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  • Why delaying back swing is hard

    Why delaying back swing is hard
    2025/09/09
    The power phase is most effective when legs drive first and back follows yet so few masters rowers do this. Why? Timestamps 00:45 Good power phase requirements The alignment of the womens double in the photo shows that the crew hasn't used their back while having legs nearly straight. Getting into this position requires having shoulders sternwards of the hips at the catch and to use their legs first in the power phase. 03:00 Pulling with arms is easy We have a lot of practice using hands and arms in daily life. We are good at this. At the catch you want to feel the oars loaded up under the water surface. If you pull with your arms you feel this earlier. By pulling with your arms and lifting the shoulders and lifting your chin you feel the workload on the spoon. Rowing is a pushing not a pulling sport in the main. Rowing legs only is 60% of the power; back swing is 25-30% of your power and so your arms add 5-10% of your power ONLY. 06:00 Small muscles v big muscles The rowing stroke uses a range of body muscles from legs, thighs and calves through to arms and hands. In daily life we use small muscles a lot - they fire quickly when we use them in daily life. We are practiced using them. The quads and glutes are slower to activate so we have to train them - we're less habituated using these. Connecting the handle of the oars through the footstretcher is unfamiliar and you have to train it. The first activation in the power phase is the calves to push the heels down onto the footstretcher, Then the quads join in to straighten your legs. When your legs are 3/4 straight you start the glute activation - hinging to connect legs to the back. Using the glutes to sustain pressure on the footstretcher while you swing your back. If you lose pressure on the footstretcher you are no longer accelerating the boat. Your feet are the only part of your body connected to the boat. As your back starts to activate you draw with your arms. 10:00 Why delaying the back is hard Connecting to the footstretcher early in the power phase is our goal. If you take the catch with the arms or swinging the shoulders/back this is a problem. When delivering power through the stroke you can only use each muscle group once per stroke. If you swing your back to take the catch you've got no back swing to use later in the power phase because you are already leaning backwards. It also prevents you from activating your leg drive - they do straighten but not as dynamically as you should. By not activating your legs this removes up to 60% of your possible total power which is a lot. And as a consequence you probably don't activate your glutes because you aren't using your legs enough. There's a correlation between the water being slower at the catch than later in the stroke. The angle of the oar spoon is also going into the slower water at an acute angle to the side of the boat. Use the slower water speed along the slower muscles to generate that early power in the stroke. 15:00 The solution to delaying your back swing Is to train yourself to use the big muscles, learn what it feels like to activate the quads and glutes early in the stroke. Then you know what it feels like to grip the water at the catch with your feet (rather than hands or shoulders). This is the beginning point to learn how to activate big muscles first and layer the smaller muscles on top as later activations. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192
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    17 分
  • Backing down

    Backing down
    2025/08/31
    Learn how to back down a rowing boat. Timestamps 00:45 Struggling to learn how to back the boat Blades up or blades down when backing? Different countries do this differently - UK is blades down and NZ is blades up. Blades down rationale - the oar spoon is curved and you want the curve to grip the water and push it backwards. Blades up rationale - the oar has pitch on it from the oarlock tilts the blade - this makes the oar go the wrong way and may cause the oar to dive into the water. My personal view is don’t turn your blades upside down (they are angled and the diving (being sucked down) you experienced is because the pitch / angle of the spoon is designed for the oar the right way up (not upside down). It's simpler to leave the oar blades up - because it's always the same whether rowing normally or backing. 04:00 How to learn backing down Two videos you can use to learn shared lower down. 1 - Start by sitting legs straight and arms straight with oars square and under the water surface. Scullers ensure your hands are nested tightly. Sweep rowers ensure the boat is level by having upward pressure on your thumbs. This shows the height the handle needs to be at to keep the boat level 2 - Begin with rowing in place. This is only moving your arms just pulling the handles towards you and pushing them away without taking the oars out of the water. Keep the handles at the same height throughout. Don't take the oars out of the water. Get the feeling of backing down. Notice that your handle height is key to getting this right. Diving or sucking down into the water happens when your handles go too high. 3 - Now progress to backing down with arms and body rowing in place first 4 - Then start backing down arms only; arms and body; then go to half slide and longer to full slide. 09:00 Counter-feather the oars 5 - Keep the oars on the surface when they are not being used to back the boat. Remember to counter-feather your blades and run the tip of the oar along the water surface when they are out of the water in between backing strokes. Keeping them on the surface means you maintain the boat set/balance. This gives you a point of reference as to where horizontal is to keep the boat level - it shows you how high to have your handles when the oars are out of the water. Remember the catch when backing down starts with the oars next to your body. It may help to learn counter-feathering one side at a time. You can hold the boat level with just one oar. 11:20 two videos to teach you backing down skill Here’s a video about improving your backing skills https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4CODkUdEGc And another about turning the boat which demonstrates the counter-feathered oar https://youtu.be/ThTrg1N6Obg A final recommendation - get confident backing with good pressure. Try practicing 100 meters of backing down each time you go rowing.
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    14 分
  • Rowing with knee osteoarthritis

