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.

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Why rowers sky at the catch

 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.

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Journey to a perfect stroke

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.

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Weather forecast apps for rowing

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/

Why finishes are key for big boats

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.

Rowing with knee osteoarthritis

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.

Backing down

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.

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Why delaying back swing is hard

When racing, how much space do you have in a buoyed boat lane?
Timestamps
00:45 Boat lane width
How can you fit a wide boat like an eight into a lane and why is it that you still find yourself rowing near the buoy line?
An eight is nearly 12 meters long and the rules of racing state that a standard rowing lane is 13.5 meters (44 feet) wide, with a minimum requirement of 13.5 meters for Olympic and international races, though 12.5 meters may be used in special circumstances. The lanes are marked by buoys and must remain a consistent width along the entire straight course. 
02:00 Width perception
The outboard from your rigger is 2 plus meters at either side. Your boat is about 6-7 meters wide with the oars.  This perception problem is aggravated when you think you're closer to one buoy line.
Boat position within the lane matters.
A toe-steered boat has more control over the alignment but you have to keep the boat straight through the race - there's a tendency to over-steer in buoyed lanes. You have to know where the middle of the lane is.
Some people forget that when you steer in one direction, you have to correct the steering to go straight after the boat is re-positioned. When the boat is straight. the middle of the hull is in the middle of the lane, you have to correct the foot steering so the boat stays in the middle after completing a manoeuvre. This relies on using your perception of the mid-point of the lane as your guide. But if you're in the bow seat, the boat doesn't pivot under where you're sitting.
05:30 The vanishing point
This is where parallel lines appear to converge in the far distance. This is useful for rowers on a buoyed course. The only time you don't have a vanishing point to refer to is at the start. The human eye is sensitive to width - using the horizon vanishing point you can tell if you're in the middle of the lane.
But confusion comes when you use the buoys near to your boat to align with. Buoys are every 10 meters down a rowing course, and if you think your hull is parallel to one of the buoy lines this probably means you are actually steering towards that buoy line. You need the vanishing point to correctly position the boat. 
08:00 Boat position
When looking around during the race (to left or right) we tend to use the buoys nearest us as a steering guide. This is a mistake. 
You have to adjust your width perception to take account of the tips of your blades and also to acknowledge the vanishing point to position your hull centrally. Learn to ignore the buoys close to your boat. The vanishing point is the skill to develop to help you stay in your lane.

How wide is a boat lane?

What you do on the recovery affects what you do on the power phase.
Timestamps
00:45 What you do on the recovery
What you do as you approach the catch is likely the first thing you do on the power phase. Any errors get transitioned to the next stroke. Three common things happen - shoulder lifting, rushing the slide and the oar going too deep at the catch.
01:30 Shoulder lifting
This is putting the oar in the water by lifting your shoulders to feel the oar connection to the water. To prevent this, start at the finish of the prior stroke. By getting the arms/body transition (pre-stretching) correct on the recovery you can improve your catch and remove the shoulder lift. 
One of the reasons we rock forward later in the recovery is that it feels like you're getting more length. But this makes you focus on the handle so when you take the catch, you're still focused on the handle and so you pull (not push) to make connection with the water.
Goal is to connect with minimal body movement - ideally only your knee to ankle moves. 
compounding - reaching more at the catch slows it down because your body weight causes the stern to push down into the water and you have to lift the handle to make the placement but you're working against yourself because you're also leaning and create a greater height the handle has to move to get the spoon under the water.
If you don't shoulder-lift you are more likely to be on time at the catch.
05:30 Rushing the slide
By accelerating the slide in the second half of the recovery this causes rushing. The pre-stretch gives you time on the recovery - you can work out how quickly you want to arrive at the catch. You don't need to move anything except bend your knees. Weight on the footstretcher gives you the feeling of control of the slide speed.
Check your handle speed at the finish compared to the person in front of you to ensure you are in time with them.
If you row longer than anyone else (long legs) you have to slide because you're taller. Starting to roll up the slide before completing the pre-stretch gives a false timing signal to the people behind you.
Ratio is another cause of rushing especially if you're doing a one to one ratio. Insufficient power through the water causes 1:1 ratio and makes it hard to do the recovery without rushing.
A lack of awareness can also cause you to rush - is your body weight on the back of the seat (your bum side not your legs side). You should feel your body weight under where your thighs join your bum on the recovery (after the rock forward).
Let your hamstrings relax more on the recovery so the forward momentum of the boat pushes you up the slide (with weight on the footstretcher). 
11:30 Going too deep
When the oar goes into the water it goes too deep initially. Starting on the recovery, if you don't push down on the handles to get the oar spoon clear of the water before you feather you will probably carry the handles too high on the recovery. The compounding issue is that in order to square without hitting the water, you have to push your handles down. You over-do the lift and so the oar goes too deep into the water.
Pushing down to square also causes you to drop your shoulders and then when you get to the timing of the catch you lift your hands and also lift your shoulders (they're tense) and this causes you to go deep because your whole body block lifts up. The catch should only be done by the arms to lift the handle and the knee to ankle to push on the foot stretcher. Make a small upward movement on the handle to place the oar only using your arms.
So squaring late can cause you to mis-time the catch as well.  If your oars go too deep - take a look at what you do at the finish and see if that causes you to mis-time the catch as a compounding technique error.
Solutions come from video - three strokes of yourself from 90 degrees square off - slow it down to watch as you compare it to a model of good rowing / sculling.

