Tag: rowing

Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By

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.

How To Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By

Tips on how to correct posture while rowing? Apparently I slouch a lot around the catch!

It all starts at the finish. Well, sort of. It’s kind of like the chicken-egg thing … which comes first? Finishes are affected by catches and catches are affected by finishes, but where does the problem actually start?

At the finish you’ve got to make sure you’re laying back while sitting up tall. The next most important thing after that is swinging while maintaining a straight back. Keep the core solid, almost as if you’re preparing to be punched at any second, without hunching the shoulders or stiffening the upper body. Make sure that you’re moving in the proper sequence – arms, back, legs – and not letting your butt slide under your shoulders. This is a huge reason why a lot of people slouch at the finish. Your shoulders should always be ahead of your butt. If you get to half slide and stop moving your shoulders but continue to move your butt, your body is going to go from being at a 55(ish) degree angle to being at 90 degrees, which you obviously don’t want and will cause you to curve your lower back, sink into your hips, and open your back early on the ensuing catch. Your stroke will also be very short. Focus on keeping your head and chin up and level – memorize every intricate detail of the back of the person’s head in front of you. This also tends to help with keeping your back straight because if your eyes are down, everything else tends to follow, but if your eyes are up, everything tends to stay up and supported (including the handle).

If your core isn’t well developed, sitting up tall and avoiding the slouch will probably be difficult for you. Having abs or any kind of 6 pack doesn’t count as having a strong core so don’t let your hot rower’s bod fool you into thinking your core is strong just because you’re ripped. Planks and side-planks are great core developers so if you find you’re still having issues sitting up at the catch after you’ve worked on the basic technique stuff I’d definitely recommend adding some planks into your pre-row warmup/on-land workouts.

Q&A Rowing Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By

So I’ve been rowing for 6 months now and I work really hard and do extra coaching sessions and am super passionate about it, but I feel as though I’ve recently stopped improving. Is it normal to plateau for a while in terms of your rate of improvement with rowing? Also, when rowing a double scull what does each seat mean? I was put in bow seat. Thanks!

I got an email about this the other day that asked a similar question. I think the plateau is fairly normal, to be honest. It’s very much like losing weight. First the weight loss is rapid and then it starts to gradually slow down as you continue to lose more. Eventually it gets to a certain point (i.e. those last five pounds) where you level off and it feels like you aren’t losing anymore. After a period of time you’ll find a way to jump start your system, either by ramping up your exercise, changing your workout routine, or making additional tweaks to your diet, that will get the process going again. When the body gets used to something it tends to become desensitized to it to the point where it stops responding, essentially because it’s bored. If you’re going out and doing the same workouts on the water over and over and over day in and day out, your body is probably thinking “eh, been there, done that, I’m over it”.

Talk with your coach and see if you can change up what you do during practice by throwing in some different drills and pieces than what you’ve been doing. After a week or two of going that you’ll probably start to notice some changes because you and your body will be excited again. Also make sure you’re recovering properly in between sessions.

Related: Hey, as a coach you might be able to tell me, in a quad how do you decide who goes where? And the same for an eight? Where you’re placed in the boat, should this tell you anything about where you “sit” compared to the rest of the crew?

Check out the post linked above – I wrote it awhile ago in response to a question about who goes where in the boats. This person asked about where people go in a quad and an eight, but the responsibilities of each seat are the same regardless of what kind of boat you’re in. The only change is that as move down towards the smaller boats, people tend to pick up more responsibilities. Your best answer to this question though is going to come straight from your coach since he/she is the one that put you there. If you’re curious as to why you’re in a certain seat, always ask!

Rowing Blisters 101

Ergs Novice Rowing Technique Training & Nutrition

Rowing Blisters 101

By

Blisters suck — this we can all agree on. What most rowers and coxswains don’t know are the specifics of how and why they form, how to treat them, and how to prevent them.

