Power -> Confidence -> Relaxation
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This video discusses relaxation in rowing. Trying to relax in rowing directly is somewhat of a paradox, and many athletes get stuck in stress feedback loops. In this video, Lachlan discusses how working around the stress problem can allow the athlete to develop relaxation, confidence and boat speed.
This in-depth video on relaxation in rowing includes drills and strategies as well as training and racing methodology. |
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Video Transcript
this is one of the main reasons why the people out in front look so relaxed yes they're faster during the first part of the race that's how they got out in front but they're fitter so they can stay more relaxed for longer without their technique becoming tense and ineffective my coach john has a list of things that he says can help develop relaxation in the boat but they're not actually directly related to relaxation it's more relaxation can come about as a part of this so the first one he talks about is having power so lots of power uh generating lots of power through the stroke so getting the blade in the water getting finished quickly and tapping out and so you've moved the boat quickly so when you do this you give yourself a lot more time to come forward so the recovery the drive time is shorter and then the recovery time can be a little bit longer and so we can let the boat run between strokes and that develops a sense of relaxation whereas if we end up rowing um you know not too hard through the water so relatively light through the water you have a tendency to want to rush and come forward and get another stroke to to keep the boat moving where what we should be doing is thinking about placing power on have a powerful stroke and then letting the boat run in between
so the second thing that we're going to talk about is confidence so and it's not confidence uh so much with balance and things like that although that does come into it a little bit but it's confidence that knowing that once you've finished your stroke you've done good work at moving the boat so people who aren't confident that they've moved the boat well will have a tendency to want to come forward so they want to they'll get to the end of the stroke and they'll think oh no i need to take another stroke to keep the boat going so what they end up doing is not they're not relaxed in that state of mind so you have to be happy with the work you've done through the stroke release and then start the recovery and not think i need to get to the next stroke so confidence is the second thing that we want to be talking about when it comes to relaxation these next couple so uh are more related to fitness so how strong your core is so you've got to have a strong core to be able to um keep translating the power of the legs through the body through the arms into the handles and driving the boat so if your core is weak it's going to break you're going to get a bit bending in the middle you're going to be absorbing the power of the legs and the core and not translating it into the into the handle so you really have to have a strong core so you can maintain that throughout the race and that way uh you'll be a lot more relaxed if you're not fatigued so this sort of comes into fitness so if you're quite fit you can maintain a high level of power so good power and then you can relax and then go for good power again but if your fitness isn't where it needs to be when you go for good power you won't be able to drive that boat and then you think about coming forward and getting more strokes and you're not letting that boat run out so you're not letting the power work so when you start to lose the power of the rowing stroke you start to get out of time with your crewmates you start to make a bit more mistakes because you're fatigued and you'll hit the water and it'll it'll all become very tense very quickly and you won't be you won't be able to relax everything will just get really tense and really slow when it comes to running your boat another aspect of confidence is having the confidence to row your own race so what we mean by that is if for example you look at the crews out in front of the race they've got a little bit of a lead they're very relaxed and they're they're faster yes but they're they're doubly faster because they're relaxed they're out in front they can see the rest of the competition and they're just they're just doing what they can just keeping that boat moving nicely whereas the crews that are behind they don't know where the leader is they might be getting tense uh they usually end up rowing a lot more poorly than if they are in front and so not everyone can win the race and or has the potential to win a race that they're in but you want to make the the distance between the first place and you as small as possible and that will help you get up the places so you need to really row a race in a relaxed state so have the confidence that you can place the blade drive it and work within your own ability to get that boat moving as fast as you can over that rowing course distance and not get caught up with what other people are doing thinking outside the boat you want to stay in the boat nice and relaxed and really work all the way through to the finish so looking at relaxation this way we're going to be thinking about power so get the power on get the power on with the legs drive through we're going to be thinking about being confident that what we've done is a good enough stroke and that we have time to relax and let the boat run on the recovery and we want to be thinking about core stability so core fitness lots of good core routines just to make sure we've got a nice strong connection between the legs and the handle making sure we're not losing anything through there um and not tensing up to try and keep that connection so a good core can make everything else nice and relaxed because it connects the powerful muscles of the legs through to the relaxed muscles of the arms especially during that early drive phase and then again confidence to be able to row your own race work within your own ability not get caught up with what other crews are doing and the physical fitness to be able to maintain a good rhythm in rowing so this is where i think in training a lot of people can benefit from rowing a bit harder so putting a bit more power on even at lower ratings so this is one of the areas where it can diverge a bit in rowing with your training so say you might want to stick between your target heart rate zone to do your aerobic t1 t2 training that's all well and good but if you're not applying enough power to get the boat actually moving and you're not happy with how the boat's running uh between strokes going off heart rate is actually going to make it so the rowing movements harder for you to master it's better off initially going for placing the blade getting good power coming through all the way to the finish be happy with what you've done you know no matter the heart rate almost and then coming forward and taking another stroke and letting the fitness build up that way as opposed to going solely off heart rate so you really have to achieve that rhythm in the boat before you end up focusing on the heart rate training zones with other things like that so a couple other more direct tips for uh being more relaxed when you're rowing is uh relaxing your grip so when you come forward on the recovery just wiggle your fingers around just like you i don't know playing the piano or something then when you square up grab on take the stroke tap down do the same nice relaxed fingers so demonstrating that
