Techniques and Exercises for Maintaining Maximum Boat Speed when rowing
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In this video, John uses a series of exercises to help his crew keep the boat moving quickly and efficiently at a high rate. He utilises different exercises for each part of the stroke sequence, catch, drive, finish and recovery.
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Video Transcript
Nice work feel the run
We're just going to paddle down here for a bit further i want to do an exercise we started on it early in the week about doing a light stroke like just sort of letting the blade sit in the water and then coming to us and then one do one hard one we're gonna try that again change that a little bit of intent on what we're doing around that front turn so maybe we'll do it in pairs to start off with uh Sophie can start they'll set the boat up
go off square blades then we'll do alternating one dead light one hard okay ready row
all right we're doing one hard one light so basically you're gonna nearly take your hands off the handles and I think you're gonna get the point where you're gonna have to take your hands off the handles because you're gonna not be able to not pull while your sitting there so this is a hard one so let the handles go and stay in front of the handles they'll come to you don't forget one hard take your hands off here take your hands off
that's better
hard take your hands off
yeah you want to pull don't you on that light one
stay forward you've got to push here
that's the one we're looking for
take your hands off
I want you to do two hard and one light do two hard now
take your hands off here take them off let it flow two hard let's get the boat speed up a bit more
one light
and three hard
one light take your hands off
try and feel that hard stroke that first time just a little bit like a light a good connection
alright you can easy oar that's good we'll thaw out stern pair
freezing there?
okay just take off the square blades then we'll go into it ready row
all right so that's one hard here and then a light take your hands off
take your hands off take your hands off just let them drop in around that front turn
you're gonna push your legs first
on the light one push your legs stand stay with the handle yeah don't push push that's it just try and use your thumbs to sort of
guide yourself back on the light stroke
alright lets to two hard
nice and light don't pull go to three hard here build the boat speed up
take your weight off the handles take your weight off right off here all right
stay with the speed of the handle
all right easy oar there all right all four take off square blades
okay
attention row
the boat's going to be moving a little quicker now
I'm going to go to one hard one light
go light on this
you got to push your legs first girls
all right let's keep your handles hovering up the head holding over the handle and as comes to you
really think about that hard stroke
feel that length loose length out there and just push the hips really hang
good
all i'm doing is watching to see all the knees go down together on the light stroke
a bit slow
slow with the leg drive on that light stroke
go to two hard
just push the knees down quicker that's it try and release the grip on the light
release the grip on the light stroke
catches are dropping in a little better
all right continue rowing hard square blades
so lets go to delayed feather step it out together
nice big movements around the back turn
so sitting nice and tall lets go round to our bow side now look for that looseness around the front turn
always looking to sort of have that light feeling around that front
that's good
we're gonna do a couple of bursts down here i'm gonna do 10 strokes at 26 just 10. i'll call it in a minute when we straighten up
all right still delayed feather and 26
okay moving in after this now 10 strokes don't muscle it push it away step
that's it now break it back down to 18 sit back on it sit back
hold the legs on
just head to your stroke side a bit
Ok we're going to to a 10 stroke burst 30 strokes a minute sit back on it feel the boat run underneath us
after this what we're going to do now in the water is we'll do a drill where we put the get the boat moving and we'll have it keep it stable with the bow person sitting out and then we have the rest of the crew put the blade in and get let it push them down the slide and so we let put the blade in and don't push it all and just let the water the pressure against the back of the blade to push them down the slide so they understand the concept that as the blade goes into the water it's going to move their body a little bit
and it's important in that drill that they keep their bodies and arms in the catch position arms straight body over no movement there put the blade in and let it push them down the slide a little bit so they get to understand that feeling then we progress from that to have them put the blade in and then pause for a moment and then push again trying to get that separation between putting the blade in and the pushing and once they've got that under control then we'll try to row normally and by rowing normally under this method as they come into the catch they lift the handle up to the right level so it's putting the blade in quite deep and then once it's in and deep then they apply the power with the leg drive and not before we're going to head down here and the first drill i want to do is to put the blade in have probably have two people sit out and row the boat and you're rowing the boat along and i want you to put the blade in and every third stroke i want you to let it push you down the slide so keep your arms fully straight body in the rock over position and just let it let the oar push you down the slide and when you get to essentially back chocks then just open up and finish it off and then do two strokes at a normal to get the boat moving again and then put the blade in let it push you down the slide the purpose of this is so you can understand that the boat actually does that to you anyway so even if you're rowing at normal pace in a race as you start to put the blade in the water it goes under the water and as it goes under the water it starts to move and you want it to move your body ie you want to move your seat you don't want it to move your shoulders or your arms you want to just keep that really in the right position and just push it back down the seat okay so do that every third stroke and then the two normal strokes to keep the boat moving and then do one where you push it down the slide and then swap over after you've done it say 10 times swap over and let the other two do the same thing make sense did you hear that over here yeah cool so what we're trying to do is to put the blade into the water let it push you so you get that sensation what it's like when you're rowing normally what we want to do is put the blade in and let it push you a little bit whilst it gets deep and connected and then you drive but not before all good all right let's try that down to the corner here the thing you've got to be really careful of is when you're doing the stroke where you let it push you you've got to make sure that you actually don't push it all the temptation is to push a little bit anyway so try and not push at all
make sure you don't push it all don't pull it at all just let it push you it's always a temptation to push
no you're still pushing on that one where you don't push make sure that you don't push it all put the blade in and let it push you that's a bit better
Really resist that temptation to push put the blade in keep your body and your arms in the same position of the catch and let it just push you down the slide
