I started to row about 6 months ago. I am 45 years old, originally a runner, but I decided to try something else to give my knees a bit of a rest. Since I live in Rio, 2 blocks from the Lagoon, rowing felt like an obvious choice. And I was right! Since then, I have been doing my best to try to fine tune my technique. Your videos have always been a fantastic source of inspiration and knowledge. But this one, in particular, was absolutely spectacular. Thank you for publishing this mateiral!
Perfect video to improve my technic. I usually have problems with my exit and am pretty confident that now with the help of your video I'll be able to improve my exit when I'm back on the water after the summer break.
Excellent video. I coach high school rowers. Unfortunately , they develop poor habits on the erg, such as overextending the finish with too much layback and an exaggerated high pull in. I have to spend a lot of time retraining them on rowing with a proper finish: firm core support, follow through with arms (not try to kill it for power), and get out of the water cleanly.
I know he is physically huge, but have you seen the 2k video from Olli Zeidler here on YT? He really doesn't have much layback at all, and still produces enough power for 5:43. He ergs similar to how he sculls
Completely agree with you, good demonstration and explanation. I always think of the finish being about timing rather than force. And you explain this aspect of the stroke really well.
You’re chicken winging that stroke. Drop your wrists when you get near your ribs and the blades pop out (in the water, where oars can rotate, unlike your contraption). Then if you can’t pull hard at the finish, it’s moot. Don’t reach up over your shoes, and if you’re doing it right, you won’t need to strap your feet to the machine, they shouldn’t get pulled up if you slide down to them.
Great content! Especially for people like me, who try to coach themselves. I have a question which bother me lately. Do you think that more efficient is to wait longer in the end of a stroke until you initiate a new one, or a quick initiation? I mean should I quickly go out from the water and straight my arms or take it more easy? Also I remember that my former coach used to say: “don’t sit too long in the end of the stroke! Just move, be quicker!” Do you find it correct? P. S. I hope that you can understand my question. I’m sorry, English is not my first language and I still develop my rowing-related vocabularies :)
Your question makes perfect sense. Thank you for that. In short: the blade should leave the water with the last part of the drive motion. It is, in essence, a "wash out", however, the shortest possible wash out you can do. This blade exit motion goes together with the feathering of your blade, even though with a slight delay. Then comes the pause of the handle motion, which sometimes is just a very much slowed down but continued handle motion. This "pause" sometimes has to happen when your hands have already travelled away from your torso a couple cm, so that there is enough vertical space for a decent tap down. The higher the stroke rate, the less of a pause there is until it disappears completely at race pace.
Question: In the single I keep my shoulders pretty centered and have a lighter finish, just like you showed. I have no problem exiting the water. But when we trained a quadruple sculls for the nationals my blades almost never exited the water cleanly. The couch told me to pull harder at the finish and, most importantly, move my shoulderblades together. The reason behind this was, he wanted a gap behind the blade so it is easier to exit the water. We justed C2 big blades in the quad and C2 Smoothies in the single. So should you exaggerate the finish in a faster moving boat?
I started to row about 6 months ago. I am 45 years old, originally a runner, but I decided to try something else to give my knees a bit of a rest. Since I live in Rio, 2 blocks from the Lagoon, rowing felt like an obvious choice. And I was right!
Since then, I have been doing my best to try to fine tune my technique. Your videos have always been a fantastic source of inspiration and knowledge. But this one, in particular, was absolutely spectacular. Thank you for publishing this mateiral!
I have watched your videos for years. Truly helpful. You are a gifted teacher and I am very appreciative.
Thank you very much Howard!
Perfect video to improve my technic. I usually have problems with my exit and am pretty confident that now with the help of your video I'll be able to improve my exit when I'm back on the water after the summer break.
Excellent video. I coach high school rowers. Unfortunately , they develop poor habits on the erg, such as overextending the finish with too much layback and an exaggerated high pull in. I have to spend a lot of time retraining them on rowing with a proper finish: firm core support, follow through with arms (not try to kill it for power), and get out of the water cleanly.
I know he is physically huge, but have you seen the 2k video from Olli Zeidler here on YT? He really doesn't have much layback at all, and still produces enough power for 5:43. He ergs similar to how he sculls
Completely agree with you, good demonstration and explanation. I always think of the finish being about timing rather than force. And you explain this aspect of the stroke really well.
You’re chicken winging that stroke. Drop your wrists when you get near your ribs and the blades pop out (in the water, where oars can rotate, unlike your contraption). Then if you can’t pull hard at the finish, it’s moot. Don’t reach up over your shoes, and if you’re doing it right, you won’t need to strap your feet to the machine, they shouldn’t get pulled up if you slide down to them.
Really interesting, practical and useful. Thank you!
Great content! Especially for people like me, who try to coach themselves. I have a question which bother me lately. Do you think that more efficient is to wait longer in the end of a stroke until you initiate a new one, or a quick initiation? I mean should I quickly go out from the water and straight my arms or take it more easy? Also I remember that my former coach used to say: “don’t sit too long in the end of the stroke! Just move, be quicker!” Do you find it correct?
P. S. I hope that you can understand my question. I’m sorry, English is not my first language and I still develop my rowing-related vocabularies :)
I think you should do quick initiation of stroke, cause in another situation the blade that stays in the water during this pause slow your boat down
Your question makes perfect sense. Thank you for that.
In short: the blade should leave the water with the last part of the drive motion. It is, in essence, a "wash out", however, the shortest possible wash out you can do.
This blade exit motion goes together with the feathering of your blade, even though with a slight delay.
Then comes the pause of the handle motion, which sometimes is just a very much slowed down but continued handle motion. This "pause" sometimes has to happen when your hands have already travelled away from your torso a couple cm, so that there is enough vertical space for a decent tap down.
The higher the stroke rate, the less of a pause there is until it disappears completely at race pace.
Wow what a machine!!
That's what I call the "Reverse Oreo" - soft on the outsides, hard in the middle.
Question:
In the single I keep my shoulders pretty centered and have a lighter finish, just like you showed. I have no problem exiting the water.
But when we trained a quadruple sculls for the nationals my blades almost never exited the water cleanly. The couch told me to pull harder at the finish and, most importantly, move my shoulderblades together. The reason behind this was, he wanted a gap behind the blade so it is easier to exit the water. We justed C2 big blades in the quad and C2 Smoothies in the single.
So should you exaggerate the finish in a faster moving boat?
What is this machine called?
Biorower Pro www.biorower.com