One of my former coaches used to tell us that there was nothing more character-building in rowing than the blisters you get. A lot of the time you’re encouraged to just deal with them because they’re inevitable but a point in time comes when you have to stop just dealing with it and start taking the proper steps to protect the ones you already have and prevent more from occurring. Do not be careless when it comes to your blisters. There are few things more eye-roll inducing than rowers (novices) who are like “look at my hands, they’re completely torn to shreds, clearly this makes me the most badass rower ever!” Just … no.

What are they and how do you get them?

There are two kinds of blisters – your regular, run of the mill blisters and blood blisters. Regular blisters are pockets of fluid in between the upper layers of your skin. They’re most often caused by friction, which in rowing could be from overuse, having too tight of a grip, etc. The other kind of blister is a blood blister. These kinds form when blood vessels near the surface of your skin are damaged but the skin itself isn’t broken. There are two main causes for blood blisters. One is consistently rubbing the skin back and forth on or against something. The other, and more common cause, is the skin being pinched together (say, for example, when you’re rowing and suddenly the boat goes offset to one side and you smash your pinky in between the oar handle and the gunnel).

Related: Are you only supposed to get blisters on your inside hand? I have one on my outside hand on my fingers which has never happened before. I also have a tendency to over grip and feather w/ my outside hand. Would that have anything to do with it?

To pop or not to pop

There’s a lot of opinions out there on what you should do if you get a blister. Pop it, leave it alone, drain it, rip the skin off, sob quietly in the corner of the boathouse because your significant other will never want to hold your hand ever again, etc. I’m firmly in the camp of “leave it alone” if and when possible. As long as the blister isn’t having any kind of impact on your rowing you should aim to just let it be so as to avoid getting an infection in the open wound. This is one of those moments where you need to know the difference between pain and discomfort. Don’t deliberately mess with the blister if you don’t have to. If you develop a blister that has filled with fluid and is painful or disrupting your rowing though, you’ll want to drain it.

How to drain and clean your blisters

Before you do anything, wash your hands. It’s probably going to hurt but you never know what microbial nuisances might be lurking on your skin. Antimicrobial soap + warm water + at least 30 seconds per hand = acceptable. When you clean your blisters, especially the really bloody ones, try to avoid using peroxide if possible. Betadine is a better antibacterial alternative because it’s not as harsh on your skin and doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as peroxide does. Peroxide gets the job done quite well and there’s even some cool (read: gross) foaming action that happens with the really bad blisters but that being said, it hurts like a bitch.

As a pre-step to draining the blister you need to sterilize the needle or pin you plan on using. Don’t skip this step. It takes like, two minutes to do. You can sterilize whatever you plan on using by running it over a flame until it’s red hot and then letting it soak in peroxide for a few minutes.

When you’re ready to drain the blister, you’ll want to drain it from the side, not the middle as I’ve tried to illustrate below. To avoid creating a hole that would allow the skin to be easily ripped off it’s often suggested that you poke it with the needle from the top edge near your fingers. Keep the needle as close to your skin as possible.

Once the blister starts releasing the fluid, try not to let it run all over your hands. At the same time you’re poking it with the needle, hold a cotton ball or tissue on the blister so that the fluid can be immediately soaked up. Press gently with the pad of your finger to get the liquid out. Make sure that you’re actually pressing in the direction of the hole you just made too and do this until the blister is completely flat.

Once you’ve got the blister(s) drained you should put some Neosporin on them but keep them uncovered to give them an opportunity to dry out. NewSkin is another option but that seems to be a fairly hit or miss choice with most rowers. Some swear by it, others hate it. One thing that I’ve heard of people doing is rubbing Neosporin on a piece of sewing thread, putting it on a needle, and pulling it through the blister. Usually this is done before draining it but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be effective post-draining too. Doing this allows the medicine to get inside the blister and helps to prevent infections.

