RowingChat

Follow one hand through one stroke in sweep rowing. Your outside hand is a second oarlock - controlling the handle when the blade is under the water.
Timestamps
00:45 Setting the height
Visualise your outside hand tracking through one stroke. It's setting the height for the oar. It goes through the longest arc. You get control for catch and finish timing from the outside hand, force on the face of the spoon and rhythm.
02:00 The second pivot
When the oar goes into the water, it doesn't move much during the power phase. But the boat is being levered past the oar tip. The pivot point from the end of the spoon is your handle and this is the 'second oarlock concept'.
the outside hand times the catch placement and manages the oar depth. Placement is proactive to make the handle move before your slide stops at the change of direction. Your outside hand moves a greater distance - moves further - than your seat moves.
Placing with the inside hand won't give you the same finesse and control compared with the outside hand. This is because it's closer to the pivot point at the oarlock.
05:00 Middle knuckles
Your outside hand knuckles should point forwards towards your feet / the stern. This helps to keep your wrist flat. It also connects the handle through the kinetic chain to your feet.
Look at photos of rowers whose hands are not wrapped around the handle - they are likely using their inside hand to control the handle.
06:00 Where the inside hand does control
From 90 degrees square off in the power phase your outside hand loses leverage and your inside hand takes over. Try not to let your elbow point out the side of the boat - let it go along your side ribs and point it to the person behind you.
From this point to the finish you can add power with your inside hand (pull hard).
07:00 Outside hand at the finish
This controls how the blade comes out of the water and sets the rhythm for the recovery. Use the movement of timing the extraction - sit still while extending the outside hand and arm only to take the oar out of the water and start moving to the stern on the recovery.
Speed of the handle into the body is approximately equal to speed out from the body. Only move the shoulders after the arm is straight. This makes the rhythm for the recovery.
On the recovery the blade shaft should be parallel to the water surface and approximately the same as all the other blades on your side of the boat.

Four jobs for your outside hand
- height at the catch
- pivot through the drive
- a clean release at the finish
- rhythm on the recovery.

How gripping tighter makes you slower. In this episode you’ll discover why the tightest grip on the handle is often the slowest stroke, and what to do about it instead. The idea comes from Tai Chi, not the boathouse, but it applies directly to your hands, wrists and shoulders on the water.
Here is the reframe. Softness is not the absence of power. It is how power actually travels through the body. Tension blocks it. Softness lets it flow.
Soft hands, hard drive. Let's go.

Timestamps
01:00 Tight handle grip does not give you control
You might think that if you grip harder, you'll row faster but if your thumb is tight, your whole hand is tight. Tension is like a virus - it spreads. A tight thumb leads to tight fingers, wrists, shoulders.
Fear of losing your grip or catching a crab when under pressure makes you clamp down instinctively.
How should you hold a blade handle? Imagine you're holding a kitten or a puppy - or like it's a banana - if you squeeze too tight the skin splits and you have squashed banana on your hands.
Tension blocks power
When you have a tight hand or thumb it locks your wrist and forearm and travels up the kinetic chain of your body. Control and power are two different problems. A tight hand is just stiff and loses strength rapidly.
Relaxing while keeping your fingers hooked around the handle gives you control and security.
04:00 What to do
When trying harder (like when rowing firm pressure) your instinct is to grip harder. This stiffens the kinetic chain and slows the transfer of power from your legs and body to the blade.
Soften your hand grip starting with your thumbs, then move to your fingers and you'll find this also loosens your forearm and try to row with a long neck (drop your shoulders).
A muscle which is already tight finds it harder to activate when you are calling for that muscle to work during the power phase of the stroke. A relaxed muscle is easier to engage and activate to move the boat.
Let your focus come down to the mass of your body and your leg drive doing the work rather than your hands being the driver of effort. Keeping your hands soft allows the mass/weight of your body to make the power.
A mental re-frame - soft hands, hard drive.
Softness isn't weakness it's how explosive power propels the water.
Tai Chi says Tightness is life running out of a stroke, softness is life flowing through it.
Hand tension blocks power and gives you a slower catch, a slower grip on the water. Let this flow into soft shoulders which will enable you to get your body weight behind pushing the blade through the water.

How little energy you burn in one race - about one banana. The real skill is racing more than once in a day - what to eat and drink.
Timestamps
00:50 Fueling at regattas
If you have more than one race in a single day you need to fuel appropriately. A single race barely touches your "fuel tank". The key is timing your meals and recovery between races.
A race is not a big calorie burn - about 150 - 200 calories for 1k.
Your body stores thousands of calories of glycogen.
When you put out a lot of effort you assume the intensity means you are burning a lot of fuel. Separate habit from what you need to fuel on race day.
03:00 What's actually happening?
If you race once in a day - fuel is not your limiter. Your hydration and glycogen are where they need to be if you've had a good meal the night before and on the morning of the regatta. Your job is to feel good on the day. You cannot empty your tank in one sprint race.
Racing more than once in a day the goal is about recovery in the gaps between your races.
You have to replace fluid, nudge glycogen up a little but still keep your gut feeling comfortable.
04:00 Stop fueling the race, start managing the day.
After the first race don't eat a big meal - go small, frequent and easy to digest.
3 levers
- rehydration (do this first). Fluids, a bit of sodium, rehydration salts. Sip between races. Choose a rehydration mix you like and know - it can have protein as well as carbohydrates in it.
- refuel (do this second). Small, easy carbs in modest amounts or a small protein snack if you have time to digest it before your next race. Choose a banana, a small protein bar. Enough to feel topped up but not full.
Finish eating with time to spare before your next race to allow for digestion. Ideally 40 minutes to 1 hour. Different people find this different - practice and notice what happens to you on race day. Time when you ate and how you feel at the second race. How your tummy feels may affect your nerves and affect digestion rates.
Never trial a new food on race day - it's not worth the risk.
06:45 Key takeaways
- I'm not replacing calories, I'm staying ready.
- Know you're not depleted removes the panic eating
- Fuel for one race by how you feel
- Fuel for many races by planning the gaps between races.
Use a race day plan / timetable - add fueling into the timetable and checklist.
Here's an article which may help you.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/rowing-regatta-checklist/

