The paper presents results of experimental measurements of the parameters of rowing process when rowing in a river, on the pool-type training facility and on “Concept II” rowing machine. The comparison of results of measurements showed the significant difference of rowing force generated by rowing in the machine and in the boat, thus the novel training facility is proposed having the hydrodynamic loading unit equipped with proportional flow control valve controlled by computer evaluating parameters of rowing, which is able to ensure loading on the oars more adequate to the real rowing conditions.