..After a cold and windy January we decided to start this year’s regatta season with a training camp in Tuscany. Admittedly we were slightly nervous if we’d be able to meet our Olympic coach’s expectations and standards. About 85 km and 1000 “relax”-s and “don’t worry”-s (about the wind, the boat, the balance, the bridges…) later, we were definitely holding on to our oars a little lighter, pushing with our legs first a little harder, and moving our hands away a little quicker (still not quite at Olympic speed).

The programme was fantastic: Row-eat-sleep-repeat – no need to worry about anything, no space to think about anything else. Perfect for anyone who would like to recover from office/zoom/meeting-marathons. We enjoyed the familiar atmosphere with a small entourage (fan club) joining a number of our training sessions and ensuring that we had the best photographically documented trip of our lives!
Matteo took plenty of time to talk us through the rowing stroke – and never gave up, no matter how confused we looked when we couldn’t find the ‘right’ way to move our little boat – until we understood. It’s also been great to always have enough time to set up the boats properly.
The Lago di Roffia with its flat water is a perfect playground for practicing rowing technique, the Arno river ist just beautiful, calmly flowing and glistening in the sun and rowing in the centre of Florence truly is a unique experience (which makes it even more difficult to follow the stroke )

I’m so excited that Matteo has decided to put his talents to use and launch Rowing in Tuscany. Matteo has a fabulous coaching style that can benefit anyone looking to improve and understand their rowing technique better. He is kind and extremely knowledgeable. And what’s better than improving your rowing while in Tuscany where you can experience the food and fabulous Italian culture. This is a great option for people who want to incorporate their passion for rowing with a desire to travel and see Italy!

I am a former track athlete that converted to sculling 3 years ago, with some success in the sport of rowing I was in need of some true fine tuning to gain more speed and technical efficiency. Since training under coach Matteo Stefanini my technique has improved tremendously, my overall fitness has increased 10 fold with is athlete specific workouts, If you are looking to learn, or develop more in rowing or sculling I highly recommend Coach Matteo Stefanini.