I’ve also heard about rowers using tea bags to help dry out and harden the blisters (via the tannic acid) – has anyone tried this? What have your experiences been? Another option is filling a bowl with epsom salts and warm water and allowing the salts to dissolve before soaking your hands for 20-30 minutes. This will help to dry out the blisters and keep them clean. Conveniently this process also allows you the time to catch up on all those TV shows you never actually have time to watch.

Related: Do you know any secret remedies for blisters? It’s the first week of winter conditioning and after only two practices I have killer blisters on my hands and ankles that I never got last year until later, and not as bad. I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong with my form or something, although I’m not quite sure that could be the problem.

How to protect your hands

If you’ve already got blisters the next step is learning how to protect them while you’re practicing. Tape, band-aids, etc. are going to be your best friends if – if – you use them properly. Before anyone suggests it let’s get this out of the way right now: gloves = NO. You can’t get a good grip on the oar (yes, even with golfer’s or batter’s gloves) and your hands sweat inside them so much that you end up with way more blisters than when you started. You’re going to be tempted to ask your coach or coxswain if you can wear gloves but I’m here to save you from that embarrassment. Just don’t do it.

If you have blisters on your fingers, I recommend the knuckle band-aids since their little wing-like things allow them to stay more securely on your fingers. An additional option on top of – not instead of – the band-aids is to get those rubber finger protectors and slide one of those on. The rowers I’ve seen do it say that it holds the band-aid in place better so they don’t have to worry about it sliding around. If for whatever reason the blister starts bleeding, by having it in the protector you’ll avoid getting blood, bacteria, and who knows what else on your handle (and transferring whatever is on your handle into your open wound).

The issue that most rowers have is taping up the blisters on your palms and right below your fingers. If you just wrap the tape in a circle, about 1/3 of the way through your warmup you’ll notice that it’s starting to bunch up and expose your blisters to the elements. My recommendation is to wrap your hands similarly to how boxers wrap theirs. Obviously the tape wouldn’t need to be nearly as thick and if the blisters are only at the top of your palms you don’t need to wrap all the way down to your wrists but having the tape secured around your fingers though will ensure that it stays in place and you won’t have to worry about it.

Below is a video that you can use for reference. The loop that goes around your thumb (or whatever finger you choose) is what really secures your tape in place.

If you have a lot of blisters, buy your own tape and band-aids. Your coxswain is not a walking first aid dispensary. Anything that’s waterproof and flexible will be good since it’ll move with you and not restrict your movement.

You should be changing your tape and band-aids before and after every practice too because a) you need to clean your hands and get all the grunge off of them and b) the tape is going to be disgusting, rolled up on itself, and not effective at protecting your skin anymore.

How to prevent blisters.

Getting blisters as a rower is inevitable — it’s going to happen. You can limit the severity of them though simply by rowing with proper technique. Understand the difference between “relaxed grip” and “no grip” — “loose” does not literally mean loose as in flimsy, it means a happy medium between a death grip and no grip.

Avoid the death grip on the handle and instead keep the hands relaxed. On the recovery you should be able to freely wiggle your fingers while still maintaining control of the handle. You’ll know if you’re doing the death grip if your forearms and wrists are really sore and you’ve got hands that like they were rubbed on a cheese grater for a few hours.

Keep the towels that you use to wipe down your boats, oars, etc. clean too. At the beginning of the year it’s worth having everyone on the team donate an old rag or two to the team to use that way you’ve got an abundant supply. Also make sure the oar handles are being cleaned regularly too, especially if you’ve bled on them or had blisters open up during practice.

Know when a blister has festered into something more serious – and then get your ass to a doctor

MRSA. Sepsis. Cellulitis. Leptospirosis.

All of these are some of the potential consequences of bacteria coming in contact with your open wounds. All have been suffered from by rowers at some point or another. A prominent case that I remember reading about three or four years ago was the death of Andy Holmes, a several-time Olympian and gold-medalist from the UK, who died of leptospirosis after coming in contact with contaminated water. This resulted in British Rowing posting a notice on it’s website to rowers to remind them that good hygiene and proper care of blisters and track bites are crucial steps in not developing an infection, especially one that elevates to the severity that Holmes’ did.

