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Slip - How to feel for and remove it

Catch slip is the time the blade spends in the water at the catch before effectively engaging the water and moving the boat. Rowers with a large catch slip don't effectively move the slip through the water and waste a lot of energy.

In this video, Ken demonstrates an exercise on how to feel for and remove catch slip. 
Video Transcript
The trick the trick if you can do it i think
this is pretty important if you can get this

to work is that if you can if you can feel
slip so if you can feel the blade slipping

through the water and i don't know if you
guys can feel what feel it when the blade's

slipping through the water but uh when you
get to feel that and you will get to feel

that if you don't already when you can feel
it moving through the water you know you've

got too much power on i call that tearing
that's it exactly so if you can feel when

you're tearing the water then you've got an
issue now how did how do you teach people

to feel tearing the water now if we just tried
here stuart put your square in the water and

jeremy can you uh try and feel for slip well
he's got he's checking the boat now you try

and rip the water just like just row just
a little bit and see if you can tear the water

okay now see if you can feel what it is when
you're tearing the water see if you can do

it so you're not tearing the water

Can you feel when your tear the water. Yeah
if you give it too much there is no effect.

So you're tearing the water and the boat is
not moving as much

yeah moving water and not moving the boat
yeah and you can feel that yeah okay so now

now do the same thing keep checking it stuart
now do the same thing and row the way we want

to row with gentle pick up and accelerate
through it without tearing the water so when

you're doing that you can feel when you tearing
it yeah you feel when there's too much yeah

yeah okay so now if you put your oars flat
on the water so we've got a boat that's not

quite as heavy as one that's been checked
and let's do the same thing again and see

how it feels

now put a little bit less pressure on the
catch so just reduce that initial power a

little bit so try so there's no tear at all
right way through rowing without tearing the

water at all

yeah it was a totally different feeling wow
it's like the boat's keeping going yeah um

yeah and then you gotta you gotta really feel
for the water so it's a build of acceleration

all the time because if you give it too much
you get no payback yeah and so you could feel

then you had to have it really gentle at the
catch and then you could accelerate and you

could get it faster and faster and faster
without tearing water yes you can't do it

from the beginning and that's one thing for
me like even in my single i i can hear myself

tear the water and i just you've got to give
up on that stroke yeah you just hear it straight

away go oh god i've stuffed that one up okay
how about if we if you sit this time Jeremy

and stuart you do it

so you want to do there stuart is to make
sure that the beginning of the stroke is really

quite light so you want to do the whole stroke
and you want to be on the edge of tearing

the water so it gets faster and faster but
on the edge of tearing it but not tearing

it at all i love the i love the exercise

and so at the catch you're going to have to
be really gentle otherwise you'll tear it

at the catch now you know it's tearing at
the catch feel tearing water feels like I

want to make sure we don't do it

So really feel for that movement in the water
just start to tear it and back it off a bit

and you'll be able to find it you'll be able
to get the blade in and the catch and then

really gentle and then accelerated through
the finish don't forget to pull the boat towards

you so just coming down the slide and then
when you pull it forward then there's a dramatic

contrast in body and speed so you pull it
towards you quite quickly and then you put

the blade in and then you just chillin picking
up that load and then accelerate it through
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