Technique of a Rowing World Champion
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In 2008 Ken was fortunate enough to coach Carley Cottam, who won a gold medal at the U23 World Championships in the lightweight single scull.
In this video, Ken runs through the key technical aspects of her rowing stroke, which he believes most contributed to her excellent result. |
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Video Transcript
I was lucky enough to be the person coaching Carly Cottom when she won the Under 23 world championship in 2008 in the lightweight single scull and i've got some footage here to have a look at that's a bit old and so the quality is not that high because the technology wasn't as good as it is these days but but the footage i have is about five six weeks before the world championships where she won the gold medal and it's interesting to have a look at the technique and see what particular aspects that we think uh made her into a world championship what particular characteristics in her rowing technique that worked for a lightweight single sculler bear in mind the maximum weight she was allowed to be was 59 kilos and she actually weighed in at about 55 kilos so very fast and not not a large athlete by any measure so interesting to see her technique so let's have a closer look i'll just play it through at normal speed and things i want you to look for is in an overview perspective is how the blades enter the water and the load is picked up with a gentle sort of a movement and then accelerates through to the finish we'll have a little bit closer look at it in a moment a few other aspects of the rowing stroke but there's a few items here that that really stand out in my mind as to how to make a boat go fast so if we just pick on a particular stroke here so if we're coming into the catch a few things i'll point out as we as we go along again sorry for the footage that technology wasn't there first thing i'd like us to look at is what's happening with the shins here so if we come back out and we're coming into the catch you can see that the shins get to a slightly over vertical position at the catch let's now watch what happens particularly watch the hands so let's watch the hands here and watch what happens to the seat here at various parts of the stroke so if we just go through it very slowly you can see that the first movement is clearly upwards with the hands and there's no movement on the seat let's do it again until the blades enter the water and then there's a bit of a movement because there must be as the blade gets covered
quite like that and so then we're well connected
if we look at what happens next though this is the bit that i think is important and it's hard to see if i slow it down but you can see this first part of the stroke through to about there there's no shoulder lift arms are straight a good hang there not grabbing in her shoulders and then if we go a little further forward you can see that she opens the body up against the legs whilst her legs are still going and essentially finishes it all off together difficult frame by frame with old footage let's watch it again and just watch that movement you can see it it looks like the initial part of the catch there's just this picking up the load without real aggression in that first part of the drive phase this first part here blade goes in picks up the load and then it accelerates through to the finish so you can see the handle gets faster and faster towards the finish but not right at the catch and so at the catch carly's picking up the load very well there and then accelerating through once she's connected and i think that that's one of the secrets to making a boat go fast there's a few other items here which which i find interesting as well and i remember when i was coaching her it was uh she was squaring up quite early and so i asked her to square up a little later which she did and then this level of squaring up particularly frightened me because you can see here that the blades almost squaring up as it goes into the water so there's very light square now i'd prefer to have it a little bit earlier than that just for comfort so less likelihood of getting a crab but once Carley had changed to that technique uh there was no way i was able to change it back however from a practical perspective particularly if you're in a condition where you have headwinds and the like it's clear that looking at these blades as they as they square up going into the water then the least squaring the later the square the less likely you are to end up with issues from wind and waves and the like so very nice way to take the catch if you can but bear in mind you have to have a fairly high level of skill otherwise the slightest problem like a wave or or a bit of imbalance can really upset you and ruin your day because you'd catch a crab potentially straight away then if we go through to the finish the other thing i'd like you to watch is as carley comes off the finish you can see that the hands go away and the body goes up and over her pelvis and then the legs start to break solidly so if we go through it again you can see it's there's good separation in that the hands are fully extended away from the body before the body's fully rocked over which gives really good rhythm in the boat so just a few things that i think are worth watching for there the first one is the shins and how they arrive at the catch the second thing to watch for is
is what happens to the hands here as the blades go into the water you can see that there's very little movement of the body as that blade goes into the water it's just the lifting of the hands and as the blade starts to go into the water then there's a little bit of movement in the seat just do it a few times you can see the seat just starts to move just there but then the thing that i think makes the boat quite fast in this particular case is the fact that once that blades entered the water then carly was in no hurry to really pack the power onto it she let the blade get well connected with the water before opening up and finishing the stroke off i think that's where the secret comes from sure getting the blade into the water in an efficient way without damaging the run of the boat that's very important but then once you're in there you need to wait for that feeling of connection before you drive it through to the finish so very successful rower and as evidence in winning the world championship in 2008
quite like that and so then we're well connected
if we look at what happens next though this is the bit that i think is important and it's hard to see if i slow it down but you can see this first part of the stroke through to about there there's no shoulder lift arms are straight a good hang there not grabbing in her shoulders and then if we go a little further forward you can see that she opens the body up against the legs whilst her legs are still going and essentially finishes it all off together difficult frame by frame with old footage let's watch it again and just watch that movement you can see it it looks like the initial part of the catch there's just this picking up the load without real aggression in that first part of the drive phase this first part here blade goes in picks up the load and then it accelerates through to the finish so you can see the handle gets faster and faster towards the finish but not right at the catch and so at the catch carly's picking up the load very well there and then accelerating through once she's connected and i think that that's one of the secrets to making a boat go fast there's a few other items here which which i find interesting as well and i remember when i was coaching her it was uh she was squaring up quite early and so i asked her to square up a little later which she did and then this level of squaring up particularly frightened me because you can see here that the blades almost squaring up as it goes into the water so there's very light square now i'd prefer to have it a little bit earlier than that just for comfort so less likelihood of getting a crab but once Carley had changed to that technique uh there was no way i was able to change it back however from a practical perspective particularly if you're in a condition where you have headwinds and the like it's clear that looking at these blades as they as they square up going into the water then the least squaring the later the square the less likely you are to end up with issues from wind and waves and the like so very nice way to take the catch if you can but bear in mind you have to have a fairly high level of skill otherwise the slightest problem like a wave or or a bit of imbalance can really upset you and ruin your day because you'd catch a crab potentially straight away then if we go through to the finish the other thing i'd like you to watch is as carley comes off the finish you can see that the hands go away and the body goes up and over her pelvis and then the legs start to break solidly so if we go through it again you can see it's there's good separation in that the hands are fully extended away from the body before the body's fully rocked over which gives really good rhythm in the boat so just a few things that i think are worth watching for there the first one is the shins and how they arrive at the catch the second thing to watch for is
is what happens to the hands here as the blades go into the water you can see that there's very little movement of the body as that blade goes into the water it's just the lifting of the hands and as the blade starts to go into the water then there's a little bit of movement in the seat just do it a few times you can see the seat just starts to move just there but then the thing that i think makes the boat quite fast in this particular case is the fact that once that blades entered the water then carly was in no hurry to really pack the power onto it she let the blade get well connected with the water before opening up and finishing the stroke off i think that's where the secret comes from sure getting the blade into the water in an efficient way without damaging the run of the boat that's very important but then once you're in there you need to wait for that feeling of connection before you drive it through to the finish so very successful rower and as evidence in winning the world championship in 2008