    Rowing with knee osteoarthritis
    2025/08/24
    If your knees don't bend more than 90 degrees, what can you do? Ways to get more reach in the stroke if you have knee limitations. Timestamps 00:45 A 70 year old with osteoarthritis in both knees asks how to get more reach. Recognise where your comfort zone is where you are capable of pushing your limits. As you roll forward into the catch your ankles, pelvis and lower body also need to bend. You can do a functional movement assessment to understand your mobility in those other joints - and whether they can be made more flexible using sports massage, stretching or osteopathy. Functional Movement Assessment - free - https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/functional-movement-assessment/ 03:00 3 ways to get more compression The ideal is to get shins vertical at the catch with your heels lifted, back leaning forwards so your shoulders are sternward of your hips. 1 - Measure the shoe to seat height - typically it would be 15-16 cm for a woman of your height. Increase this to over 17cm by lowering the shoes and/or raising the seat with a 1 cm high seat pad. Beware low shoes may mean your calves hit the deck of the boat which isn't comfortable. Test this out on a rowing machine first - use a mirror to see the effect it has. 2 - Change the rake or angle of the footstretcher. Most are around 42-45 degrees. Making it shallower may enable you to get more compression - but it's impacted by your ankle flexibility. Osteopaths are good at both soft tissue massage and bone manipulation - show them a photo of rowing to explain what you're trying to achieve. I brush my teeth daily squatting on the floor to improve my ankle flexibility trying to keep my feet flat on the floor. 3 - If you buy your own seat, you can unscrew the seat top from the undercarriage and insert batons of wood to raise the seat. Check the track widths on the boats you use first so you know the seat will work in multiple boats (generally small boats have narrower track widths than larger boats). 10:30 Rigging adaptations The arc the oar travels through around the oarlock can be adjusted. Move the pivot point closer to the handle (try 1 or 2 cm). This enables your handle to move further around the arc - shortening the inboard relative to the outboard. But don't increase the load (gearing) a lot = keep the ratio of the length of outboard to inboard the same. By using slightly shorter oars than your crew mates and a shorter inboard, you can increase the arc that the tip of your blade moves through each stroke. You will need to change your footstretcher too - closer to the stern. Keep the gap between your handles at the finish the same. Mike Davenport explains more on the Rigging for Masters expert webinar. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/rigging/ You may also look at increasing your layback / back swing too. Talk this through with your coach.
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    15 分
  • Why finishes are key for big boats

    Why finishes are key for big boats
    2025/08/17
    Rowing a quad, four or an eight? To get good speed and rhythm, you must have good finishes. Timestamps 00:45 Finishes for big boats You row them differently than small boats. Finish together - all the oars come out of the water at the same time. Is everyone exactly in time? If not, look at what people are doing with the handle - what happens in the water is directly affected by what is happening on the handle. Some athletes may be dragging their handles downwards to take the oars out of the water. Big boats move fast and this is one of the reasons why big boats are rowed differently than small boats. If you take the pressure off the tip of the spoon early the mound of water in front of the blade and the pocket behind the blade start to equalise. The water quickly starts to equalise in height and you may feel it's harder to get the oar out of the water. Keep pressure on the face of the blade is key to enabling a smooth extraction. 03:30 Dragging the blade Signs you may be dragging at the blade end - if the bottom edge flicks water as it comes out at the finish. Also you may be feathering the blade out of the water - if it turns in order to extract rather than extracting first and then turns in the air. If your oar is close to the surface after the finish this may be a sign that you're dragging the blade out. It should be cleanly extracted and move high above the water surface before you feather. 04:45 Improve finishes Try square blade rowing. This is a discipline which is rewarded in the long term as it helps you fix blade dragging and getting the oar out of the water cleanly. Before starting, check when sitting stationary that your foot stretcher is set up correctly (all port side parallel). Back of the seat back wheel is 58-62 cm behind the face of the pin [ask us if you don't know what this is]. When rowing square blades it's important to know where your handle should be at the finish before extraction. In sweep the outside hand position is key and in sculling, the gap between your handles. - hold onto the finish 1cm longer than before - helps acceleration and holding the oar under the water - square blade rowing 07:00 Boat not level It's hard to do a good finish if the boat isn't level at the finish. Check your handle position at the finish when the boat is stationary to find where the correct place is. In sweep, check your outside elbow pointing behind you and inside forearm at approx. 90 degrees to the oar shaft at the finish. Outside arm should not be flared over the side of the boat because this inhibits your ability to control the handle height with your outside hand. Remember inside hand square/feather and outside hand controls the handle height in sweep. In both sweep and sculling if your elbow is lower than your wrist it's hard to put downward pressure on the handle and is a sign you are rigged too high and need to adjust. 08:30 Square blade rowing When rowing square blades the height differences show up when the boat isn't level. The level finish and square blade rowing work together - if one is off the other is likely off as well. When the boat isn't level it shows up differences in your finish timing and also handle heights. Go back and fix these first as a means to improving your square blade rowing. Learn Square Blade Rowing in our online course https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/square-blades-challenge/
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    11 分
  • Weather forecast apps for rowing