the blade starts to go in it has to push you a little bit and so what i want to do now is the same drill essentially but i want you to uh every stroke put the blade into the water and then just wait till you feel it push you so you know what that feeling is like now you put the blade in it pushes you once you put the blade in and let it push you just a little bit and then push so a little bit is like that but you want to be able to just feel it so hold yourself at the catch put the blade in and then push if you can do it because you would do it in twos i want you to start off by uh counting the blade in so if for example if the bow two was sitting out and the stern two were the ones rowing on the first couple of times i want you to come to the catch with your oars the blades out of the water blade square and then one of you out of the two that are not doing it are doing a drill call up and then push and that sort of time frame up push so that's too big a time frame for normal rowing but it's to emphasize the point that we're going to go up first then we're going to push is that clear to everybody okay so do it in twos and the two that are not rowing keep the boat pretty well balanced because when you're out at the catch like that with your blades off the water we want the blades off the water but we don't want them way up in the air we want them as you would normally so just off the water and then up push and so do that perhaps 10 times and then go into the into the drill of putting the blade in and letting you feel the push before you push so you feel the blade kick in your hand a bit and then push everyone good with that all right let's go
remember to put the blade in just with your arms not with your shoulders
let's have a little bit more delay on the leg drive in stroke seat so put the blade in and then wait a little bit longer
that's better
and one of the things that uh that you're doing and everyone's doing it is the issue of coming into the catch and then putting the blade in really quickly and then waiting for a second to let it get connected and then pushing what's what you tend to do is because you come into the catch fairly steadily especially when you're rowing at a low rating so you're coming into the catch nice and steady and then you put the blade in and then you hesitate for a minute and then you push it's the what happens people automatically put the blade in slowly because they're coming in on a slow movement and they put the blade in then they go out with a bit of a slow movement and so the body just does everything a bit slow so what you want to do is separate that connection so come into the catch when you get to put the catch in put it in quick really put it in really quick and then slow again so it's about making sure that you control the different aspects of the of the catch so you come into the catch nice and steady and you put it in really quickly then you feel for that connection and then you push and so it's about putting the blade in quickly as a separate movement rather than a flowing movement if you try and treat it as a flowing movement it ends up being come down the catch nice and steady and i'll put the blade in nice and steady and that's too slow so i'm going to come into the catch put it in quick okay and by quick i mean really quick so if we can just have you um if you let us go for a minute there and so when we drift off i want you to have the bow two sit out and balance the boat and have no let's do the other way around stern two sit out and balance the boat and when the bow two i want you to come into the catch position with your blades off the water
and square now I want you to put it in quickly no no no quickly super quick it's a really quick movement coming up and remember back on the pontoon we want to have the hand so it's almost parallel with the gunnel so it's got to go in deep so you want to do it again quick and deep know you rest out in a stern pair do it same deal
it's a really quick and remember it's only with your forearms it's not not shoulders it's just that and it's got to go in so that it's buried and so it goes a long way whack that makes sense all right we'll head back for lunch and so on the way back how about you row all four and just try and practice that delay getting the catch in put the catch in sorry put the catch in quickly and then hesitate a moment before you push right you go come into the front put the blade in quick feel that connection then push don't lift with your shoulders just push
that's good much better catches guys much better that's really good three seat everyone else just make sure you have got that blade in the water before you push delay the push even more make sure the blade goes in before the leg drive that's better
that's better
it'll feel pretty strange for a while it'll feel like you're sitting out the front there forever just waiting for that blade to get connected that's better much better
Really focus on going to the front put the blade in really quickly and deep and then wait to feel the load pick up the load and then push so no leg drive before the blades in the water and connected
So the three seat there let's wait a little bit for the connection put it in and wait you gotta wait you gotta be patient out the front so we're gonna i want you to all wait a little bit more wait a little bit more put it in and then wait
pick up the load and then push put it in wait pick up the load push
so what we're trying to do with the whole this whole purpose is that if we start to push before the blades in the water clearly we're going to push the boat backwards and so we want to avoid that if we put the blade in and get it well connected then the first movement is to pick up the load because if you row it into the water then you're going to lose some power there because it's not connected yet so you're just going to be moving some water so we want to put it in and wait for the connection before we apply any power that way with the boat so we put it in put it in deep and then we pick up the load and then gradually accelerate it through to the finish and so it feels weird i'm sure you so it feels like you're sitting out the front there forever just waiting for that feeling of the connection but the purpose is to get it in and get it well connected so then when you do drive that you're gradually accelerating the boat right the way through so the purpose of it is essentially twofold the first one is to make sure that we don't waste any leg drive and the second one is to make sure we don't kick the boat backwards at the same time and you'll find that the worst that can happen is that if you put it in and you don't push early enough the worst that can happen is that you'll feel the oar kick in your hands a little bit and in fact if you're in a race situation or just rowing along anywhere and you want to check whether you've got your catches right have i got the blade in and connected before i push all you need to do is to delay your leg drive just a fraction and don't tell anyone just do it no one will notice so put the blade in delay your leg drive just a fraction and if you don't feel the handle kick in your hands it means that you were missing the catch whereas if you're missing if you had the catch exactly right as soon as you delayed your leg drive a little bit if you felt it kick in your hands you'd say yep i'm on the money my catch is good so you can check anytime you like just by delaying it so heading back in here just into individually just try and delay that put the blade in delay the leg drive a little bit until you feel the kick and if you don't feel a kick at all delay it a bit more and a bit more and a bit more until you do and then eventually you'll get almost a perfect catch if you've got it in and there's no kick but if you delayed a little bit there was and that's about as good as you're going to get as far as connection goes all right let me try that on the way in
on this don't rush off the back drive it through the hips leave it long out the front
back down to 18
all right a little bit to our bow side
more burst of 10 strokes at 34 this time 34.
