Idea behind Rojabo
Well, it is no secret so here is the story.
It all started in the summer of 1998. We were on a three-week training camp at Lake Sarnen (Sarnersee) with the Danish National Team preparing for the World Championships (WC) in Cologne, Germany. Fantastic place, with nearly flat water for every training session.
At the camp it was hard training twice a day, eating and resting as much as possible.
Jakob was rowing the LM2- with Jeppe, where the year before, they took bronze in a tight race between Ireland and Switzerland. At the time, Bo was Jakob’s coach and was also coaching a few other boats. Bo had a problem with one of the teams who was not performing the way that Bo had wanted. Bo and Jakob began discussing the training programs. They analyzed the training programs from the teams that were performing well and compared them with the training programs of the teams that were not performing as expected.
In the start it felt like a mission impossible job – One could see that the programs differed but there was no common denominator until we started discussing the feeling of intensity. How hard it feels to perform a given workout compared to another.
Learning from mistakes
We began to investigate the programs, interview athletes, and collect performance data. After careful analysis, using some mathematical formulas, we could see a pattern emerging that could be used to compare the workouts.
We could begin to see a correlation. – The teams with poor performance had a strong tendency to misinterpret the intention of the training program in a way that did not follow the idea the coach had. As an example, when rowers row next to each other on the erg, there can develop internal competition turning a workout intended as restitution, rowing 60 min at spm 18 into 60 min of power strokes, which is far from a restitution workout.
We could apply the founded formulas to generate workouts, and build complete training programs.
Bo Vestergaard started using the Rojabo method we had developed. It helped him create training programs and communicate his idea to his athletes. How they should be affected by workouts assigned for them. It is a big problem for a coach if his athletes are either overtraining or undertraining if there is no common understanding regarding intensities.
Today, more than 20 years later, the Danish National Team coaches are still using this method, helping them win with their teams and reducing the amount of time spent on making training programs by more than 50%.
Since 2008, Bo Vestergaard and Jakob have been partners in Rojabo.com making Rowing training programs using the Rojabo method available for all individual athletes. Helping rowers get into the best possible shape and win races through the adaptive training program service found. at Row faster – Personalized rowing training programs.
In 2005 Bo and Jakob started rowing together as a team taking medals home from World Masters, Head of the Charles, Danish National Championships as well as local regattas.