How blade depth changes your perceived gearing when rowing

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.

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.