that's why we straightened up
okay moving in after this now drive it through the hips
sit back on it
lock the legs down last few you
break it down on this
how'd you get what we're going to do now in the water is we'll do a drill where we put the get the boat moving and we'll have it keep it stable with the bow person sitting out and then we have the rest of the crew put the blade in and get let it push them down the slide and so we let put the blade in and don't push it all and just let the water the pressure against the back of the blade to push them down the slide so they understand the concept that as the blade goes into the water it's going to move their body a little bit
and it's important in that drill that they keep their bodies and arms in the catch position arms straight body over no movement there put the blade in and let it push them down the slide a little bit so they get to understand that feeling then we progress from that to have them put the blade in and then pause for a moment and then push again trying to get that separation between putting the blade in and the pushing and once they've got that under control then we'll try to row normally and by rowing normally under this method as they come into the catch they lift the handle up to the right level so it's putting the blade in quite deep and then once it's in and deep then they apply the power with the leg drive and not before we're going to head down here and the first drill i want to do is to put the blade in have probably have two people sit out and row the boat and you're rowing the boat along and i want you to put the blade in and every third stroke i want you to let it push you down the slide so keep your arms fully straight body in the rock over position and just let it let the oar push you down the slide and when you get to essentially back chocks then just open up and finish it off and then do two strokes at a normal to get the boat moving again and then put the blade in let it push you down the slide the purpose of this is so you can understand that the boat actually does that to you anyway so even if you're rowing at normal pace in a race as you start to put the blade in the water it goes under the water and as it goes under the water it starts to move and you want it to move your body ie you want to move your seat you don't want it to move your shoulders or your arms you want to just keep that really in the right position and just push it back down the seat okay so do that every third stroke and then the two normal strokes to keep the boat moving and then do one where you push it down the slide and then swap over after you've done it say 10 times swap over and let the other two do the same thing make sense did you hear that over here yeah cool so what we're trying to do is to put the blade into the water let it push you so you get that sensation what it's like when you're rowing normally what we want to do is put the blade in and let it push you a little bit whilst it gets deep and connected and then you drive but not before all good all right let's try that down to the corner here the thing you've got to be really careful of is when you're doing the stroke where you let it push you you've got to make sure that you actually don't push it all the temptation is to push a little bit anyway so try and not push at all
make sure you don't push it all don't pull it at all just let it push you it's always a temptation to push
no you're still pushing on that one where you don't push make sure that you don't push it all put the blade in and let it push you that's a bit better
Really resist that temptation to push put the blade in keep your body and your arms in the same position of the catch and let it just push you down the slide
the blade starts to go in it has to push you a little bit and so what i want to do now is the same drill essentially but i want you to uh every stroke put the blade into the water and then just wait till you feel it push you so you know what that feeling is like now you put the blade in it pushes you once you put the blade in and let it push you just a little bit and then push so a little bit is like that but you want to be able to just feel it so hold yourself at the catch put the blade in and then push if you can do it because you would do it in twos i want you to start off by uh counting the blade in so if for example if the bow two was sitting out and the stern two were the ones rowing on the first couple of times i want you to come to the catch with your oars the blades out of the water blade square and then one of you out of the two that are not doing it are doing a drill call up and then push and that sort of time frame up push so that's too big a time frame for normal rowing but it's to emphasize the point that we're going to go up first then we're going to push is that clear to everybody okay so do it in twos and the two that are not rowing keep the boat pretty well balanced because when you're out at the catch like that with your blades off the water we want the blades off the water but we don't want them way up in the air we want them as you would normally so just off the water and then up push and so do that perhaps 10 times and then go into the into the drill of putting the blade in and letting you feel the push before you push so you feel the blade kick in your hand a bit and then push everyone good with that all right let's go
remember to put the blade in just with your arms not with your shoulders
let's have a little bit more delay on the leg drive in stroke seat so put the blade in and then wait a little bit longer
that's better
and one of the things that uh that you're doing and everyone's doing it is the issue of coming into the catch and then putting the blade in really quickly and then waiting for a second to let it get connected and then pushing what's what you tend to do is because you come into the catch fairly steadily especially when you're rowing at a low rating so you're coming into the catch nice and steady and then you put the blade in and then you hesitate for a minute and then you push it's the what happens people automatically put the blade in slowly because they're coming in on a slow movement and they put the blade in then they go out with a bit of a slow movement and so the body just does everything a bit slow so what you want to do is separate that connection so come into the catch when you get to put the catch in put it in quick really put it in really quick and then slow again so it's about making sure that you control the different aspects of the of the catch so you come into the catch nice and steady and you put it in really quickly then you feel for that connection and then you push and so it's about putting the blade in quickly as a separate movement rather than a flowing movement if you try and treat it as a flowing movement it ends up being come down the catch nice and steady and i'll put the blade in nice and steady and that's too slow so i'm going to come into the catch put it in quick okay and by quick i mean really quick so if we can just have you um if you let us go for a minute there and so when we drift off i want you to have the bow two sit out and balance the boat and have no let's do the other way around stern two sit out and balance the boat and when the bow two i want you to come into the catch position with your blades off the water
