Sweep Grip in Rowing

Lyall McCarthy, one of Australia's most successful coaches talks in detail about the grip in a sweep boat.

In particular how the outside hand should be aligned from the catch to the finish for best performance

Video Transcript

In sweep i reckon outside hand if you could all get a box of nails on the way home um drive it through that center knuckle in all your athletes outside hand when they got the handle um and and the handle i didn't mean that

um the handle will rotate around that inside knuckle so coming forward knuckles stay at right angle to the boat all the time if we go around like that you've seen that one yeah elbow around like that and his inside arm is going to be like that too um knuckles stay square to the boat at the catch you could have the handle that's an extreme length but the handle would be more like that okay at the finish you'd want your elbow to come through as soon as the elbow stops well so does the pressure and so to have that continuous movement around the back i think that little knuckle there would be more in contact with the handle right at the back than anywhere else that one you get that from the front that's going to be shouldery seen that one from the front that's pressure on the inside knuckle if you keep that handle rotating around the inside that middle knuckle and being connected to little finger at the end fantastic and that is where the obvious lever is isn't it on the end of the

handle inside hand needs to be able to roll the blade square and feathered without

without losing connection right there right through to the release you start doing this one pushing the handle away before we finish pulling with the outside hand we've got a problem