How to improve your blade depth when rowing
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In this video, Ken Davey demonstrates how you can improve the depth of your blade throughout the rowing stroke.
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Video Transcript
So when trying to coach yourself, it's important to make sure that you're handling the oar correctly
so when you're coming into the catch you want to make sure that the blade goes in before there's any leg drive and you want to hold the blade in right the way through to the finish and make it when it comes out that you've got the oar in the water correctly buried right the way through we'd suggest put the blade relatively deep at the catch in order to get a good solid connection and then right through to the finish and it's likely it'll come up a little more shallow towards the finish but then it'll pop out at about having the top of the blade just buried just before the finish so in order to practice that i suggest what you do again coaching yourself is to watch the oar so just sit on the water with one blade not being used essentially to start with and just leaving it flat on the water to keep the balance and then come into the catch and just place the blade watch how deep it goes and then slowly come through to the finish and pop it out so learning how to how deep the blade should be in the water the easiest way to do this if you're coaching yourself is to just watch your blade now we're going to demonstrate here in a single it's easier on a crew boat of course but it's really not that difficult you just need to keep the far side blade in this case flat on the water so that it's essentially balancing the boat let the boat lean a little bit away from you but not very much just so that you've got the weight on the other side and then watch this blade so watch the blade and come around to the catch so come into the catch first and put the blade in the water and watch how deep it is a bit unstable but better in a bigger boat like a quad and then just push down the slide a little bit and and see where the blade is now what we want to do is we want to have the blade deeper than that so we want to have the blade so that it's the catch it's well connected solidly locked into the water now i suggest you demonstrate to yourself how a locked in blade feels different by just with one side blade so using the blade on this side in this example put the blade uh and put your arm straight just sitting at the finish put the blade square in the water and then just so it's only shallow in the water and then just pull the blade towards you with your arm and feel how heavy that is now do the same thing and put the blade deeper in the water so put the hand away deep in the water and pull and you'll feel that it's quite a lot more solid connection so when we're taking the catch we want to make sure that we get that blade well connected so put it in relatively deeply you'll find you don't want the blade to go up and down as you pull through the water but it will gradually get closer and closer to the surface and when it gets to the finish you want to make sure that the blade is only just buried before you tap it out so i suggest having understood that in a stationary position what we should do now is row along and whilst you're rowing watch your blade so sometimes it's a bit difficult if you're not well balanced to watch the blade at the catch but you can certainly watch it through the remainder of the stroke but if you can i suggest watch the blade and indeed with a gopro or something mounted on your rigger then you should well be able to see this in any case so let's uh row along we'll practice that
so I want you to try and watch your blade
and fiddle with the depth a bit
so i think that's a really important way of making sure that you understand what the blade should be doing so watch the blade go in watch it through the stroke and pop it out then i suggest start rowing for a while with both blades just both always just rowing normally and then continue to watch the blade and watch both sides because sometimes you'll find that the the right and left side will behave differently just because of the way that your body treats the oar so i suggest watch the blade watch how it goes through the water watch how it comes out and watch what depth it is remembering it well connected if you want to understand why it needs to be well connected then it's quite simple exercise just put the blade into the water and then pull on it just with your arm have it really shallow in the water and pull on it and then put it deep in the water and pull on it and you'll feel the difference in the connection so the catch you want to be well connected put that blade in get it well connected watch it and row for a while watching the blades to make sure you've got the blade depths correct then once you understand what the blade depth should be then what i suggest you do is look at your handle height so look at the height your hand is above the gunnel in relation to your body etc and keep it in your mind keep that's where you want the handle to be so when you're rowing and you come into the catch and you want to put the blade in deeply then you'll know how high you have to lift your hands in order to be able to get that blade at the correct depth and having the blade at the correct depth is important so i suggest practice that you don't really need to have someone film you doing that because you can watch yourself doing that
so when you're coming into the catch you want to make sure that the blade goes in before there's any leg drive and you want to hold the blade in right the way through to the finish and make it when it comes out that you've got the oar in the water correctly buried right the way through we'd suggest put the blade relatively deep at the catch in order to get a good solid connection and then right through to the finish and it's likely it'll come up a little more shallow towards the finish but then it'll pop out at about having the top of the blade just buried just before the finish so in order to practice that i suggest what you do again coaching yourself is to watch the oar so just sit on the water with one blade not being used essentially to start with and just leaving it flat on the water to keep the balance and then come into the catch and just place the blade watch how deep it goes and then slowly come through to the finish and pop it out so learning how to how deep the blade should be in the water the easiest way to do this if you're coaching yourself is to just watch your blade now we're going to demonstrate here in a single it's easier on a crew boat of course but it's really not that difficult you just need to keep the far side blade in this case flat on the water so that it's essentially balancing the boat let the boat lean a little bit away from you but not very much just so that you've got the weight on the other side and then watch this blade so watch the blade and come around to the catch so come into the catch first and put the blade in the water and watch how deep it is a bit unstable but better in a bigger boat like a quad and then just push down the slide a little bit and and see where the blade is now what we want to do is we want to have the blade deeper than that so we want to have the blade so that it's the catch it's well connected solidly locked into the water now i suggest you demonstrate to yourself how a locked in blade feels different by just with one side blade so using the blade on this side in this example put the blade uh and put your arm straight just sitting at the finish put the blade square in the water and then just so it's only shallow in the water and then just pull the blade towards you with your arm and feel how heavy that is now do the same thing and put the blade deeper in the water so put the hand away deep in the water and pull and you'll feel that it's quite a lot more solid connection so when we're taking the catch we want to make sure that we get that blade well connected so put it in relatively deeply you'll find you don't want the blade to go up and down as you pull through the water but it will gradually get closer and closer to the surface and when it gets to the finish you want to make sure that the blade is only just buried before you tap it out so i suggest having understood that in a stationary position what we should do now is row along and whilst you're rowing watch your blade so sometimes it's a bit difficult if you're not well balanced to watch the blade at the catch but you can certainly watch it through the remainder of the stroke but if you can i suggest watch the blade and indeed with a gopro or something mounted on your rigger then you should well be able to see this in any case so let's uh row along we'll practice that
so I want you to try and watch your blade
and fiddle with the depth a bit
so i think that's a really important way of making sure that you understand what the blade should be doing so watch the blade go in watch it through the stroke and pop it out then i suggest start rowing for a while with both blades just both always just rowing normally and then continue to watch the blade and watch both sides because sometimes you'll find that the the right and left side will behave differently just because of the way that your body treats the oar so i suggest watch the blade watch how it goes through the water watch how it comes out and watch what depth it is remembering it well connected if you want to understand why it needs to be well connected then it's quite simple exercise just put the blade into the water and then pull on it just with your arm have it really shallow in the water and pull on it and then put it deep in the water and pull on it and you'll feel the difference in the connection so the catch you want to be well connected put that blade in get it well connected watch it and row for a while watching the blades to make sure you've got the blade depths correct then once you understand what the blade depth should be then what i suggest you do is look at your handle height so look at the height your hand is above the gunnel in relation to your body etc and keep it in your mind keep that's where you want the handle to be so when you're rowing and you come into the catch and you want to put the blade in deeply then you'll know how high you have to lift your hands in order to be able to get that blade at the correct depth and having the blade at the correct depth is important so i suggest practice that you don't really need to have someone film you doing that because you can watch yourself doing that