Introduction

This part of the Rowing Coach website has been written to be a manual.  While it can be read from start to finish in the conventional way its prime purpose is to be a reference where chains of thought and ideas can be pursued and followed using hyper links between sections.  
It will be available in paper as a printed book in future but the intention is that it will be mostly an electronic resource.

Our intention is that the resource will grow with time.  It will be frequently updated and more material will be added on a regular basis.  Subscribers to therowingcoach.com will automatically be sent updates or they can be downloaded from our website.

There is an overarching structure with sections, chapters and topics and these are numbered in a conventional way.  The material is presented in short, bite sized articles which address a particular topic from a particular viewpoint.  

Various aspects of rowing are described from three different points of view and in multiple ways.  

• We explain how we think this part of the stroke should be performed.   
• The aspect in question is described firstly in words, then often with photos and also with sketches.  
• The benefits of a particular approach to this aspect are then described.

Next comes a “How To” section.  Here we attempt to describe to a coach or rower how he/she can follow our suggestions.  

Lastly come suggestions for structuring training sessions focussed on this aspect of the stroke.  These can be read as “lesson plans” or just suggestions for athletes to try out for themselves.

Throughout these parts of the manual there are cross references to other material in the book.  These are indicated by italic script.  In the electronic version they show as a link and can be followed.  Because much of the material is presented several times from several viewpoints there is necessarily much repetition.

Some of the material refers to sculling only and some to sweep rowing only.  Much of it however is applicable to both and in these sections we often refer to the participants as athletes rather than use the clumsy “rowers-and-scullers” form.  All the material on how to row is equally applicable to women and men.  We sometimes use the she/he or him/her conventions and alter the order of the pronouns at random, or, alternatively just simplify and have our athlete be male or female for the length of one article.  As an aside one of the great changes and improvements in rowing in the last 40 years has been the explosion of numbers of women and girls in the sport.