Rushing and Shoulder Lifting

This week we’re launching our Bates Athletics Hall of Fame interview series, as the first class was inducted on Saturday. Plus, our Bobcats of the Week come from the nationally ranked field hockey and men’s soccer programs. All that and more...

Interviews this episode:

1:12 -- Matt Coyne, Head Coach, Football.

13:33 -- Rose Gordon '28, Field Hockey. (Female Bobcat of the Week)

20:37 -- Luke Cunniffe '29, Men's Soccer. (Male Bobcat of the Week)

26:43 -- Andrew Byrnes '05, Men's Rowing, Bates Athletics Hall of Fame.

Bates Bobcast Episode 388: Athletics Hall of Fame Interview -- Andrew Byrnes '05

This week we are recapping a thrilling and emotional win for the football team last Saturday at Tufts. Plus, we preview the Head of the Charles regatta with rowing head coach Peter Steenstra, and our Athletics Hall of Fame interview series continues with the 2015 Bates women’s rowing team, the first Bates team to win an NCAA championship. All that and more...

Interviews this episode:

1:19 -- Matt Coyne, Head Coach, Football.

17:04 -- Ryan Lynskey '27, Football captain. (Male Bobcat of the Week, NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week)

23:59 -- Ryan Rozich '27, Football captain. (NESCAC Special Teams Player of the Week)

34:23 -- Malina Young '28, Volleyball. (Female Bobcat of the Week)

39:29 -- Peter Steenstra, Head Coach, Rowing. (Head of the Charles Preview)

56:06 -- Jenna Armstrong '15, NCAA Champion Women's Rowing Team Captain, Hall of Fame Interview Series.

Bates Bobcast Episode 389: Athletics Hall of Fame Interview -- 2015 Women's Rowing Team

Learn steps towards getting a good catch using drills.
Timestamps
00:45 Am I done learning the stroke yet? Asked an athlete.... only once!
The catch is challenging to learn - supporting your learning with drills means you can self-coach as well as getting coached.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/drills/
Michael sends his crews the drills video the night before practice. 
Athletes need to know what to do in a drill and (importantly) why they are doing this drill. There are two main types of drill - exaggeration drills and isolation drills.
02:15 Handle height
This is where learning the catch starts - the height of the handle has to be understood so you know how high/low the handle needs to be. Describe the stroke cycle in high/low handle heights including the "ramp up" towards the catch position. 
Learn this stationary in the boat. When the oars are flat on the water at the catch, the handle height is the same as when the oars are squared. Teaching how to arrive at this height the drill is "Slap Catches" so the athlete knows the precise moment their handle reaches the correct catch height - and the aural sound helps to align timing on both sides of the boat. Learn when to go up "the ramp".
04:30 Making a shape
You have to actively lift your hands to make the catch 'shape' with the handle. Learning when and how to do this is the next stage in progressive learning. After squaring the blade, if you make the catch shape too early, the oar hits the water. If you square and your handle is too high on the recovery the oar will hit the water. An early square helps and you can figure out how high (low) the handle needs to be on the recovery so as to not hit the water.
When to make the shape? Use the second drill - backsplash drill - so the lower edge of the oar hits the water just as the handle lifts. You can hear and feel the backsplash.
06:20 Catch timing
This is relative to your body movement and the seat. Your seat is a good proxy for body movement because there's a short moment when the seat rolls forward and stops as it changes direction. That's when you need the oar to already be under the water.
The third drill (sweep) is to row with inside hand holding the back of the seat so you can tell when it changes direction. In sculling row with one oar only (someone holds the boat level). Watch the height of your knees too as this is also a good visual marker.
Our discussion continued around ways to keep handle moving towards the stern while placing the oar at the catch. 
This series can be learned in a few practice - do two each time you go on the water. Take care that you understand the why as well as the how.