and square now I want you to put it in quickly no no no quickly super quick it's a really quick movement coming up and remember back on the pontoon we want to have the hand so it's almost parallel with the gunnel so it's got to go in deep so you want to do it again quick and deep know you rest out in a stern pair do it same deal
it's a really quick and remember it's only with your forearms it's not not shoulders it's just that and it's got to go in so that it's buried and so it goes a long way whack that makes sense all right we'll head back for lunch and so on the way back how about you row all four and just try and practice that delay getting the catch in put the catch in sorry put the catch in quickly and then hesitate a moment before you push right you go come into the front put the blade in quick feel that connection then push don't lift with your shoulders just push
that's good much better catches guys much better that's really good three seat everyone else just make sure you have got that blade in the water before you push delay the push even more make sure the blade goes in before the leg drive that's better
that's better
it'll feel pretty strange for a while it'll feel like you're sitting out the front there forever just waiting for that blade to get connected that's better much better
Really focus on going to the front put the blade in really quickly and deep and then wait to feel the load pick up the load and then push so no leg drive before the blades in the water and connected
So the three seat there let's wait a little bit for the connection put it in and wait you gotta wait you gotta be patient out the front so we're gonna i want you to all wait a little bit more wait a little bit more put it in and then wait
pick up the load and then push put it in wait pick up the load push
so what we're trying to do with the whole this whole purpose is that if we start to push before the blades in the water clearly we're going to push the boat backwards and so we want to avoid that if we put the blade in and get it well connected then the first movement is to pick up the load because if you row it into the water then you're going to lose some power there because it's not connected yet so you're just going to be moving some water so we want to put it in and wait for the connection before we apply any power that way with the boat so we put it in put it in deep and then we pick up the load and then gradually accelerate it through to the finish and so it feels weird i'm sure you so it feels like you're sitting out the front there forever just waiting for that feeling of the connection but the purpose is to get it in and get it well connected so then when you do drive that you're gradually accelerating the boat right the way through so the purpose of it is essentially twofold the first one is to make sure that we don't waste any leg drive and the second one is to make sure we don't kick the boat backwards at the same time and you'll find that the worst that can happen is that if you put it in and you don't push early enough the worst that can happen is that you'll feel the oar kick in your hands a little bit and in fact if you're in a race situation or just rowing along anywhere and you want to check whether you've got your catches right have i got the blade in and connected before i push all you need to do is to delay your leg drive just a fraction and don't tell anyone just do it no one will notice so put the blade in delay your leg drive just a fraction and if you don't feel the handle kick in your hands it means that you were missing the catch whereas if you're missing if you had the catch exactly right as soon as you delayed your leg drive a little bit if you felt it kick in your hands you'd say yep i'm on the money my catch is good so you can check anytime you like just by delaying it so heading back in here just into individually just try and delay that put the blade in delay the leg drive a little bit until you feel the kick and if you don't feel a kick at all delay it a bit more and a bit more and a bit more until you do and then eventually you'll get almost a perfect catch if you've got it in and there's no kick but if you delayed a little bit there was and that's about as good as you're going to get as far as connection goes all right let me try that on the way in on those bursts
how's your 34. did we get to 34. we got there yeah towards the end actually
that's good we're gonna do three cans again we're gonna start at 34 this time okay now i'm 30 down to 26. are you wanting us to do
those oh those first ones i did yeah but not so much 34. not too wow
well you know i mean it was a little bit about i think yesterday's row we you know we found that you know the as we came back to square blades the boat went a little better it's just a little bit more emphasis on trying to push i mean the delay feather exercises it's just an awareness factor that you you can draw up and press out and still move quite quickly you know you know you you gotta find a happy compromise with what you find naturally and what actually work really well for the boat as well somebody's natural rowing won't always make the boat go the fastest you know you turn you draw down and turn and you're comfortable out here you've missed a few percent of pressure you know to send the boat a little bit further
trouble with rowing is especially in lightweight class everybody's the same people people usually go the fastest they're the strongest and the fittest uh the strongest and the best railways you know
have to be as accurate as we possibly can all right so we'll just take off
at 18 again and we'll just call we'll do the first one running again 34. we'll just do our let's not call it a normal feather perfect feathering
just have a little bit of delay in them you know make sure you step out
see do we go on horse here from another
cold weather
all right ready take off from the back it's paddling off okay
okay
all right we get our first 10 at uh 34 we'll move after this stroke on the sun now
that's good nice and pretty
okay break it down on this sit back
so
uh storytelling
make sure we don't overweight at the back turn and find that patience doesn't come down in the right on the intensity moving in after this
on this third sit back on really drive the hips a little bit like coming off the right just really punching the legs
fail the
run i can break it down
so
yeah i hope that around the corner before we do the next last one
so
let's find that light ceiling around that front turn catches a much better here
all right
all right finishing our last burst of uh the 26th
we'll go after this on this
all right precisely
when i relax like that
all the time in the world drive it through the hips
two more strokes
break it down on this
relax that leg
like
all right
so that 34 ended up being quite nice and back down 30 and that 30 was probably might have been your best bit of work all day i reckon the 30.
