With all the big local and national competitions of the 2016-17 rowing season behind us - including NZ Club Champs, Maadi Cup and World Masters Games - it is now time to focus on trying to at least maintain or, if possible, develop the rowers Strength Endurance to put them in line for an even better 2017-18.
For us older rowers, unless we have a strong winter sport, the task is fairly simple, in that we might reduce our on-water training by at least 50 per cent, with the excuse of daylight saving, cold weather and time to let our older bodies recovery a bit.
However for our school aged rowers, apart from some of the same excuses us oldies face, they often have to balance the demands of winter sport and the importance of their academic work, which can suffer a bit in the summer, due to the onerous demands of rowing training.
I'm a great believer in 'consistency' of training being the key and if asked always suggests one 30 to 45 minute total ergometer workout a week, a one hour land training session, that can involve some resistance work, a 45 minute run or swim and one-to-one, and a half hour row on the weekend.
This type of training is enough to maintain a good strength endurance base, around other winter sport, family, work and academic commitments.