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  • Rushing and Shoulder Lifting

    Rushing and Shoulder Lifting
    2025/10/05
    What you do on the recovery affects what you do on the power phase. Timestamps 00:45 What you do on the recovery What you do as you approach the catch is likely the first thing you do on the power phase. Any errors get transitioned to the next stroke. Three common things happen - shoulder lifting, rushing the slide and the oar going too deep at the catch. 01:30 Shoulder lifting This is putting the oar in the water by lifting your shoulders to feel the oar connection to the water. To prevent this, start at the finish of the prior stroke. By getting the arms/body transition (pre-stretching) correct on the recovery you can improve your catch and remove the shoulder lift. One of the reasons we rock forward later in the recovery is that it feels like you're getting more length. But this makes you focus on the handle so when you take the catch, you're still focused on the handle and so you pull (not push) to make connection with the water. Goal is to connect with minimal body movement - ideally only your knee to ankle moves. compounding - reaching more at the catch slows it down because your body weight causes the stern to push down into the water and you have to lift the handle to make the placement but you're working against yourself because you're also leaning and create a greater height the handle has to move to get the spoon under the water. If you don't shoulder-lift you are more likely to be on time at the catch. 05:30 Rushing the slide By accelerating the slide in the second half of the recovery this causes rushing. The pre-stretch gives you time on the recovery - you can work out how quickly you want to arrive at the catch. You don't need to move anything except bend your knees. Weight on the footstretcher gives you the feeling of control of the slide speed. Check your handle speed at the finish compared to the person in front of you to ensure you are in time with them. If you row longer than anyone else (long legs) you have to slide because you're taller. Starting to roll up the slide before completing the pre-stretch gives a false timing signal to the people behind you. Ratio is another cause of rushing especially if you're doing a one to one ratio. Insufficient power through the water causes 1:1 ratio and makes it hard to do the recovery without rushing. A lack of awareness can also cause you to rush - is your body weight on the back of the seat (your bum side not your legs side). You should feel your body weight under where your thighs join your bum on the recovery (after the rock forward). Let your hamstrings relax more on the recovery so the forward momentum of the boat pushes you up the slide (with weight on the footstretcher). 11:30 Going too deep When the oar goes into the water it goes too deep initially. Starting on the recovery, if you don't push down on the handles to get the oar spoon clear of the water before you feather you will probably carry the handles too high on the recovery. The compounding issue is that in order to square without hitting the water, you have to push your handles down. You over-do the lift and so the oar goes too deep into the water. Pushing down to square also causes you to drop your shoulders and then when you get to the timing of the catch you lift your hands and also lift your shoulders (they're tense) and this causes you to go deep because your whole body block lifts up. The catch should only be done by the arms to lift the handle and the knee to ankle to push on the foot stretcher. Make a small upward movement on the handle to place the oar only using your arms. So squaring late can cause you to mis-time the catch as well. If your oars go too deep - take a look at what you do at the finish and see if that causes you to mis-time the catch as a compounding technique error. Solutions come from video - three strokes of yourself from 90 degrees square off - slow it down to watch as you compare it to a model of good rowing / sculling.
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    16 分
  • How wide is a boat lane?

