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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2013 14:06:41 GMT
Rowing Technique
These notes describe the rudiments of fixed-seat rowing style.
FIXED SEAT ROWING TECHNIQUE - THE STROKE CYCLE
Although the rowing stroke is a continuous fluid motion it is helpful to split it into three distinct phases for coaching purposes.
The drive.
Lower your oar blade quickly into the water Accelerate it through to the finish of the stroke by pushing with the legs and drawing back with the shoulders and arms so that the oar handle comes right into your chest.
The extraction.
Lift the oar blade quickly from the water by pushing down with the wrists. Finally push the oar handle away right over the knees, keeping the back steady and maintaining foot pressure on the stretcher.
The recovery.
Rock your body fully over from the hips to reach out ready for the next stroke. Make sure that you move slowly forward to let the boat run and get your recovery!
KEY POINTS FOR COACHING
Rhythm. It is really important for you to row in an efficient rhythm which allows time for you to recover between strokes. Each of the three phases, drive, extraction and recovery, should take about the same time so the rhythm is like a waltz with three beats to the bar. Also rowing at light pressure should be done at a much lower rating that firm pressure, because everything is done in slow motion.
Length. Long strokes are more efficient effectively than short strokes for moving the boat so everybody needs to work on their flexibility and progressively work on increasing their length at both ends of the stroke.
Timing. Crew members should synchronise their body motions with Stroke and also keep their oars parallel at all times. Every stroke to be uniform and identical.
Discipline in the Boat. Remember that the coxswain is in charge. Always listen carefully to and obey his orders.
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AP
New Member
I should never have listened to Mark Irvine
Posts: 39
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Post by AP on Nov 19, 2013 0:42:01 GMT
A couple of things new rowers might find helpful. Footrests. Set your footrests so that you have a small flex of the knees, not too straight but not far from straight.
Seat. Sit on the very edge of your seat.You can lean further forward if you sit on the edge of your seat and with your legs out pretty straight you can lean back further also. Try this on a stool or small low table at home and see the difference from sitting fuller on the stool. Every inch you lean forward gives you three inches at the oar tip, that's three inches extra the boat travels every stroke. Lean forward. Unlike sliding seat rowing where you are pushing with your large leg muscles and can easily hurt your back if you over-extend, in fixed seat rowing you should maximise your length of stroke mainly by leaning forward as far as you can reach.
Lean back. You then lean back keeping your arms straight until about the one O clock position where you bring your hands in to your body and tap the oar out of the water. It is important to keep your arms straight as long as possible, your stomach and back muscles do most of the work, they are bigger muscle groups and will not tire as quickly as your arms.
Slow recovery. Recover your arms out straight quickly (punch them forward ) as this helps with moving the rest of the body forward and takes the weight off your stomach muscles then hinge your body slowly forward ready for the next stroke.
Row slow. Long slow strokes are more efficient and help with timing and breathing, if you want to go faster put more intensity into the stroke but do not speed up the rate of stroke, let the boat glide a little.
In line. Keep everything in line as much as possible, from the feet, through the legs, back and head. Don't waste energy in sideways motion, keep the oar blade just in the water, not too deep, and sit on a cushion if you are pulling the oar through above your chest.
It is hard to get everything right at once so practice one aspect for ten strokes with the cox calling it out, really lean as far forward as possible for ten, then the lean back for ten, then punch the hands forward, then check your blade depth, then concentrate on getting all oars in perfect time etc etc. Plenty of core exercises and stretching to promote flexibility will help.
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shona
New Member
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Post by shona on Nov 20, 2013 17:28:04 GMT
Hi Alan
I find that sometimes it is difficult to fully explain the rowing technique to new rowers, especially when you start talking about core muscles and pushing from the feet they tend to get a bit lost. However this is very well put together and if you have no objections we may pinch this information and pass it onto new members so they can hopefully pick up the technique easier.