out of that 30 compared to our 30s on the course
found easier to sustain
We're just going to paddle down here for a bit further i want to do an exercise we started on it early in the week about doing a light stroke like just sort of letting the blade sit in the water and then coming to us and then one do one hard one we're gonna try that again change that a little bit of intent on what we're doing around that front turn so maybe we'll do it in pairs to start off with uh Sophie can start they'll set the boat up
go off square blades then we'll do alternating one dead light one hard okay ready row
all right we're doing one hard one light so basically you're gonna nearly take your hands off the handles and I think you're gonna get the point where you're gonna have to take your hands off the handles because you're gonna not be able to not pull while your sitting there so this is a hard one so let the handles go and stay in front of the handles they'll come to you don't forget one hard take your hands off here take your hands off
that's better
hard take your hands off
yeah you want to pull don't you on that light one
stay forward you've got to push here
that's the one we're looking for
take your hands off
I want you to do two hard and one light do two hard now
take your hands off here take them off let it flow two hard let's get the boat speed up a bit more
one light
and three hard
one light take your hands off
try and feel that hard stroke that first time just a little bit like a light a good connection
alright you can easy oar that's good we'll thaw out stern pair
freezing there?
okay just take off the square blades then we'll go into it ready row
all right so that's one hard here and then a light take your hands off
take your hands off take your hands off just let them drop in around that front turn
you're gonna push your legs first
on the light one push your legs stand stay with the handle yeah don't push push that's it just try and use your thumbs to sort of
guide yourself back on the light stroke
alright lets to two hard
nice and light don't pull go to three hard here build the boat speed up
take your weight off the handles take your weight off right off here all right
stay with the speed of the handle
all right easy oar there all right all four take off square blades
okay
attention row
the boat's going to be moving a little quicker now
I'm going to go to one hard one light
go light on this
you got to push your legs first girls
all right let's keep your handles hovering up the head holding over the handle and as comes to you
really think about that hard stroke
feel that length loose length out there and just push the hips really hang
good
all i'm doing is watching to see all the knees go down together on the light stroke
a bit slow
slow with the leg drive on that light stroke
go to two hard
just push the knees down quicker that's it try and release the grip on the light
release the grip on the light stroke
catches are dropping in a little better
all right continue rowing hard square blades
so lets go to delayed feather step it out together
nice big movements around the back turn
so sitting nice and tall lets go round to our bow side now look for that looseness around the front turn
always looking to sort of have that light feeling around that front
that's good
we're gonna do a couple of bursts down here i'm gonna do 10 strokes at 26 just 10. i'll call it in a minute when we straighten up
all right still delayed feather and 26
okay moving in after this now 10 strokes don't muscle it push it away step
that's it now break it back down to 18 sit back on it sit back
hold the legs on
just head to your stroke side a bit
Ok we're going to to a 10 stroke burst 30 strokes a minute sit back on it feel the boat run underneath us
after this what we're going to do now in the water is we'll do a drill where we put the get the boat moving and we'll have it keep it stable with the bow person sitting out and then we have the rest of the crew put the blade in and get let it push them down the slide and so we let put the blade in and don't push it all and just let the water the pressure against the back of the blade to push them down the slide so they understand the concept that as the blade goes into the water it's going to move their body a little bit
and it's important in that drill that they keep their bodies and arms in the catch position arms straight body over no movement there put the blade in and let it push them down the slide a little bit so they get to understand that feeling then we progress from that to have them put the blade in and then pause for a moment and then push again trying to get that separation between putting the blade in and the pushing and once they've got that under control then we'll try to row normally and by rowing normally under this method as they come into the catch they lift the handle up to the right level so it's putting the blade in quite deep and then once it's in and deep then they apply the power with the leg drive and not before we're going to head down here and the first drill i want to do is to put the blade in have probably have two people sit out and row the boat and you're rowing the boat along and i want you to put the blade in and every third stroke i want you to let it push you down the slide so keep your arms fully straight body in the rock over position and just let it let the oar push you down the slide and when you get to essentially back chocks then just open up and finish it off and then do two strokes at a normal to get the boat moving again and then put the blade in let it push you down the slide the purpose of this is so you can understand that the boat actually does that to you anyway so even if you're rowing at normal pace in a race as you start to put the blade in the water it goes under the water and as it goes under the water it starts to move and you want it to move your body ie you want to move your seat you don't want it to move your shoulders or your arms you want to just keep that really in the right position and just push it back down the seat okay so do that every third stroke and then the two normal strokes to keep the boat moving and then do one where you push it down the slide and then swap over after you've done it say 10 times swap over and let the other two do the same thing make sense did you hear that over here yeah cool so what we're trying to do is to put the blade into the water let it push you so you get that sensation what it's like when you're rowing normally what we want to do is put the blade in and let it push you a little bit whilst it gets deep and connected and then you drive but not before all good all right let's try that down to the corner here the thing you've got to be really careful of is when you're doing the stroke where you let it push you you've got to make sure that you actually don't push it all the temptation is to push a little bit anyway so try and not push at all
make sure you don't push it all don't pull it at all just let it push you it's always a temptation to push
no you're still pushing on that one where you don't push make sure that you don't push it all put the blade in and let it push you that's a bit better
Really resist that temptation to push put the blade in keep your body and your arms in the same position of the catch and let it just push you down the slide
