How to play

What you need

• A Concept2 erg with a PM5 monitor.
• Chrome or Edge on a laptop, desktop or Android phone or tablet. It can talk to your PM5 over Bluetooth; Safari and Firefox can’t, and neither can any browser on an iPhone or iPad. The BLADES iPhone app is coming soon.
• Optional: a Bluetooth heart-rate strap, arm band or a WHOOP broadcasting heart rate.
• A free account for a career (it’s free, and Just row and the Erg Lab work without one).

Connect your PM5

1. Sit on your PM5 and press Connect on the monitor’s main menu.
2. In BLADES, tap Connect PM5 (on Home, the Pieces & races panel or the Erg Lab).
3. Pick your PM5 from the list. The chip turns to PM5 when you’re in.

Until an erg is connected, Home says what you need and how to connect from the device you’re on. In a browser that can’t use Bluetooth there’s no Connect PM5 to tap: it tells you where you can row (Chrome or Edge on a laptop or Android phone).

The screen stays awake while an erg is connected. If the link drops mid-row, BLADES tries to reconnect on its own; you can also tap Reconnect or Pick again.

Your first piece

The first time you connect an erg with nothing rowed yet, BLADES offers Row your first 500 m: 500 m on the home water with nobody alongside, at whatever pace you like. It starts on your first stroke and the cox calls you down the course.

When you’re done, pick what’s next: Start a career, a Free row, or Home. Rowed before? Tap Not now: it’s only ever offered once.

No erg yet? Look around

Look around the river (on Home while no erg is connected and you’ve yet to row, and on a free row with no erg) puts you on the water with no rowing: the camera circles your boat. Change the light (Dawn practice, Race day, Golden evening), tap the water’s name at the top to see another water, or open The boathouse to pick a boat and your kit.

TipNothing is rowed or saved while you look around, and nobody on the open water sees you.

Heart rate

Tap ♥ Heart rate to pair a chest strap, arm band, or a WHOOP with Broadcast Heart Rate on. A strap that’s already paired to your PM5 shows up by itself.

TipWith heart rate coming in and your max heart rate on file, your training bands are judged on heart rate instead of split. See Training, bands and ratings.

Do I need an account?

Not to row: Just row and the Erg Lab work without one. A career needs a free account (an email and a password), so it’s saved wherever you sign in and friends can join you. The account is also where you connect WHOOP and your Concept2 Logbook.

Races

• 2,000 m race: Six lanes, a start, a sprint. Regatta day.
• 2,112 m · Henley-on-Thames: Temple Island to the enclosures: one crew alongside, booms either side.
• Charles River · 4,828 m head race: Three miles from below the Steel Bridge, single file on the clock: the Weeks turn, the Eliot turn, six bridges.
• 2,000 m · Penrith Lakes: The 2000 Games course: eight buoyed lanes, dead straight, the Blue Mountains off to the west.
• 1,000 m race: Half the course, twice the pain.

Set the Field pace (1:30 to 2:30 /500 m, with the 2k it works out to) and how many Crews you race: 1, 3 or 5. The opposition sits around that pace, rating in the low 30s, and each crew races its own way: some go out hard, some come through late.

Until you move the slider, the field rows your pace: what your 2k is worth over that race, a touch quicker over 1,000 m and steadier over a head race. Your 2k is the one on file, or your best 2k test or 2,000 m race; until you’ve rowed one it’s a steady time for a newer rower (7:45 for men, 8:45 for women, 8:15 for mixed, by the squad under Your crew). Moved it? Back to your pace puts it back. A pace boat on a training piece goes by the same pace.

Where you row

• Home water: The winding river you train on: six lanes and the buoys.
• Henley-on-Thames: The straight reach from Temple Island to the bridge: two crews between the booms.
• Charles River: Three miles up the river between Boston and Cambridge: six bridges, the Weeks and Eliot turns, autumn on both banks.
• Penrith Lakes: The 2000 Games course at Penrith, under the Blue Mountains: 2,000 m dead straight in eight buoyed lanes, and the warm-up lake alongside.

Pick it under On the water on the Pieces & races panel, or under Water on a career’s next-session card and Training tab (see On the water or in the Erg Lab). At Henley every race and piece is side by side, with one crew alongside you on the Bucks or Berks station. A piece up to 2,112 m finishes on the line by the enclosures; anything longer starts at Temple Island and rows on under the bridge.

Charles River: Races here are head races: crews go off ten seconds apart and chase each other up the river single file, and it’s the clock that counts. A piece up to 5,000 m finishes on the line past the Eliot Bridge. The course is 4,828 m, three miles under six bridges: Steel Bridge, River Street Bridge, Western Avenue Bridge, Weeks Footbridge, Anderson Memorial Bridge, Eliot Bridge. The Charles course is drawn from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright).

• The quickest crews go off first, 10 seconds apart, and the start still goes on your first stroke. Catch a crew and you pass it; the standings read On the clock, and the position strip shows where everyone is on the water. Results still come from your erg.
• Training pieces go up to three abreast. A piece longer than the course starts at the start and rows on upriver.

Penrith Lakes: Races here are side by side in buoyed lanes. A piece up to 2,000 m finishes on the line by the grandstand; a longer one, or a timed one, starts on the warm-up lake and goes round: out of it, back down the side of the course, a sweep round behind the start and up the course, round the west end of the island and back along the warm-up lake. Free rows start on the warm-up lake too. The course is 2,000 m in eight lanes 13.5 m wide, buoyed all the way; you go in Lane 4, the field outwards from there (Lane 5, Lane 3, Lane 6, Lane 2, Lane 7, Lane 1, Lane 8). The course runs along the south side of a long island, with the warm-up lake on the other side of it; the finish tower and the grandstand are on the island, looking across the line. A race or a piece up to 2,000 m starts in its lane on the start line; anything longer, and a free row, starts on the warm-up lake and goes round the way crews do there: along the warm-up lake, out through the narrow gap at the east end, back down the side of the course (the island side) in a column clear of the crews coming up, a wide sweep round behind the start, up the course and round the west end of the island into the warm-up lake again. You keep a line of your own all the way round, a passing gap clear of everyone; the other crews close up and share the water in the narrow gaps round the ends of the island and through the sweep. The Penrith course is drawn from OpenStreetMap data, © OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright).

