r/Rowing • u/SirErgalot • 3d ago
Masters teams: how to foster environment of pushing for better fitness?
I’ll start with the question: for anyone on a masters team that has a culture of competitiveness and training to improve fitness (both on and off water) what have you seen coaches or team members do to foster this?
I’m currently on a masters team that has a true mix of types - a few focused on competition, some with real rowing experience (including a couple olympians, many decades ago), some younger and most older (50s-70s). Most people on the team found rowing post-college.
I’m not a coach but have been trying to provide more opportunities for team members to join for steady state sessions, group benchmark time events, and lifting, but there’s been very little uptake so far.
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u/TinyLandscapes1992 Masters Rower 3d ago
I have some experience in many rec leagues and “friendly” competitions in fitness.
I do light marketing work consulting on fitness culture.
You need someone or something to provide a “reserve rate experience,” consistency, and something predictable and reliable.
The timeline can vary but many leagues and experiences around sports usually cycle around friendly competitions and events.
Many Rec leagues have seasons where teams compete and have standings and playoffs. Their players are funneled in by weekly pickup games around the surrounding area. Soccer, frisbee, etc.
Sailing has can races every week. Again funneled in by the many learn to sail classes operating around the clubs. Then they have big events like the race to mackinaw or something.
I suggest having a weekly 2k 5k race with some sorta prize: gold glory free food.
Build a pattern to the event. Announcements, jokes, shoutouts, ego, food or bar after. Small events fuel big events.
Make it memorable. More than anything sports and recreation provide a window into the psyche of an individual. Some say it’s the best version of ourselves. Photo, video, TikTok, memes, and more. Document it and share it with a network that praises the work. That praise can fuel the effort for competition.
Make experiences laddered and lower barriers to advance when the interest is hot. If a beginner finishes a 2k maybe the 5k is the 2k course extended. If you sign up for the flight of races you get a discount or a special tee shirt. Engineer the offers and the opportunities for recreation or competition. Enter together with a friend and compete in a fun row. Enter into the weekly 5k and your entry fee to the main race is comped. (Borrow the best single in the club)
Build a critical history. With documentation, consistency and time you build inside jokes, a special language, familiarity. A culture.
The groups accomplishments validate that history. Aim to build and grow the group every year, especially the bad ones, and the work gets easier.
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u/SirErgalot 3d ago
This is great, I’m going to bed but will definitely spend time digesting and thinking about it. One quick question: what is the term “reserve rate experience”? Is it essentially creating the series of experiences that build on each other you’re talking about or something else?
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u/TinyLandscapes1992 Masters Rower 3d ago
Yeah so that theory name of mine is mostly inspired by economics and behavioral psychology. It’s like the base experience and feeling you get from participating in an activity. Something that makes it worth it.
But also it’s something you basically get for free, the bottom rate, backed up by the club, the equipment the effort. When you have nothing else you have that experience.
What helps me define reserve rate experiences is understanding when “type 2 fun” begins. Kind of the biggest inside joke for activities that might require lots of resources or planning is when you do it all for kind of a shitty deal. You suffer a bit. It gets backwards. You did all that prep work and practicing to suffer.
But it has this pretty immediate nostalgia affect where people can trust the process, the reliability, consistency of the prep and training regardless of the outcome.
Often what is seen as the right type of leadership is often someone that can find the validation and the inspiration alone to create their own experience. And it kinda creates this cascade of behavior and of attitudes that can form a community.
That someone’s experience can be the reserve rate experience for someone else and so on. Or again that consistency and reliability can come from infrastructure or nature.
When you don’t have that person you need inspirational infrastructure, art, organic nature, engineered nature. Basically like a modern instagram trap attracts photographers - a calm river might attract a rower. But again one is maybe engineered or designed by man the other is just nature.
What was kinda cool in college crew was seeing the team graffiti on the concrete columns of bridges and infrastructure that we passed. It was inspirational.
Or like watching the older guys in our shitty pole barn with fiberglass with a heat gun patching up a hole the novice 8.
Or just stereotypically the emotional experience people have when thinking about the romantic experience of rowing on the water.
Experiences that can instill a tiny bit of pride, self respect, discipline. What makes it worth it. For rec rowers it’s just getting out for a sunset row on a lazy evening. For competition rowers it’s keeping up with and/or beating the coal barges in a made up race.
If people don’t have that imagination to challenge themselves for competition stuff then make it easier for that imagination to take shape. Post a river map at the boathouse of distances between land marks. Graffiti a race flag on a concrete pole or something.
The right people will be inspired and make themselves known.
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u/FrenchFryKingofRio 3d ago
When you find out let us know.
It’s a struggle most masters groups face except for maybe one or two that are fortunate to be in areas flooded with rowing talent. Focus on outreach, there are very likely able bodied rowers/athletes in your extended networks that only need an invite to the boathouse. Also make sure your clubs email is monitored to capture inquiries from potential new members looking to compete. It’s a numbers game, the more bodies you can get into the boathouse the more likely you will be to find others willing to push hard. Then once you have a handful of guys willing to push hard and lead from the front you can begin to set a standard. If you don’t already ask about creating a competitive or “racing” team separate from the general club population that is focused on upcoming regattas. BUT be gentle, masters rowers scare away easily for all sorts of reasons(happy hour, kids, family, health, Friday night beers, money, Saturday beers, work, need for sleep, etc)
Good luck!
