Another question: Push off with heel or ball of the foot?

SirWired · Post by **SirWired** » June 15th, 2009, 1:21 pm

I've been pushing off with the ball of my foot, but I have tried pushing off with the heel. I would think you could develop more power using the heel, but it seems to take just as much (or more) effort to flex my foot backwards at the beginning of the stroke to plant my heel on the foot stretcher as it does to just push off with the ball.

If I'm supposed to be pushing off with the heel, do I just force it until it feels natural? (I sense much muscle pain coming on for a week or two if this is the case...)

SirWired

bloomp · Post by **bloomp** » June 15th, 2009, 11:20 pm

If you've ever done squats, it's the exact same thing. Push with the heel, not the ball of the foot. Your arches will thank you later, and you get a lot more push out of the full use of the quads, rather than focusing on the calves to get the leverage.

There's a lot more of the mechanics of how each muscle works at different angles in your legs, but in the first quarter part of the leg drive, you want your heels to click back down onto the footplate.

NavigationHazard · Post by **NavigationHazard** » June 16th, 2009, 4:16 am

Optimum biomechanically is probably toes first and then rocking back onto the heels, although flexibility and other issues like the relative length of your leg bones may come into play.

See http://www.biorow.com/RBN_en_2008_files ... News07.pdf

Mattlikespeoples · Post by **Mattlikespeoples** » June 16th, 2009, 9:04 am

Just what i was going to say. I did a biomechanics paper on erging for school and that's what I found. The paper wasnt too indepth as I didnt have testing equipment to do my own research but I found plenty of sources

SirWired · Post by **SirWired** » June 16th, 2009, 4:49 pm

Well, I'm glad I asked... that was not the answer I was expecting. That paper is excellent and should help me improve my technique.

If I'm reading that paper correctly, it sounds like I should start the drive with the ball of the foot, but let my foot rock onto my heel to finish the drive.

I guess I never thought about concentrating on "bringing my knees down" during the drive; I always thought of the drive as a push backwards. This should help my heels come down at the right time.

SirWired

asouthmayd · Post by **asouthmayd** » June 16th, 2009, 6:35 pm

Here's something you can try, SirWired. Do jumpies. So, kind of like a squat, except you are springing up, you land on the balls of your feet, and you control your compression into a squat, and then do it again. Not only is that a great exercise for your legs (especially if you do it while clutching a weight), but it also helps you emulate the movement you should be doing on a shell, and on an erg as well (obviously crashing the slide is not bad in erging, especially during a time trial, but this is for steady state rowing mostly). That should give you the right feel.