How blade depth changes your perceived gearing when rowing
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In this video, Lachlan demonstrates how blade depth changes your perceived gearing.
Most people don't realize that blade depth can have a more significant impact than oar and rigging changes. |
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Video Transcript
Have you thought about how technique
changes your gearing. So we often talk a
fair bit about gearing thinking that the
total oar length, the inboard length and
the span all make up gearing but we're
probably forgetting the most important
part. And I think we are forgetting the most important part. When you place the blade
in the water that has a big effect on
what the weight and the handle feels
like. So if you place a plate quite
shallow or even not quite buried
completely say like that you take a
stroke you going to catch a lot of air
behind the Blate. like that like I'll
show you just here. So this is a good
example of how not to do it you see as a
place my blade here I barely got the
blade in the water before I've applied
the power. That's going to create a big air
pocket behind it. It's really going to
cause it to be really light in the hands
so losing a lot of effectiveness. You can
see here this would be whitewater gap
behind the blade and this means that I'm
pulling the blades through quickly but
I'm not getting a good purchase on the
water. You can see here a wave is already
forming it's a sign of poor connection
with the water and the conversion to
of power to boat speed is very poor. And so what's the result it's a big wave at the
finish we call this washing out
basically throwing a lot of water
backwards and out not a lot being of
force being put into making the boat
move forwards. The blade slips through
the water easily because there's an air
pocket that forms because we don't bury
the blade deeply or quickly enough and
finally there's a lower resistance on
the handle and that means that less
force is actually being applied to
moving the boat forwards and this is a
problem. Whereas if you put your blade
quite deep so you know that doesn't seem
that deep like maybe an inch under the
water that will feel very deep when I'm
rowing and I feel extremely solid and
locked on. So here's an example of me
doing it a lot better I see we're
looking for a good connection here a
good placement and a good good lock on
throughout the stroke so I see here as I
place my blade I've got the blade
completely buried before the majority of
the power is applied. You can see there's
no white water caught behind the blade
whatsoever. It's buried deeply and there's no air
pocket to help it slip through the water.
And finally here at the finish no wave
forming, good connection, good conversion to boat speed. And what's the result the
result is minimal water thrown backwards
and out so not washing out much the
blade is well connected with the water and
there's a very small air pocket and this
means that a higher force has been
applied by me on the handles and more force
can be applied to move the boat forward.
So it's more effective you're better
connected you'll feel it like it's
heavier but you're also doing more work.
So you really want to be trying to focus
on getting that blade in getting well
connected right at the catch holding it
in the water all the way to the finish
then tapping out square. Trying to be as
clean as possible and efficient. So the
deeper you place the blade the more likely
it is to feel like that feeling the more
locked on it will feel and essentially
the more work you're doing moving the
boat forward. If you have your blade really shallow and catch a
lot of air you're moving a lot of water
backward
you're not moving the boat a lot a long
way forward so basically what that we
call that is slippage. So you don't want
to have slippage when you're rowing along
it's important to get the blades quite
deep. You'll see you know top sculling
athletes like Mahé Drysdale buries the blade extraordinarily
deeply likewise Kim Brennan has quite a
deep deep blade bury and that gives
them a really good lock on so it means
that any effort that they put through
their through their body and legs is
actually going to end up in the water
locked on pushing the boat forwards. So
you want to make sure the blade is nice
and buried right at the catch so right
out in the catch position. Bury it all
the way and then apply the power. If you
do apply the power before you get the
blade buried you'll waste energy by
just pushing water backward and not
moving the boat forward and it won't
feel as heavy you won't feel as
connected and you won't be as effective
or efficient with your rowing stroke. So
really think about getting that blade
under the water and
Buried nicely the other thing that you see
a lot if you don't bury the blade fully
is a big washed out puddle. So we're
talking about like lots of air lots of
water just spewing backwards out of the
boat. Whereas if you bury the blade
really deeply you'll get a really small
puddle so it won't have barely any
white water in it at all and it'll be
quite small and you know some people
would say are there you know they're not
pulling hard but in actual fact they're
all the water movement is under the
water so it's all hidden from view.