Training pieces

• 2k test: The one you remember your number for.
• 6k: Long, honest, the other test.
• 5k: Steady-hard. Find a rhythm and hold it.
• 30′ at rate 20: Thirty minutes, capped at 20. Length and power. Rate cap 20.
• 4 × 1,000 m: Four hard kilometres, 3′ rest between.
• 3 × 10′ at rate 22: Three tens, 2′ rest, rate 22 cap. Rate cap 22.

Each piece shows your best next to it once you’ve rowed it.

Who’s alongside

• Pace boat at the field pace: one of your club’s boats to hold onto. The JV when the field pace is about your own (from your 2k, so it’s the JV until you move the slider), the 1V when it’s quicker, the 3V when it’s slower; on a training band it’s always the JV. On a piece with a rate cap it rows at the cap. The standings mark it pace boat.
• Race my best: your own best on that piece as a ghost boat (2k test, 6k and 5k, once you’ve set one).
• Boats across: 1, 2, 4 or 6 lanes. Empty lanes fill with your club’s next boats down from the pace boat (the ladder runs 1V, JV, 3V, 4V, Novice A, Novice B) and the Lightweights, in your colours. The standings say what each one is (1V · top boat, JV · second boat, 3V · third boat, 4V · fourth boat), and the cox calls them the way a squad does: “pulling away from the JV”.
• Set each piece up on my PM5: loads every piece, race, seat race and session you build onto your monitor as its exact list of distances, times and rests. If the PM5 can’t hold one exactly (a rest over 9:55, more than 50 intervals, or a piece under 100 m or 20″ or over 50 km), a line before the start says what happens instead. Once a piece is on your monitor, the monitor keeps the count: the screen shows its metres and its time, the piece ends when the PM5 says it’s done, and each rest and restart goes with the monitor’s.

The start

Races start like regattas: a Strap in countdown, then sit still while the starter goes Sit ready, Attention, Row! Move before the horn and it’s a false start, back to the line (on your PM5 the race goes back onto the monitor). With the race on your PM5, the clock starts on your first stroke after the gun, and the field goes with you.

Training pieces start on your first stroke, and count from the catch: your first drive’s metres and time are in. Between intervals the other crews rest with you: they sit if you sit and paddle alongside if you paddle, then ease back level. The rest counts down and the next piece goes as soon as it’s up (on your PM5, when the monitor starts it): a rolling start if you’re moving, a standing start if you sat, and level with everyone either way. Paddle through a rest the PM5 is timing and the boat keeps moving with the monitor’s rest metres.

Results

• Your place or your piece, time against your best (with a New PB badge when you earn one), distance, average split, rate and watts.
• The finish order, 500 m splits, each interval, and how long you spent in each training band.
• Races read to the tenth, with each crew’s margin. The split table has every crew’s time for each 500 m (each quarter on a shorter race) and its place at the mark, with ▲ or ▼ when it moved. Crews still rowing for the line fill in as they finish; a projected time is in italics.
• Rowed a 2,000 m faster than the 2k on file? Use it makes it your 2k.
• Share card: a picture of your boat on the river with the time, split, rate and place (and, during the Holiday Challenge, your metres rowed in BLADES). Pick from the shots taken while you rowed: one every 25 seconds or so, each from a different angle whatever view you were watching (Side, Chase, Aerial, Stroke seat, Stern), and the finish from the side. Swipe along the strip to see them all, then Share to send it to Strava, Instagram or the group chat, or save it where sharing isn’t possible. Copy result copies the numbers as text. Race again or Row it again.

TipYour PBs and the last 200 sessions are kept in this browser, not your account. Clearing the site’s data clears them.

What you get

Distance, time, split, rate and watts across the top, and the river to yourself, or, signed in, shared with whoever else is out when you choose (see The open water). Good for a warm-up, a cool-down or a long steady piece with a view. The views, quality and full-screen buttons all work here (see On the water).

The water button in the top bar shows where you are; tap it to move on to the next (Home water, then Henley-on-Thames, then Charles River, then Penrith Lakes). Pieces & races and Get on the water remember the choice. See Where you row.

Your cox rows it with you, in the style you picked: a word as you start, your rate and split every minute or two, technique cues, a technical ten every few minutes and rhythm on the catch. Put in a burst and it’s “That’s a move. Hold it.”, then “Good. Settle back in.”; stop and it’s “Easy there.” Routine calls come at most every 20 seconds or so. With the coach on, he chips in every few minutes.

The open water

Signed in, tap Row with others in a free row (or a name in Who’s out) to join the open water: you start on Row alone until you do. There you’re with everyone else free rowing on the same water, up to 8 boats to a stretch of river. Each of Home water, Henley-on-Thames, Charles River and Penrith Lakes has its own open water, and the water button in the top bar takes you from one to the next. Each boat holds its own line in its own colours and boat, nobody collides, and names float over the boats nearest you. Other boats are drawn where they are now, not where their last update left them, so a crew rowing level with you is level on the water. Other boats never count in your results, and pieces, races and careers are just as they were: starting one takes you off the open water.

