RowingChat

• Why delaying back swing is hard

  The power phase is most effective when legs drive first and back follows yet so few masters rowers do this. Why? Timestamps 00:45 Good power phase requirements The alignment of the womens double in the photo shows that the crew hasn't used their back while having legs nearly straight. Getting into this position requires having shoulders sternwards of the hips at the catch and to use their legs first in the power phase. 03:00 Pulling with arms is easy We have a lot of practice using hands and arms in daily life. We are good at this. At the catch you want to feel the oars loaded up under the water surface. If you pull with your arms you feel this earlier. By pulling with your arms and lifting the shoulders and lifting your chin you feel the workload on the spoon. Rowing is a pushing not a pulling sport in the main. Rowing legs only is 60% of the power; back swing is 25-30% of your power and so your arms add 5-10% of your power ONLY. 06:00 Small muscles v big muscles The rowing stroke uses a range of body muscles from legs, thighs and calves through to arms and hands. In daily life we use small muscles a lot - they fire quickly when we use them in daily life. We are practiced using them. The quads and glutes are slower to activate so we have to train them - we're less habituated using these. Connecting the handle of the oars through the footstretcher is unfamiliar and you have to train it. The first activation in the power phase is the calves to push the heels down onto the footstretcher. Then the quads join in to straighten your legs. When your legs are 3/4 straight you start the glute activation - hinging to connect legs to the back. Using the glutes to sustain pressure on the footstretcher while you swing your back. If you lose pressure on the footstretcher you are no longer accelerating the boat. Your feet are the only part of your body connected to the boat. As your back starts to activate you draw with your arms. 10:00 Why delaying the back is hard Connecting to the footstretcher early in the power phase is our goal. If you take the catch with the arms or swinging the shoulders/back this is a problem. When delivering power through the stroke you can only use each muscle group once per stroke. If you swing your back to take the catch you've got no back swing to use later in the power phase because you are already leaning backwards. It also prevents you from activating your leg drive - they do straighten but not as dynamically as you should. By not activating your legs this removes up to 60% of your possible total power which is a lot. And as a consequence you probably don't activate your glutes because you aren't using your legs enough. There's a correlation between the water being slower at the catch than later in the stroke. The angle of the oar spoon is also going into the slower water at an acute angle to the side of the boat. Use the slower water speed along the slower muscles to generate that early power in the stroke. 15:00 The solution to delaying your back swing Is to train yourself to use the big muscles, learn what it feels like to activate the quads and glutes early in the stroke. Then you know what it feels like to grip the water at the catch with your feet (rather than hands or shoulders). This is the beginning point to learn how to activate big muscles first and layer the smaller muscles on top as later activations. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

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• Backing down

  Learn how to back down a rowing boat. Timestamps 00:45 Struggling to learn how to back the boat Blades up or blades down when backing? Different countries do this differently - UK is blades down and NZ is blades up. Blades down rationale - the oar spoon is curved and you want the curve to grip the water and push it backwards. Blades up rationale - the oar has pitch on it from the oarlock tilts the blade - this makes the oar go the wrong way and may cause the oar to dive into the water. My personal view is don’t turn your blades upside down (they are angled and the diving (being sucked down) you experienced is because the pitch / angle of the spoon is designed for the oar the right way up (not upside down). It's simpler to leave the oar blades up - because it's always the same whether rowing normally or backing. 04:00 How to learn backing down Two videos you can use to learn shared lower down. 1 - Start by sitting legs straight and arms straight with oars square and under the water surface. Scullers ensure your hands are nested tightly. Sweep rowers ensure the boat is level by having upward pressure on your thumbs. This shows the height the handle needs to be at to keep the boat level 2 - Begin with rowing in place. This is only moving your arms just pulling the handles towards you and pushing them away without taking the oars out of the water. Keep the handles at the same height throughout. Don't take the oars out of the water. Get the feeling of backing down. Notice that your handle height is key to getting this right. Diving or sucking down into the water happens when your handles go too high. 3 - Now progress to backing down with arms and body rowing in place first 4 - Then start backing down arms only; arms and body; then go to half slide and longer to full slide. 09:00 Counter-feather the oars 5 - Keep the oars on the surface when they are not being used to back the boat. Remember to counter-feather your blades and run the tip of the oar along the water surface when they are out of the water in between backing strokes. Keeping them on the surface means you maintain the boat set/balance. This gives you a point of reference as to where horizontal is to keep the boat level - it shows you how high to have your handles when the oars are out of the water. Remember the catch when backing down starts with the oars next to your body. It may help to learn counter-feathering one side at a time. You can hold the boat level with just one oar. 11:20 two videos to teach you backing down skill Here’s a video about improving your backing skills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4CODkUdEGc And another about turning the boat which demonstrates the counter-feathered oar https://youtu.be/ThTrg1N6Obg A final recommendation - get confident backing with good pressure. Try practicing 100 meters of backing down each time you go rowing.

