RowingRelated

It's an old one, but still so watchable. In August, 2000, the BBC aired a three-part documentary series named Gold Fever on primetime TV in the UK. The episodes followed the British coxless four crew of Steve Redgrave (who had at that point won four consecutive Olympic gold medals), Mathew Pinsent , Tim Foster , and James Cracknell through the highs and lows of four years training in the run-up to the Sydney Olympics, and what would be Redgrave’s fifth and final Olympic Games. The series, comprising mainly intimate video diaries recorded by the four athletes, shows everything from Redgrave’s diabetes diagnosis to the birth of his daughter between training camps, erg testing, and tough selection decisions. "In fact, I truly believe that it was the catalyst that sparked my head-first jump into complete rowing obsession." The real life drama of it—not only a must watch for anyone who has experienced life as a rower—would be interesting to anyone. The series hol...

This week's featured video comes to us from Northeastern grad and noted rowing 'vlogger' Cameron Buchan , who takes us along on a cold Caversham morning for a look inside the British Rowing training 'centre' on 2k prep workout day. The video features a lot of prepping for prep, with the athletes taking some hard strokes in the midst of their warmup for the pieces—certainly more than we're accustomed to seeing from inside the mothership, but precious little in terms of erg score insight (no surprise there—though there is a decent bit of post-ergo banter to finish it off). You can check out Buchan's take on the Eights Head here . BREAKING: Josh Dunkley-Smith just posted the fastest 2k ever. Seriously. 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/th3cDjuA8c — RowingRelated (@rowingrelated) March 10, 2018 ON THE HORIZON: Speaking of ergs, stay tuned for an interview with Aussie legend Josh Dunkley-Smith , sometimes known simply by the hashtag #JDS, following his record-br...

Princeton heavyweights on training camp (Photo: Princeton Rowing/Facebook ) This week's featured video post comes to us thanks to former Princeton lightweight head coach, and current Tiger heavyweight head coach Greg Hughes . It's a short but illustrative clip of the Italian lightweight men's eight from the 1980s—a formidable crew that won every world championship title from 1985-1991. "I watched that video hundreds and hundreds of times. I still share it with my team." The length, control, and run per stroke are remarkable with this crew. "This was the first rowing video I ever watched back in the late '80s when I was learning to row and I somehow got a VHS copy of this," Hughes says. "I watched that video hundreds and hundreds of times. I still share it with my team." And, speaking of the Princeton lightweights, they've just released a new winter training video that's pretty strong—or, as the kids say these days, ...

Michigan on the water in Ann Arbor (Photo via Michigan Men's Rowing/Facebook ) This week's featured rowing video comes to us thanks to Michigan Men's Rowing head coach Gregg Hartsuff . A roughly 5-minute training clip of the Dutch men's eight that won gold in Atlanta, this video gives a window into several key technical aspects of rowing that Hartsuff tries to instill into every rower at Michigan. (Without a doubt, all the Michigan rowers and alums who read RR will be familiar with this one!) From Hartsuff:  The 1996 Netherlands men's eight training—I think we have gone over this before, as this is clip is required viewership for athletes I coach. It highlights all the important points of rowing technique I emphasize: steady and connected acceleration on the drive initiated by the legs and the body holding its angle until the legs are nearly down, and strong core-pry off the end of the leg push without a crazy amount of layback. "'Undetecte...

Our featured video this week comes to us thanks to U.S. Olympian Esther Lofgren , 2012 gold medalist in the women's eight. Here, Lofgren shares some of her thoughts on an Olympic final from Athens, which included some of our sport's most important and influential names. From Lofgren: You’ve posted a lot of the videos I watched while training and that I encourage my athletes to watch. One I think does not get enough love is the 2004 W2- Olympic final featuring the Romanian greats Georgeta Andrunache [formerly Damian] and Viorica Susanu . Susanu is the last rower I recall who reaches around her knees in sweep. The catches, connection, and rhythm are beautiful, and the rowing (at 37+, in an Olympic final, etc., etc.) looks effortlessly efficient. The race for medals behind them is also great to watch— Kath[erine] Grainger sweeping (!) and Cath[erine] Bishop leading their pair in a fantastic sprint for silver, sprinting through Yuliya Bichyk and Natallia Helakh of Bel...