Rowing

"Anyone who has not rowed in a really close boat race cannot comprehend the level of pain."

-- Dan Topolski

Suggested books and readings

• The Cambridge Bumps

Rowing at Cambridge

I fell in love with rowing during my years at Cambridge. I used to run in the late afternoons and I had found the perfect path, following the lower part of the river, between Jesus Lock and Baits Bite Lock. It was a quiet rural road, surrounded by a beautiful landscape. Above all, I loved that part of the river, quiet and peaceful, so different from the middle and upper part, noisy and crowded, filled with tourists on the punts, flat bottomed boats that are moved by pushing with a pole the bed of the river.

There were no punts in that part of the river. It was the training and racing home of the University colleges' boat clubs. Each college had several crews, training mostly as coxed eights, usually in the early morning, when the river was literally swarming with rowing boats. Very few crews were training in the afternoon, so it was not very common for me to see one of them during my runs. But I remember that every time one of them got past me on the river, I remained enchanted by the swiftness of the boat, the elegance of the movements, the sound of the oars touching the water.

Indoor rowing

Once back in Rome, my plan was to join a club and keep rowing on the Tiber. Unfortunately I soon found out that it was not possible, mostly due to my working schedule. It's ok, work comes first. But still, I did not want to lose the great physical advantages of rowing training, so I started to look around for a gym equipped with rowing machines. The quest was much harder than I thought, but I eventually found one... and, once again, I was lucky in life. In that gym I met Alessandro Giannini, a great indoor rowing trainer, perhaps the only trainer in Rome who viewed indoor rowing not as plain fitness. For Alessandro, rowing was very hard training and, above all, competitions. He introduced me to the world of indoor rowing, a discipline where people raced on the ergs, connected together by wires to a computer. There was no water, of course, and the only boat you could see were those symbols on the big screens (with the names of the competitors). The pain, that was exactly the same as of rowing.

Just finished a race. Indoor or outdoor... rowing is always tremendously painful

There are two "species" of indoor rowing athletes: those coming from rowing (technically perfect, the most dangerous guys to compete with) and those coming from fitness. The latter are techically often sloppy, but potentially even more dangerous than the rowers. In fact, the ergs "do not sink". It means that technical mistakes that on a rowing boat would cost you a lot, on the ergs are for free. On top of that, the bodyweight does not count properly: a guy overweight would take benefit from his mass on the erg. I soon learned to be careful with them as well. Having rowed three years at Cambridge, and coming from 10 years of cycling (rowing and cycling both largely rely on legs' work), I had an easy time on the indoor rowing competitions organized in Rome. International indoor rowing competitions (Euro championships and 100km relays) were the real challenge.

A rowing crew passing by "Grassy corner"

100km Indoor rowing relay: fast change-over

The highlight of my indoor rowing experience arrived in 2010, at the European championship held in Essen, Germany. Having turned 30 already, I entered in the master M30-39 category, leaving the deadly Open category (where the year before I raced against olympic rowers such as Luini and Stephansen, the first lightweight rower to break the wall of 6 minutes in the 2km race). Despite the master category, I knew I needed a miracle to get to the podium at Essen. Among my opponents there were Peter Ording, a former German rowing national, gold medalist at the World rowing championship in 2004, and Toni Pyykko, the Finnish rowing champion, helding the record on the 500m sprint race (with an impressive 1:23). I knew very little about the others.

Trinity Hall boathouse, with the Ladies team back from a rainy outing

It did not take much time for me to decide I had to join the boat club of my college, Trinity Hall. The atmosphere at the boat club was fantastic. The "oldies" were very supporting with us "newbies" and I soon started training with the club. We had two kind of trainings: ergs and water. Ergs, which is the short of rowing ergometer, are beautiful machines (torture machines for some people) that simulate the rowing stroke in the water, with the advantage that you do not need to be on the water. Water trainings were outings on amazing wooden boats, were we started to feel the magic of the crew movements. Eight people moving as one, that was our target.

Trinity Hall men's 1st VIII, Lents 2008

I loved that. As weeks passed by, trainings became harder and more demanding. Longer sessions on the ergs and in the gym, earlier sessions in the water. Early is indeed the word that best associates with rowing at Cambridge. As most students had to be in class by 9am, we used to have our water outings very early in the morning. I started fearing the acronyms ATB (at the boathouse) and OTW (on the water), especially when they started sinking. As the race approached, we needed longer outings on the river and basically OTW coincided with sunrise. It meant being at the boathouse when it was still dark for a 15 mins core exercises, warm up, boat preparation.

Rowing required a great commitment. Anyone of the crew missing the alarm clock and everyone else would find himself at the boathouse with the outing cancelled (we could not go out in 7) and, even worse, doing a tough (boring) session on the ergs instead than enjoying the water. And it was only of little comfort the though that the oversleeping guy would have planked on the concrete for 10 minutes as punishment on the next training session.

The sessions on the ergs were the most demanding. A mix of very hard work and boringness both at their peaks. You really needed a good extent of motivation. We used to train in groups of four, sometimes eight, to share the pain. On the longer sessions (10-15km) we relied on a set of motivational music compilations (with "the final countdown" always accompanying our last 1000m), although our trainer hated that. "When you race I will not be following you with a stereo!" he used to say. "Get used to listen to the music of the ergs, instead!". With music of the ergs, he meant the smooth noise of the air flowing over the internal flywheel of the erg.