• Home water: everyone on a line of their own either side of the middle of the river.
• Henley-on-Thames: one boat on the other station between the booms, the rest on lines outside them, clear of the booms and the banks, through the bridge’s arches beyond the finish.
• Charles River: you follow the racing line round the bends and the others hold lines either side of you, closing up where the bank comes in and lining up the arches well before every bridge.
• Penrith Lakes: going round, a column of lines a passing gap apart: up the course on its south side and back down the north side. You keep yours, clear of everyone, all the way round; the others close up and share in the narrow gaps round the ends of the island and through the sweep.

• The panel: Open water · 3 out, the position strip with everyone on it, and On the water: each rower with their crew, boat and gap in metres.
• Row alone takes you off the open water until you tap Row with others, and it’s remembered. Hide my name shows you to everyone as “A rower”.
• What others see: your name, your crew’s name and colours, your boat, and which water you’re on and where. Nothing else.
• Auto frames its shots around the boats near you.

Who’s out on Home lists everyone on the open water right now and where, for example 2 rowing now · Alex and Sam are out on the water, with Sam under it at Charles River · 1,200 m up. Tap a name to boat on their water at their stretch of river, alongside them on a line of your own; it turns Row alone off.

Until your first stroke you sit level with them as they row: the panel says Sitting level with Sam · row to start. If they easy, you sit level where they stop; if they go in, you hold where you are (Waiting on Sam · row to start). Take a stroke and you’re away, rowing from there.

What it shows

• Force curve: your last stroke, the five before it and your average. Hover for the force in newtons. Peak force, where in the drive it peaks, the Shape (two humps, front-loaded, late or even) and your Consistency over the last 10.
• Split, watts, rate and heart rate, plus drive length, drive and recovery time, ratio, work per stroke, average force and drag factor.
• Watts, stroke by stroke: a bar for each of your last 90 strokes.

Rowing in the Lab

Under What are you rowing? pick Just row or any training piece (races stay on the water), then Start the piece.

Tick Coach for tips as you go, each marked Keep it or Work on, on screen.

TipYour career’s training can be rowed here too: set Row training to In the Erg Lab. The work counts exactly the same, and the Lab shows the session’s band with a live check: In the band, Too quick, Too light or Rate too high. Seat races can be rowed here as well; races stay on the water.

Views

The shots: Chase, Stroke seat, Side, Stern, Aerial. Tap View (or press C) to step through them. The Side shot sits on the far side of your boat from the other crews, so you see them past you.

Auto cuts between them for you, so nobody needs a free hand mid-piece, and it leans on the shots that suit the race: clear ahead, Stroke seat and Aerial; level with a crew, Side, Stroke seat and Stern; chasing, Chase, Stroke seat and Aerial. The other shots still take their turn in between, and on your own it’s every shot in turn. The race has to change for 4 seconds before Auto follows, and a shot stays up at least 6 (the Stroke seat suits every race, so a change never cuts it short); otherwise each runs its course (Chase 18 s, Stroke seat 15 s, Side 12 s, Stern 12 s, Aerial 10 s). It’s the default until you pick a view, and whatever you pick is remembered.

The stroke seat

You, in the boat, looking down it to the stern. In an eight, your cox is sitting right there facing you. There’s nothing to drag or hold: your hands stay on the handle.

The cox and the coach

The Cox button sets the voice: Steady, Fired up, Dawg, or off. Calls are recorded voices with captions, and a line that isn’t recorded shows as a caption only. Built-in crews, schools and your squad boats are named out loud; a crew someone named themselves is “them” or “the rival”, and your captain is “the captain”, with the names in the captions. The cox calls the work of a piece, keeps it calm in the paddle and keeps you company on a free row (see Free row).

• Races: the whole race, the way a cox runs one. The start counted on your strokes, the high strokes and the settle, 500 gone with your split, a technical ten, the power ten at halfway, the third 500, 500 to go, 250 and the last ten counted down. Fall behind and you hear more, not less. Your stroke shortening brings “Length! Full slide!”, and a sagging rate “Rate’s dropping! Back to 34!”
• The crews around you: walking through, a seat a stroke, your bow on their six-man, level, pulling away, and them coming back at you. Your rival and your own squad boats get called by name.
• The trend: whether you’re walking on a crew, holding them, losing them or being caught, and how many seats went in the last ten strokes. Often when it’s close, sooner when it turns, rarely in a blow-out; in training, only when it turns.
• Every command with a number gets followed up: up two, up one in two, the settle, rate up, the sprint, a power ten, back under the cap, up to the band, the split, length, hold the rate. Hit it and the cox says so once (“GOOD”, “26. Good.”); miss it for a few strokes and you get one more push (“Not there. Up two. Now.”), never more. In a power ten or the sprint the count answers you: “FOUR! YES!” or “FIVE! MORE!”
• Rhythm: once your stroke settles, the cox puts two words on your catches for a few strokes, clipped and in time: “Hook… SEND.”, “Catch… DRIVE.”, “Legs… NOW.”, “Sharp… SEND.” and “Lock… PUSH.” The steady cox also has “In… Squeeze.” and “Catch… Swing.” Dawg has “Down… HIT.”
• Technical tens in training, counted on your strokes, each on the one thing your force curve, length, ratio or consistency says needs work.
• The end of a training piece without a rate cap comes in rate steps: “Thousand to go. Up one in two.”, “500 to go. Up two.”, “Two minutes. Up two.” On a piece with no band, drift off your average and it’s “Hold the split. 1:56.”
• Intensity follows the piece: firm in steady state, harder on intervals, full volume in a race. Steady never shouts; Dawg is at its rawest on race day.

On training pieces a crazy old New England coach in a launch follows you: never in a race, and never over the cox. He watches for your power fading in the second half, your split drifting, your rate against the cap, a heart rate too high for the band and the shape of your stroke, and talks you through the rests between intervals. He swears now and then; tick Keep the coach’s language clean if you’d rather he didn’t.