It’s important for you to pay attention to any changes in the blisters themselves, the skin around the blisters, and most importantly, your overall health. If something looks or feels “off” don’t just suck it up — go to your local 24-hour urgent care facility and get someone to look at you. I know I say this all the time but I really mean it every time I do … better safe than sorry. Know how to separate discomfort or soreness from rowing from the symptoms of something more severe. If something feels off, tell your parent(s), coach(es), sibling(s), teammate(s), etc. so that someone else can keep an eye on you.

I’ve known three different people, two rowers and one coxswain, who developed MRSA as a result of not taking proper care of their blisters. On a scale of one to ten, two were probably at about a “six” with regards to severity and the other was at least a “nine”. That person got really sick and was hospitalized for about a week. This isn’t just stuff we make up to scare you into taking proper care of yourself, which you should be doing already. It can and does happen. Be proactive so it doesn’t happen to you.

Below is a quick rundown of each of the infections I listed above, in addition to their signs and symptoms.

Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

MRSA is a strain of bacteria that causes infections in the body and tends to be resistant to most commonly used antibiotics. It’s transmitted either through touching someone who already has it on their skin or by touching something (for example, oar handles) that has the bacteria on it. Signs of an infection include the skin around the initial wound being red, swollen, warm to the touch, more painful than normal, and potentially contain pus. Typically skin infections that are related to MRSA are mistaken for spider bites since spider bites look similar. If the infection spreads to the respiratory system, you could develop pneumonia and experience shortness of breath, a fever, chills, or a cough that you don’t otherwise normally have. If you go to the doctor and are given antibiotics, pay attention and see if you are actually getting better. If the infection continues to get worse, you develop a fever or the fever you have gets worse, or there are no signs of improvement after three(ish) days, go back to the doctor.

Sepsis (blood poisoning)

When bacteria enters the blood it’s known as a condition called “bacteremia”. Since the blood is typically sterile, the presence of bacteria is considered abnormal. Previous infections in the body’s organs can spread and lead to sepsis, which itself is a secondary set of symptoms, but it can also occur from bacteria entering through an open wound and being transported throughout the blood. Typically you’ll develop a rapid heart rate, a fever, and extreme chills, in addition to a rash that can appear in the form of skin discoloration or small red dots clustered across the body. Joint pain, disorientation, nausea, decreased blood pressure, vomiting, and clammy skin are additional symptoms you might experience if the infection progresses. At it’s most severe, your blood pressure drops to dangerously low levels which prevents your organs from getting the proper amount of oxygenated blood, leading to septic shock, which can cause (multiple) organ failure and death.

Cellulitis

Cellulitis, which is an infection of the connective tissues, is caused when bacteria (typically staph or strep) enters the body through broken skin (cuts, burns, blisters, etc.) and as it progresses, spreads to the deeper tissues, blood, and/or lymph nodes. The infected area will be warm and tender to the touch, red, and swollen. If it’s progressed to the point where the lymphatic system is involved you may notice that your lymph nodes are swollen and that you have streaking on the skin as the infection travels through the body. If the infection enters the bloodstream you will also most likely develop a fever.

Leptospirosis

This is a common bacterial infection transmitted between animals and humans. Typically we don’t come in contact with too many animals while we’re rowing but we do come in contact with a lot of water that presumably many animals have urinated in (another reason to work on splashing…). When you’re rowing and water from backsplash gets on your hands, legs, etc. that bacteria can enter your system through any open track bites or blisters you might have. Leptospirosis is a two-phase disease that starts with flu-like symptoms (headache, chills, muscle soreness, etc.), jaundice, red eyes, etc. before appearing to resolve itself. There’s a brief period where the person displays no symptoms before the second phase begins. Once that happens you get knocked out with illnesses ranging from meningitis to kidney and liver disease to full on renal failure.

