The marks your blade leaves in the water after every stroke are one of the most honest pieces of coaching feedback you’ll ever get — and most rowers row straight past them. Today you’ll learn what a good puddle actually looks like and why size has nothing to do with it, what your puddles are telling you when they go wrong, and a practice tool that removes puddles entirely — and why that can be exactly what you need. Every stroke leaves a mark. Today we learn to read them.
Timestamps
01:00 The anatomy of a good puddle
This is your stroke made visible - what you actually did on that stroke. You should be aiming to make tight, swirly, deep — and no splash puddles. It's concentrated and without foamy white water around it. The depth and darkness of the water swirl indicates the power applied.
The puddle is caused by the curve at the front of the blade - as you lever the boat past the point the oar went into the water. The mound test - you want water to move effectively. Water flows and you cannot compress water with a rowing oar. This is why you can create a mound in front of the face of the spoon.
Look at the end of your stroke to see your mound. The water should be pushed up in front of the spoon with a corresponding hollow behind the blade spoon. Sustaining both through to the finish enables you to take the oar out of the water with very little effort. If your acceleration drops in the second half of the power phase, the mound lowers, the hollow fills up and it becomes harder to take the oar out of the water. Anyone can make a big splashy puddle by washing out - pull the handle down into your lap at the finish and you'll see the puddle changes.
04:50 Puddle Killers
What goes wrong and why?
Energy wasted on the extraction causes splash - feathering out, lack of a clean exit - these may be an indication of unnecessary energy being used to take the oar out of the water.
The language you use can be problematic e.g. "pulling". Using your arms can mean you rip the oar against the water. Water moves as a single block at a gradient of 1:200 - rowing needs to keep the water block solid. Breaking the water block causes little air bubbles to get into the water and this makes it harder for the oar to grip the water and it becomes less effective.
Use language such as burying the blade, pushing it horizontally and extracting smoothly. The boat moves forward because the water goes back relative to the boat.
07:30 Puddle-less rowing
Sometimes no puddle is the whole point. Try to row without making a puddle - this helps you to focus on your technique and if you are keeping the oar at the correct depth through the stroke and taking it out cleanly.
Try rowing with the oar only half under the water. This helps you to learn how to manage the handle which controls the oar height through the stroke. Align the catch and finish heights by controlling the handle.
What your puddles are telling you - take a look behind you from catch to finish and watch the puddle move away from the boat using peripheral vision or by turning your head to see the full stroke.
