What moving the feet forward and back in the rowing boat does
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In this video, Lachlan discusses what effect moving the foot stretcher forward and back in the boat does. This video gives you the pros and cons of each setup.
When you move the foot stretcher back in the boat, it makes everything more comfortable from the catch through to the finish. When you move the foot stretcher forward, it makes everything harder. Some coaches are catch orientated and love to move the foot stretcher as far forward as possible, and some coaches do the opposite. Both approaches have achieved excellent results, but which way to go? This video gives you the pros and cons of each setup. |
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Video Transcript
so today i want to talk about the foot stretcher and just the basics of what moving a forward does and what moving it back does so basically your foot stretcher you know you'll often get into a boat will be sort of in the middle and a lot of people adjust the foot stretcher depending on if they're they're hitting the front so say they've got say the foot stretcher is a fair way forward and they they come forward and they hit the front chocks they'll move it back or say their foot stretcher is a long way back and they've got long legs they'll they'll come through and they'll hit the back and they'll change change the the um the foot stretcher to match i'd say this is definitely the wrong way to go about it uh and you should be thinking about moving the slides as opposed to the foot stretcher if you're hitting the front or the back the reason being is the foot stretcher really changes how you sit in the rowing boat and where you where your your stroke starts and where it finishes so if your foot stretcher is all the way back you'll have a lot of room at the finish so you'll come through your hands will probably be out here they'll move past the body really easily and likewise if it's it's all the way back at the catch you won't come as far forward so basically that means you won't be loading up as much if you on the other hand if you move your foot stretcher all the way all the way back in the boat or all the way all the way forward in comparison to you you'll end up finishing really tight so your hands will be like right right in at the body and you'll struggle to tap down and be quite difficult but at the catch you'll have a lot more the arc will be a lot greater so i'll show you with an oar
so say this is the finish position at the moment with the foot stretcher quite a way back this will this will end up if you bring the foot stretcher forward you finish about here so it's not a great difference at the finish you can see the blade only moves a very small amount however at the catch because you're coming around all the way forward your hands will end up going from about here say with the foot stretcher all the way back in the boat back towards the bow of the boat whereas if you have it forward or towards the stern of the boat you'll end up about here but you find because you're so far out the arc actually increases quite a lot because of the way your arms move out like this so what you end up doing is you end up if your foot stretcher is all the way forward is having a much greater angle at the catch and so when you put the blade in the water the boat starts to pinch so you pull on the handle and you're not really converting that energy that you're putting into the ore handle into moving the boat what happens is it becomes a bend in the oar it gets stored as elastic energy and as you come through the rowing stroke the bending the oar will start to release because you're not pinching the boat anymore and this energy that you put right into the into the blade at the catch gets released around the square off and towards the finish and you get a real sort of whipping effect and so this can be quite useful but bear in mind if you have your foot stretcher all the way all the way towards the stern in the boat so as far away from your seat as possible you'll end up it'll be really heavy at the catch it really increases the gearing so feel a lot heavier than if you have the foot stretcher further towards the bow so if you're your catch is at this position it'll feel a lot lighter than this position probably by a factor of two or two or three because it becomes exponentially greater uh load the further you come towards the bow so if we're to have a catch position say right here for you know perpendicular i mean uh parallel to the actual boat itself that would be you wouldn't be moving the boat at all you'd be a hundred percent increasing the amount of elastic energy in here so it becomes extraordinarily heavy so basically for a beginner athlete i'd recommend having having the foot stretcher a fair way towards towards the bow of the boat it means you have a lot more room around the finish it'll feel a lot less tight and it'll feel a lot more easy to move around whereas and also the catch you'll find that it's a lot a lot less heavy so basically if you are just getting back into the sport you don't really want to be loading up your muscles fully by moving your foot stretcher all the way towards the stern you want to want to start a bit more conservative and then work your way forward