That's a really efficient way of moving
the boat and you make sure that all the
power that you're putting through your
legs is going into bending the oar and
moving the boat forwards.
changes your gearing. So we often talk a
fair bit about gearing thinking that the
total oar length, the inboard length and
the span all make up gearing but we're
probably forgetting the most important
part. And I think we are forgetting the most important part. When you place the blade
in the water that has a big effect on
what the weight and the handle feels
like. So if you place a plate quite
shallow or even not quite buried
completely say like that you take a
stroke you going to catch a lot of air
behind the Blate. like that like I'll
show you just here. So this is a good
example of how not to do it you see as a
place my blade here I barely got the
blade in the water before I've applied
the power. That's going to create a big air
pocket behind it. It's really going to
cause it to be really light in the hands
so losing a lot of effectiveness. You can
see here this would be whitewater gap
behind the blade and this means that I'm
pulling the blades through quickly but
I'm not getting a good purchase on the
water. You can see here a wave is already
forming it's a sign of poor connection
with the water and the conversion to
of power to boat speed is very poor. And so what's the result it's a big wave at the
finish we call this washing out
basically throwing a lot of water
backwards and out not a lot being of
force being put into making the boat
move forwards. The blade slips through
the water easily because there's an air
pocket that forms because we don't bury
the blade deeply or quickly enough and
finally there's a lower resistance on
the handle and that means that less
force is actually being applied to
moving the boat forwards and this is a
problem. Whereas if you put your blade
quite deep so you know that doesn't seem
that deep like maybe an inch under the
water that will feel very deep when I'm
rowing and I feel extremely solid and
locked on. So here's an example of me
doing it a lot better I see we're
looking for a good connection here a
good placement and a good good lock on
throughout the stroke so I see here as I
place my blade I've got the blade
completely buried before the majority of
the power is applied. You can see there's
no white water caught behind the blade
whatsoever. It's buried deeply and there's no air
pocket to help it slip through the water.
And finally here at the finish no wave
forming, good connection, good conversion to boat speed. And what's the result the
result is minimal water thrown backwards
and out so not washing out much the
blade is well connected with the water and
there's a very small air pocket and this
means that a higher force has been
applied by me on the handles and more force
can be applied to move the boat forward.
So it's more effective you're better
connected you'll feel it like it's
heavier but you're also doing more work.
So you really want to be trying to focus
on getting that blade in getting well
connected right at the catch holding it
in the water all the way to the finish
then tapping out square. Trying to be as
clean as possible and efficient. So the
deeper you place the blade the more likely
it is to feel like that feeling the more
locked on it will feel and essentially
the more work you're doing moving the
boat forward. If you have your blade really shallow and catch a
lot of air you're moving a lot of water
backward
you're not moving the boat a lot a long
way forward so basically what that we
call that is slippage. So you don't want
to have slippage when you're rowing along
it's important to get the blades quite
deep. You'll see you know top sculling
athletes like Mahé Drysdale buries the blade extraordinarily
deeply likewise Kim Brennan has quite a
deep deep blade bury and that gives
them a really good lock on so it means
that any effort that they put through
their through their body and legs is
actually going to end up in the water
locked on pushing the boat forwards. So
you want to make sure the blade is nice
and buried right at the catch so right
out in the catch position. Bury it all
the way and then apply the power. If you
do apply the power before you get the
blade buried you'll waste energy by
just pushing water backward and not
moving the boat forward and it won't
feel as heavy you won't feel as
connected and you won't be as effective
or efficient with your rowing stroke. So
really think about getting that blade
under the water and
Buried nicely the other thing that you see
a lot if you don't bury the blade fully
is a big washed out puddle. So we're
talking about like lots of air lots of
water just spewing backwards out of the
boat. Whereas if you bury the blade
really deeply you'll get a really small
puddle so it won't have barely any
white water in it at all and it'll be
quite small and you know some people
would say are there you know they're not
pulling hard but in actual fact they're
all the water movement is under the
water so it's all hidden from view.
That's a really efficient way of moving
the boat and you make sure that all the
power that you're putting through your
legs is going into bending the oar and
moving the boat forwards.