Beach sprint transitions: practise fresh before adding tiredness

I'd practise beach sprint transitions slowly and fresh first, then build up the speed and add tiredness. You want to understand the skill before trying to make it work when you're both going fast and tired.

Beach sprints isn't all about rowing fast. There's a lot more to think about in training and racing if you want to put everything together.

Practising fresh and tired

When you're tired, you can resort to a default. That default could be much worse than what you've been practising.

Practising slowly while you're fresh starts to ingrain the idea of a skill, and then you can incorporate that into going fast and into practice when you're tired, before asking it to work in a race where you've got both happening together.

I'd separate out the entry for this. Then look at the turn and the exit. There are other skills within beach sprints, but even those have different parts you can work on separately.

The entry

Part of the entry is running. Then there's getting into the boat, followed by pushing through those first strokes once you're in. There's quite a lot within that one skill.

Start with the starting position. Where are the blades? You might use an open gate position, so the blades themselves aren't touching the boat. Or closed gate, with the handles within the gunwales, the sides of the boat.

The boat handlers are holding the blades in the boat. Work out whether you prefer them feathered or square.

For getting in, work through where your feet go and where you grab the boat. You've got to get hold of the handles. There's sitting onto the seat and getting your feet into the shoes as well, which is all part of working out what that entry actually looks like for you.

Once you've got that, you're in a position to row. How do those first strokes feel? You want powerful strokes, rowing as well as possible, but depending on the conditions you've got those to deal with as well. All of that is much easier to think about when you're doing it slowly and fresh.

For where to put your feet, I'd start by repeating what feels comfortable. You can also use what you've seen other athletes do, including in videos, or something a coach has given you to try, and see what feels best and is quickest for you.

Sometimes these skills are very simple. Other times they're more complicated. A method that feels complicated to one athlete might feel simple to another. It can be the complete opposite.

Going slowly gives you the opportunity to find that out before adding speed. Before adding tiredness as well.

Once you're comfortable and you know the idea, you've got a framework for what you want to do. For me, before I enter the boat, my gate is closed and my blades are square. I take a couple of short steps before I get to the boat so I can place my right foot in.

I can then sit on the seat. My left leg comes in and my left foot goes in. I grab the handle. On that stroke I'm putting my right foot into the shoe, and then I want to keep my shoulders down and press long as I build the speed.

That could be very different for someone else.

Building up speed

Now I've got that framework, I can build up the speed. Repeating the skill again and again, trying to go faster, you'll start to find where you make mistakes. That's the part you have to work on.

Maybe you're getting the first couple of steps into the boat wrong. Focus on that individual part. If the step into the boat is a bit cumbersome, work on making that smoother rather than just repeating the whole entry faster.

Those mistakes are opportunities to learn. As you add speed and tiredness, they'll happen more often until you get better at the skill. The same idea applies to the turn and the exit.

For the turn, start with how you position yourself coming into the turning buoy. Look at where the boat is. Think about what you're doing with the blade and your body.

There's also the type of stroke you take around it and how fast you want to move, followed by what happens when you come out of the turn.

The exit is similar to the entry, but in reverse. You want to prepare to get out before you actually get out of the boat. There's still the running afterwards as well.

Each of those skills has parts you can practise slowly, giving yourself the opportunity to understand the skill and get to the point where you can do it repeatedly and well. Then bring in speed and tiredness so it holds up in racing.

You may not be the fastest rower or runner. Someone else might be quicker getting into the boat. Usually, the person who does all those skills well within the race is the person who does well overall.