    How wide is a boat lane?
    2025/09/25
    When racing, how much space do you have in a buoyed boat lane? Timestamps 00:45 Boat lane width How can you fit a wide boat like an eight into a lane and why is it that you still find yourself rowing near the buoy line? An eight is nearly 12 meters long and the rules of racing state that a standard rowing lane is 13.5 meters (44 feet) wide, with a minimum requirement of 13.5 meters for Olympic and international races, though 12.5 meters may be used in special circumstances. The lanes are marked by buoys and must remain a consistent width along the entire straight course. 02:00 Width perception The outboard from your rigger is 2 plus meters at either side. Your boat is about 6-7 meters wide with the oars. This perception problem is aggravated when you think you're closer to one buoy line. Boat position within the lane matters. A toe-steered boat has more control over the alignment but you have to keep the boat straight through the race - there's a tendency to over-steer in buoyed lanes. You have to know where the middle of the lane is. Some people forget that when you steer in one direction, you have to correct the steering to go straight after the boat is re-positioned. When the boat is straight. the middle of the hull is in the middle of the lane, you have to correct the foot steering so the boat stays in the middle after completing a manoeuvre. This relies on using your perception of the mid-point of the lane as your guide. But if you're in the bow seat, the boat doesn't pivot under where you're sitting. 05:30 The vanishing point This is where parallel lines appear to converge in the far distance. This is useful for rowers on a buoyed course. The only time you don't have a vanishing point to refer to is at the start. The human eye is sensitive to width - using the horizon vanishing point you can tell if you're in the middle of the lane. But confusion comes when you use the buoys near to your boat to align with. Buoys are every 10 meters down a rowing course, and if you think your hull is parallel to one of the buoy lines this probably means you are actually steering towards that buoy line. You need the vanishing point to correctly position the boat. 08:00 Boat position When looking around during the race (to left or right) we tend to use the buoys nearest us as a steering guide. This is a mistake. You have to adjust your width perception to take account of the tips of your blades and also to acknowledge the vanishing point to position your hull centrally. Learn to ignore the buoys close to your boat. The vanishing point is the skill to develop to help you stay in your lane.
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    11 分
  • Why delaying back swing is hard

    Why delaying back swing is hard
    2025/09/09
    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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    17 分
  • Backing down

    Backing down
    2025/08/31
    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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    14 分
  • Rowing with knee osteoarthritis

    Rowing with knee osteoarthritis
    2025/08/24
    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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    15 分
  • Why finishes are key for big boats

    Why finishes are key for big boats
    2025/08/17
    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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    11 分
  • Weather forecast apps for rowing

    Weather forecast apps for rowing
    2025/08/11
    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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    9 分
  • Journey to a perfect stroke

    Journey to a perfect stroke
    2025/08/03
    Why I'm not finished yet seeking to improve my rowing technique. Timestamps 00:45 There is no stroke I've ever taken which is perfect yet why do I keep trying? My rowing started as a student in a bank tub, a tub pair and then a clinker eight. One of my first videos showed that I lunged at the catch - this fault has stayed with me ever since! I revert and then correct many times. 03:00 The importance of drills Taught me ways to separate each part of the stroke or exaggerate the movements - so I learned to separate different body parts moving. 04:00 Sculling - a new challenge Starting to scull I began to learn how to make the boat glide. I could see why people choose rowing because it felt so good. The learning journey is a series of steps - I had jumped ahead and then couldn't regain that feeling. I needed to go back and fill in the gaps in my learning so that I could consistently make the movements. Single sculling taught me how to recruit more muscles - how each part contributes to the rowing stroke. Notably, my glutes were a gap in my learning. It also helped my mental endeavour - anything happening was caused by me and the resolution was also mine. I took on new challenges like steering and sweeping on both sides. Sculling taught me boat feel - how the boat responded to the water conditions and the weather. External stimuli taught me how to adjust the stroke to respond to these. Dissipating negative effects caused by externalities or taking advantage of positive influences. Small adjustments to how I was sculling was a good lesson. 07:00 Style versus technique The continuous learning journey is a series of steps forward and backwards. I came to understand the difference between rowing style and technique - viewing scullers from a distance, you can recognise individual people. Now as a masters rower, aging adds another dimension. As my body changes I'm making different adaptations and changes e.g. strength training. And different challenges - learning to blend crews together from differing techniques. The pleasure of making a crew fire by everyone making small changes so we together make the boat go better is high. My perfect stroke today in this crew will be different from that in another crew lineup. The journey is never only, the challenges continue. Enjoying the process of the journey rather than seeking a singular destination is why I love being a masters rower still working on finding the perfect stroke. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192
    続きを読む 一部表示
    11 分