This will increase rsync speed.
vi ~/.ssh/config
host *
controlmaster auto
controlpath /tmp/ssh-controlmaster-%r@%h:%p
ssh user@hostname
In other terminal:
ssh -O check user@hostname
Master running (pid=444444)
#ssh -O stop user@hostname
#ssh -O exit ser@hostname
rsync -avz -e ssh /some/path user@hostname:/some/path