In a career, league or crew they both know the story: your rival and The Rivalry, the board’s objectives, the captain, the regatta round and the place you need (“We’re fourth. Need third.”), seat races, the next race, the week’s training and your last result. Lines about the event, the board’s objectives and the round come as captions.

The numbers

• Distance To go (or Time left), piece time, split, rate and watts. On a capped piece the rate shows the cap and warns you when you’re over it.
• Your average split and projected finish, and which piece you’re on in a set.
• The position strip, whenever there are other boats out: every boat in its lane and colours, ahead to the right, you highlighted, and the gap to the nearest boat ahead and behind (or All level). Each hull is drawn to scale for the boat, its bow at its gap and your bow on the middle line, so overlap, a length up and open water look the way they would on the river. Under the middle it says how far it reaches, for example 30 m each way, widening as the field spreads out.
• On distance pieces, the race bar below it: every boat’s place, colour and gap in metres, and finish times as they cross the line. On a phone, a field of more than 4 crews shrinks to the leader (with their gap, so you know how far off the front you are), you and the crews either side of you, with a marker such as 2 crews for the ones left out; a regatta’s qualifying cut still shows.
• On a phone stood upright on the erg, the split gets a line of its own, big enough to read from the seat, and in a rest the rest clock sits just above the numbers.

Look and feel

• High quality or Fast: Fast drops the shadows and some of the detail so phones and tablets stay smooth. It’s the default on touch screens.
• Full screen, where your browser allows it.
• Tap the BLADES logo to go back to Home. Mid-piece it asks first; what you’ve rowed still counts.
• Time of day: Dawn practice, Race day, Golden evening. Set it on the Pieces & races panel under On the water, along with Cox calls out loud, the cox’s style, Cox box and megaphone sound on recorded calls (on unless you untick it: the cox through the speaker under the seat, grittier as the work gets harder, and the coach through a megaphone), Coach in a launch on training pieces and Keep the coach’s language clean.

Keys

C

Change the view

Shift

Look over your shoulder (stroke seat)

Boats

• 1x Single
• 2x Double
• 4x Quad
• 8+ Eight, with a cox

For just rowing, pick a boat under Your crew and it’s kept. Someone new starts in the 1x single; a career puts you in its own boat whenever you open it.

In a career or league your boat rows your squad: men, women or mixed. For just rowing, pick Men, Women or Mixed under Your crew; it starts on the squad you last rowed with.

Kit

• Crew name, and a main and second colour for the unisuits, caps and blades.
• Blade design: Plain, Tipped, Band, Chevron, Diagonal, Halves.
• Hull: White, Yellow, Carbon or Wood.

Everyone in the boat is their own person: skin, hair, build, caps and glasses differ seat to seat, and stay the same every time you row. The cox wears a headset.

1 · How are you playing?

• Just me: your own programme against computer teams. Train it, race it, recruit and hire staff. Invite friends any time and each takes over a computer team.
• Rival programmes: everyone runs their own programme in the same league, alongside computer teams. Trade athletes, fight over recruits, race each other’s crews.
• One crew together: everyone rows in the same boat, each on their own erg, with their own seat and ratings, and you coach one programme together (see One crew together).

TipAll three are the same game: a league with computer teams. What differs is who runs the other programmes, and who’s in your boat.

2 · The season

• A name: Your conference (we suggest one; change it if you like), or the League name if you’re playing friends.
• Start with: the Fall (11 weeks of head races) or the Spring (19 weeks of duals and championships, ending with the Midsummer Regatta at Henley).
• How long: Keeps going (fall, spring, recruiting, year after year) or One season (crown a champion; you can keep going at the end).
• Teams in the league: 6, 8, 10 or 12. Computer coaches run every programme that isn’t yours, until a friend takes one over.
• Boat (Eight or Quad), Squads (men, women or mixed) and when Week 1 starts: this Monday, the next one, or the one after (each button shows its date), so you can set up a few days early and give everyone a week to join.

3 · Your programme

• Your programme’s name, you as Head coach, and your colours.
• Your benchmark: your time for a 2k, 5k or 6k. Spring starts on a 2k and the fall on a 5k, and we work out the 2k it’s worth.
• Your max heart rate if you know it, and Sessions a week: 3, 4 or 5.

Don’t know your numbers? Tap Don’t know / skip under either one. A skipped 2k starts you on a steady time for a newer rower (7:45 for a men’s squad, 8:45 for women’s, 8:15 for mixed, and the mixed time when you join a friend’s league), and your bands are set from it. Your first 2k or 6k test, or any race, faster than that goes on file by itself. A skipped max heart rate means your bands go by your split.

Then Start my career. Playing friends? It’s Start the league, then Bring your friends: send the code or Copy invite link. Each friend who joins takes over one of the computer teams, squad and points included, under their own name and colours. For One crew together the programme is everyone’s: you name it and put in your own numbers, and your crewmates put in theirs when they join.

Your careers on Home

Everything you’ve started sits under Your clubs on Home, with the week you’re in, and Pick up where you left off takes you back to the last one you had open. You can run more than one at a time.

