Hang at the Rowing Catch
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We frequently see athletes engaging their shoulders at the catch, which leads to a less than optimal stroke on the ergo and in the boat. In this video, Ken discusses how to improve Length and Hang on the ergo and in the boat.
This problem is best fixed on the erg as it will take some practice and is a hard habit to break. |
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Video Transcript
Now ask them to just let their push their hands away from them there's a huge difference in length and a major difference in hang so when we're trying to demonstrate having good hang at the catch an interesting exercise you can do with athletes on an ergo is to get them to really understand what it means to have their arms fully extended so if we just come into the catch here and i think that's a normal sort of catch position and so here we have good catch position so if you could just push against me and i'll hold on to the handle so you can't go anywhere now push harder now what i want to do is let you put your hands closer to me and still push hard and do it again and sit up tall again and let them go again about as far as they can go and so if we think about what's happened here is that's our full reach position where we want to be hanging off our tendons and bones now if we put the shoulders back to there and so if we like that and so then put them back in again now push really hard so what does he just do is ask the athlete to push really hard by hanging onto the handle like really hard push push now ask them to just let their push their hands away from the huge difference in length and a major difference in hang so uh you'll find you might need to do it once or twice so let's demonstrate that so if we like that position and we say right i push really hard now let your shoulders go then often they'll only let them go a little bit and push really hard and say now let them go again and so you'll find that if we if you might have to ask the question more than once so let's demonstrate asking about three or four times so we're there pushing hard pushing hard now let them go hang on now let them go a bit more now push harder again let them go a bit more push harder again let them go a bit more push harder again and we're about as far out as you can get so you'll find that often an athlete will think they've let their shoulders go and they're hanging off their tendons and bones but in reality they're not until you ask the question again and again until you get that full length so let's do it one more time so shoulders in now push let them go push let the shoulders go push the hands as far away from you as you can get them with your hands as far away as i can go and push hard and now if i let you go at that point and finish the stroke off push hard
and we find by doing that it gets the athlete to really understand that as they come into the catch they want to be able to have their arms fully extended the other thing that's worth thinking about as well is if you sit at the finish hands away now rock over now this is the point when the athletes want to have the arms fully extended so now extend your arms completely and now and make sure they don't lift their shoulders up just have the arms as far extended as they can in other words useful words for an athlete put your hands as far away from your body as you can at that point without over without bending your body over more so hands away as far as you can at that point then into the catch take the catch push back you have to do it again so rock over and make sure at that point that the hands are fully extended just do it again pause this time so if you're there make sure they're fully extended hands as far away from the shoulders as you can then come into the catch leave your hands out there take the catch
so if you do that you'll find it but so by doing that you find that the athletes get a real understanding of what it means to be shoulders here or here or here and fully extended because the aim is to be fully extended so you get that really good hang at the catch which means you get better leg drive better performance so if you think about hanging from a chin up bar you've done chin ups i'm sure so if you hang there with your arms bent like this you can't do it for very long whereas if you have it just hanging then you can hang there for quite a long time if you're hanging just like that then you're hanging from your tendons and bones you're not using your muscles really at all okay and tendons and bones don't really use any energy so it's a lot easier way to do it the other thing that's really important is that it's really easy to be relaxed so you put your arms out come to the catch again put your arms out now as far as i can so stretch them out all right and so now uh doing it leaving it out there like that now try and tense your shoulders up for me it's pretty hard to do because and keep your hands nice and relaxed and try and tense your shoulders and it just it's just not really possible now hang onto the handle really tight for me now and now feel what your shoulders have done they're automatically tense aren't they everything's tight all the way up okay so what i want you to do is i want you to row so that you've got no tenseness there at all and you've got that full length now when you say put them right out in front of you again and leave yours flat on the water now i want you to just hold your body there and just in your arms as far away from your body as you can push back with your legs flat just flatten your legs okay and keep your arms right out there and come back in and come back out again just do that a few times so when i'm talking about using your legs what you want to do is you want to have your arms fully extended and not being used at all they're just they're just hanging that's what they're doing and you've probably heard people talk about hang having good hang in a boat that's what that means is you just hang and you don't grab and you don't tense and you don't use your shoulders and you don't lift up you do you just hang you turn your lower core on and just hang there and then all you've got to do then is push essentially from a body movement all we're looking to do is to just push straight back okay and so what you want to do is get off the back full extension half slide check am i up right out there yes i'm right out there hold that body position because your body position is fine and then just come into the catch and then all you do is put the blade in and push sounds really simple when i put it like that doesn't it but it is a bit
and we find by doing that it gets the athlete to really understand that as they come into the catch they want to be able to have their arms fully extended the other thing that's worth thinking about as well is if you sit at the finish hands away now rock over now this is the point when the athletes want to have the arms fully extended so now extend your arms completely and now and make sure they don't lift their shoulders up just have the arms as far extended as they can in other words useful words for an athlete put your hands as far away from your body as you can at that point without over without bending your body over more so hands away as far as you can at that point then into the catch take the catch push back you have to do it again so rock over and make sure at that point that the hands are fully extended just do it again pause this time so if you're there make sure they're fully extended hands as far away from the shoulders as you can then come into the catch leave your hands out there take the catch
so if you do that you'll find it but so by doing that you find that the athletes get a real understanding of what it means to be shoulders here or here or here and fully extended because the aim is to be fully extended so you get that really good hang at the catch which means you get better leg drive better performance so if you think about hanging from a chin up bar you've done chin ups i'm sure so if you hang there with your arms bent like this you can't do it for very long whereas if you have it just hanging then you can hang there for quite a long time if you're hanging just like that then you're hanging from your tendons and bones you're not using your muscles really at all okay and tendons and bones don't really use any energy so it's a lot easier way to do it the other thing that's really important is that it's really easy to be relaxed so you put your arms out come to the catch again put your arms out now as far as i can so stretch them out all right and so now uh doing it leaving it out there like that now try and tense your shoulders up for me it's pretty hard to do because and keep your hands nice and relaxed and try and tense your shoulders and it just it's just not really possible now hang onto the handle really tight for me now and now feel what your shoulders have done they're automatically tense aren't they everything's tight all the way up okay so what i want you to do is i want you to row so that you've got no tenseness there at all and you've got that full length now when you say put them right out in front of you again and leave yours flat on the water now i want you to just hold your body there and just in your arms as far away from your body as you can push back with your legs flat just flatten your legs okay and keep your arms right out there and come back in and come back out again just do that a few times so when i'm talking about using your legs what you want to do is you want to have your arms fully extended and not being used at all they're just they're just hanging that's what they're doing and you've probably heard people talk about hang having good hang in a boat that's what that means is you just hang and you don't grab and you don't tense and you don't use your shoulders and you don't lift up you do you just hang you turn your lower core on and just hang there and then all you've got to do then is push essentially from a body movement all we're looking to do is to just push straight back okay and so what you want to do is get off the back full extension half slide check am i up right out there yes i'm right out there hold that body position because your body position is fine and then just come into the catch and then all you do is put the blade in and push sounds really simple when i put it like that doesn't it but it is a bit