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Progressively learning the catch

This week we continue our Hall of Fame interview series with inductee Meg Coffin, from the class of 2008. Plus, the No. 6 nationally ranked field hockey team got a big Senior Day win and women’s golf won the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association Championship.

All that and more, on the Bates Bobcast!

Interviews this episode:

1:13 -- Matt Coyne, Head Coach, Football.

11:08 -- Lucy Norris '26, Field Hockey captain.

18:44 -- Victoria Adams '27, Women's Golf. (Female Bobcat of the Week)

26:28 -- Darien Chiang '27, Men's Rowing 1V coxswain. (Male Bobcat of the Week)

34:59 -- Meg Coffin '08, Women's Soccer, Basketball, Lacrosse, Bates Athletics Hall of Fame.

Bates Bobcast Episode 390: Athletics Hall of Fame Interview -- Meg Coffin '08

This week we continue our Hall of Fame interview series with inductee Sherry Deschaine, who had a hand in coaching almost every women’s sport during her time as a Bobcat. Plus, we introduce you to our two new rowing assistant coaches, one of whom is a familiar face here at Bates. All that and more...

Interviews this episode:

1:17 -- Matt Coyne, Head Coach, Football

9:38 -- Carmel Crunk '28, Linebacker, Football. (Male Bobcat of the Week)

18:33 -- Anaïs Reneaum '28, Middle Hitter, Volleyball. (Female Bobcat of the Week)

26:31 -- Hannah Fitts '20 and Greta O'Hara, Rowing assistant coaches.

47:32 -- Sherry Deschaine, Pioneering women's head coach for a combined 50-plus sports seasons, Bates Athletics Hall of Fame.

Bates Bobcast Episode 391: Athletics Hall of Fame Interview -- Sherry Deschaine

How to increase stroke power using three layered drills.
Timestamps
00:45 Drills for power
These are all part of the Drills Compendium (24 drills + 3 ebooks bundle).
Masters rowers tend to row a good leg drive and arm draw but neglect the back swing. The back is crucial to joining the leg drive and arm draw. How to ensure back swing adds to the speed of the boat.
03:15 The body sequence
From the catch (where boat is slowest) the stroke power takes the boat to its fastest speed. After the leg drive is half completed you need to start to layer the back swing so it overlaps with the end of the leg drive. Later the arm draw overlaps with the end of the back swing.
Learn how to use each body part in turn without dropping boat power at the changeover.
04:30 Body swing only drill
This is the least intuitive part! Start with legs straight and arms straight with blade in the water while leaning forwards. Swing your back to take the stroke and take the oars out when your. back swing is completed. Do this square blades and then once confident, add power to the stroke by engaging your core and glutes.
06:00 Body and arms and half slide rowing are the second and third parts of this drill. The glutes provide the connection between the legs and back. By building up the stroke progressively you should feel the spoon of the blade accelerate through the water - as you add in more body parts this must continue. The arms have to pick up already moving water (from your back swing) and make it faster still.
In a crew add in more people so the boat goes faster - notice how your body movements have to change to take account of the boat moving faster. If you aren't adding to the acceleration you should feel that you have no pressure on the end of the blade. 
Try an exaggeration rowing at half slide and finish your legs/back/arms at the same time.
10:30 Our teaching method
The way we teach is designed to work for adult learners. We teach how we row and then make it progressively harder so you can continue to challenge yourself, continue to experiment with ways to make the movement and lastly check your experience with your crew mates - am I getting the right feeling here? Even the most experienced rowers can do these alongside the less experienced.
Do the drills at least 3 times in a single practice so you're familiar with the drill and can see your progress as you do it better each time.