Your squad

• A squad of 12 in an eight (up to 15) or 5 in a quad (up to 7), each with a class year, traits, hometown and potential. You’re at stroke.
• Your training sets theirs: the squad trains every week as hard as you do on your erg, and your mix of work steers theirs.
• The Squad tab is one table of everyone: you at stroke, the boat in seat order, then the Bench, best first. The columns: seat (Stroke down to Bow, – on the bench), name with year and trait, overall with last week’s change, endurance, threshold, speed, swing, race day (? until you seat race them) and potential in stars, with each athlete’s trait and side badges under their name (see League traits); then Boat, Coaching, Seat race and ✕ to release.
• Tap a heading to sort by it and again to flip it; Seat puts the boat back in order. Each athlete’s best rating is picked out. Tap anyone for their trait and what it means, hometown, potential, race day and the same buttons in words. On a phone, swipe the table sideways for the rest of the columns.
• Line-up: tap Boat to put someone in or take them out. A seat you empty stays open for the next athlete you put in, so nobody else moves. Once every seat is filled, the bar shows what the change does to the boat before you save: Boat 29.8 → 30.6 (+0.9) · about 0.2 s faster over 2k. Then Save line-up (or Undo). Rowing together builds their Swing.
• Compare and swap: in anyone’s details, Compare with someone on the bench (or in the boat) puts the two side by side: overall, the four ratings, race day, potential and traits, with the better of each picked out, and what the swap does to the boat, its swing, sides and race day included (“Luke for Ollie: boat 29.8 → 30.6 · about 0.5 s faster over 2k”, with a note when a race day is still unknown). Swap … in puts them in that seat and saves the line-up, or, if you’ve unsaved changes, adds the swap to them for you to save (with a seat still open, the card asks you to fill it before it can show the swap’s effect). In season, Seat race them picks the pair for a seat race.
• Extra coaching: 3 athletes (2 in a quad) develop faster, with a gold dot by their name. When it’s full, take it off someone before you give it to someone else. A number by a name is their leg of a seat race.
• Seat racing comes under the table, then This week’s focus: one rating grows faster at a small cost to the others.

Your rival and The Rivalry

In your first season you’re given a rival: the closest programme to yours on boat speed that nobody else has claimed. Rivalries come in pairs, and if a friend takes over your rival’s team, they inherit the rivalry.

The Rivalry is one race a season, head to head: four miles in week 8 of the spring, 5,000 m in week 6 of the fall, in place of that week’s scrimmage. It doesn’t count for the table, but it counts for the board. Miss it and a sub rows for you. Home keeps this season’s and the all-time record.

The board

At the start of every season your athletic director sets three objectives, pitched at how good your programme is. The board expects on Home shows how you’re doing, and the verdict comes when the season ends.

• In the spring: win a number of your five duals; a medal at the Eastern Championships or a finish high enough in the table; and beat your rival.
• In the fall: a high enough finish at the League Head; beat your rival; and row at least 75% of the plan every week.

The stakes: each objective met adds 4 to next season’s scholarship budget and 4 to the staff budget. Miss all three and you lose 5 points of prestige with recruits.

Your inbox

Your captain (the squad’s strongest senior), your cox, the athletic director, the student paper and your rival’s coach. They write when the season starts, before and after every race, after tests and seat races, about staff and recruiting, when the week’s plan slips below 60%, and with the board’s verdict. Filter by sender on the Inbox tab; Home shows the latest.

Race day

A race is scored from your boat’s strength plus how you row against your own 2k, so friends with different 2ks race on level terms. On race day each rival boat is paced on the water to match.

• Miss the weekend and a sub strokes for you at a little under your best.
• Row a continuous piece faster than your 2k and it goes on file by itself.
• Head races are time trials, six crews topped up with computer schools, on your home water, except the League Head (5,000 m on the Charles River). The spring’s championships and the League Final are regattas, raced in rounds (see Championship regattas), and the Midsummer Regatta is a knockout at Henley.

The Midsummer Regatta

Week 19 of the spring, after the League Final: a knockout at Henley-on-Thames over 2,112 m, side by side between the booms. 16 crews (32 in a league of more than 16 programmes): every programme in the league, and the strongest computer schools in the country invited to fill the draw.

• Two crews a race, on the Bucks and Berks stations. Lose once and you’re out.
• A round a day to the final on Sunday: First round Thursday, Quarter-finals Friday, Semi-finals Saturday, Final Sunday. With 32 crews it starts a day earlier: First round Wednesday, Second round Thursday, Quarter-finals Friday, Semi-finals Saturday, Final Sunday.
• The draw is seeded, so the top two can only meet in the final.
• The countdown on Home runs to the first round, and the race tile says which day the rounds start.
• Big-race players and chokers count in the semi-finals and the final.
• It doesn’t count for the table, but it earns recruiting points: 8 for the winner, 5 for the losing finalist, 3 for a semi-final, 2 for a quarter-final and 1 for rowing it.
• Results come the way the umpire gives them: won by a foot, a canvas, ¾ length, 2 lengths, easily.

Your athletic director sends the invitation in League Final week. The draw is posted in the feed, your cox’s form report gives your station and your opponent, and the paper writes up every round and the result.

The form report

Before each round your cox sends a form report, and it’s on the regatta tile too: the crews in your race with the times they’re expected to do, the time it’ll likely take to go through and what that is on your own erg (time, split and share of your 2k), a time that gets you through nine times in ten, and what flat out would get you.

• It’s a forecast, not the answer: every crew has a little race-day luck the report can’t see.
• Computer crews ease off once they’re safely through.
• Going flat out costs you: a round raced near or above your 2k takes about a second off your boat in each later round that weekend.

On the water, the standings show the cut (for example Top 4 to the semi-finals) and whether you’re in a qualifying place. Results group every round under its regatta.

The table

• Dual win: 3 points.
• Head races and championships: 10, 7, 5, 3, 2, 1.
• The League Head and the League Final: 15, 10, 7, 5, 3, 2.
• The Midsummer Regatta: none (it’s for the glory and the recruiting points).

The League tab has the table, your fixtures, results and honours. Tap any programme to scout it.