European championship (2010). Focusing before the start.

We had to cover the standard distance of 2000m. As we start, unexpectedly the lead is taken by Nicolas Avril (FRA), with an impressive first 500m (1:35.5). He was leading, followed closely by Pyykko and Ording. I was fifth, but the distance was already impressive: 5 seconds from Avril in just 500m, an eternity in rowing. So, after 1/4 of the race, my chances of the podium seem to have already disappeared.

But I don't give up and I keep pushing to follow my race as I had programmed: a quick first 500m (at 1:40/500m), then lower the pace a bit and cruise for 1000m at 1:42/500m, and then finally push everything I had left in the last 500m.

2000m might seem a short distance to cover, but believe me, it is not. It is a deadly distance. Typically, after 1000m your legs are already burning, your mouth is open in the desperate search of oxygen, and, as if it was not enough, the only moment you get for a breathing you find your legs pushing against your chest. The second 1000m are simply a pure pain experience.

When I approached the 1000m I saw that my distance to Avril (who in the meantime had been overtaken by both Pyykko and Ording) started to decrease. There was the blink of an hope that the French guy had pushed too much at the beginning and now was paying the price. I overtook the fourth guy and started chasing the French. My pace was steady at 1:42/500m, while I could see Avril's one raising as the meters passed by. This was the boost I needed to push even more. Every stroke I could see on my display the distance going lower of about 2 meters. "Come on Ale, you can do it! Come on!" My trainer Alessandro's support was incessant.

At 500m to go Avril was now close: only 2 seconds to recover, less than half with respect to the 1000m timing. The pain in my legs was excruciating but the adrenaline I had kept me pushing more and more. At 200m to go I finally overtook the French, flying the last 20 strokes to finish third in 6:45:5!!! I think there are no words to describe my feeling at that very moment, it's something I will never forget. Physically, I was destroyed. I couldn't even raise myself above the erg, I just let myself drop on the side of the machine. I found a quiet corner of the location and lied there for 20 minutes. As soon as I managed to get up, I heard my name called up to the podium. Good timing!

Cambridge Lent Bumps 2008, Trinity Hall men's 1st VIII (rowing at 3)

We used to take part to several races during the term, although the highlights were certainly the bumps. Beautifully scary, ruthless, exciting. The boats are aligned one after each other, at 1 and half boat length distance. There is silence on the river... then a single cannon sounds.

European championship (2010). With T. Pyykko (FIN) 1st, and P. Ording (GER) 2nd

Rowing achievements

• • Trinity Hall Boat Club Cambridge, Selected in men's 1st VIII for Lent bumps

• Lightweight 100km Indoor rowing Relay, Italy's LT crew 2011: World record (4h 47’ 20”)

• European Championship Indoor rowing 2010, Essen (Germany): M30-39 Bronze medal (6:45.5)

• Lightweight 100km Indoor rowing Relay, Italy's ST mixed crew 2009: World record (5h 17m 23s) [homologation: http://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/racing/records/ultra-distance/world/100000-meters]

• Lightweight Relay & Crew (4) Italian championship 2009, Rimini: 1st Team (with A. Carbone, M. Martelli D. Nasso)

Queens M1 bumping Magdalene after a long chase

The Ergometer

The Ergometer, or indoor rower or simply erg, is a machine which simulates the action of rowing on the water. It allows to measure the power of the rower and the amount of work performed. Ergs were introduced to allow rowers to train without necessarily being on a rowing boat. However, indoor rowing became established as a sport in its own right. Ergs are also extremely efficient training machines for non-rowers and fitness enthusiasts, as they work nine major muscle groups: quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, lats, core, shoulders, triceps, back and biceps.

People think that rowing mainly involves pulling with the arms. This is completely wrong. The arms' pulling is what catches people's attention when they see rowing on tv, but that is only the finish of the drive, which, on the other hand, mostly involves pushing with the legs. So, it's pushing, rather than pulling. And this because rowing follows a very simple and smart rule: bigger muscles to the largest amount of work. So, it means, roughly speaking, that legs do the most, then it's the turn of core and back, and, finally, of the arms.

With skiing and swimming, rowing ranks amongst the top 3 most effective sports, demanding efforts from every part of the body while still being a "no impact" sport, i.e. does not expose joints to excessive stress. Due to these features, rowing ergometers are being tested also by NASA as a way to exercise astronauts while on the space.

It is crucial, however, to use the proper technique in order to avoid injuries.

On the other hand, an example of very bad rowing technique is provided by Kevin Spacey playing Frank Underwood in "House of Cards".

Now, in the video Frank is messing up really badly. There is no body swing (body is always leaning backwards), resulting into a weak finish of the drive; upper body arched, resulting into less power during the leg drive and risk of back injuries; no core engagement, resulting in less power during the leg drive; chicken movement when pulling with the arms (should use instead the lats, which are more powerful than triceps), resulting into a weaker finish of the drive; arms not fully straight at the reach, resulting into a shorter stroke; wrists are not straight (i.e. are not in line with the chain), losing power on the finish and risking injuries; the head is not neutral, the chin is down (chin should be up, instead); "butterfly rowing style", which comes for free on the erg... but still it's horrible to see (and imagine doing that on the water...) while the blade should always follow a straight line, parallel to the water, both during the drive and during the recovery. Unfortunately, it's very common to see all these mistakes (and actually even worse) by people that use ergs in a gym.