Rowing Faster

Get a length up on the competition with cutting-edge technique, training, and racing information. Let the world’s top coaches, rowers, and sport scientists steer you to ultimate success, starting with sound training and racing principles and adding increasingly advanced instruction and insights all the way to the finish.

Rowing Faster is the most comprehensive and detailed guide for achieving excellence in the sport. You’ll find techniques for mastering every phase of the stroke; training strategies for increasing strength and efficiency for maximizing speed; and tapering plans for peak performance at the highest levels of competition.

With contributions from Olympic medalists and rowing experts from around the globe, Rowing Faster also includes the latest research on adaptive rowing, advice on managing a team, detailed plans for the long-term development of rowers, insights on training and competition for female rowers, and a look at the future of the sport from the general secretary of the FISA. From the technical details of equipment and training to classifications of boats and rowers, Rowing Faster has it all. Offering a truly global perspective and authoritative coverage of the sport, it is the one guide that every serious rower and coach should own.

Volker Nolte is director of the rowing program and assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario, where he teaches coaching and biomechanics. Since 1993, he has led his men's rowing team to 10 Ontario University Athletics Championships and three Canadian University Championships. In 2008, his university crew won the German University Championships and the Temple Challenge Cup at the famous Henley Royal Regatta in England. He was the lightweight men’s national team coach with the German Rowing Association from 1984 to 1990 and with Rowing Canada from 1992 to 2000. His national team crews won an Olympic silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games, two world championship titles in 1993 and 2000, and several medals at recent world championships.

Nolte received both a physical education diploma (1976) and a civil engineering diploma (1979) from the University of Saarbrücken in Germany and a PhD (1984) in biomechanics from the German University of Sport Sciences in Cologne. Nolte is an internationally acknowledged expert in biomechanics. He presents frequently at scientific and coaching education conferences worldwide with his research focusing on coaching and biomechanics of high-performance sport, especially rowing. He is also a distinguished researcher in the field of sport equipment. His research has produced many papers in refereed journals and articles in various publications.

Nolte is an experienced rower, representing his home country of Germany at several world championships. He is still a keen competitor in masters events and lives in London, Ontario, Canada.