didnt know where to get more information. I remember buying a book by Steve Redgrave which had some useful stuff in it, but what i really needed was to know how to train. I remember speaking to people about it but on the whole i dont remember getting much useful information and hence spent the next couple of years in training limbo! I then joined Agecroft rowing club in 200 where i began to learn a lot more from people better than me and i realised i needed to spend a lot more time on the ergo! From there on i began to develop as an athlete and learnt a lot more about training. Surprisingly even though the internet and access to training tools has developed, there is still not one resource which covers the whole "how to get faster?" topic. Other sports such as triathlon have many on line coaching resources which give individuals specific training intensities to work with and hence scientifically measure improvement, I think that rowing as a sport lags behind here. Obviously the best can access this information but the begiiner who is not lucky enough to be in the right club with the right people may well be missing out.
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