so in summary i think if you're a beginner athlete or someone who's just getting into rowing or increasing their training load i'd you'd really benefit from bringing the foot stretcher towards the bow because it'll give you a lot more room at the finish and it's easier to tap down so you can focus on your technique a bit better and at the catch it won't be as heavy whereas if you're a more advanced athlete and you want it to be a little bit heavier and you've got a lot more power that you want to apply it might be worth trying to move your foot stretcher towards the stern a little bit that way when you get the blade in the catch you can really put some elastic energy into the oar get a real bend on it and make the most of that as it comes forward to through towards the finish bearing in mind you'll have to be a lot quicker and cleaner around the finish because you'll only be able to bring the oar into the body you won't be finishing back here you'll be finishing here so it's a lot easier to get caught up with your hands and bash them together so generally speaking you want to have the foot stretcher somewhere in the middle you don't want to be finishing back here you don't want to be finishing right here but just an idea of the different characteristics of moving the foot stretcher forward and back gives you a lot more a lot more knowledge and understanding of how you want to row your boat and indeed what will actually happen if you move the foot stretcher forward or back i wouldn't worry too much about the slides just move them to fit wherever you want to put your foot stretcher position
so say this is the finish position at the moment with the foot stretcher quite a way back this will this will end up if you bring the foot stretcher forward you finish about here so it's not a great difference at the finish you can see the blade only moves a very small amount however at the catch because you're coming around all the way forward your hands will end up going from about here say with the foot stretcher all the way back in the boat back towards the bow of the boat whereas if you have it forward or towards the stern of the boat you'll end up about here but you find because you're so far out the arc actually increases quite a lot because of the way your arms move out like this so what you end up doing is you end up if your foot stretcher is all the way forward is having a much greater angle at the catch and so when you put the blade in the water the boat starts to pinch so you pull on the handle and you're not really converting that energy that you're putting into the ore handle into moving the boat what happens is it becomes a bend in the oar it gets stored as elastic energy and as you come through the rowing stroke the bending the oar will start to release because you're not pinching the boat anymore and this energy that you put right into the into the blade at the catch gets released around the square off and towards the finish and you get a real sort of whipping effect and so this can be quite useful but bear in mind if you have your foot stretcher all the way all the way towards the stern in the boat so as far away from your seat as possible you'll end up it'll be really heavy at the catch it really increases the gearing so feel a lot heavier than if you have the foot stretcher further towards the bow so if you're your catch is at this position it'll feel a lot lighter than this position probably by a factor of two or two or three because it becomes exponentially greater uh load the further you come towards the bow so if we're to have a catch position say right here for you know perpendicular i mean uh parallel to the actual boat itself that would be you wouldn't be moving the boat at all you'd be a hundred percent increasing the amount of elastic energy in here so it becomes extraordinarily heavy so basically for a beginner athlete i'd recommend having having the foot stretcher a fair way towards towards the bow of the boat it means you have a lot more room around the finish it'll feel a lot less tight and it'll feel a lot more easy to move around whereas and also the catch you'll find that it's a lot a lot less heavy so basically if you are just getting back into the sport you don't really want to be loading up your muscles fully by moving your foot stretcher all the way towards the stern you want to want to start a bit more conservative and then work your way forward
so in summary i think if you're a beginner athlete or someone who's just getting into rowing or increasing their training load i'd you'd really benefit from bringing the foot stretcher towards the bow because it'll give you a lot more room at the finish and it's easier to tap down so you can focus on your technique a bit better and at the catch it won't be as heavy whereas if you're a more advanced athlete and you want it to be a little bit heavier and you've got a lot more power that you want to apply it might be worth trying to move your foot stretcher towards the stern a little bit that way when you get the blade in the catch you can really put some elastic energy into the oar get a real bend on it and make the most of that as it comes forward to through towards the finish bearing in mind you'll have to be a lot quicker and cleaner around the finish because you'll only be able to bring the oar into the body you won't be finishing back here you'll be finishing here so it's a lot easier to get caught up with your hands and bash them together so generally speaking you want to have the foot stretcher somewhere in the middle you don't want to be finishing back here you don't want to be finishing right here but just an idea of the different characteristics of moving the foot stretcher forward and back gives you a lot more a lot more knowledge and understanding of how you want to row your boat and indeed what will actually happen if you move the foot stretcher forward or back i wouldn't worry too much about the slides just move them to fit wherever you want to put your foot stretcher position