The great thing though is that all of these conditions are preventable by taking proper care of any open blisters, cuts, etc. you have. I hope this helps answer some of your questions on how to handle blisters. If you’ve got a foolproof method that you turn to in dealing with your blisters, please leave it in the comments!

Image via // @petereed

Ready all, row… is on Patreon! If you’d like to support me and what I’m doing with the blog,
click below to check out the campaign.

Coxing Novice Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: “Knuckleheads”

By

People in the comments here were saying the announcer was way too harsh on this crew – they are novices after all. Um, no. No, no, no. Being a novice does not exclude you from being shit on for making straight up illogical decisions. Novice or not, you should know via common sense to NOT go onto the race course before a race has passed you. Why? Because these guys are barreling down the course and novices move at the rate of an elderly turtle.

Related: Part of coxswain selections are how safe you are and if you can keep the boat safe in different situations. How would coaches determine your safety-ness?

If you can see three crews coming at you and/or you can hear people yelling “MOVE OFF THE COURSE”, get your ass in gear and move. I understand the “deer in the headlights” moment because I’ve been there but you’ve got to get over it and get out of the way. Not only are you in a position to impact someone else’s race but you could cause a serious collision that could result in very serious injuries.

So, in a situation like this what should you do?

For starters, don’t put yourself in a situation like this. Ever.

Know the traffic pattern before you launch. When in doubt draw it out on a piece of paper and take it in the boat with you. Also make sure you are actually supposed to cross the course at any given point. If you are there will likely be an official waiting in a launch to tell you when it’s safe to do so.

If a race is coming down the course, stop and wait for them to pass you before crossing to the other side. NEVER cross in front of a race. If the race is at the starting line and hasn’t gone off yet, do. not. go. unless a race official has specifically told you to cross. They’ll usually say something like “Belmont Hill, you’re clear to cross. Row it over all eight.” If something like this is necessary the officials will have told you about it in the coaches and coxswains meeting. If they didn’t bring it up, don’t do it.

Assuming you ignore everything I just said and you find yourself in the middle of the course with some heavyweight men’s 8s coming straight toward you, do. not. stop. rowing. Also do not row by pairs if you’re in a four or 4s if you’re in an eight. Row by all four or all eight and get out of the way. Row as far over as you can get to ensure that you are completely off the course. If for some reason you need to turn the boat, turn with everyone on whatever side you have rowing, not just one or two people. The goal is to move quickly.

Give clear, concise, and direct instructions. This is not the time to lose your head and be stammering, stuttering, and fumbling with your words.

Rowers: shut UP. You talking, yelling, etc. does not help and only makes things worse. I hesitate to say what to do if your coxswain isn’t giving you instructions because I don’t want to be responsible for widespread mutinies against coxswains but I can tell you that you should not be doing what the other three rowers are doing from 1:50-1:57 (i.e. just sitting there like it’s a totally normal day at practice and letting one person turn the entire damn boat).

When someone tells you to row, don’t all just start rowing whenever the hell you want. You don’t do that any other time so why would you do it now? If anything, in situations like this is when you need to be the most coordinated in order to get out of there quickly and safely. There most likely isn’t going to be time for the coxswain to say “sit ready, ready, row” so just go with your stroke. Follow them from the beginning. Stroke seats everywhere, do not start rowing from half slide or whatever random position you’re sitting in. Have this worked out with your crew ahead of time that you’ll all start at the catch or the finish, whichever one you choose if you need to abruptly start rowing, that way everyone starts together and you don’t look ridiculous like this crew does.

Remain calm. You can freak out and be pissed at each other when you get back on land.

Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By

The Kiwi pair does this really incredible thing where they take their oars out of the water SO FREAKING CLEANLY and I am having such a hard time trying to do it, I can never tell if I’m throwing water around when I feather my blade and IDK if you know what I’m getting at but yeah help?