    Weather forecast apps for rowing
    2025/08/11
    3 weather data points you need to know in advance whether you can row the next day. Timestamps 00:45 Rowing is weather-dependent Mostly we want to know in advance and apps are useful. What should you be looking out for? Easy choices are - will it be sunny or raining? However the really important data is wind speed and wind direction for the time you plan on going rowing. Also consider air temperature / water temperature plus tide if you row on a tidal waterway. 02:30 Sailing apps are useful WindFinder and WindGuru both track wind (designed for sailing). They layer information such as a map graph animated to show wind movements over time. Wind Direction Where I row if the wind is coming from the East and is above 10 knots speed we can get on the water. This direction blows straight onto our pontoon. Finding the wind shadow on our lake can enable us to row when winds are higher. Wind Speed The limits for us are about 12 knots for big boats, less for singles and doubles/pairs. The WindFinder app shows gusting wind speeds as well as the base wind speed. This enables us to interpret the data in a more nuanced way. Knowing the time of high and low tide is helpful too (for our other boathouse location) because low tide means navigation is more congested and hazardous. 05:50 YR is a new app This is a Norwegian app - using the same base data points but their own unique algorithm to forecast ahead. Where I live the weather can often move through quicker than forecast. This app is much more accurate than the others and it also gives hourly updates rather than 3 hour increments. Finally- when you thin the weather is going to be marginal, we found that deciding whether to row when you're at the rowing club is better than trying to decide the night before. Decide In The Shed; Not In Bed is our mantra. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192
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    9 分
  • Journey to a perfect stroke

    Journey to a perfect stroke
    2025/08/03
    Why I'm not finished yet seeking to improve my rowing technique. Timestamps 00:45 There is no stroke I've ever taken which is perfect yet why do I keep trying? My rowing started as a student in a bank tub, a tub pair and then a clinker eight. One of my first videos showed that I lunged at the catch - this fault has stayed with me ever since! I revert and then correct many times. 03:00 The importance of drills Taught me ways to separate each part of the stroke or exaggerate the movements - so I learned to separate different body parts moving. 04:00 Sculling - a new challenge Starting to scull I began to learn how to make the boat glide. I could see why people choose rowing because it felt so good. The learning journey is a series of steps - I had jumped ahead and then couldn't regain that feeling. I needed to go back and fill in the gaps in my learning so that I could consistently make the movements. Single sculling taught me how to recruit more muscles - how each part contributes to the rowing stroke. Notably, my glutes were a gap in my learning. It also helped my mental endeavour - anything happening was caused by me and the resolution was also mine. I took on new challenges like steering and sweeping on both sides. Sculling taught me boat feel - how the boat responded to the water conditions and the weather. External stimuli taught me how to adjust the stroke to respond to these. Dissipating negative effects caused by externalities or taking advantage of positive influences. Small adjustments to how I was sculling was a good lesson. 07:00 Style versus technique The continuous learning journey is a series of steps forward and backwards. I came to understand the difference between rowing style and technique - viewing scullers from a distance, you can recognise individual people. Now as a masters rower, aging adds another dimension. As my body changes I'm making different adaptations and changes e.g. strength training. And different challenges - learning to blend crews together from differing techniques. The pleasure of making a crew fire by everyone making small changes so we together make the boat go better is high. My perfect stroke today in this crew will be different from that in another crew lineup. The journey is never only, the challenges continue. Enjoying the process of the journey rather than seeking a singular destination is why I love being a masters rower still working on finding the perfect stroke. Want easy live streams like this? Instant broadcasts to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. Faster Masters uses StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5694205242376192
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    11 分
  • Why rowers sky at the catch