Recruiting points, free agents and trades

• You start with 12 recruiting points and earn more for training weeks (+2 for 85% of the plan, +1 for half), duals (+3 for a win, +1 for a rowed loss), placings, scrimmage wins and where you finish the season.
• Spend them on free agents in the Market. Released athletes join the free agents, and a few transfers turn up each summer.
• Trades are between friends (computer teams don’t trade), up to three athletes each way, until the deadline: the end of week 7 in the fall, week 12 in the spring. They reopen in the breaks.

Between races

• Seat racing (Squad tab): two of your athletes, two legs, your erg connected. It reveals their hidden race-day ratings, which count in every race. Up to two a week, on the water or in the Erg Lab.
• A boat vs B boat (Training tab): row against your own bench once a week. Both boats carry the squad’s training form, so it comes down to who’s in which boat. Keep it close and the bench trains harder that week.
• Weekend scrimmages: an unofficial race against another programme in a week without a regatta (or The Rivalry). They don’t count for the table, but the winner gets a recruiting point and a lift.

The format changes every week: 1,000 m sprint, 2,000 m, 5,000 m, 6,000 m, 2 × 2 miles, 3 × 1,500 m, 4 × 5′, 8 × 500 m, 2 × 10′. You’re scored on average split against what your own 2k predicts for that format. The fall leans long.

Breaks, the off-season and keeping it going

A week off between seasons: a winter break after the fall, a summer off-season after the spring. Keep training through it (about 200 minutes a week) and your squad keeps more of its fitness.

In the summer seniors graduate and a freshman class arrives. Every programme has the same 100 scholarships, plus what a recruiting coordinator adds; recruits weigh the money against your prestige and what they care about, and the computer schools bid too. Clear favourites commit early, and the rest sign on signing day, when the new season starts.

Picked One season? When it’s over, the final standings offer Want more? Keep it going: whoever made the league turns it into a dynasty, same programmes and squads, from the next Monday a week or more after the end.

The tabs

• Home: the next race (with a countdown to its race weekend), scrimmage or Rivalry, this week, your boat, what the board expects, your rivalry, the latest mail, the top of the table, trade offers and the invite link.
• Inbox: messages from your captain, cox, athletic director, the paper and your rival.
• Squad: the squad table (line-up, extra coaching, seat races, releases), seat racing, this week’s focus and your coaching staff.
• Training: the week’s plan, A boat vs B boat, cross-training and your own sessions.
• Log: your training, season by season.
• Market: recruiting points, free agents, trades and, in the summer, recruiting.
• League: the table, fixtures, results and honours. The table has a form guide: each crew’s Form today (see Training, bands and ratings; hidden on narrow phones) and To beat, the 2k you’d need on your own erg to beat them in a dual today, from their boat and form against yours. Your own 2k on file is under the table.
• News: everything happening around the league, including who’s hired whom.

Start a crew

Home › Start a career › One crew together, then the same season and programme steps as any career. Share the code or link from Bring your crew; each friend opens it, signs in and joins as a crewmate with their own name, 2k and heart rate. On Home your crew shows under Your clubs as a Crew.

TipIn a Rival programmes league, a friend with an invite can join a programme’s crew instead of taking a team, if that boat has a seat free.

Seats

• Up to 4 of you in a quad, 8 in an eight. Whoever started it strokes; crewmates take the next seats, and your best athletes fill the rest.
• Each of you has your own seat, 2k and ratings, built by your own rows.
• The Your crew tile on Home shows each seat: who’s in it, their 2k and rating, how much of this week’s plan they’ve rowed, whether they’ve raced, and who’s online or on the erg right now. Open seats show too.

Training together

Everyone rows the week’s plan on their own erg, each paced off their own 2k. The crew’s figure for the week is the average, and the squad trains off the whole crew. A new crewmate counts from the week after they join, or straight away once they’ve rowed.

Race weekends

• Everyone races on their own erg, any time Friday to Sunday. The boat’s time combines everyone’s rows.
• A seat nobody races gets a sub. Race tiles show how many of you have raced.
• Scrimmages and The Rivalry work the same way. The weekly A boat vs B boat race goes to whichever crewmate rows it first.

Coaching together

Any crewmate can make any call: the line-up, the week’s focus, recruiting, staff and seat races, first come first served. News and the inbox say who did what. In the squad table each crewmate has their own seat and ratings, and nobody can bench or release them.

How a session is scored

• Every second you row counts toward a band: from heart rate if a strap is connected and your max heart rate is on file, otherwise from your split against your 2k.
• Slower than your 2k split plus 40 seconds (or under 55% of max heart rate) is paddling, and doesn’t count.
• On UT2, UT1 and AT work, how evenly you hold the pace matters too.

The week

Each week asks for minutes in each band. Harder minutes cover easier ones, and a race counts. Split a session in two or row it in pieces and it still counts. Taper weeks before the biggest races ask for just three sessions, race included.

Ratings and form

• Endurance, Threshold, Speed and Swing, each out of 100. They get harder to raise the higher they are, and fade a little each week you don’t do the work.
• Swing comes from steady minutes rowed evenly.
• The crew index is the crew’s ratings put together. In a race each point is worth about 0.12% of boat speed against the other crews: a crew 10 points better is about 5 s quicker over a seven-minute 2k. Your erg still decides the race.
• Form is fitness against fatigue from your own training: Heavy legs, Building, Fresh or Peaked. Back off before the big races and you’ll be peaked for them. A taper only pays if you’ve done the work: stop training and you’re Out of shape, not fresh.

What a session did

• The results card after a career or league session has a For the crew line: boat speed (the crew index), each rating the session moved, to a tenth of a point (“Threshold +0.4”), and the week’s plan before and after (“Week’s plan 0% → 31%”).
• That part is immediate: your row lands on your own ratings straight away, and you’re one seat in the boat, so the boat moves by your share of it. The rest of the squad trains when the week closes, harder the more of the plan you’ve rowed. You’ll see that in the week’s recap in a career, or its training report in News in a league, not on the card.
• Back on Home, the Your boat tile in a league (The crew in a career) shows the same as small chips by boat speed and each rating, like +0.4: everything your rows added since you last looked, with a line for the week’s plan. They show once, fade after a few seconds, and are gone a day after your last row even if you didn’t look.

