In a week’s time I have my first (of three) 2km scull and 2km ergo trials. I’m really nervous about the scull because I only just got off floaties (floats that sit under the oar gates for stability) and now every stroke at the finish I’m having a lot of trouble getting my blades out cleanly and together. Like my left is always on time and clean but my right always lags and such gets a bit stuck? How do I combat this?
My guess is that it’s one of two things: one, it might be a timing/coordination thing since you said your left is on time and clean but your right isn’t or two, your set is off and you’re leaning to port, which would explain why the starboard oar comes out clean (plenty of room to tap down vs. no room). Something I’ve noticed with the kids I see going from the stable boats to the less stable racing shells is that they’re afraid to lay back because they’re afraid of becoming more parallel with the boat. Since they don’t lay back, they don’t give themselves any room to tap the blades down which results in them having really sloppy finishes. That, combined with questionable handle heights to begin with, usually results in one or both of the blades getting briefly stuck in the water.
My suggestion would be to work on some release drills. Sit at the finish (laying back, sitting up tall, supported with the core), get your set, and then bob the oars up and down – all you’re doing is tapping down. This is obviously done on the square. Don’t go at a frantic pace but don’t go so slow that you’re losing your set on every stroke. Make sure you’re moving your hands at the same time, pushing the oars into the pins, and maintaining that pressure against the oarlocks. When you’re tapping down, occasionally look out at your oars to see how far you actually need to press down with your hands to release the blades from the water. If the blade isn’t at least an inch or two above the water, tap down more. Make sure you’re releasing them smoothly and not yanking or jerking the handles in and down. Once you’re comfortable with this, move on to the pick drill while continuing to work on the finishes. I’d do this on the square a few times before switching to doing it on the feather. Another drill you could do is work on the delayed feather drill. This one works to ensure that you’re coming out of the water square before feathering your blade (possibly another reason why it’s getting stuck, especially if the boat is offset). When you do this drill, you tap down and go to hands away on the square, then feather between hands away and bodies over, then square up again at 1/2 slide.
One final important thing that you’re going to need to work on is finding your balance and keeping the hands level throughout the entirety of the stroke. You don’t necessarily need to be balancing the oars off the water at any point other than the release just yet but the boat itself needs to be level. A couple weeks ago I heard some of the pre-elite scullers on the Charles being coached and something their coach said might help – I’m not sure if it actually works so scullers out there, feel free to correct me. He said that a “foolproof” way of keeping your boat set is to always have the knuckles of your right hand touching your left wrist. I didn’t hear the explanation but from thinking about it my assumption is that it would help you to keep your hands together and work on the timing to ensure they’re moving together.