the blade starts to go in it has to push you a little bit and so what i want to do now is the same drill essentially but i want you to uh every stroke put the blade into the water and then just wait till you feel it push you so you know what that feeling is like now you put the blade in it pushes you once you put the blade in and let it push you just a little bit and then push so a little bit is like that but you want to be able to just feel it so hold yourself at the catch put the blade in and then push if you can do it because you would do it in twos i want you to start off by uh counting the blade in so if for example if the bow two was sitting out and the stern two were the ones rowing on the first couple of times i want you to come to the catch with your oars the blades out of the water blade square and then one of you out of the two that are not doing it are doing a drill call up and then push and that sort of time frame up push so that's too big a time frame for normal rowing but it's to emphasize the point that we're going to go up first then we're going to push is that clear to everybody okay so do it in twos and the two that are not rowing keep the boat pretty well balanced because when you're out at the catch like that with your blades off the water we want the blades off the water but we don't want them way up in the air we want them as you would normally so just off the water and then up push and so do that perhaps 10 times and then go into the into the drill of putting the blade in and letting you feel the push before you push so you feel the blade kick in your hand a bit and then push everyone good with that all right let's go
remember to put the blade in just with your arms not with your shoulders
let's have a little bit more delay on the leg drive in stroke seat so put the blade in and then wait a little bit longer
that's better
and one of the things that uh that you're doing and everyone's doing it is the issue of coming into the catch and then putting the blade in really quickly and then waiting for a second to let it get connected and then pushing what's what you tend to do is because you come into the catch fairly steadily especially when you're rowing at a low rating so you're coming into the catch nice and steady and then you put the blade in and then you hesitate for a minute and then you push it's the what happens people automatically put the blade in slowly because they're coming in on a slow movement and they put the blade in then they go out with a bit of a slow movement and so the body just does everything a bit slow so what you want to do is separate that connection so come into the catch when you get to put the catch in put it in quick really put it in really quick and then slow again so it's about making sure that you control the different aspects of the of the catch so you come into the catch nice and steady and you put it in really quickly then you feel for that connection and then you push and so it's about putting the blade in quickly as a separate movement rather than a flowing movement if you try and treat it as a flowing movement it ends up being come down the catch nice and steady and i'll put the blade in nice and steady and that's too slow so i'm going to come into the catch put it in quick okay and by quick i mean really quick so if we can just have you um if you let us go for a minute there and so when we drift off i want you to have the bow two sit out and balance the boat and have no let's do the other way around stern two sit out and balance the boat and when the bow two i want you to come into the catch position with your blades off the water
and square now I want you to put it in quickly no no no quickly super quick it's a really quick movement coming up and remember back on the pontoon we want to have the hand so it's almost parallel with the gunnel so it's got to go in deep so you want to do it again quick and deep know you rest out in a stern pair do it same deal
it's a really quick and remember it's only with your forearms it's not not shoulders it's just that and it's got to go in so that it's buried and so it goes a long way whack that makes sense all right we'll head back for lunch and so on the way back how about you row all four and just try and practice that delay getting the catch in put the catch in sorry put the catch in quickly and then hesitate a moment before you push right you go come into the front put the blade in quick feel that connection then push don't lift with your shoulders just push
that's good much better catches guys much better that's really good three seat everyone else just make sure you have got that blade in the water before you push delay the push even more make sure the blade goes in before the leg drive that's better
that's better
it'll feel pretty strange for a while it'll feel like you're sitting out the front there forever just waiting for that blade to get connected that's better much better
Really focus on going to the front put the blade in really quickly and deep and then wait to feel the load pick up the load and then push so no leg drive before the blades in the water and connected
So the three seat there let's wait a little bit for the connection put it in and wait you gotta wait you gotta be patient out the front so we're gonna i want you to all wait a little bit more wait a little bit more put it in and then wait
pick up the load and then push put it in wait pick up the load push
so what we're trying to do with the whole this whole purpose is that if we start to push before the blades in the water clearly we're going to push the boat backwards and so we want to avoid that if we put the blade in and get it well connected then the first movement is to pick up the load because if you row it into the water then you're going to lose some power there because it's not connected yet so you're just going to be moving some water so we want to put it in and wait for the connection before we apply any power that way with the boat so we put it in put it in deep and then we pick up the load and then gradually accelerate it through to the finish and so it feels weird i'm sure you so it feels like you're sitting out the front there forever just waiting for that feeling of the connection but the purpose is to get it in and get it well connected so then when you do drive that you're gradually accelerating the boat right the way through so the purpose of it is essentially twofold the first one is to make sure that we don't waste any leg drive and the second one is to make sure we don't kick the boat backwards at the same time and you'll find that the worst that can happen is that if you put it in and you don't push early enough the worst that can happen is that you'll feel the oar kick in your hands a little bit and in fact if you're in a race situation or just rowing along anywhere and you want to check whether you've got your catches right have i got the blade in and connected before i push all you need to do is to delay your leg drive just a fraction and don't tell anyone just do it no one will notice so put the blade in delay your leg drive just a fraction and if you don't feel the handle kick in your hands it means that you were missing the catch whereas if you're missing if you had the catch exactly right as soon as you delayed your leg drive a little bit if you felt it kick in your hands you'd say yep i'm on the money my catch is good so you can check anytime you like just by delaying it so heading back in here just into individually just try and delay that put the blade in delay the leg drive a little bit until you feel the kick and if you don't feel a kick at all delay it a bit more and a bit more and a bit more until you do and then eventually you'll get almost a perfect catch if you've got it in and there's no kick but if you delayed a little bit there was and that's about as good as you're going to get as far as connection goes all right let me try that on the way in
on this don't rush off the back drive it through the hips leave it long out the front
back down to 18
all right a little bit to our bow side
more burst of 10 strokes at 34 this time 34.
