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Meataxe Rowing

@meataxe_rowing

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Are you strong but slow? Then you're a MEATAXE ROWER - and I'm gunna help you go faster.
👉 I'm Shaun: 2013 - 2021, Kiwi 8 meataxe

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a month ago

Rowing is a sport that will set you up for life and instils some very hard-to-come-by character traits that, win or lose, will give you an unfair advantage over the rest of the world.

I admire all the legend Meataxes out there that are committing every single day, maybe not quite getting the result but staying in it. You guys and girls will be the ones that do some pretty epic things in your life.

It's not all about winning that rowing race. It's about the pursuit of trying to win that rowing race.

#rowing #rowinglife #rowingrelated #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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a month ago

Our Kiwi eight blew its heat at the Tokyo Olympics and came off the water smiling.

I'd been in the eight when it was absolutely dog shit and when it was amazing. In the bad years a result like that meant faces down and people pointing fingers. This time we came off and said, we literally just got that wrong.

Hamish said it best: let's just live or die by the rhythm. Dan Williamson was walking around with a massive grin on his face. The next day's row was absolute magic, because we recommitted to what we knew works and didn't chase shiny objects.

From our chat with the Harvard rowing squad during Head of the Charles week. Huge shout out to @eamonglavin for filming it 🤙

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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2 days ago

Sound on. The Kiwi 8 back on the Charles for @hocr1965

Nothing but the boat, the catch and the cox calls. 5 years on from Tokyo and the boys are still chipping along, racing the Champ Eight this weekend.

Huge shout out to @eamonglavin for capturing some unreal rowing footage of the lads 🤙

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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2 days ago

5 year Kiwi 8 reunion at @hocr1965

Absolutely wicked to get the boys back together 5 years on from winning Olympic Gold in Tokyo. We're definitely breathing a bit harder, and going quite a bit slower then usual - but it still feels electric getting to lean on a oar again!

Huge shout out to @eamonglavin for capturing some absolutely unreal video of the lads - we're pretty lucky to have a videographer of this calibre in the rowing community 🤙 by @meataxe_rowing

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2 days ago

Tony O'Connor coached our Kiwi eight to Olympic gold, and he coached the person first, not the rower.

He'd check in on how you were doing and how things were at home. Were you being supported the right way, were you in a good headspace, could you talk to him or your teammates?

We never needed to be told how to work hard. We knew how to work hard. It was the stuff around rowing that was letting us down, and Tony saw it and backed us through it.

Look after the person, and the performance comes as a result. Tony's a legend.

Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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10 days ago

If you're a big, strong rower, you probably have the urge to impose your power on the boat. Resist it a little.

Next time you're in a boat with a decent rhythm that's going well, try to feel the rhythm dragging the work out of you. You don't have to go looking for hard work.

We talked about this a lot in the Kiwi eight. We weren't trying to work hard. We let the boat's rhythm and our collective movement drag the hard work out of us.

Sometimes taking a step back off the pressure to feel that rhythm means you can apply more power, and more effective power, to the boat.

Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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7 days ago

One of my favourite workouts in the eight is power strokes in fours. Give this one a try with your crew.

1. 20 strokes stern four at rate 24, as hard as you can.
2. Straight into 20 strokes bow four. No stopping between changes.
3. Straight into 20 strokes all eight.
4. Repeat that six times, take a break, then do another six. That's 12 rounds.

Make it a competition. Stern four against bow four, who can make the boat go fastest and who gets the best splits, then see what numbers the whole eight can hit. It's brutal, but it's a bit of fun and it gets some mongrel out of you.

A session like this gives you a free licence to go ham. It lets you off the leash to express yourself on the oar and swing on the thing without worrying about rowing perfectly. Then the coach's job is to take all that raw effort and raw speed and smooth the edges.

That's the trick. Use a workout like this to find the upper limit of filth you can lay down in an eight, then find ways to make it sustainable.

Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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8 days ago

Two Olympic champions joined our Kiwi eight in 2019, and it didn't solve our problems.

We thought a couple of big dogs coming into the crew would fix everything. Mahe Drysdale and Hamish Bond would probably be the first to admit they weren't a silver bullet.

As experienced as they were, they'd never made an eight go fast. It's a different boat class. There's heaps of wisdom and inspiration to take from guys like that, but there's also heaps of learning a crew has to do together.

If you're coming from small boats, this is the bit to grapple with. The eight is the ultimate team sport, and your results in small boats don't count for much once you're in the big boat. The best athletes are the ones who adapt quickly.

Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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8 days ago

If you're the big power guy or gal in your rowing crew, you need to be stealthy with your power.

I fell into this trap too. I had a big erg, I was strong, and I wanted my crew to feel how strong I was and how much effort I was putting into making the boat go fast. That's a trap.

Yes, you're going to be strong, and you need to be. But you don't want everyone in the crew to feel your leg drive. That generally means you're out of time. You need to almost camouflage your power into the boat.

When I rowed with some of the biggest, strongest and fastest athletes, like Eric Murray, it never felt like they were laying down a massive amount of watts. The boat just went faster, because their power sat within the bounds of the rhythm.

So if you're big and strong and you want your power to be known, that's good. It just needs to be within the bounds of what the rest of the crew is doing.

Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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9 days ago

Ian Wright had us pausing at the finish, and we won two under-23 world titles rowing that way.

Ian took the exaggerated time around the finish that Drew Ginn talked about and dialled it up to 11. We'd fully pause around the finish and then flow away, especially at the lower rates.

The pause isn't magic on its own. What makes or breaks it is whether everyone in the crew buys in and does it together. It brings the whole crew to one point, and that makes rowing in time, one of the hardest things in rowing, much more black and white.

There are plenty of haters of that style. Ian then took it to the Swiss lightweight four, who won Olympic gold in Rio, and to Rowing Australia, whose men's four won gold in Tokyo.

Why didn't he just stay in New Zealand, eh.

Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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10 days ago

Heading into Tokyo, the fastest crews in Rowing New Zealand weren't the men's. They were the women's.

We timed every boat against its world record on what we called prognostics, and the top of that list was all women's crews. The men's crews sat below them.

When things were bad in our team, we made excuses. We talked bullshit about our world records being harder. In reality we just weren't as good as them.

Once the penny dropped that we were the problem, we started closing the gap, and eventually we could equal or pass them. We wouldn't have won in Tokyo if the women's team weren't as good as they bloody were.

Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.

#rowing #meataxe by @meataxe_rowing

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12 days ago