Stroke Cycle - The Drive - Faster Masters Rowing™

Continuing our series about the rowing and sculling stroke and what each phase should look and feel like plus drills on how to coach yourself to improve.

Timestamps

02:30 This Past Week – what we do to advocate for masters rowing.
Organising groups of different skills
Crew racing lineups article.

09:00 Jess Di Carlo reviews book of the month Socrates the Rower. Rowing as stress relief.
See more rowing books on our blog.

14:00 The Drive – a good drive relies on a good recovery

Building power as you move into racing.
Technique for the drive:

Get the blade into the water.
Mechanics – move the boat past the blades and not pushing the blades through the water.
Focus on lower body – legs, hips and push on the footstretchers.
Maximise stronger muscle groups and use them first.
Pressure on the handle and footstretcher are the same.

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Read and watch the full video series on the rowing stroke cycle – 6 episodes from catch to finish.

17:40 Think horizontal – keep the handles level throughout

Get feedback by checking your oar shaft. Look at it.
Is it changing blade depth? this shortens the time in the water.
Wash happens if you don’t extract the blade at the right time.
Slip is if you don’t have purchase on the water at the start of the drive.
Purchase at the catch is sometimes called grip on the water.
22:00 Practice rowing feathered on the drive to find the correct height of your handles.
Identify a visual reference point to check you have the correct height.

23:30 When do I start the body swing?

Initiate the drive with the legs and hips and later bring in the body swing.
Pressure on the foot stretcher – the whole food goes flat on the footstretcher – this is the moment to bring the body swing in.
25:50 Swing through the perpendicular point of the oar handles.
As you do this you start to bend your elbows.
The blade is moving to the pin at this point.
Continue to hold pressure so the blade doesn’t tear the water.
If you lose the pressure that hurts the release.

Drills for the drive

30:00 Practice the drive – legs only rowing.
Add resistance with a bungee.
A good way to get more proprioception into your joints.
34:00 Push a refrigerator
Activate the glutes – this supports the lower back
Activate the lats – this gives a solid shoulder girdle
Together these solidify the torso for the drive.
36:30 Drill – finish all three at the same time – legs, back and arms.
Exaggeration drill – do for 10 strokes
This teaches how you can adjust your movements.
38:15 The result is shown in your puddles
They should be tight dark circles.
39:30 An exercise for swing and rhythm.
Learn to trust your blade. Get your head out of the boat and stop looking down.
Put the blade in the water and look up at the sky. Add your head mass to the leverage.
43:00 The boat is stable when the oars are in the water.