Neil Bergenroth: Rowing Coach

Star Wars day circa 2018, May the Fourth be with you!

One theme that keeps coming up in coaching consultations:

A lot of athletes do not feel lazy.

They feel stuck.

They are training. They are putting in the meters. They are doing hard sessions. They are trying to get faster.

But the training can start to feel like it is meandering.

A hard workout here. A steady state session there. A test piece thrown in.

Maybe a few drills. Maybe a new plan copied from somewhere online.

The problem is not always effort.

Sometimes the problem is a lack of structure.

Athletes want to know:
Why am I doing this session?
How does this connect to my goal?
What should I be feeling?
What is this supposed to improve?
How will we know if it is working?

That clarity matters.

A good training plan should not just fill a calendar. It should create direction. It should help the athlete understand the purpose of the work, the progression over time, and the reason certain types of training move the needle.

Because when athletes understand the “why,” they usually train with more confidence.

They stop guessing.
They stop chasing random hard workouts.
They start seeing the connection between today’s session and the athlete they are trying to become.

That is one of the biggest roles of coaching: not just writing workouts, but helping athletes see the path.

Would love to help with with your next step and provide the clarity you are looking for. Please reach out for a free non obligation consultation.

Indoor Rowing Coach for Adults Train smarter and row faster with expert indoor rowing coach Neil Bergenroth. Get custom plans, technique feedback, and real results—anywhere you row

I think one of the reasons I have always loved rowing, coaching, and technology is that they all sit at the intersection of feedback and possibility.

Rowing gives you honest feedback.

The split does not lie. The boat does not lie. The force curve does not lie. When you make a technical change and the boat runs better, or the power curve changes, or the athlete suddenly feels connected, there is something really powerful about that.

Coaching is the human side of the same thing.

A lot of coaching is not just telling people what to do. It is listening carefully, asking better questions, and helping athletes see a version of themselves they may not fully believe in yet.

Sometimes you are coaching the catch.

Sometimes you are coaching confidence.

Sometimes you are helping someone open their mind to the possibility that they could be faster, stronger, more composed, or more capable than they thought.

Technology is the lens that helps make the invisible visible.

The PM5, force curves, video overlays, training data, live coaching tools, all of it helps us see what is actually happening. Not just “that looked better,” but why it was better.

That is probably why these three things have stayed connected for me.

Rowing gives the truth.

Coaching gives the relationship.

Technology gives the lens.

And when those three come together, you get the chance to help people understand themselves better, and then become more than they thought they could be.

A lot of coaching and teaching is really about designing experiences.

Yes, the technical skills matter. The knowledge matters. The planning matters.

But underneath all of that, I think the real work is helping people feel seen, listened to, and capable of becoming more than they currently imagine.

Sometimes an athlete or student does not yet know what is possible for them. They may not be able to picture themselves being that fast, that skilled, that confident, or that composed.

Part of the role of a coach or teacher is to help them open their mind to that possibility.

Not by pretending the work is easy.

Not by lowering the standard.

But by asking better questions, creating the right experiences, giving honest feedback, and holding them accountable from a place of belief rather than judgment.

There is a big difference between holding someone accountable because you are focused on their weaknesses and holding them accountable because you can see their strengths before they fully can.

That requires patience.

It requires listening.

It requires enough confidence in your own role that your worth as a coach or teacher is not tied completely to someone else’s immediate outcome.

When we are grounded in that way, we can create space for people to grow.

And sometimes, the most important thing we do is help someone meet a future version of themselves they did not know was possible yet.

Hang in there fellow educators, we are almost there.

A lot of high school rowers work hard and still get stuck.

Usually it is not because they do not care.

It is because the training is too generic, the feedback is not specific enough, or there is not enough structure and accountability between sessions.

My summer online rowing coaching program is designed to change that.

Individualized programming.
Technical video feedback.
Live data-driven coaching support.
Mindset and race strategy work.
A clearer path to improving your 2K.

Learn more here:

coachbergenroth.com/summer-rowing-program-online-erg-coaching-improve-your-2k-2/

Online Erg Coaching - Summer Rowing Program Boost your 2K rowing performance this summer! Join Coach Bergenroth’s online training program tailored for high school athletes. Improve your technique, strength, and endurance from anywhere.

Honored to see Holland Hall share the story of the World’s Toughest Row journey. Coaching this project was a reminder that big outcomes are built through patience, technical detail, consistency, and trust over time. I’m grateful to have played a part in something this challenging and meaningful. Daragh is a legend.

Holland Hall Teacher Reflects On Helping Man Row Across Ocean Upper School teacher Neil Bergenroth helps rowing novice row across the ocean. It was life-changing.

This week felt like one where several important threads started to connect.

On the coaching side, I saw more signs that long-term work is beginning to compound. More inquiries are coming in, an ErgZone plan sold, a parent on a consultation complimented the depth of the resources on my website, and the Steady State Rowing network shared my article on feedback ecosystems.

At school, I was encouraged by the progress students made with VEX AIM. They had been scaffolded to the point where they could build simple autonomous algorithms using AI Vision. Their robots were able to identify objects and function in dynamic environments where barrel and soccer ball positions could be changed on the fly, then sort, move, or kick those objects toward a goal or place them next to a tag.

Another theme that stayed with me this week was empathy.

I found myself thinking about software, organizations, and systems more broadly. It is one thing to build a system that collects data. It is another thing to build a system that helps people extract meaning from that data in a way that keeps decisions aligned with values.

That feels important in coaching, education, and leadership.

Data matters. Systems matter. Feedback matters. But empathy matters too.

Still a lot to build, improve, and clarify, but this week felt like a reminder that the work is moving in the right direction.

Leadership Empathy FeedbackLoops

Lately I have been noticing the same pattern in teaching, coaching, and personal health.

In the classroom, students solve one problem, and then the next challenge is to make the solution more flexible, more elegant, and more transferable.

In coaching, athletes reach a new level of 2K performance, and then the next step is careful analysis to determine the next rung on the ladder and prescribe the right training response.

In my own health, I notice that doing the same rowing routine too often can lead to stagnation. That means the system has to change through training, diet, recovery, or structure.

None of this happens without reflection. None of it happens without feedback loops. And none of it works very well without the right people around you who can help you see what needs to change.

The system is always changing. Good teaching, good coaching, and good self-care all depend on recognizing that and adapting well.

Health Reflection Growth

I just published a new article: Building an Ecosystem of Feedback on a Rowing Team (link in profile)

This piece was influenced by a recent professional development session led by Deepjyot Sidhu and learning resources from Global Online Academy, and I am grateful for the way their work helped push my thinking forward.

Their ideas around feedback, learning, and growth gave me a strong foundation to reflect more deeply on how these same principles can apply in rowing environments.

In coaching, feedback is often thought of too narrowly. A coach makes a comment. An athlete gets a correction. A piece of data gets reviewed. But the more I think about it, the more I believe the real opportunity is to build a stronger ecosystem of feedback across the whole team or club.

That means thinking about coach-to-athlete feedback, peer feedback, self-assessment, athlete-to-coach feedback, team messaging, and training technology as connected parts of a learning environment.

The best rowing environments are not built on occasional comments alone. They are built on feedback systems that are intentional, timely, specific, trusted, and multi-directional.

Many thanks to Global Online Academy for helping deepen my thinking on this topic.

My thanks also go to Jane Beckwith our Director of Teaching and Learning at Holland Hall School for the vision and organization of this important faculty initiative at our school.

Read the article here: https://www.coachbergenroth.com/feedback-ecosystem-rowing-team/