Sharpen Your Rowing Catch
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Sometimes there is a lot of work to do with technique, and sometimes only a little.
When coaching or rowing, it's important not to dismiss the effect of micro-changes on rowing technique. Often when an athlete tries a "big" change, it leads to an unravelling of their technique and fortitude. In this video, Lachlan demonstrates his coaching sequence for sharpening up a rower's catch. Once technically proficient, it's only small steps to take an ok catch to an excellent one. |
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Video Transcript
In this video i'm going to be talking a little bit about how i go about sharpening an athlete's catch so making it get into the water at the correct time not wasting too much effort on the slide before you get connected so this is one of my athletes and she can sometimes have a tendency to put the blade in the water a little bit slow so you can see here the blade is in the water and connected about there so if we have a look at a couple of things so connected but we've lost a bit of the body movement and we've also got the shoulders lifting up and so not very well connected and so an exercise i asked her to do was to really think about that placement and start thinking about how you place the blade so placing the blade a little bit earlier and it's really a timing thing so on that previous stroke she was a little bit late on this one she's a little bit early so you're getting a huge amount of backsplash here and so that's not very good but on the other hand this oar over here has not even started entering the water so it's a real timing thing and what i encourage athletes to do is to take a few take some strokes and think about placing it too early think about placing it when they think's right think about placing it a little bit late so really develop that feeling at the catch see that one was a little bit late
that one's pretty close so come forward placing the blade and connect it there still got a lift with the shoulders but i've got a little bit of backsplash and it's definitely better than that first one we had a look at
and again a little bit too much backsplash on that one and here we have a look again catch is a little bit slow
it's just one of those things that the athlete will drift in and out of initially so you really have to stay focused as a coach keep giving them feedback about what they're doing I find sometimes it can be useful to tell them if they're too early too late or just the right amount that's really about developing that feeling so here you can see that she's just sort of settled into a rhythm back to a natural rowing style where the blade is not being placed in the water at the opportune moment just hanging around quite a lot before putting the blade in so i'm asking you to feel a bit of resistance so that one was a bit late i'm a bit early so when she places the blade she gets quite a large amount of backsplash a little bit mistimed can't see the other blade this one's a little bit too early so have a look at the next one
and that one again really really early you see the backsplash quite evident here and also here you can see the backsplash the water just flying up and this isn't a bad thing especially when they're learning where that optimal point to put the blade in the water is because part of it is getting it at that opportune moment before just as the blade that's the blade starting to change direction or even just a fraction before you get a small amount of backsplash this is too much backsplash so look at the next one
all right and so this one
not too bad a little bit better than she has been doing you can see it's only a small lift of the shoulders to get connected very little on the slide as well sounds pretty good so i tell her that was a good one have a look at the next one
again not too bad you can see there's a little bit of backsplash developed here the timing's pretty close you're not looking for a lot it's just a small amount of resistance at the catch so that's why the constant feedback is important so they understand what what it feels like
again a bit too much black backsplash slightly mistimed but it shows that the athlete understands the drill and they're feeling for that optimal point of connection so look at the next stroke
again a little bit late caused probably by hitting the water actually squared up just here
that's okay still learning
and there we go pretty good timing placement
but you really want to be avoiding that first little shoulder lift up you just want to try and put that into the legs so i want to be focusing on the legs not on the shoulders and this is spring weather not a bad way to finish the session
that one's pretty close so come forward placing the blade and connect it there still got a lift with the shoulders but i've got a little bit of backsplash and it's definitely better than that first one we had a look at
and again a little bit too much backsplash on that one and here we have a look again catch is a little bit slow
it's just one of those things that the athlete will drift in and out of initially so you really have to stay focused as a coach keep giving them feedback about what they're doing I find sometimes it can be useful to tell them if they're too early too late or just the right amount that's really about developing that feeling so here you can see that she's just sort of settled into a rhythm back to a natural rowing style where the blade is not being placed in the water at the opportune moment just hanging around quite a lot before putting the blade in so i'm asking you to feel a bit of resistance so that one was a bit late i'm a bit early so when she places the blade she gets quite a large amount of backsplash a little bit mistimed can't see the other blade this one's a little bit too early so have a look at the next one
and that one again really really early you see the backsplash quite evident here and also here you can see the backsplash the water just flying up and this isn't a bad thing especially when they're learning where that optimal point to put the blade in the water is because part of it is getting it at that opportune moment before just as the blade that's the blade starting to change direction or even just a fraction before you get a small amount of backsplash this is too much backsplash so look at the next one
all right and so this one
not too bad a little bit better than she has been doing you can see it's only a small lift of the shoulders to get connected very little on the slide as well sounds pretty good so i tell her that was a good one have a look at the next one
again not too bad you can see there's a little bit of backsplash developed here the timing's pretty close you're not looking for a lot it's just a small amount of resistance at the catch so that's why the constant feedback is important so they understand what what it feels like
again a bit too much black backsplash slightly mistimed but it shows that the athlete understands the drill and they're feeling for that optimal point of connection so look at the next stroke
again a little bit late caused probably by hitting the water actually squared up just here
that's okay still learning
and there we go pretty good timing placement
but you really want to be avoiding that first little shoulder lift up you just want to try and put that into the legs so i want to be focusing on the legs not on the shoulders and this is spring weather not a bad way to finish the session