Noel Frost: I am very fortunate to be one of the coaches who helps train the juniors at Wallingford Rowing Club (WRC). We have them sculling at the weekends when possible and I usually take them for a mid week session after school on the ergs. Readers may be interested in the basic erg fitness requests that I ask the kids to do twice daily:- 1. Inhale fully and hold until mildly uncomfortable, then exhale - repeat 10 times. Lung volume.2. Exhale fully and hold until uncomfortable, then inhale - repeat 10 times. Lung efficiency.3. Perform partial sit up (do no more than put abs under tension) - repeat 10 times. Core strength.4. Perform partial dorsal raise (do no more than put the back under tension) - repeat 10 times. Back power. 5. Perform full rotary torso - repeat 10 times. Balance.6. Perform partial ham string curl (do no more than tense the ham strings) - repeat 10 times. Slide speed.7. Record waking heart rate. Indicates health level. These are some of the basics with which I set a world 2,000m record in 1999, plus set world bests at 5,000m and 10,000m, so I have confidence in them. The WRC juniors do not do all of the exercises all of the time, of course, but they do some of them occasionally, as one would expect. Their erg basic training consists of a 5 minute warm up and stretches, then 150m on and 30 seconds rest. At the moment we are up to seven x 150m (which will be increased by one each month until we reach 14), then a 20 minute cool down on the erg at talking level, to remove the lactate. There are of course further plans for after 14 but I will not go into them now; suffice to say, I am aiming for 2008 in China. Every fourth week in the month, the ones who wish to do the international four minute test and most of those put their distances on the Concept 2 on-line rankings. Some of the WRC juniors did a 2003 Red Nose Row, which included a 5,000m, and 10000m, which are also on the Concept 2 site. They recently won their first medals at regattas and talk about a dog with two tails! Anyway, I hope 1 to 7 will help you; via http://www.iamfit.net, I advise people in several countries and the feedback is positive.