    Why rowers sky at the catch
    2025/07/27
    Why rowers push the handles down at the catch causing the blade to sky - and how to fix it. Timestamps 01:00 Roger Watts told me "oars are still creating hazards to low flying seagulls as the right hand pushes forward and down at the catch...." Skying describes the position of the spoon of the oar relative to the water. As you get close to full slide the oar rises high above the water surface - this is called skying. It's about efficiency - can your oars enter the water when you are at full compression? This gives maximal stroke length. The longer your oars are above the water, your slide comes to full compression and then starts to move back - this means you have less leg drive to use because your knees are no longer at their highest point. 03:00 Causes of skying If on the recovery - the bottom edge of your blade clips the water rowers tend to push their hands down towards their legs. Squaring the blade causes skying if they push the handle down when rolling it square. If you carry the oars close to the water on the recovery, there isn't room to square the oar without clipping the water. A lack of awareness of weight in the hand - downward pressure on the handle - if this pressure reduces, the handle rises and the blade tip gets closer to the water. 04:30 Cures for skying 1 - learn how to have more weight in the hand - hold the oar handle at the same height as your elbow at the finish to make it easy to put downwards pressure on the handle. On the recovery you don't need a lot of downward pressure to keep the handle tracking horizontally. 2 - learn the horizontal path - Al Morrow's talk at VIP day Good Rowing is Horizontal. https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/vip-day-2025/ Keeping the handle at the same height until just before the catch. You won't hit any waves and if the height is correct, you won't clip the water surface when squaring either. The handle should not corrugate up/down during the recovery. Use video of yourself filmed 90 degrees square off to see what your handles do. 06:50 Learn the horizontal path Row with oars flat on the surface of the water during the recovery. The water surface is always horizontal. By pushing the handles along the surface you get a sense of how the handles track when there's no vertical movement on the recovery. The handle height when your oars are on the surface is nearly identical to the handle height on the power phase of the stroke. Watch the path of the handle - look at your hands guiding the oar. Add visual reference cues - e.g. the view past your hands to something beyond like the rigger. Build the tap down into the exercise - after running the oars along the surface then push the handles down 1 cm, then 2 cm progressively lowering the handle height but try to keep the path of the handle horizontal. Get easy recordings using Streamyard https://streamyard.com/pal/c/5694205242376192 referral link
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    10 分
  • Ways to activate your glutes for rowing

    Ways to activate your glutes for rowing
    2025/07/21
    How to use your glutes in rowing. Timestamps 00:45 Are your glutes activating? David Frost (webinar speaker - Functional Movement for over 60s) said Are your glutes 'along for the ride'? https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/functional-strength-and-movement/ Are your glutes working - how do you know if they are working? Watch video of yourself rowing - check your legs are pressing down flat and your arms draw. But can you see your back swing? Are you starting leaning forward and do your shoulders move dynamically? Activating the back swing uses the glutes. They are the hinge that connects your legs to your back. 02:30 Legs initiate the drive The power phase starts with your legs and when you get to a point where your legs are very nearly straight, you should be beginning your back swing. If it's passive and isn't accelerating the oar through the water (if the water mound in front of the spoon reduces) you aren't using your back enough to go faster than the boat is currently going through the water. Your body has to move quicker than the blade to keep pressure on the face of the oar spoon. 03:30 Why glutes matter If your back is passive then you've probably lost connection to the foot stretcher. When you do activate your glutes you're recruiting extra muscles to power your stroke. But it's hard to activate the glutes. Strengthening the glutes is also important so we can make them really useful. Christiano Ronaldo the footballer was warming up with glute activations - this is interesting - an elite pro athlete still feels the need to activate his glutes before starting playing. 06:00 Exercises for glute strength 1 - Clamshell - lie on your side on the floor, knees bent and ankles pressed together. Raise and lower the upper knee. Swap sides. 2 - Fire Hydrant - kneeling on all fours with hands below the shoulders. Lift one knee out to the side with a bent leg. Raise and lower the knee keeping the ankle at the same height as the knee. 3 - Crab Walk - Using a gym elastic band across your thighs, crouch down a little and walk sideways 10 steps in each direction. 08:00 How to activate glutes for rowing First know how to activate the muscle and know what it feels like when it is working before trying it in the boat. When approaching the catch clench your bum (butt). You are looking for the feeling of 'holding in a fa*t and you don't want to let it out'. This activates the muscles and when you drive with your legs, the muscles are engaged. Watch the numbers on the erg first - do 10 strokes approaching the catch first. Then do normal rowing without clenching for 10 strokes. For an improved back swing, the body swing only drill is good to do - get a video of it free from the Coach Mastermind course.
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    11 分