that's why we straightened up
okay moving in after this now drive it through the hips
sit back on it
lock the legs down last few you
break it down on this
how'd you get what we're going to do now in the water is we'll do a drill where we put the get the boat moving and we'll have it keep it stable with the bow person sitting out and then we have the rest of the crew put the blade in and get let it push them down the slide and so we let put the blade in and don't push it all and just let the water the pressure against the back of the blade to push them down the slide so they understand the concept that as the blade goes into the water it's going to move their body a little bit
and it's important in that drill that they keep their bodies and arms in the catch position arms straight body over no movement there put the blade in and let it push them down the slide a little bit so they get to understand that feeling then we progress from that to have them put the blade in and then pause for a moment and then push again trying to get that separation between putting the blade in and the pushing and once they've got that under control then we'll try to row normally and by rowing normally under this method as they come into the catch they lift the handle up to the right level so it's putting the blade in quite deep and then once it's in and deep then they apply the power with the leg drive and not before we're going to head down here and the first drill i want to do is to put the blade in have probably have two people sit out and row the boat and you're rowing the boat along and i want you to put the blade in and every third stroke i want you to let it push you down the slide so keep your arms fully straight body in the rock over position and just let it let the oar push you down the slide and when you get to essentially back chocks then just open up and finish it off and then do two strokes at a normal to get the boat moving again and then put the blade in let it push you down the slide the purpose of this is so you can understand that the boat actually does that to you anyway so even if you're rowing at normal pace in a race as you start to put the blade in the water it goes under the water and as it goes under the water it starts to move and you want it to move your body ie you want to move your seat you don't want it to move your shoulders or your arms you want to just keep that really in the right position and just push it back down the seat okay so do that every third stroke and then the two normal strokes to keep the boat moving and then do one where you push it down the slide and then swap over after you've done it say 10 times swap over and let the other two do the same thing make sense did you hear that over here yeah cool so what we're trying to do is to put the blade into the water let it push you so you get that sensation what it's like when you're rowing normally what we want to do is put the blade in and let it push you a little bit whilst it gets deep and connected and then you drive but not before all good all right let's try that down to the corner here the thing you've got to be really careful of is when you're doing the stroke where you let it push you you've got to make sure that you actually don't push it all the temptation is to push a little bit anyway so try and not push at all
make sure you don't push it all don't pull it at all just let it push you it's always a temptation to push
no you're still pushing on that one where you don't push make sure that you don't push it all put the blade in and let it push you that's a bit better
Really resist that temptation to push put the blade in keep your body and your arms in the same position of the catch and let it just push you down the slide
the blade starts to go in it has to push you a little bit and so what i want to do now is the same drill essentially but i want you to uh every stroke put the blade into the water and then just wait till you feel it push you so you know what that feeling is like now you put the blade in it pushes you once you put the blade in and let it push you just a little bit and then push so a little bit is like that but you want to be able to just feel it so hold yourself at the catch put the blade in and then push if you can do it because you would do it in twos i want you to start off by uh counting the blade in so if for example if the bow two was sitting out and the stern two were the ones rowing on the first couple of times i want you to come to the catch with your oars the blades out of the water blade square and then one of you out of the two that are not doing it are doing a drill call up and then push and that sort of time frame up push so that's too big a time frame for normal rowing but it's to emphasize the point that we're going to go up first then we're going to push is that clear to everybody okay so do it in twos and the two that are not rowing keep the boat pretty well balanced because when you're out at the catch like that with your blades off the water we want the blades off the water but we don't want them way up in the air we want them as you would normally so just off the water and then up push and so do that perhaps 10 times and then go into the into the drill of putting the blade in and letting you feel the push before you push so you feel the blade kick in your hand a bit and then push everyone good with that all right let's go
remember to put the blade in just with your arms not with your shoulders
let's have a little bit more delay on the leg drive in stroke seat so put the blade in and then wait a little bit longer
that's better
and one of the things that uh that you're doing and everyone's doing it is the issue of coming into the catch and then putting the blade in really quickly and then waiting for a second to let it get connected and then pushing what's what you tend to do is because you come into the catch fairly steadily especially when you're rowing at a low rating so you're coming into the catch nice and steady and then you put the blade in and then you hesitate for a minute and then you push it's the what happens people automatically put the blade in slowly because they're coming in on a slow movement and they put the blade in then they go out with a bit of a slow movement and so the body just does everything a bit slow so what you want to do is separate that connection so come into the catch when you get to put the catch in put it in quick really put it in really quick and then slow again so it's about making sure that you control the different aspects of the of the catch so you come into the catch nice and steady and you put it in really quickly then you feel for that connection and then you push and so it's about putting the blade in quickly as a separate movement rather than a flowing movement if you try and treat it as a flowing movement it ends up being come down the catch nice and steady and i'll put the blade in nice and steady and that's too slow so i'm going to come into the catch put it in quick okay and by quick i mean really quick so if we can just have you um if you let us go for a minute there and so when we drift off i want you to have the bow two sit out and balance the boat and have no let's do the other way around stern two sit out and balance the boat and when the bow two i want you to come into the catch position with your blades off the water