so one of the other main things you can do is just relax your face a little bit so um you know just let your jaw be a little bit loose don't be like make sure you're not you know gritting teeth or you know squinting hard just trying to relax all the muscles of the face you know maybe smiling you know just uh just trying to stay nice and relaxed in ways that aren't thinking oh i really need to stop grabbing with the shoulders so it's like other parts of your body that you're just trying to relax to get effect where you're looking to get rid of grabbing in the shoulders or the arms or something like that and it can be sometimes worth doing a few strokes and thinking i'm going to row really tensely for a few strokes you know really tense like really tense and then think okay now i'm going to relax and so feel that contrast between the really intense grabbing you know solid hands grabbing with the shoulders you know tense in the body to a complete relaxation so here's an example of that
they're going to row tensely for a bit
and relaxing
so when you're rowing along let the confidence you've had in that powerful stroke be all you need to relax on the recovery and come forward and so think about putting good power into the drive phase and relaxing on the recovery being happy to let the boat run underneath you so if you have a quicker drive phase you don't have to come down the slide as quickly and so you can let the boat run so just demonstrating
first demonstrating not letting the boat run
this kind of mediocre power
now switch to thinking about putting more power in
getting a fraction more boat run
and if you're starting out and you need to build your fitness think about dropping your rating and keeping the power on as opposed to increasing your rating and decreasing your power keep the power up you get much better ratio between the drive and the recovery so when it comes to rowing this is one of the main reasons why you can't discount the effectiveness of uh lots of training doing the training building the fitness up and uh fostering a sense of relaxation while you're working hard so it starts in training you take it into racing trying to keep the tension out but keep the power in and so keeping the power on every stroke can be a good way of developing that feel in the boat and so when it comes to rowing with relaxation i'd always suggest going for power first get a good drive phase get that ticked off before i start thinking about being more relaxed because it's the foundation that the relaxation is going to be built on it's a foundation that boat speed and rhythm is going to be built on too so power on and then relax if you're worried about heart rate training zones and things i only really focus on that as a coach if i was coaching really elite people to start with you want to get the the boat moving along you want to get the rhythm up there and you want to make sure that the boat's moving with good rhythm and focus less on the heart rate training effect because you can still get good results there too just have to be more careful of you know injury risk and things just get the athletes to pay attention to their bodies but build your relaxation of power so power through the drive good connection so it's got to be a good placement good power good extraction and then comes the relaxation so focus on the drive first relax on the recovery and try not to uh focus on the problem so much so your too tense in the boat where's it coming from it's probably because they haven't got a good drive they're not satisfied with that they're not confident that they've done a good stroke they're rushing off to get another one you want them confident let the boat run come forward pick it up and repeat get a nice rhythm build it off power let the relaxation grow from there
so the second thing that we're going to talk about is confidence so and it's not confidence uh so much with balance and things like that although that does come into it a little bit but it's confidence that knowing that once you've finished your stroke you've done good work at moving the boat so people who aren't confident that they've moved the boat well will have a tendency to want to come forward so they want to they'll get to the end of the stroke and they'll think oh no i need to take another stroke to keep the boat going so what they end up doing is not they're not relaxed in that state of mind so you have to be happy with the work you've done through the stroke release and then start the recovery and not think i need to get to the next stroke so confidence is the second thing that we want to be talking about when it comes to relaxation these next couple so uh are more related to fitness so how strong your core is so you've got to have a strong core to be able to um keep translating the power of the legs through the body through the arms into the handles and driving the boat so if your core is weak it's going to break you're going to get a bit bending in the middle you're going to be absorbing the power of the legs and the core and not translating it into the into the handle so you really have to have a strong core so you can maintain that throughout the race and that way uh you'll be a lot more relaxed if you're not fatigued so this sort of comes into fitness so if you're quite fit you can maintain a high level of power so good power and then you can relax and then go for good power again but if your fitness isn't where it needs to be when you go for good power you won't be able to drive that boat and then you think about coming forward and getting more strokes and you're not letting that boat run out so you're not letting the power work so when you start to lose the power of the rowing stroke you start to get out of time with your crewmates you start to make a bit more mistakes because you're fatigued and you'll hit the water and it'll it'll all become very tense very quickly and you won't be you won't be able to relax everything will just get really tense and really slow when it comes to running your boat another aspect of confidence is having the confidence to row your own race so what we mean by that is if for example you look at the crews out in front of the race they've got a little bit of a lead they're very relaxed and they're they're faster yes but they're they're doubly faster because they're relaxed they're out in front they can see the rest of the