Hand Position for Rowing Sculling
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In this video, Lachlan Davey demonstrates how to position your hand/handles throughout the stroke,
Where you put your hands has a significant impact on what your boat does, your handle position affects speed, balance, and comfort. |
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Video Transcript
So i just want to talk about what's the best way to have your hand position of your oar handles throughout the stroke
so you know is one on top of the other at a certain point is it behind this one that front you know so what what should we be trying to do so when when thinking about where to put the hands it's important to think you know what effect is it going to have on the boat so during the drive phase so when you're pulling so when you get the blade into the catch put the blades in and pull or push with the legs open up as your hands come through you don't want to have one in front of the other so you don't have when you're pulling through you don't want to be pulling through like this because you'll find you have to put a big twist on your shoulders so you want to have the hands one over the other so typically what happens is we rig it so you have your left hand a little bit higher than your right so it's left over right and as you come through as you come through the stroke you want to bring it through as it comes through the cross like this you don't have one behind the other because you'll be twisting your shoulders and any lateral movement of the boat so the roll of the boat doesn't slow it down too much you can imagine that uh in other planes it would slow it down but the boat tilting from side to side doesn't actually slow it down that much so during the drive you want to make sure that your hands have a little bit of space and you know the boat will twist the riggers will twist a little bit a little bit a bit like this but it's not a very pronounced effect when you come to the uh the finish though it's a slightly different story so you come round to the finish got your oars in tap down feather you've got flat wrists so flat wrists feather and as you come forward you want to have your left hand slightly in front of your right so slightly like that not quite like that because when you tap down on the recovery you want to have quite a quite a good amount of height between the water and your blade height and the best way to do that is with the flat flat like that because you want to keep those blades off the water if you have it like this the rigger will be tilted on the way forward and your blades one blade is likely to be a lot closer to the water than the other see and it's only when you cross over that you do that and so cross over there's a little bit so you know you're not really twisting with the shoulders that much it's mostly a neutral body position left hand leading right coming forward and as you get to the catch your hands are about the same height put them in the water and you square up put them in the water and as you come through you start they start to separate so from the same height start to separate separate separate and then you see you've got like a little bit of overlap enough so you don't catch it so with these oars there's quite sharp bits like sharp bits here you know you don't want to be getting your knuckles either like you don't want to be scratching yourself so you have to give it a little bit of clearance you don't want them touching as you come through but you don't want too far apart either you'll know if you get them too close because you'll scratch your hand you can see i've got a little bit from where i've missed a few strokes so sometimes you know i'll be rough and my blades go in and my hands come through you trim your nails here so you don't get that that cut there as you come through you can really you know cut it quite badly but um you know it's just a skill thing and you get used to it
so just in summary so through the drive phase keep the hands apart one over the other shoulders square everything is symmetrical you're not twisting like this come through finish tap down left hand slightly leading right as you come away so left hand she come in tap down left hand slightly leading right they come back to even probably around the as they start to separate somewhere between you know quarter and half slide they're back to even into the catch square up
and that even height come through they start to diverge a little bit so your boat's starting to tip the rig is starting to tip a little bit that movement doesn't slow the boat down as the crossover tap down nice and flat getting your blades off the water as much as possible giving you nice nice clearance there coming forward squaring up and place it in hands at the same height drive through cross over tap down
so i found this is probably the most effective way to do it it takes a bit of practice and you know lots and lots of strokes to actually get it so it's automatic especially the you know the tapping down and the feathering with the flat wrists that's really hard for people to get people can you know people even at a high level can row with a dropped wrist like that but it brings the whole body down at the finish it's not it's not up it's not strong and you really have to go from if you drop the wrists from here back up to here before you come forward if you don't drop the wrists tap down you're already in that strong position just just come forward take the stroke
so you know is one on top of the other at a certain point is it behind this one that front you know so what what should we be trying to do so when when thinking about where to put the hands it's important to think you know what effect is it going to have on the boat so during the drive phase so when you're pulling so when you get the blade into the catch put the blades in and pull or push with the legs open up as your hands come through you don't want to have one in front of the other so you don't have when you're pulling through you don't want to be pulling through like this because you'll find you have to put a big twist on your shoulders so you want to have the hands one over the other so typically what happens is we rig it so you have your left hand a little bit higher than your right so it's left over right and as you come through as you come through the stroke you want to bring it through as it comes through the cross like this you don't have one behind the other because you'll be twisting your shoulders and any lateral movement of the boat so the roll of the boat doesn't slow it down too much you can imagine that uh in other planes it would slow it down but the boat tilting from side to side doesn't actually slow it down that much so during the drive you want to make sure that your hands have a little bit of space and you know the boat will twist the riggers will twist a little bit a little bit a bit like this but it's not a very pronounced effect when you come to the uh the finish though it's a slightly different story so you come round to the finish got your oars in tap down feather you've got flat wrists so flat wrists feather and as you come forward you want to have your left hand slightly in front of your right so slightly like that not quite like that because when you tap down on the recovery you want to have quite a quite a good amount of height between the water and your blade height and the best way to do that is with the flat flat like that because you want to keep those blades off the water if you have it like this the rigger will be tilted on the way forward and your blades one blade is likely to be a lot closer to the water than the other see and it's only when you cross over that you do that and so cross over there's a little bit so you know you're not really twisting with the shoulders that much it's mostly a neutral body position left hand leading right coming forward and as you get to the catch your hands are about the same height put them in the water and you square up put them in the water and as you come through you start they start to separate so from the same height start to separate separate separate and then you see you've got like a little bit of overlap enough so you don't catch it so with these oars there's quite sharp bits like sharp bits here you know you don't want to be getting your knuckles either like you don't want to be scratching yourself so you have to give it a little bit of clearance you don't want them touching as you come through but you don't want too far apart either you'll know if you get them too close because you'll scratch your hand you can see i've got a little bit from where i've missed a few strokes so sometimes you know i'll be rough and my blades go in and my hands come through you trim your nails here so you don't get that that cut there as you come through you can really you know cut it quite badly but um you know it's just a skill thing and you get used to it
so just in summary so through the drive phase keep the hands apart one over the other shoulders square everything is symmetrical you're not twisting like this come through finish tap down left hand slightly leading right as you come away so left hand she come in tap down left hand slightly leading right they come back to even probably around the as they start to separate somewhere between you know quarter and half slide they're back to even into the catch square up
and that even height come through they start to diverge a little bit so your boat's starting to tip the rig is starting to tip a little bit that movement doesn't slow the boat down as the crossover tap down nice and flat getting your blades off the water as much as possible giving you nice nice clearance there coming forward squaring up and place it in hands at the same height drive through cross over tap down
so i found this is probably the most effective way to do it it takes a bit of practice and you know lots and lots of strokes to actually get it so it's automatic especially the you know the tapping down and the feathering with the flat wrists that's really hard for people to get people can you know people even at a high level can row with a dropped wrist like that but it brings the whole body down at the finish it's not it's not up it's not strong and you really have to go from if you drop the wrists from here back up to here before you come forward if you don't drop the wrists tap down you're already in that strong position just just come forward take the stroke