Jack Burns - Edge Rowing

The skills that built your career are making you slower in the boat.

You’ve spent decades learning that pressure produces results. That if you push yourself hard enough, you can control outcomes.

That self criticism keeps you sharp. And that drive is exactly why you’re good at what you do.

But the boat does not respond to any of that. The constant self critique that helped you spot risk in a deal becomes negative self talk in the boat.

The drive that made you grind through your career stops you switching off and recovering.

The need to control outcomes stops you trusting your process.

So the harder you apply your boardroom operating system to your rowing, the worse it gets, and then you criticise yourself for that too.

Know that your body and your boat speed does not respond to load in the same way a task in work does.

It takes time to progress it. Often, it takes regression. The sooner you can accept that, the faster you are going to get faster….

…and taking that approach to your workplace might be helpful too.

Comment “strength training” for our free strength guide

The best feeling in rowing is when you are stable, squared and loose floating into the front of the catch.

It makes taking the catch so easy - and you get such an effortless connection and pick up.

But so few rowers have ever felt that, and if they have, it’s been a rarity.

This is how.

Get your weight rocked onto your feet, this creates stability as it lowers your centre of gravity.

Square your blade early, and stop being a perfectionist. You have to be ok with early squaring making your rowing feel like s**t for a time.

Keep your body still sliding into the front and stay loose as you do so.

The reason this works is because you are making it easy to do nothing at the catch. all you have to do is arrive and let the blade fall into the water.

This maximises your efficiency at the catch and minimises the amount of damage you do to the stern.

Right as the blades come out at the finish, you can feel the boat surge underneath you.

The most run you get all stroke comes after the blades are out, and most rowers kill it the moment it arrives.

The blades come out, and before the arms are straight the body is already moving, right when the boat is running its best.

You can’t just sit there, the way to keep moving without disrupting the run is to keep the body still and let the arms flow away.

So the body stays locked, like there’s a button that gets pressed when the arms are straight, and only then is it allowed to move.

This is not a pause, the hands flow away at the same speed they came in, the body stays still behind them.

This may feel disjointed at first, like you’re taking too much time at the finish.

When it gets normal you’ll feel the separation, and on the drive your arms will start coming in last.

Follow for more on what actually keeps a boat running.

Comment “over 40” for our free data backed UT2 calculator.

I was the slowest rower in the GB at UT2 by 6 splits but when I did the 5k I ranked 6th.

How does going easier than everyone make you faster?

And should you use this as someone who is short on time to train.

HIT training is super beneficial.

But it is physiologically impossible to recover from it in less than 48-72 hours.

If you are going hard more than 2-3 times per week, then you are either burning yourself out…. Or not going hard enough.

The question then becomes, what training should I do around my HIT.

The answer is PROPER UT2.

Once you are doing 2 HIT sessions per week, this principle doesnt change.

And UT2 is not just going hard at a low stroke rate…

It needs to be easy enough to allow you to recover from HIT, but hard enough to get a stimulus.

When you get this balance right, you build your endurance, while also recovering properly from your HIT sessions, meaning you have more motivation for them and they are a higher quality.

Now if you want our free UT2 calculator for master rowers over 40, then comment “over 40” and I’ll send it over to you.

Comment “strength Guide” for our free guide for all levels.

When I was training for the GB team I was squatting heavy three times a week and my boat speed was not moving. I could not figure out why.

I was getting stronger. My squat was going up. My leg press was going up. But nothing was transferring into the boat.

The problem was that I was building leg strength in isolation, and rowing does not use your legs in isolation. Your legs start the drive but the force has to travel through your core, your back, your lats, through your arms and into the handle. If anything in that chain is weak relative to your legs, the force leaks out before it reaches the blade.

And for me, and for most rowers I now coach, the weak link was never the legs. It was everything between the legs and the handle.

The moment I started prioritising deadlifts, heavy pulls, and core stability under load, my boat speed changed. Not because my legs got stronger, but because I could finally use the leg strength I already had.

If your gym programme is built around leg press and squats and your boat speed has flatlined, you probably do not have a strength problem. You have a connection problem, and your legs are just pushing force into a chain that cannot hold it.

Follow for more on how to make your training actually transfer to the water.

At Edge Rowing we have a zero tolerance policy on swearing. But swearing at Edge Rowing is not the use of four letter words.

It’s the use of negative language towards yourself. “I am so bad at rowing.” “I can’t focus in the boat.” “I have such terrible technique.”

That’s swearing.

And here’s why we treat it that seriously.

When you say something, your mind believes it. Your brain does not separate sincere statements from sarcastic ones at a chemical level. Saying “I am so weak” wires your subconscious to act in accordance with that belief.

Now, you cannot control what thoughts enter your mind. You can’t control what you feel. But you can 100% control the words that you use, which makes this one of the easiest changes in the whole sport.

Two things to do.

First, give the negative voice in your head a name and a stupid voice and a name.

Second, replace it with positive self talk, and if that feels cheesy, say it sarcastically. Your mind can’t tell you’re joking when you say “I’m the worst rower in the world,” and it can’t tell when you sarcastically say “I’m the greatest rower to ever walk this earth” either.

So take advantage of it.

Your homework, for one day this week, count how many times you swear at yourself. Don’t judge it. Just count.

Follow for more mindset training for rowers.

What technical improvements can you do to drop your erg score?
Change the way you use your body at the front of the stroke.
Apply force at a more compressed position. This allows you to hang effectively
What can you do to achieve this?
Start lifting with mobility in mind.
But the most important part: Treat every stroke as an opportunity to improve!
Comment ”checklist“ for the full technical checklist.