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AP
New Member
I should never have listened to Mark Irvine
Posts: 39
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Post by AP on Nov 20, 2013 18:56:49 GMT
Hi Shona You are right that people very new to rowing need a bit of time to get their bearings, some of them have never even been in a boat, and you cannot try to explain everything to them. They may also need to build up strength and co-ordination. It is good to have some consistent approach within each club so that whoever is teaching you reinforce the same basic good habits, basically the way your club wants to row. Some people naturally row quite well and others, even good long time rowers need to keep being reminded of the basics. Hopefully we will get more contributions from those with some insight into rowing and teaching as it applies to the St Ayles.
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Post by Harry Risk Troon on Feb 5, 2014 11:33:00 GMT
Can anyone advise in a stroke rate per minute to ensure efficient rowing.We have heard 28 strokes per minute is the most efficient rate.
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AP
New Member
I should never have listened to Mark Irvine
Posts: 39
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Post by AP on Feb 7, 2014 23:35:45 GMT
Can anyone advise in a stroke rate per minute to ensure efficient rowing.We have heard 28 strokes per minute is the most efficient rate. Hi Harry, I think 28 is a reasonable stroke for a medium heavy boat like the St Ayles. I am not sure what rate we use at Coigach but somewhere in the 28 to 30 range I think. Crews in fine boats rate at 36 and higher but do not have to contend with waves and their hulls are much sleeker. Rather than concentrating on stroke rate we emphasise length of stroke, slow recovery so that you never compleatly run out of breath and practice over a race distance to find how hard you can go for a given distance. The stroke rower is critical in this and try to select for this role a natural athlete with very good timing, solid strong rowers for the middle crews and a lively rower with quick hands for the bow.
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Post by seanie on Feb 10, 2014 12:39:34 GMT
Coigach's winning Men's Open team at the worlds were rating 32-35, but there certainly used to be quite a range across the fleet. I've seen teams doing over 50 spm.
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shug
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Post by shug on Mar 28, 2014 18:02:05 GMT
Long Slow strokes? That is not borne out by winning performances at 32strokes per minute. The Cornish Gig is a very different beast from the St Ayles Skiff so caution is needed in making comparisons.The Gig is heavier with six rowers aboard, has a narrower beam (4ft6in I recall)and a much greater waterline length (about 28ft). This all combines so that the Gig carries its way much better than the Skiff.If the stroke rate in a Skiff is too low then the slowing down between drives becomes serious and affects the average speed.This is particularly noticeable in a headwind or a chop. The notion of l-o-n-g strokes being efficient is rather suspect. The perfect rowing position is attained in the middle of the stroke and to extend the stroke by exaggerated lean-bac kdoes not result in much power delivery. In gig rowing "pull-past" used to be common where the oar is pulled alongside the body at the end of the drive. This I believe has been abandoned by most clubs in favour of a shorter stroke at a higher stroke rate. So , there is a vast fund of information about Gig rowing but not all of it transfers across to Skiff rowing. Cheers
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AP
New Member
I should never have listened to Mark Irvine
Posts: 39
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Post by AP on Mar 29, 2014 8:09:04 GMT
Good points shug. There are a lot of factors to take into account and I would agree that rowing into a strong headwind may require an alteration of technique, we generally speed up the recovery slightly to keep the boat longer under drive, this is hard work but then rowing into a headwind is always going to be. I think that most crews tend to row at too high a rate which results in a shortening of the length of stroke, poor co-ordination in the drive and inefficient breathing patterns. They are very few if any who row at too slow a rate, that is why I would emphasise a long slow stroke as the tendency is always to speed up the rate to make the boat go faster, which is not always the result. There is a point at which you can row too long and end up in a weak position such as rowing past yourself as in the old method used by Gig rowers but I do not advocate this, just to lean back to the one O clock position. We mainly try to get rowers to lean as far forward as possible which is also a slightly weaker position, but it gives more time to prepare the "catch" and have everything ready for that optimal drive through the middle of the stroke. This is done by using your back until the one O clock position is reached where the blade is extracted wjth a sharp acceleration of the arms into the body. This last action is quite powerful and its effect can be felt when preformed well by the crew. This method is probably best suited to long oars and no doubt other methods can and are being used successfully, good to hear from others what their thoughts are on this subject.
