How to feel comfortable at the catch in a single
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In this video, Ken runs through the recommendations he gives to help athletes become comfortable at the catch while rowing a single.
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Video Transcript
One of the things I often find with athletes particularly beginners but then it carries on as to into more experienced rowers is that if they're trying to row in a single scull which is where a lot of them start out they get when they get to the catch they find that they're really uncomfortable sitting at the catch especially if you think about it we've got a boat that's about yay wide and they're sitting at the catch with the blades out of the water and it's pretty unstable and it feels pretty precarious as though they're going to go for a swim so one of the problems with that is the easiest logical human solution to that is to get yourself out of that position as quickly as you can so I find that beginner athletes in particular they can get into the catch that's no problem and they're ready at the catch but then the first thing i want to do is to push to get out of there or to get their body mass back further into the bow of the boat because it's much more comfortable stable position
the problem with this is that it tends to encourage people to be too in too much of a hurry at the catch too much of a hurry to get back out of the catch and consequently they quite often start to push before the blades in the water in other words it's difficult for athletes to come sit come into the catch and sit there and get a precisely executed catch without starting to push because they want to get away from that unstable position at the bow a couple of things to think about and i think useful to communicate to yourself and to athletes when you come into the front on a boat about yay wide so it's really not a very stable platform the oars are off the water it's it's not very comfortable the best way to make that platform stable is to put the oars in the water and as soon as you've got those oars in the water you've gone from a platform that's say 30 centimetres wide to a platform that's six meters wide so it's a lot more stable so what i suggest you do is get the athletes to understand that the best way to get comfortable catch is to put the blades in the water come out to the catch plunk and all of a sudden it's well balanced and it feels comfortable again then there's no rush to push no rush to get out of there out of that position which means it you can come into the catch you can put the blades in get well connected and then when you're ready to push push because of course we don't want to push especially in a single scull we don't want to push too hard too soon because we need to get the boat moving again after it's slowed down and so the concept is coming to the front put the blades in and then push don't push as the blades are going in except for that last little bit make sure the blades are pretty well buried in the water before there's any leg drive and then the leg drive should be fairly gentle in that first part to pick up the load so that then you can accelerate from there on to the finish so an important lesson i think for everyone is that coming into the catch if you feel unstable put the oars in the water and then make sure that when you come out of that catch position you do so in a controlled fashion it's a lot easier to do if you're feeling in a stable platform and the best stable platform is by putting the oars in the water so what i suggest come into the catch put the blades in the water first then start to push and don't be in a hurry to push and of course make sure that they're pushing with their legs rather than lifting with their shoulders again i think it's the same sort of sensation of saying i want to get my body weight out of the stern so they try to push too early lift their shoulders too early whereas what we're really looking for is come into the catch put the blade in to get the stability back pick up the load and then accelerate it through from there so just to perhaps a different way of thinking about the catch if you want to feel stable at the catch put the blades in the water
the problem with this is that it tends to encourage people to be too in too much of a hurry at the catch too much of a hurry to get back out of the catch and consequently they quite often start to push before the blades in the water in other words it's difficult for athletes to come sit come into the catch and sit there and get a precisely executed catch without starting to push because they want to get away from that unstable position at the bow a couple of things to think about and i think useful to communicate to yourself and to athletes when you come into the front on a boat about yay wide so it's really not a very stable platform the oars are off the water it's it's not very comfortable the best way to make that platform stable is to put the oars in the water and as soon as you've got those oars in the water you've gone from a platform that's say 30 centimetres wide to a platform that's six meters wide so it's a lot more stable so what i suggest you do is get the athletes to understand that the best way to get comfortable catch is to put the blades in the water come out to the catch plunk and all of a sudden it's well balanced and it feels comfortable again then there's no rush to push no rush to get out of there out of that position which means it you can come into the catch you can put the blades in get well connected and then when you're ready to push push because of course we don't want to push especially in a single scull we don't want to push too hard too soon because we need to get the boat moving again after it's slowed down and so the concept is coming to the front put the blades in and then push don't push as the blades are going in except for that last little bit make sure the blades are pretty well buried in the water before there's any leg drive and then the leg drive should be fairly gentle in that first part to pick up the load so that then you can accelerate from there on to the finish so an important lesson i think for everyone is that coming into the catch if you feel unstable put the oars in the water and then make sure that when you come out of that catch position you do so in a controlled fashion it's a lot easier to do if you're feeling in a stable platform and the best stable platform is by putting the oars in the water so what i suggest come into the catch put the blades in the water first then start to push and don't be in a hurry to push and of course make sure that they're pushing with their legs rather than lifting with their shoulders again i think it's the same sort of sensation of saying i want to get my body weight out of the stern so they try to push too early lift their shoulders too early whereas what we're really looking for is come into the catch put the blade in to get the stability back pick up the load and then accelerate it through from there so just to perhaps a different way of thinking about the catch if you want to feel stable at the catch put the blades in the water