Row your own

Training › Row your own builds a session to fit what you’ve got: a time (10 to 90 minutes) or a distance (250 m to 10k), once or 2 to 12 times with 30 seconds to 10 minutes’ rest, aimed at a band or Any.

Extra work is the rest of the workout library. It counts toward your crew but doesn’t tick off the plan, so watch your form.

On the water or in the Erg Lab

The Row training switch, on your next-session card and the Training tab, picks On the water or In the Erg Lab. The work counts the same either way, and the Lab checks you’re in the band as you go. Races are always on the water.

On the water, Water under it picks where you row your training, seat races and Row your own: Home water, Henley-on-Thames, the Charles River and Penrith Lakes. It’s the same pick as On the water on the Pieces & races panel, so change it in either place. It only changes the view: the work counts the same on any water, and your crewmates and the rest of the league never see which you chose.

Races don’t take your pick: a race’s water is the same for every crew, and the race card names it. In a solo or crew season every race, home or away, is on Home water. In a league so is every race and the A boat vs B boat race, except the League Head on the Charles River and the Midsummer Regatta on Henley-on-Thames.

Cross-training

Signed in with WHOOP connected, your runs, rides and lifts count: cardio at 70% by heart-rate zone, and lifting as a little top-end work. It counts toward the week, your ratings and your form, but never toward a race or your 2k. Rows logged on WHOOP are skipped, because your rows come from the PM5.

Your teammates

• Named athletes with a class year, hometown, 2k and ratings, and a type that shapes how they train: Engine, Technician, Sprinter, Grinder, Metronome or Racer.
• You always stroke the boat, and you never graduate. Eights carry a cox.
• Morale follows your week: the more of the plan you get done, the harder they train.

League traits

In a league most athletes have a trait, a few none, and the stars and the characters two or three. Each one moves a number you can see: a race’s splits, the boat index, morale or growth. They show as badges under each name in the squad table, and What the badges mean under the table explains them.

Race shape

• Fast starter (FS): Out of the blocks: their share of the boat makes the first 500 m up to 3% quicker, and they give some of it back later.
• Closer (CL): Finds another gear: their share of the boat makes the last 500 m up to 3% quicker, for a slightly quieter middle.
• Third-500 grinder (3rd): Less fade where it hurts: their share of the boat makes the third 500 up to 1.5% quicker.

Technique

• Technical savant (TS): Makes the boat sit up: +4 boat swing, a steadier race day, and builds swing faster.
• Meataxe (MX): All power, rough edges: more speed and threshold, −3 boat swing, a wilder race day. Two or more hurt unless a savant settles them.

Side

• Bisweptual (Bi): Rows either side, so they fill whichever seat the eight is short of.

Mental

• Big-race player (BR): Rises to it: +0.8 boat index at championships, regatta finals and The Rivalry.
• Choker (CH): Tightens up: −1 boat index at championships, regatta finals and The Rivalry.
• Boat mover (BM): Quicker in a boat than the erg says: +3 race day.
• Erg monster (EM): Great numbers, less boat speed: higher ratings, −3 race day.
• Fox (FX): Coasts in practice. A dawg on race day: +1.2 boat index in every real race, but slower growth, a little less squad morale, and they lose seat races they shouldn’t.
• Leader (LD): Lifts everyone: +2% squad morale a week while on the squad (a second leader adds 1%).

Development

• Training animal (TA): Thrives on volume: grows 15% faster in base, camp and build weeks.
• Coachable (CO): Listens: extra coaching works 25% better on them.
• Late bloomer (LB): Comes good late: grows 20% faster as a junior or senior.

Hidden traits. Big-race player, Choker, Boat mover and Erg monster start hidden, with a ? badge. They show when you seat race them, to a 3★ scout, or on your own squad to a technical coach. The Fox is the exception: it shows once they’ve raced for you in a real race, or to a 4★ scout. Seat racing won’t: they fox that too. Recruits and free agents show the traits you know, and the feed says when a seat race brings out a mental trait or a real race shows up a fox.

Sides. In an eight everyone rows a side, shown as S or B. The boat wants four a side, and you stroke it on stroke side. Each athlete rowing their wrong side costs 1.5 boat index: their badge turns to S›B or B›S, and a line above the squad table names them. Bisweptual athletes and crewmates fill whichever side needs them. Quads scull, so there are no sides.

Coaching staff

Up to 3 hires, on a staff budget of 100 a season (separate from scholarships). Staff come with 1 to 5 stars (more stars, more salary) on contracts of one to three seasons, one per role. Hire, let go, or extend someone in their final season. Staff live on the Squad tab (the Crew tab in a classic solo career).

• Endurance coach: Builds the engine: long UT2 and UT1 work turns into Endurance faster.
• Threshold coach: Lives at AT: holding a hard pace turns into Threshold faster.
• Speed coach: Starts, sprints and race-pace work turn into Speed faster.
• Technical coach: Rhythm and timing: the crew builds Swing faster and is steadier on race day.
• Strength & conditioning: Runs, rides and lifts count for more, and the squad stays fresher.
• Recruiting coordinator: Your scholarship offers look better to recruits, and the budget stretches further.
• Scout: Sees a recruit’s real potential, not the highlight reel, and finds kids nobody else knows about.

Each star helps: a coach’s rating grows 6% faster per star, a recruiting coordinator adds scholarships and makes offers look better, and a scout narrows the range on a recruit’s potential (exact at five stars) and turns up a hidden Scout’s find for every two stars.