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Progressive drills for stroke power

Three more drills to learn sequentially which will improve your recovery. These will help fix balance issues.
Timestamps
00:45 Finesse really helps in the recovery
Crew alignment, bladework skills and body movement. The benefit is that the boat slows down less when you achieve these. The biggest gains in boat speed can be achieved here (assuming you aren't going to get much fitter/stronger).
By keeping the same peak in the power but slow the boat down less on the recovery, the average speed of the boat each stroke will be higher, and you will go faster.
Our teaching method: do one drill and then layer another drill on top of it - making it progressively harder. this allows you to build your skill and also crews of different ability can row together.
04:00 Skimming drill
Understand the impact your hands and handle heights have on boat balance.
On the recovery - let your oars run along the surface during the recovery. This teaches where the oar handles need to be relative to each other. The water is level - so your handles reflect the correct height during the power phase. In sculling this also helps to recognise the left hand over the right hand differential.  Check the "nested" versus "stacked" hands demonstration at the crossover position.
Then add progressively deeper tap downs on the recovery - 1 cm, 2 cm, 3, cm. Can you keep the boat level?
It can be hard to keep your left hand higher than the right from half slide to the catch (the left hand is always higher than the right).   
08:45 Pauses drills
From hands away / body over / quarter slide. Advanced rowers can also pause at weight on the feet. This is explained in the drills compendium.
Build on the skimming drill - now check your hands and body posture at different stages of the recovery. Watch the elbows of the person in front for timing. 
10:15 Reverse ratio drill
The idea here is to arrive at full compression with your blade already in the water. Time the movement so the blade placement is before you change direction on the seat. Go fast up the slide and then drift your oars through the power phase. This helps you to make handle movements fluid.

Buy the Drills Compendium (24 drills and 3 bonus ebooks)
https://fastermastersrowing.com/member-register/drills/



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Progressive drills for the recovery

Three ways to get faster (or avoid slowing down) in training.
Timestamps
00:45 Can you increase the average speed of your boat?
The net of how fast it accelerates in the power phase and how much it slows in the recovery phase.
Our past episode about how to get speed on the recovery
https://youtube.com/live/RRF3o7LxNXM

01:45 Row to the Conditions
Pay attention to the water surface, to the wind and waves, to the water swirls under a bridge. This allows you to make subtle changes to how your boat is moving.
Rowing in a headwind - at the start the waves are highest (they've progressively built up) and these lower as you get closer to the end of 1k. With large waves you cannot rate high. When rowing to the conditions as you notice the wave height reducing, push on and increase the rate by half a point. You can also change the ratio (intensity through the water compared to relaxation up the slide).

04:30 No huge moves
If you do a big push the chances are you will suffer a large fall off in boat speed after the push is done.  Choose moderate moves and you are more likely to be able to hold the new boat speed after it ends. Make your moves sustainable longer. 
Pushing hard means you may compensate by trying to save energy and your pace judgement may suffer.

06:00 Avoid rowing in dirty water
The puddles of the crew in front are disturbed water. When the water block is churned by someone else's oar it makes the water unstable and hard for you to get your oar to grip the water. This affects the boat run and your ability to put energy into pushing the boat forwards.
When rowing near other crews, put their puddles under your riggers - between the hull and your spoon. The disturbed water will neither affect the run of your hull nor your spoon grip on the water. 

Rowing in dirty water is hard to avoid if your eight has an unconventional rig (Two people on the same side in sweep eights) this may result in bow and stroke being on the same side. Only the fastest mens eights can avoid stroke rowing into bow's previous puddle.

