This week's Top Tip focuses not on the training side of things but on the actual machine itself. Everybody knows that at the end of a piece the machine displays your average 500m split time, but how many people know that you can use the monitor to display all your splits over the piece (up to a maximum of twenty) and further, that you can customise these splits? Here's how to do it: choose the distance you want to row (say, for example, 2,000 metres) and then press OK and the METRES button together. This will bring up the split distance. Use the SET DIGITS buttons to set the split distance (for example 200 metres) and then press READY when it's done. Once you've completed the piece, pressing M/RECALL will show you the time you did for the last 200 metres. Pressing M/RECALL repeatedly will cycle back through the 200 metre splits you've done in the piece. This trick also works if you're doing a time piece rather than a distance piece. Simply press OK and TIME rather than OK and METRES to set your custom time split. If you want to see your split scores during the row, press READY and M/RECALL together just before you start. The split score will hold for five seconds in the lower left display of the window, and then returns to the normal display. If you've got a top tip, to do with any aspect of the machine or training, just send it into the usual address, which is webmaster@vermotnhouse.co.uk