TipIn a league each coach signs for one programme only, first come first served. The computer teams hire too, and News reports every hire and departure.

Recruiting

Leagues recruit in the summer off-season (see Running your programme). In a classic solo career the board opens on Home when the season ends (in any boat but a single): 8 to 12 freshmen with an erg 2k, a trait and an asking price, plus a scout’s finds, and a budget of 100 scholarships plus your recruiting coordinator’s.

• Each recruit wants something: Wants to win, Follows the money or Wants a seat.
• A recruit takes the best offer that comes within 85% of their asking price. Ties go your way.
• They sign on Signing day, or when you press Next season. Signings take the seats graduating seniors leave; spare rowers sit on the bench and fight for seats next season.

How a classic solo career plays

• 18 weeks on the real calendar, Monday to Sunday night: winter base with a 6k test, a 2k test, spring training camp, five duals, the Eastern Championships, Nationals, and The Rivalry over four miles.
• A week you don’t get to still closes: your teammates train without you, and a race you didn’t row is a DNS.
• Race day shows The field, on paper; then Boat on the water and race it live. Your real erg time decides where you finish, and rowing it again the same week replaces the result.
• The board expects 3 of 5 duals, a medal at the Easterns, and Nationals or your rival. Your 2k lives on the Crew tab under Your numbers.
• At the end: the verdict, recruiting, and Next season. Retire and start over at the bottom of Home deletes it; your workout history and Logbook uploads stay.

Signing in

An email and a password (at least six characters), and a name your crewmates will see. You may be asked to confirm your email.

Invite codes and links

Home › Got an invite code? works for crews and leagues alike. An invite link takes you straight to joining once you’ve signed in.

WHOOP

Connect WHOOP to count your runs, rides and lifts (see Training, bands and ratings). Connected workouts count in every career you’re in, and in a classic solo career while you’re signed in. Your crewmates can see them. Sync now pulls the latest; Disconnect WHOOP stops it.

Concept2 Logbook

Connect Concept2 Logbook and every workout you row on your PM5 is posted to your Logbook with its splits or intervals, with a heavyweight or lightweight setting. Uploads wait on your device if you’re offline and never go twice. Results show ✓ Saved to your Concept2 Logbook.

TipIf the tile says sync is waiting for Concept2 to approve BLADES, it isn’t switched on yet.

Your training log

Every hub has a Log tab: totals, your ratings week by week, minutes in each band against the plan, and a card for each week. Open any session for its band minutes, watts, what it added to your ratings and its 500 m splits. In a league, races are named with how they went: “A boat vs B boat · 2k · won by 0.9 s”, “League dual · round 2 · won”, and seat races as “Seat race · 2 × …”.

Send feedback

Account › Send feedback goes straight to the people building BLADES: something broken, confusing or missing. We’ll reply to your account’s email if there’s anything to say back. Not signed in? The Support page at the foot of the site takes a note too.

Deleting your account

Account › Delete account…, then type DELETE. Your sign-in and email, careers, leagues and crews nobody else is in, your WHOOP and Concept2 connections, your feedback and your analytics all go, and it can’t be undone.

TipIn leagues and crews you share with friends, the sessions and decisions their season is built from stay, so their results don’t change, but your names come off them: you show up as Former coach, Former programme or Former rower (and a league or crew you founded loses the name you gave it), and nothing left links back to you. Workouts already sent to Concept2 stay in your Concept2 Logbook (delete them there).

The Concept2 Holiday Challenge

Concept2’s Holiday Challenge runs from 26 November to 24 December: 100,000 m or 200,000 m on the erg. The Holiday Challenge tile on Home counts down to it, then shows every metre you row on your PM5 in BLADES from the first day, on this device: pieces, races and free rows (rests left out). Pick your goal and it tells you what a day it takes to get there. If you row in a boat with friends in a league, it also adds up what your crew has logged to that league since the start. For a metres day, Pieces & races › Holiday Challenge metres is one steady piece of 30, 45 or 60 minutes with a pace boat at the split you pick.

TipOnly metres in your Concept2 Logbook count for the challenge itself. BLADES’ number is a running count to row by, not your official total.

Tours

Each hub, and your first time on the water, gives you a quick tour. Replay a hub’s tour any time with How it works (the ? at the top of the hub).

There’s no Connect PM5, or it’s greyed out

Your browser can’t use Bluetooth: Safari, Firefox and every browser on an iPhone or iPad. Open BLADES on a laptop in Chrome or Edge (or an Android phone); the iPhone app is coming soon. Meanwhile you can Look around the river from Home.

It says Bluetooth is off or isn’t allowed

Turn Bluetooth on and tap Connect PM5 again. On an Android phone, Chrome also needs Nearby devices (on older phones, Location) allowed in the phone’s Settings › Apps › Chrome › Permissions. If you blocked Bluetooth for BLADES, allow it again from the site settings by the address bar. In the iPhone app, allow it in Settings › BLADES › Bluetooth.

My PM5 isn’t in the list

• Press Connect on the PM5’s main menu first, then pick it within a few seconds.
• Only monitors named PM5 are listed.
• If ErgData or another app is connected to the monitor, disconnect it first.

The connection dropped

BLADES tries to reconnect on its own for a few seconds. If it can’t, press Connect on the PM5 and tap Reconnect, or Pick again to choose the monitor from the list.

It’s choppy

Tap High quality to switch to Fast. Close other tabs, and plug in a laptop that’s on battery saver.

Where’s my data?

• Careers: saved to your account, on every device you sign in on.
• PBs and classic solo careers: in this browser on this device. Clearing the site’s data removes them.
• Logbook: everything you rowed on a PM5, if you connected it.