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• Rowing with knee osteoarthritis

  If your knees don't bend more than 90 degrees, what can you do? Ways to get more reach in the stroke if you have knee limitations. Timestamps 00:45 A 70 year old with osteoarthritis in both knees asks how to get more reach. Recognise where your comfort zone is where you are capable of pushing your limits. As you roll forward into the catch your ankles, pelvis and lower body also need to bend. You can do a functional movement assessment to understand your mobility in those other joints - and whether they can be made more flexible using sports massage, stretching or osteopathy. Functional Movement Assessment - free - https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/functional-movement-assessment/ 03:00 3 ways to get more compression The ideal is to get shins vertical at the catch with your heels lifted, back leaning forwards so your shoulders are sternward of your hips. 1 - Measure the shoe to seat height - typically it would be 15-16 cm for a woman of your height. Increase this to over 17cm by lowering the shoes and/or raising the seat with a 1 cm high seat pad. Beware low shoes may mean your calves hit the deck of the boat which isn't comfortable. Test this out on a rowing machine first - use a mirror to see the effect it has. 2 - Change the rake or angle of the footstretcher. Most are around 42-45 degrees. Making it shallower may enable you to get more compression - but it's impacted by your ankle flexibility. Osteopaths are good at both soft tissue massage and bone manipulation - show them a photo of rowing to explain what you're trying to achieve. I brush my teeth daily squatting on the floor to improve my ankle flexibility trying to keep my feet flat on the floor. 3 - If you buy your own seat, you can unscrew the seat top from the undercarriage and insert batons of wood to raise the seat. Check the track widths on the boats you use first so you know the seat will work in multiple boats (generally small boats have narrower track widths than larger boats). 10:30 Rigging adaptations The arc the oar travels through around the oarlock can be adjusted. Move the pivot point closer to the handle (try 1 or 2 cm). This enables your handle to move further around the arc - shortening the inboard relative to the outboard. But don't increase the load (gearing) a lot = keep the ratio of the length of outboard to inboard the same. By using slightly shorter oars than your crew mates and a shorter inboard, you can increase the arc that the tip of your blade moves through each stroke. You will need to change your footstretcher too - closer to the stern. Keep the gap between your handles at the finish the same. Mike Davenport explains more on the Rigging for Masters expert webinar. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/rigging/ You may also look at increasing your layback / back swing too. Talk this through with your coach.

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• Why finishes are key for big boats

  Rowing a quad, four or an eight? To get good speed and rhythm, you must have good finishes. Timestamps 00:45 Finishes for big boats You row them differently than small boats. Finish together - all the oars come out of the water at the same time. Is everyone exactly in time? If not, look at what people are doing with the handle - what happens in the water is directly affected by what is happening on the handle. Some athletes may be dragging their handles downwards to take the oars out of the water. Big boats move fast and this is one of the reasons why big boats are rowed differently than small boats. If you take the pressure off the tip of the spoon early the mound of water in front of the blade and the pocket behind the blade start to equalise. The water quickly starts to equalise in height and you may feel it's harder to get the oar out of the water. Keep pressure on the face of the blade is key to enabling a smooth extraction. 03:30 Dragging the blade Signs you may be dragging at the blade end - if the bottom edge flicks water as it comes out at the finish. Also you may be feathering the blade out of the water - if it turns in order to extract rather than extracting first and then turns in the air. If your oar is close to the surface after the finish this may be a sign that you're dragging the blade out. It should be cleanly extracted and move high above the water surface before you feather. 04:45 Improve finishes Try square blade rowing. This is a discipline which is rewarded in the long term as it helps you fix blade dragging and getting the oar out of the water cleanly. Before starting, check when sitting stationary that your foot stretcher is set up correctly (all port side parallel). Back of the seat back wheel is 58-62 cm behind the face of the pin [ask us if you don't know what this is]. When rowing square blades it's important to know where your handle should be at the finish before extraction. In sweep the outside hand position is key and in sculling, the gap between your handles. - hold onto the finish 1cm longer than before - helps acceleration and holding the oar under the water - square blade rowing 07:00 Boat not level It's hard to do a good finish if the boat isn't level at the finish. Check your handle position at the finish when the boat is stationary to find where the correct place is. In sweep, check your outside elbow pointing behind you and inside forearm at approx. 90 degrees to the oar shaft at the finish. Outside arm should not be flared over the side of the boat because this inhibits your ability to control the handle height with your outside hand. Remember inside hand square/feather and outside hand controls the handle height in sweep. In both sweep and sculling if your elbow is lower than your wrist it's hard to put downward pressure on the handle and is a sign you are rigged too high and need to adjust. 08:30 Square blade rowing When rowing square blades the height differences show up when the boat isn't level. The level finish and square blade rowing work together - if one is off the other is likely off as well. When the boat isn't level it shows up differences in your finish timing and also handle heights. Go back and fix these first as a means to improving your square blade rowing. Learn Square Blade Rowing in our online course https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/square-blades-challenge/

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• Weather forecast apps for rowing

  3 weather data points you need to know in advance whether you can row the next day. Timestamps 00:45 Rowing is weather-dependent Mostly we want to know in advance and apps are useful. What should you be looking out for? Easy choices are - will it be sunny or raining? However the really important data is wind speed and wind direction for the time you plan on going rowing. Also consider air temperature / water temperature plus tide if you row on a tidal waterway. 02:30 Sailing apps are useful WindFinder and WindGuru both track wind (designed for sailing). They layer information such as a map graph animated to show wind movements over time. Wind Direction Where I row if the wind is coming from the East and is above 10 knots speed we can get on the water. This direction blows straight onto our pontoon. Finding the wind shadow on our lake can enable us to row when winds are higher. Wind Speed The limits for us are about 12 knots for big boats, less for singles and doubles/pairs. The WindFinder app shows gusting wind speeds as well as the base wind speed. This enables us to interpret the data in a more nuanced way. Knowing the time of high and low tide is helpful too (for our other boathouse location) because low tide means navigation is more congested and hazardous. 05:50 YR is a new app This is a Norwegian app - using the same base data points but their own unique algorithm to forecast ahead. Where I live the weather can often move through quicker than forecast. This app is much more accurate than the others and it also gives hourly updates rather than 3 hour increments. Finally- when you thin the weather is going to be marginal, we found that deciding whether to row when you're at the rowing club is better than trying to decide the night before. Decide In The Shed; Not In Bed is our mantra. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192

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