Change the way you think about opening the body when rowing

The way you open your body is crucial; you can convert the power in your legs to boat speed or negate them entirely. In this video, Lachlan Davey discusses why you need to change how you think about opening the body. When and how to open the body is often a source of confusion for rowers and coaches.

Video Transcript

​so there's a fair bit of confusion with
rowers when it comes to opening the

body and what that actually means a lot
of people and coaches as well think that

opening the body means sort of opening
up with the shoulders like this like you

know like changing the position of the
upper body like this when we're talking

about opening the body up at the catch
so you come in to be coming to the catch

we're talking about opening up with the
lower body so the lower body against the

legs at the catch and then the upper
body towards the finish and so what

we're talking about with upper body you
know from the chest up think about that

is upper body it's the shoulders so you
don't want to be lifting at the catch

with the shoulders you don't be lifting
up like this you want to be starting to

get that power through the lower body
and using that push against the legs so

come into the catch hang with the arms
so at the catch place the blade push

with the legs and at the same time start
to engage this lower body and then

towards the end of the stroke open up
with the upper body

so the catch place hang with the arms
push with the legs and start to open up

with this lower body here so you really
want to connect the strong muscles of

the legs the strong muscles in the back
and hold that through that first part of

the drive phase pushing down holding and
then the upper body comes into it so

when we're talking about opening up the
body at the catch that's what we're

talking about we're talking about the
lower body and what we're really doing

is talking about engagement it's very
hard if you're pushing with the legs and

you're well connected and hanging with
the arms to actually open that body up

at all and that's what you want in a
sense you want to be loaded up but you

don't want to be opening up because that
would indicate that you're not pushing

hard enough with the legs so it's a bit
of a mental trick to try and get you to

become more engaged so engaging the legs
through the body and into the arms

so at the finish tap down come forward to
set your position off the back come into

the catch place the blade push with the
legs engage the lower body start opening

up or un-curling as Ken would say and
then as you get towards the finish you

start to open up with upper body and tap
out go on to the next stroke so try and

think about opening the body up but
we're talking about the lower body of

the catch the upper body at the finish
and we don't want to be you know making

any big movements it's just a very
continuous open opening up that's not up

like this it's not like any big
movements with the shoulders it's hang

push open with the lower body finish
with the upper body continue on to the

next stroke