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Raise average boat speed

Ways to improve speed of the oar through the water. Keep the stroke rate the same and increase the speed.
Timestamps
00:45 This is a long term project.
Less experienced rowers push the oar less hard than the more experienced and you need to train this.
Time through the water at stroke rate of 20 is approximately 3 seconds per stroke. Pushing the oar through the water on the power phase takes 1.2 to 1.5 seconds and yet we row with a ratio of at least 2:1 at low rates. 
Experienced rowers get more rest every stroke. They push the oar with high intensity through the water and so they have more time with the oar out of the water. 
03:30 Same rate more speed
How to row at the same stroke rate and deliver more force into the boat hull. The key to training this on the erg was to start with a focus point once every 5 minutes for 10 strokes.
For ten strokes push harder through the power phase but you're not allowed to take the rate up.
This showed us how much harder we could push and how much more rest we got as a result.
It depends on your muscular strength and fitness. Then we moved to doing this for a minute. After each intense stroke period we allowed 5 strokes to recover and take a little rest. Over time, you don't need to take that rest.
06:00 Up one: down one
Taking the same principle of increased intensity into the boat. We call "Up one down one" which means take the stroke rate up one point in rate through the water and down one point in rate on the slide. So at rate 20 you move to rate 21 through the water and rate 19 on the slide - which averages to 20.
This has the effect of intensifying the power phase. 
Train yourself to do this and it gets a better ratio in the stroke - you learn how to relax more as you rest on the recovery.
The benefit is slightly more boat speed, slightly more rest and this helps to keep the boat moving fast through the water.

Here's an earlier episode which covers this topic further of how to train yourself to relax.
https://fastermastersrowing.com/get-more-speed-on-the-recovery/

Do this for short periods to begin with as it's tiring. Introduce it to your warmup just for 5 strokes at each stage in the pick drill.

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Up your intensity

Defensive protectors for oars and sculls to prevent the paint wearing off and the spoon degrading. 
Things you can do to preserve the spoons and handles.
Timestamps
00:45 Oars get wear and tear
You paint the spoons in the club colours and the paint wears in the middle of the back of the oar and the tips of the blades get worn off at the corners (so you no longer have a sharp corner).
Defensive protectors for oars
Our dock is wood and the surface gets greasy and is a slip hazard. We put non-slip matting onto the dock - water drains through the holes. The brand is Ako Matting and is recommended for ice, snow and water uses. The downside is the surface is abrasive on oars because of the non-slip elements.
03:00 Rules for oars
We have a rule that when you land and leave the dock we always put our oars tip side down on the dock. This helps to preserve the paint and stop the wear patterns on the back of the oars.
Tips down meant we got wear on the tip of the blade. 
Croker Oars have tip protectors - little triangles which fit over the corners and you superglue in place.
https://www.crokeroars.com/product-page/row-tip-protectors-pair-4-tips
The plastic takes the wear rather than the carbon oar.
Concept2 oar users can use the vortex edge - it's a strip which goes along the length of the oar tip. 
https://www.concept2.com/oars/sculls/blades#vortexedge

The wear on the tip of the oars reduces the surface area of the spoon. And the wear is always in the same direction - my sculls ended up thinner than 3mm. This is the legal minimum for World Rowing rules - I had to sand down the tips of the blade to restore the minimum 3mm.
05:30 Protective decals
A scuff pack kit made to protect the back of the oar from rubbing when your oars are on the bank.
Defensive protectors for oars https://crayfishrowing.com/shop/ols/products/scuffpatch-kit-for-two-oars and the Croker oar corners
Lastly - blade wraps - vinyl that is pre-printed with your club colours and they are cut to the oar spoon shape. Use a heat gun to apply them and it also gives some protection to the oar spoon.
https://regattaprint.com/blade-wraps-team-sweep-oars/
How to wrap oars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxcaeTeOz_g&t=10s

Take care of your oars to make them last longer.
If you paint your oars the old fashioned way is to sand them and use marine-grade gloss paint with undercoat and topcoat paint layers. Others have used spray can car paint too. 
We had stickers (decals) of the club logo made to put on the shaft of the oars so that they can be identified - helpful if you don't paint your oars and they look the same as every other club. Easy for them to get lost at a regatta.

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Oar protection

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