I watched a couple videos of them rowing just to see what their strokes looked like and to see if I could point something out that they were doing differently but I couldn’t really find anything. I think they’re just really good rowers who have excellent technique and years of experience on their side.

One of the best ways to tell if you’re throwing water around is to listen for it (it’s really noticeable compared to the normal sound of the water) or have someone in the launch tell you. It’s easiest to see it from the side but your coxswain might be able to tell too so have them watch as well. If you can get your coach or someone riding along during practice to record you rowing for a minute or two, you can look at that and review your technique. In order to have a good stroke you’ve got to start with a clean recovery, which means that your posture has to be up tall and solid through the core so that the handle and oar is supported all the way through the water. If you sink into your hips or start slumping over towards the end of the drive there’s no way you can maintain pressure on the oar, which will cause you to have a sloppy release. You’ve also got to be cognizant of where your hands are and what they’re doing.

Posture is critical here as well because it order to finish the stroke and draw in high, you’ve got to be sitting up tall and laying back. If you’re laying back too far, that will prevent you from tapping down properly, so laying back no farther than the 11 o’clock position is important. Tapping down is probably the most important part of the ‘finish and release” part of the stroke (hopefully for obvious reasons). You can’t start the recovery or feather the blade until it’s out of the water so it’s important to make sure you’re drawing in high enough and laying back far enough that you’re providing yourself with plenty of room to get the blade out of the water.

One of the things that drives me crazy is when you tell someone to tap down (repeatedly, ad nauseum) and they don’t change anything but continuously say “I am!”. We wouldn’t be telling you to tap down if you were already doing it so humor us and do something different. Your hands should literally be moving from rib-level down towards your quads. It’s something you’ve got to consciously think about doing until you’ve got it engrained in your muscle memory (which won’t happen quickly).

One drill that can help you work on finishing cleaning and feathering without throwing water around is the delayed feather drill. You can see video of it below. It teaches you to get the blade all the way out of the water before feathering so that you avoid feathering under the water, washing out, etc.

College Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By

I’m a collegiate rower. I have excellent technique except for one thing – I don’t catch quickly enough. I am in time with the rest of the boat, but it’s the issue of going straight to the water and burying my blade completely before driving with my legs. Most of our boat has this issue. I’ve tried asking coaches how to remedy my issue, but they haven’t given me anything very effective yet. Do you have any advice? Please and thank you! I appreciate it.

The first thing that comes to mind is something as simple as just unweighting the handle. (This may be something your coaches have talked about in the past.) One of the biggest reasons why people are late at the catch isn’t because they’re doing anything wrong on the slide, it’s because they’re lifting the blade in rather than taking the weight off the handle and letting gravity do the work. Gravity will put the blade in at the speed it needs to go in at … anything we do to try make it go in faster is doing just the opposite.

You can’t have a good catch without having good body prep on the recovery, so make sure you’re really focusing on finishing clean, relaxing the upper body, getting the hands away at boat speed, bringing the body over smoothly, and coming up the slide controlled and determined. When you get to the catch don’t think about it – just do it. The more you think the more it messes with your head and the more likely you are to make a silly mistake. Ask your coach(es) and/or coxswains to pay particular attention to your catch timing one day at practice and then ask them for feedback afterwards. Make mental notes of what you did differently compared to before, why you made those changes, and how you think they helped you so you can go over all of that with your coach.

Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By

This week I seat raced four times- I’ve been in the 2V, so they seat raced me twice for the 1V. I lost, which is okay, I was happy with the 2V. Then I got seat raced and lost the 2V, and now I’m not boated for this weekend’s race, and probably for the rest of the season. I’m 5’4″, a heavyweight with top 8 time on my team, and my coaches say my biggest problem is that everyone else is just longer than I am. Do you know of ways to improve length? I’m starting to think I’ll never be a decent rower.

