I find myself in the bow seat of a men's novice four for regatta season and I'd like to increase the fitness level of the lads (some of them could do with a bit of a nudge) and do a bit of team bonding too while introducing some cross training into the equation. I think they feel that just turning up and getting in a boat for outings is enough…it clearly isn't at the moment.

Ages (from bow seat): 38, 25, 23, 28

I suggested doing a team adventure race which I really like but funnily enough, the three youngsters came up with a variety of excuses why they couldn't run…all of which I reckon to be bollocks of varying degrees but I can't force them to do it.

I'm thinking a cycling event – sportive type thing, nothing hugely competitive…but I'm expecting a distinct lack of "access to decent bikes" type excuses coming from a couple of them.

Anybody got any ideas of something we could do as a four man team?

Go Ape is good fun, not exactly a team event, but get's everyone chat[/code]ing and having a laugh.

Trailquest is competitive without being a redline death xc racing type event. Think you can enter in teams of 4 – could be a right laugh if you all got into it – could be a chore if one of the team mates lost interest half way round.

Cheers for that Garry…looks interesting. Any ideas from the daytime crowd?

How serious about rowing are the other guys, you sure they're not just after a bit of a laugh on a Sunday and they're regretting having some mad fitness freak in the bow seat?
Used to do a lot of rowing as a junior and never ran to help it (as I always hated running), I actually started cycling to improve my rowing fitness and then ended up ditching rowing (too much hassle compared with just jumping on a bike) and carried on the cycling.
I'd tell you where to go if you wanted me to start running to help the boat fitness, cycling is a good idea but if you don't have a bike already and are only rowing for fun then it's probably too much to ask as well.

I think you have to align the objectives of the crew, remember you're in the bow seat, not stroke! So who's going to listen to you anyway?

How have the head races gone? How did the rest of the crew react? Are they looking to get to senior level? Talk about your objectives if you're a team, then go from there. Or wait and see how it goes in the regattas, you're a new crew, correct? Which means there will be plenty of changes until you find a regular crew who'll work together. Winter outings at 6am when you can't get your blade through the ice will help you find the commited ones. 😆

Cheers ds. I think you get more what I'm talking about than FuzzyWuzzy, who'd courageously tell me "where to go" 🙄

The crew objectives are aligned. We're a novice crew but not a new one. We are THE four that'll be in this boat for regatta season. We managed one head race just before the end of head season and tbh, we were a bit shite 😐 I'm not going to bother going into the minutiae of our discussions as a crew…but the long and short of it was that we were sure as he'll going to enjoy the spring/summer but that we weren't in it for a laugh. I think our No. 2 has a hope of making the senior squad in the future. I'd be happy with losing my novice status some time.

I'd do the 0600 outings…I'm not sure 3 and 4 would though.

Thanks for your advice though. Some useful stuff there. 🙂