competition and they're just they're just doing what they can just keeping that boat moving nicely whereas the crews that are behind they don't know where the leader is they might be getting tense uh they usually end up rowing a lot more poorly than if they are in front and so not everyone can win the race and or has the potential to win a race that they're in but you want to make the the distance between the first place and you as small as possible and that will help you get up the places so you need to really row a race in a relaxed state so have the confidence that you can place the blade drive it and work within your own ability to get that boat moving as fast as you can over that rowing course distance and not get caught up with what other people are doing thinking outside the boat you want to stay in the boat nice and relaxed and really work all the way through to the finish so looking at relaxation this way we're going to be thinking about power so get the power on get the power on with the legs drive through we're going to be thinking about being confident that what we've done is a good enough stroke and that we have time to relax and let the boat run on the recovery and we want to be thinking about core stability so core fitness lots of good core routines just to make sure we've got a nice strong connection between the legs and the handle making sure we're not losing anything through there um and not tensing up to try and keep that connection so a good core can make everything else nice and relaxed because it connects the powerful muscles of the legs through to the relaxed muscles of the arms especially during that early drive phase and then again confidence to be able to row your own race work within your own ability not get caught up with what other crews are doing and the physical fitness to be able to maintain a good rhythm in rowing so this is where i think in training a lot of people can benefit from rowing a bit harder so putting a bit more power on even at lower ratings so this is one of the areas where it can diverge a bit in rowing with your training so say you might want to stick between your target heart rate zone to do your aerobic t1 t2 training that's all well and good but if you're not applying enough power to get the boat actually moving and you're not happy with how the boat's running uh between strokes going off heart rate is actually going to make it so the rowing movements harder for you to master it's better off initially going for placing the blade getting good power coming through all the way to the finish be happy with what you've done you know no matter the heart rate almost and then coming forward and taking another stroke and letting the fitness build up that way as opposed to going solely off heart rate so you really have to achieve that rhythm in the boat before you end up focusing on the heart rate training zones with other things like that so a couple other more direct tips for uh being more relaxed when you're rowing is uh relaxing your grip so when you come forward on the recovery just wiggle your fingers around just like you i don't know playing the piano or something then when you square up grab on take the stroke tap down do the same nice relaxed fingers so demonstrating that
so one of the other main things you can do is just relax your face a little bit so um you know just let your jaw be a little bit loose don't be like make sure you're not you know gritting teeth or you know squinting hard just trying to relax all the muscles of the face you know maybe smiling you know just uh just trying to stay nice and relaxed in ways that aren't thinking oh i really need to stop grabbing with the shoulders so it's like other parts of your body that you're just trying to relax to get effect where you're looking to get rid of grabbing in the shoulders or the arms or something like that and it can be sometimes worth doing a few strokes and thinking i'm going to row really tensely for a few strokes you know really tense like really tense and then think okay now i'm going to relax and so feel that contrast between the really intense grabbing you know solid hands grabbing with the shoulders you know tense in the body to a complete relaxation so here's an example of that
they're going to row tensely for a bit
and relaxing
so when you're rowing along let the confidence you've had in that powerful stroke be all you need to relax on the recovery and come forward and so think about putting good power into the drive phase and relaxing on the recovery being happy to let the boat run underneath you so if you have a quicker drive phase you don't have to come down the slide as quickly and so you can let the boat run so just demonstrating
first demonstrating not letting the boat run
this kind of mediocre power
now switch to thinking about putting more power in
getting a fraction more boat run
and if you're starting out and you need to build your fitness think about dropping your rating and keeping the power on as opposed to increasing your rating and decreasing your power keep the power up you get much better ratio between the drive and the recovery so when it comes to rowing this is one of the main reasons why you can't discount the effectiveness of uh lots of training doing the training building the fitness up and uh fostering a sense of relaxation while you're working hard so it starts in training you take it into racing trying to keep the tension out but keep the power in and so keeping the power on every stroke can be a good way of developing that feel in the boat and so when it comes to rowing with relaxation i'd always suggest going for power first get a good drive phase get that ticked off before i start thinking about being more relaxed because it's the foundation that the relaxation is going to be built on it's a foundation that boat speed and rhythm is going to be built on too so power on and then relax if you're worried about heart rate training zones and things i only really focus on that as a coach if i was coaching really elite people to start with you want to get the the boat moving along you want to get the rhythm up there and you want to make sure that the boat's moving with good rhythm and focus less on the heart rate training effect because you can still get good results there too just have to be more careful of you know injury risk and things just get the athletes to pay attention to their bodies but build your relaxation of power so power through the drive good connection so it's got to be a good placement good power good extraction and then comes the relaxation so focus on the drive first relax on the recovery and try not to uh focus on the problem so much so your too tense in the boat where's it coming from it's probably because they haven't got a good drive they're not satisfied with that they're not confident that they've done a good stroke they're rushing off to get another one you want them confident let the boat run come forward pick it up and repeat get a nice rhythm build it off power let the relaxation grow from there