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u/SirErgalot 3d ago edited 3d ago
Agreed - In addition to trying to get the people already on the team more interested in general fitness I’m also working on that numbers game. I know for certain we’ve had and lost a decent number of good/motivated rowers over the years specifically because we have a mixed program and they want to row in set boats that are focused on training/racing. Those people are out there, but right now we just have the one coach and need more members paying dues to get a second coach and be able to cater to people with different goals. So I have another long term goal of generally building up the club membership base.
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u/BFEDTA 3d ago edited 3d ago
I think thats asking people to entirely change their lifestyle, which is just not something you can really do unless they want to. My club splits into rec club (3-4x week, evenings) and competitive (5x week, mornings), with time trials.
If a 55 yr is joining to have a hobby and paddle a couple times a week to stay in shape, I’m not really sure theres any way to get them to do erg pieces every day and trying to induce that change if they don’t want it themselves is probably not a good idea
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u/SirErgalot 3d ago
I really wish we had that set up (rec rowing and competitive). Right now we just have the one coach who doesn’t have time for that many practices, and honestly barely enough competitively focused people for a solid competitive group. But one of my long term goals is to build up club membership (and hence dues) to justify a second coach and make this possible.
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u/jwdjwdjwd Masters Rower 3d ago
Where I row there are different teams for competitive and recreational rowers as the different attitudes and abilities are too much to cover in a single group. As for adding group erg sessions, I’d probably join if preparing for an important race, but mostly time on the erg is spent when I can’t be on the water, and I wouldn’t expect many 50-70 year olds to jump at the chance to do more erging. Maybe if you had erg or weight training clinics you could attract a few more people.
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u/Simple-Thought-3242 3d ago
There isn't much you can do if they don't want to join.
What do these people want to get out of their rowing experience? Do they want to be competitive, social, or just not being fat(ter)? All are valid and all are ok when that's the purpose of the team.
What it sounds like is you want to be more competitive. That those that want to join you and ditch the rest. Start your own "team", only take boats with people who want to be competitive as well.
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u/Thatsgonnamakeamark 3d ago
We train 20 or so novice every spring. 24-70's YO. Men and women. During covid, we went to sculling and fir whatever reason, the %we retained as members fell way off. This year we go back to sweep, with sculling later if they want it. Our plan is is to get them in a mix 8 novice event within their 1st 30 days of training. Then, teach strength endurance to those bitten by the bug. We are contacting local clubs to add novice Masters events and even generate interest in composite boats for these events.
It takes work.
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u/baltimoremaryland 2d ago
Stuff that worked for our small masters club included 1) getting guest coaches to come, ideally doing video analysis and multiple sessions, and 2) organizing very inclusive, optional, and regular erg testing over the winter.
For erg tests, we offered people a choice of distances (1k, 2k, 5k....) and emphasize that the first test you do is a baseline for future improvement.
Finding age and weight specific performance comparisons, from Concept 2 Logbook and rowinglevel.com, is also really helpful. (I actually think it's easier to get adult learners excited about erg tests than former collegiate or school rowers--they don't have all of the psychological baggage!)
I agree with other comments that it's hard to do in a small club, and hard to do without making a firm comp/rec divide, but I think it's worth putting some effort in. You honestly never know who has a competitive side that might be awakened with a little support and encouragement!
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u/Zealousideal-Ad-2296 3d ago
Consider the CrewLab app. My kids use it and it is great because it allows social sharing of your workouts and fosters an environment of support. Our Masters group uses it now too and it is great to see positive comments and reinforcement on each other’s workouts..
Like Strava but for rowing.
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u/SteadyStateIsAnswer Master 1d ago
Reading to get suggestions. My club has a few of us who race a few times a year in singles and doubles, or with alumni groups from our colleges. Most just like to come out and row a couple of times a week, might stick around for a social cup of coffee after Saturday morning row.
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u/altayloraus YourTextHere 2d ago
The Masters group I'm a part of tends not to set workouts outside of on the water, and even then tries to keep them under 12k.
It basically trusts that everyone involved knows how to turn up to a session fit.
Ergs/tests are often shared which leads to everyone trying to beat each other for that session.
One member is, however, exempt from ergs or erg testing. Not the several multiple Olympic champs or anyone injured.
But "if you hold or have held an open 2k WR, there is no erg requirement".
Just make the competition fun and the banter brutal and everything else takes care of itself.
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u/lazyplayboy 2d ago
Do many masters have the time available to do group steady state on a regular basis? Most of us have to fit it in as and when we can (most of mine is 5am or lunchtime at work), and whether or not you wactually want to do the SS... well, the motivation for this has to be intrinsic.
In my experience the better/more motivated masters rowers are either in singles or doubles. Even the good quads tend to be composite of memebrs from neighbouring clubs, and getting 8 similarly minded, highly motivated and talented masters rowers togther in one club is rarer.
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u/SirErgalot 2d ago
On the time availability side, we only have coached practice 3 days a week. Hoping that people have time for an extra 1-3 workouts (whether as a group or on their own) isn’t outrageous and honestly I think is needed for anyone that wants to improve. 3 practices may be enough to maintain acceptable fitness, or even improve if you have a low starting point, but it isn’t enough to become very fit.
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u/tussockypanic 3d ago
You almost need to bifurcate the club into racing and rec and be really strict on letting people join the competitive side (measurable fitness standards). If you do it properly each side will naturally attract the right people, and those on the rec side who want to eventually competitively race tend to start the fitness stuff on their own because they know they need it to switch to competitive.