The cause and cure for feeling low in energy during racing. A 5k race burns only about 350 calories.
Timestamps
00:45 Mid-race low energy
Most rowers think they've run out of energy half way through a race. Most races aren't energy-depletion events (porridge is 350 calories; banana is 95 calories). You likely aren't running out of fuel.
02:00 The misconception
The feeling of distress in sprint racing comes in two places - about 40 seconds after the start and again just after the midway point. It feels like exhaustion but your body uses the same "alarm signal" for multiple problems.
Believing you're out of energy gives you mental permission to slow down. But you haven't yet earned the right to slow down.
03:00 What's actually happening?
Lactate - that burn feeling is your body accumulating lactate faster than your body can clear it. It's a signal that you are working really hard. Not that you're out of energy.
Pacing and mental focus can help you get beyond that feeling of pain.
Rebecca and her doubles partner adjusted their race plan to give a focus at the point the pain kicked in.
04:45 What to do at mid-race
Do not back off on your rate and pressure. That instinct is probably wrong. You have fuel - you have to let lactate clearance catch up with output.
A fractional reduction in output can allow lactate clearance to get ahead.
- breathing - if it's chaotic - focus breathing out at the finish for 3 strokes. To stabilise your breathing
- pressure - if something has to give, let the pressure drop fractionally. Hold the rate if you can (it's harder to rebuild than pressure). Make a 1% change in your pressure.
- check your legs are still driving and you're using the right technique
Practice the 1% drop in pressure in training.
Push for 10 strokes - power strokes; then do another 10 strokes dropping the pressure 1% and keeping the rate the same; then do a third 10 strokes back onto full pressure. It's a tiny step down and then a deliberate step up. You can repeat this set of 30 again if you need.
The mental reframing is necessary as well. Tell yourself "this is lactate" and I have got fuel to continue. Once you know what it feels like you can choose your response.

Weight on the feet is one of the three key concepts for rowing and sculling mastery. How it's a key transition point in the stroke cycle and the giant advantages for crews who can all get there at the same time.
Timestamps
01:00 Weight on the feet
This can be hard to understand how to do weight on the feet. After learning how to do this you will learn slide control (stop rushing) and how to move your body in time with the hull of the boat. Learn how to slow down the boat speed less on the recovery - your speed is the net of power phase acceleration and recovery phase deceleration.
03:00 How to locate weight on the feet
Sit on a hard chair and take your two forefingers and put them under yourself and find the "sit bones" which is the ischial tuberosity. It will crush your fingers a bit. While your fingers are there, rock forwards and back with a straight spine. If you are using your pelvis to rock you'll feel the sit bones moving over your fingers. Note if you curve your spine and don't rock from the pelvis, the sit bones do not move over your fingers.
05:00 Find weight on the feet
Stand up from your chair (sit on the very front of the seat to to this). As you stand up you will rock your shoulders forwards and feel pressure through your socks and shoes onto the floor.
In order to push through your feet in rowing you have to get your body mass rocked forward and your hips pivoted. Get your hands and arms straight and your body rocked forward then bend your knees a little and you will feel pressure on the soles of your feet. This is "weight on the feet".
The leaning forwards is an important part of the sequence because it's hard to get weight on the feet when leaning backwards.
Get the feeling of weight on the feet by clenching your glute muscles. At the finish, tighten your glutes which helps you to locate your sit bones on the seat, then straighten your arms and when they cannot straighten any more - the shoulders naturally follow and your legs bend till you feel you can push on your feet. This may be at one quarter slide or half slide - it depends on your flexibility.
You HAVE to get your shoulders forward, if you do not do this you will find it harder to locate pressure on your feet.
The glute engagement connects your back and legs like a door hinge. Soggy glute muscles means you don't get the connection or the transition of body weight forward successfully.
09:00 The key transition point
When you have your feet pressed into the foot stretcher, it's an important transition point in the rowing and sculling stroke. Weight on the feet is the moment when you move from tension to deep relaxation in the stroke cycle. You stay relaxed until the oar goes into the water at the catch.
With deep relaxation you have very deep muscle relaxation in your legs and you can remove all tension from your body (while maintaining poise in your posture).
Elite rowers work hard because they give themselves extreme relaxation and "turn off" muscles when they are not needed - this means they don't get tired so quickly.
At weight on the feet your oars should be off the water in a high balance position (shafts horizontal to the water surface), controlling the blades with your hands. The control of the oars and your body means you are able to relax your body and prepare early for the next catch.
Weight on the feet is one of the 4 key concepts we teach in our Sculling Intensive course.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/sculling-intensive/

The advantages for crews "From Frustration to Flow" using the four quarters method taught by Richard Parr - learn how to do this quarter in his masterclass webinar.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/frustration-to-flow/

Once you can handle weight on the feet you can do three things
1- better prepare for the catch. blade entry
2 - further control the balance on the recovery
3 - manage wind/waves better