Exercise for increasing rowing catch speed
In this video, Ken describes while Lachlan demonstrates an excellent exercise for increasing the catch speed.
This exercise can be applied to both sculling and sweep boats. |
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Video Transcript
this is a drill for how to put the blade in quickly by using an outside arm only drill
often you'll find with athletes in a sweep boat particularly beginner athletes that when they put the blade in the water they put it in in quite slowly now if we have lachlan here demonstrate putting the blade in as quickly as he can so just sitting at the front and just put the blade in there let's let's take the inside hand off and have lachlan hang onto the blade really loosely and and see if he can actually put the get his hand out of the way so let's see if lachlan can get his hand off the blade so his fingers on top of the blade off before the blade hits the water and so if you look at that see how quick that blade goes into the water it's really quick now you'll find that most people won't be able to put the blade in that quickly because they slow it up with their movement and i think part of the reason for this is they come into the catch and they come in nice and relaxed and steady and then you want them to do a really quick movement with their hands and then have a relaxed beginning of the catch so it's a change in mind so what you need to do is to practice putting that blade in quickly so if again lachlan comes into the catch i'd suggest he hang onto the blade really loosely with his thumb just underneath the handle so he's not going to to lose the loose contact and then just ask him to put the blade in as quick as he can with see if he can get his hand to come off the top of the blade so quick enough so that so that actually his thumb is pushing the blade in and his hand gets out of the way it's got to be very quick it's a very quick movement into the water now what you're wanting to do is to hang on to the blade normally the outside hand come into the catch and see if you can put the blade in with the same speed as by hanging onto it properly once he's got that under control and done that a couple of times then i'd suggest asking to put his outside hand and sorry his inside hand back on the blade and see if you can put it in just as quick and you'll find from the athlete's perspective that they've actually got to really concentrate on getting that blade in really quickly see that's going in slower now than it was before so let's go back and take the inside hand off again and come into the catch and put that blade in very quickly and quicker than that i'm going to try and get the handle and get the hand so that it's not that's better not impeding the blade going in you'll find that it takes quite a lot of practice to be able to get that blade placement that quick then when they put their inside hand back on again so if Lachlan puts his inside hand back on again now let's see if we can keep it going in at the same speed and so it's a very quick precise movement
so once they've got it under control by sitting at the catch in this position then let's get them to do it with a rowing a full stroke and so what you want them to do is to row just with their outside hand again and take the inside hand off and come into the front so coming down the slide putting the blade in and making sure that blade goes in as quick as it can quicker than that it's about getting that outside hand to almost leave the leave the handle as it goes in very quick like that then put the blade put the outside put the inside arm back on again and see to keep that same speed that's it a really useful drill and then if they do that whilst they're rowing and go so instead of doing it stationary do it whilst they're rowing and then the next part of the process is to make sure that the first thing they do is lift their hands up like that and then the second thing is that they start to commence the leg drive so you want to separate the up with the hands from the push so coming into the front up and push a really useful drill for teaching people how to take the catch quickly
often you'll find with athletes in a sweep boat particularly beginner athletes that when they put the blade in the water they put it in in quite slowly now if we have lachlan here demonstrate putting the blade in as quickly as he can so just sitting at the front and just put the blade in there let's let's take the inside hand off and have lachlan hang onto the blade really loosely and and see if he can actually put the get his hand out of the way so let's see if lachlan can get his hand off the blade so his fingers on top of the blade off before the blade hits the water and so if you look at that see how quick that blade goes into the water it's really quick now you'll find that most people won't be able to put the blade in that quickly because they slow it up with their movement and i think part of the reason for this is they come into the catch and they come in nice and relaxed and steady and then you want them to do a really quick movement with their hands and then have a relaxed beginning of the catch so it's a change in mind so what you need to do is to practice putting that blade in quickly so if again lachlan comes into the catch i'd suggest he hang onto the blade really loosely with his thumb just underneath the handle so he's not going to to lose the loose contact and then just ask him to put the blade in as quick as he can with see if he can get his hand to come off the top of the blade so quick enough so that so that actually his thumb is pushing the blade in and his hand gets out of the way it's got to be very quick it's a very quick movement into the water now what you're wanting to do is to hang on to the blade normally the outside hand come into the catch and see if you can put the blade in with the same speed as by hanging onto it properly once he's got that under control and done that a couple of times then i'd suggest asking to put his outside hand and sorry his inside hand back on the blade and see if you can put it in just as quick and you'll find from the athlete's perspective that they've actually got to really concentrate on getting that blade in really quickly see that's going in slower now than it was before so let's go back and take the inside hand off again and come into the catch and put that blade in very quickly and quicker than that i'm going to try and get the handle and get the hand so that it's not that's better not impeding the blade going in you'll find that it takes quite a lot of practice to be able to get that blade placement that quick then when they put their inside hand back on again so if Lachlan puts his inside hand back on again now let's see if we can keep it going in at the same speed and so it's a very quick precise movement
so once they've got it under control by sitting at the catch in this position then let's get them to do it with a rowing a full stroke and so what you want them to do is to row just with their outside hand again and take the inside hand off and come into the front so coming down the slide putting the blade in and making sure that blade goes in as quick as it can quicker than that it's about getting that outside hand to almost leave the leave the handle as it goes in very quick like that then put the blade put the outside put the inside arm back on again and see to keep that same speed that's it a really useful drill and then if they do that whilst they're rowing and go so instead of doing it stationary do it whilst they're rowing and then the next part of the process is to make sure that the first thing they do is lift their hands up like that and then the second thing is that they start to commence the leg drive so you want to separate the up with the hands from the push so coming into the front up and push a really useful drill for teaching people how to take the catch quickly