and square now I want you to put it in quickly no no no quickly super quick it's a really quick movement coming up and remember back on the pontoon we want to have the hand so it's almost parallel with the gunnel so it's got to go in deep so you want to do it again quick and deep know you rest out in a stern pair do it same deal
it's a really quick and remember it's only with your forearms it's not not shoulders it's just that and it's got to go in so that it's buried and so it goes a long way whack that makes sense all right we'll head back for lunch and so on the way back how about you row all four and just try and practice that delay getting the catch in put the catch in sorry put the catch in quickly and then hesitate a moment before you push right you go come into the front put the blade in quick feel that connection then push don't lift with your shoulders just push
that's good much better catches guys much better that's really good three seat everyone else just make sure you have got that blade in the water before you push delay the push even more make sure the blade goes in before the leg drive that's better
that's better
it'll feel pretty strange for a while it'll feel like you're sitting out the front there forever just waiting for that blade to get connected that's better much better
Really focus on going to the front put the blade in really quickly and deep and then wait to feel the load pick up the load and then push so no leg drive before the blades in the water and connected
So the three seat there let's wait a little bit for the connection put it in and wait you gotta wait you gotta be patient out the front so we're gonna i want you to all wait a little bit more wait a little bit more put it in and then wait
pick up the load and then push put it in wait pick up the load push
so what we're trying to do with the whole this whole purpose is that if we start to push before the blades in the water clearly we're going to push the boat backwards and so we want to avoid that if we put the blade in and get it well connected then the first movement is to pick up the load because if you row it into the water then you're going to lose some power there because it's not connected yet so you're just going to be moving some water so we want to put it in and wait for the connection before we apply any power that way with the boat so we put it in put it in deep and then we pick up the load and then gradually accelerate it through to the finish and so it feels weird i'm sure you so it feels like you're sitting out the front there forever just waiting for that feeling of the connection but the purpose is to get it in and get it well connected so then when you do drive that you're gradually accelerating the boat right the way through so the purpose of it is essentially twofold the first one is to make sure that we don't waste any leg drive and the second one is to make sure we don't kick the boat backwards at the same time and you'll find that the worst that can happen is that if you put it in and you don't push early enough the worst that can happen is that you'll feel the oar kick in your hands a little bit and in fact if you're in a race situation or just rowing along anywhere and you want to check whether you've got your catches right have i got the blade in and connected before i push all you need to do is to delay your leg drive just a fraction and don't tell anyone just do it no one will notice so put the blade in delay your leg drive just a fraction and if you don't feel the handle kick in your hands it means that you were missing the catch whereas if you're missing if you had the catch exactly right as soon as you delayed your leg drive a little bit if you felt it kick in your hands you'd say yep i'm on the money my catch is good so you can check anytime you like just by delaying it so heading back in here just into individually just try and delay that put the blade in delay the leg drive a little bit until you feel the kick and if you don't feel a kick at all delay it a bit more and a bit more and a bit more until you do and then eventually you'll get almost a perfect catch if you've got it in and there's no kick but if you delayed a little bit there was and that's about as good as you're going to get as far as connection goes all right let me try that on the way in on those bursts
how's your 34. did we get to 34. we got there yeah towards the end actually
that's good we're gonna do three cans again we're gonna start at 34 this time okay now i'm 30 down to 26. are you wanting us to do
those oh those first ones i did yeah but not so much 34. not too wow
well you know i mean it was a little bit about i think yesterday's row we you know we found that you know the as we came back to square blades the boat went a little better it's just a little bit more emphasis on trying to push i mean the delay feather exercises it's just an awareness factor that you you can draw up and press out and still move quite quickly you know you know you you gotta find a happy compromise with what you find naturally and what actually work really well for the boat as well somebody's natural rowing won't always make the boat go the fastest you know you turn you draw down and turn and you're comfortable out here you've missed a few percent of pressure you know to send the boat a little bit further
trouble with rowing is especially in lightweight class everybody's the same people people usually go the fastest they're the strongest and the fittest uh the strongest and the best railways you know
have to be as accurate as we possibly can all right so we'll just take off
at 18 again and we'll just call we'll do the first one running again 34. we'll just do our let's not call it a normal feather perfect feathering
just have a little bit of delay in them you know make sure you step out
see do we go on horse here from another
cold weather
all right ready take off from the back it's paddling off okay
okay
all right we get our first 10 at uh 34 we'll move after this stroke on the sun now
that's good nice and pretty
okay break it down on this sit back
so
uh storytelling
make sure we don't overweight at the back turn and find that patience doesn't come down in the right on the intensity moving in after this
on this third sit back on really drive the hips a little bit like coming off the right just really punching the legs
fail the
run i can break it down
so
yeah i hope that around the corner before we do the next last one
so
let's find that light ceiling around that front turn catches a much better here
all right
all right finishing our last burst of uh the 26th
we'll go after this on this
all right precisely
when i relax like that
all the time in the world drive it through the hips
two more strokes
break it down on this
relax that leg
like
all right
so that 34 ended up being quite nice and back down 30 and that 30 was probably might have been your best bit of work all day i reckon the 30.
out of that 30 compared to our 30s on the course
found easier to sustain