Improve - Sculling grip at the finish

Improve - Sculling grip at the finish (+ Common Problems)

Please look at the examples below and review your positions or that of your crew. Anthony Edwards, five times Olympic athlete, demonstrates common issues.

The wrist must be flat at the finish. Otherwise, poor body posture will result, and the wrist can sometimes sustain an injury.
It is also vital that the correct feathering procedure is followed at the tap down, and this is only possible with a flat wrist.

Correct Position:

Here we see Eddy demonstrating the correct position of the hand and wrist at the finish in a sculling boat.

The key is to make sure that the wrist is flat and the forearm approximately horizontal. In addition, it is essential to feather correctly.

For more info, please see:

Wrist cocked up:

Here Eddy demonstrates rowing with the wrist cocked up at the finish. This usually means that the athlete is gripping the oar too tightly. Otherwise, this position is difficult to achieve.

The wrist in this position usually indicates that the feathering to follow will be done with the wrist, not the fingers. This can lead to a dropping of the shoulder and slumping of the body, poor posture in the boat.

Wrist down at the finish:

This usually occurs after the finish with athletes who do not feather with their fingers, i.e., drop their wrist to feather. This causes the body to slump with the pelvis tilting backwards and causing difficulties with the rock-over.

Sometimes, this position is seen before the feather, and if so, it must be corrected as it causes the body to slump and makes correct feathering impossible.