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AP
New Member
I should never have listened to Mark Irvine
Posts: 39
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Post by AP on Apr 15, 2014 8:27:49 GMT
Can anyone advise in a stroke rate per minute to ensure efficient rowing.We have heard 28 strokes per minute is the most efficient rate. Hi Harry, Seanie was right, here is a wee video of Coigach rowing training at 32 strokes per minute which looks pretty slow, so 28 might be too slow. Coigach training
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Post by seanie on Apr 15, 2014 9:23:22 GMT
We've been training at a low rate <25 in order to concentrate on technique, but I expect we'll be in the 30-35 range when racing.
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Post by seanie on Apr 15, 2014 9:32:38 GMT
Just going back to the original post, you shouldn't necessarily expect your oars to be parallel with each other through the stroke. The angle of arc the oar traverses is dependent on the action of the rower and the length of the inboard. If your rowers are performing a similar action, and the inboards are different, they're not going to be parallel.
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Post by Chris on Nov 9, 2015 17:47:13 GMT
As an ex Cornish pilot gig rower I can tell you that to win a championship we'd be looking at a stroke rate of over 40 and please remember the main thing in any fixed seat boat is no power comes from the legs it's all upper body
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shug
New Member
Posts: 14
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Post by shug on Nov 10, 2015 13:07:09 GMT
A couple of things new rowers might find helpful. Footrests. Set your footrests so that you have a small flex of the knees, not too straight but not far from straight. Seat. Sit on the very edge of your seat.You can lean further forward if you sit on the edge of your seat and with your legs out pretty straight you can lean back further also. Try this on a stool or small low table at home and see the difference from sitting fuller on the stool. Every inch you lean forward gives you three inches at the oar tip, that's three inches extra the boat travels every stroke. Lean forward. Unlike sliding seat rowing where you are pushing with your large leg muscles and can easily hurt your back if you over-extend, in fixed seat rowing you should maximise your length of stroke mainly by leaning forward as far as you can reach. Lean back. You then lean back keeping your arms straight until about the one O clock position where you bring your hands in to your body and tap the oar out of the water. It is important to keep your arms straight as long as possible, your stomach and back muscles do most of the work, they are bigger muscle groups and will not tire as quickly as your arms. Slow recovery. Recover your arms out straight quickly (punch them forward ) as this helps with moving the rest of the body forward and takes the weight off your stomach muscles then hinge your body slowly forward ready for the next stroke. Row slow. Long slow strokes are more efficient and help with timing and breathing, if you want to go faster put more intensity into the stroke but do not speed up the rate of stroke, let the boat glide a little. In line. Keep everything in line as much as possible, from the feet, through the legs, back and head. Don't waste energy in sideways motion, keep the oar blade just in the water, not too deep, and sit on a cushion if you are pulling the oar through above your chest. It is hard to get everything right at once so practice one aspect for ten strokes with the cox calling it out, really lean as far forward as possible for ten, then the lean back for ten, then punch the hands forward, then check your blade depth, then concentrate on getting all oars in perfect time etc etc. Plenty of core exercises and stretching to promote flexibility will help.
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shug
New Member
Posts: 14
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Post by shug on Nov 10, 2015 13:11:28 GMT
A couple of comments. A slow recovery means that there is time available for the boat to slow down. For example, if the stroke rate is 30 then there is about one second for the recovery and, if the skiff was brought up to 5knots on the drive then it will slow down to about 4.09 knots on the recovery. If the stroke rate is increased to 35 then, the recovery time will be reduced to 0.86 seconds. If the boat speed was again 5knots, the boat will only slow to 4.26knots. Now this can't be extended very much because, as the stroke rate is increased, the oar-time in the water during the drive is reduced and the top speed will fall. What may be a good strategy is to have a moderate stroke rate but a faster recovery to maintain boat speed. There are a few sculling enthusiasts in the skiff community and it has to be noted that the skiff is essentially a converted fishing boat and not a lightweight shell for river racing. The skiff boat speed drops to 5knots to about 2 to 3knots in 5 seconds wheras a lightweight, low drag racing shell with the same crew weight would glide for very much longer. This has to be factored into the rowing technique. DISCUSS!!!!!!!
(oops , I only wanted a brief quote but have got the whole text apologies!)
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