7 ways to win rowing into a headwind
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In this video, Lachlan Davey describes 7 ways to increase your chances of a good result in a headwind.
Many rowers struggle to row well in a headwind. If you are one who can handle it then you have the advantage on race day. |
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Video Transcript
So inevitably people will find themselves rowing in a headwind and maybe even racing in a headwind
and although it's not everyone's favorite there are a few things you can really focus on to get the most out of your race or your training session so the first one i'd say is probably as quick and clean as possible so in a headwind typically you you your blade will come forward and if you do it if you square up slowly the wind will catch your blade it'll go up in the air and then you have to come down a long way to get it in the water so you want to be squaring up quickly closer to the last minute but you still won't be too late because if you start squaring up too late you'll still have the same problem of not being out of place quickly enough so you still have to square up around three quarter slide but do it relatively quickly make sure the wind doesn't have a chance to lift it up straight through and then in quickly and so that'll that'll give you a bit more a bit more preciseness around the catch you also have to make sure in a headwind it's very tempting to try to increase your rating in a headwind just because you don't feel like you can get full length stroke there's some people that can do this really well although i'd say for the majority maybe 90 percent of people you're still better off going for as much length as possible in the headwind so make sure you get your full length finish your stroke fully off and get the most of your blade in the water the chances are that you'll be rating a lower rate than you do typically so if you had a tailwind or if you had still conditions you'd be able to rate a lot higher with ease but because you're rating lower you really have to make sure you get the full length get the blade in and make the most of it while it's in the water because when it's out of the water you know there's a good chance you'll be hitting the water like because there'll be waves um you know that'll throw the boat from side to side and it'll be hard to get your catch so you really have to focus on your length getting your blade in nice and quickly other things that people often think about doing is changing their gearing so basically making their their outboard shorter so making their oar a bit shorter and making itself a bit lighter while this can in theory work quite well in practice what usually happens is the person ends up rating about the same as they would if the gearing was longer but they don't have as much gr much purchase on the water they're not doing as much work through the water because the outboard's shorter and so the boat ends up going slower so it's probably best if you're not used to changing your oars and you can't you haven't noticed a real change when you do that to keep your oars at the same as what they are normally in rough conditions just because you're most most likely to be able to do well with what you used to and if you go the other way there's a chance that it will be slower so another thing you can do if you've got your hands on them is get a set of reduced diameter shaft oars basically they've got thinner shafts than a standard standard oar so basically less wind resistance going going into the wind um but you know that's obviously not available to everyone but i really enjoy the feel of these reduced diameter shaft oars that they feel a lot lighter going into a headwind it doesn't feel like you're pushing into the wind like it does with a normal diameter shaft oar and so yeah i'd recommend getting a set of these if you're sculling a lot you know you're into the sport you really like it you know please get your hands on a set to try and then you can go from there decide whether or not you want to buy a pair
and although it's not everyone's favorite there are a few things you can really focus on to get the most out of your race or your training session so the first one i'd say is probably as quick and clean as possible so in a headwind typically you you your blade will come forward and if you do it if you square up slowly the wind will catch your blade it'll go up in the air and then you have to come down a long way to get it in the water so you want to be squaring up quickly closer to the last minute but you still won't be too late because if you start squaring up too late you'll still have the same problem of not being out of place quickly enough so you still have to square up around three quarter slide but do it relatively quickly make sure the wind doesn't have a chance to lift it up straight through and then in quickly and so that'll that'll give you a bit more a bit more preciseness around the catch you also have to make sure in a headwind it's very tempting to try to increase your rating in a headwind just because you don't feel like you can get full length stroke there's some people that can do this really well although i'd say for the majority maybe 90 percent of people you're still better off going for as much length as possible in the headwind so make sure you get your full length finish your stroke fully off and get the most of your blade in the water the chances are that you'll be rating a lower rate than you do typically so if you had a tailwind or if you had still conditions you'd be able to rate a lot higher with ease but because you're rating lower you really have to make sure you get the full length get the blade in and make the most of it while it's in the water because when it's out of the water you know there's a good chance you'll be hitting the water like because there'll be waves um you know that'll throw the boat from side to side and it'll be hard to get your catch so you really have to focus on your length getting your blade in nice and quickly other things that people often think about doing is changing their gearing so basically making their their outboard shorter so making their oar a bit shorter and making itself a bit lighter while this can in theory work quite well in practice what usually happens is the person ends up rating about the same as they would if the gearing was longer but they don't have as much gr much purchase on the water they're not doing as much work through the water because the outboard's shorter and so the boat ends up going slower so it's probably best if you're not used to changing your oars and you can't you haven't noticed a real change when you do that to keep your oars at the same as what they are normally in rough conditions just because you're most most likely to be able to do well with what you used to and if you go the other way there's a chance that it will be slower so another thing you can do if you've got your hands on them is get a set of reduced diameter shaft oars basically they've got thinner shafts than a standard standard oar so basically less wind resistance going going into the wind um but you know that's obviously not available to everyone but i really enjoy the feel of these reduced diameter shaft oars that they feel a lot lighter going into a headwind it doesn't feel like you're pushing into the wind like it does with a normal diameter shaft oar and so yeah i'd recommend getting a set of these if you're sculling a lot you know you're into the sport you really like it you know please get your hands on a set to try and then you can go from there decide whether or not you want to buy a pair