This may or may not be adding insult to injury, but I think that’s your coach’s polite way of saying that they’re taller than you and that’s where the advantage comes from. On one hand, strength and flexibility plays a major part in your length but it also comes from how tall you are. You want your reach, catch, and stroke to be as long as possible, which is why you see a lot of insanely tall men and women on the national teams. The biggest thing that will help you in the long run is working on your overall strength (if your team has a lifting program, start doing it) and flexibility (stretch, stretch, stretch, roll out on foam rollers, etc.). The strength part is most likely going to happen before the flexibility does (there’s not much you can really do about that either), but the two together will really help you out. Your height, limb length, torso length, etc. are all things you can’t change so even though they play a big part, it’s not worth worrying about because you can’t do anything about them.

Your hips and shoulders have to work together when you’re trying to achieve good length. Rowers like you who aren’t able to get or be as long as their teammates can make up for that by getting your hips deeper into the catch (not too much though), which brings your upper body forward a little more and allows you to grab a couple extra inches of water. What will allow you to do that is to work on the flexibility of your hips and increasing their overall range of motion.

Once you’ve worked on all of that (fast-forwarding to the fall season) and you know that your technique is good, your strength and flexibility have improved, etc. and you’re still not getting as much length as your coach would like, then he might look at the rigging on your seat. There’s a compromise to this though – changing the rigging, in this case the height and/or angle of your foot stretchers, increases your length but decreases your power output. Your coach would have to weigh the options and decide what he wants from there. Would he rather you be at a uniform length with the other seven rowers or be a little short but still able to get your maximum power output on every stroke? You’ve got one of the top eight erg times though so I don’t know how willing he’d be to compromise that power.

I’m sure you already are a decent rower. It doesn’t take much to be decent but it takes a lot of work (at least on the teams I’ve been a part of…) to be able to seat race for the first varsity boat. Your coach could have told you worse things, like your technique is terrible, you’re a poor sport, etc. but he didn’t. As long as you’re willing to do the work off the water, you’ll be back in a lineup in no time. Like I tell everybody else, don’t let this discourage you – instead, let it motivate you to work harder.

College High School Q&A Recruiting Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By

Do you have any recruitment tips for getting freshmen hooked?

Tell them what got you hooked. Be honest and don’t sugarcoat things (like the cold weather, erg tests, early morning practices, etc.), even if you’re desperate for people to sign up. Tell them about the regattas, traveling, spring break training, etc. How much class time can they anticipate missing? Throw in some info on a fun rowing tradition, like shirt betting or a tradition your team has. Tell them the history of your program (regardless of how long you’ve been around) and what makes it an extra-curricular worth participating in. What makes you stand out? “Crew is just awesome/better/more fun, duh” is not a reason. Also, please, I beg you, do not give them the standard spiel of “teammates, family, great coaches, etc.”. It’s so played out at this point and doesn’t even sound like a legitimate reason when people say it anymore – it sounds rehearsed and like you have no other reasons why they should consider joining.

Another thing, don’t be awkward and overly enthusiastic when you’re recruiting people. You know the type of person I’m talking about too. Don’t be those people. The kids you’re trying to recruit feel awkward enough as it is, don’t make them feel even weirder. If you have any trophies or medals from previous regattas, bring them. Have a coach, coxswain, team captain, senior, junior, sophomore, and freshman there so that the people you’re recruiting can get perspective and information from someone at every level on the team.

Have a FAQ handout prepared beforehand with the contact info of all the relevant people on the team listed on it. Don’t forget to include the handles/links for your team’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and/or website. If you include any or all of those things, make sure they’re regularly posted on and up to date. I guarantee you, if I went to your team’s Twitter and saw you hadn’t tweeted since last spring or that the most recent results on the website are from 2009, I’ll write you off immediately. It’s hard to take you seriously when you talk about how much commitment rowing takes when you can’t even keep your own team information up to date. That’s important stuff that people do look at.