Help with technique

[sporty]

I posted something earlier in the FAQ, but think I need to move to this section. I'm a newbie at this, but want to get the technique right. I have looked at the various demos of the right technique but have a few questions.

1. I've been told to use my legs to drive, but I find that I'm almost halfway or so in my leg extension before much resistance kicks in, so it feels like I have to use my arms to pull quite bit instead of using my legs as I'm told I'm supposed to. Is it possible that somehow my machine is not setup correctly?

2. In the pictures from C2's manual, it shows the person at the catch with arms fully extended. The picture shows a sizeable gap between the top of the knees at vertical and the position of the arms. Is this always what's supposed to happen, or does it depend on the person's height (I'm 5'4"). I find that my arms are BELOW the knees and on either side of them. Do I need to force my arms higher?

3. Related to #2, the pictures show that the angle of chain into the front end changes quite significantly at the catch and at the finish. Is this something I should try to emulate, or again does it depend on my height?

4. How far back should one lean at the finish -- the pictures show only a moderate lean. I know I can lean much further back than what the C2 manual shows. I just don't know whether I should or not.

5. Does the handle come in at the navel? At the chest? In between? I'm actually also hitting myself a lot with the handle, is this normal or do I neew to not pull the handle so far in?

THanks for all who help to make this forum so good.

[hjs]

1. I've been told to use my legs to drive, but I find that I'm almost halfway or so in my leg extension before much resistance kicks in, so it feels like I have to use my arms to pull quite bit instead of using my legs as I'm told I'm supposed to. Is it possible that somehow my machine is not setup correctly?

2. In the pictures from C2's manual, it shows the person at the catch with arms fully extended. The picture shows a sizeable gap between the top of the knees at vertical and the position of the arms. Is this always what's supposed to happen, or does it depend on the person's height (I'm 5'4"). I find that my arms are BELOW the knees and on either side of them. Do I need to force my arms higher?

3. Related to #2, the pictures show that the angle of chain into the front end changes quite significantly at the catch and at the finish. Is this something I should try to emulate, or again does it depend on my height?

4. How far back should one lean at the finish -- the pictures show only a moderate lean. I know I can lean much further back than what the C2 manual shows. I just don't know whether I should or not.

5. Does the handle come in at the navel? At the chest? In between? I'm actually also hitting myself a lot with the handle, is this normal or do I neew to not pull the handle so far in?


.

1 You have to drive fast enough to feel resistance. At what oace do you row and at what drag? You should feel resistance from the beginning. Are your arms straight and the chain also at the start?

2 THis depend on relative build, long legs means knees high etc. it depends on the footplate hole which are showing and on your posture, do you sit up?

3 If the angle changes much most off the time it means that people drop the hands, don,t do that move in a straight line if possible.

4 Not to far. Overleaning doesn,t help

5 The handel should touch you not hit, that would be lost energy. bets hight for erging is not the navel but 10/15 inches higher.

[sporty]

1. I've been told to use my legs to drive, but I find that I'm almost halfway or so in my leg extension before much resistance kicks in, so it feels like I have to use my arms to pull quite bit instead of using my legs as I'm told I'm supposed to. Is it possible that somehow my machine is not setup correctly?

2. In the pictures from C2's manual, it shows the person at the catch with arms fully extended. The picture shows a sizeable gap between the top of the knees at vertical and the position of the arms. Is this always what's supposed to happen, or does it depend on the person's height (I'm 5'4"). I find that my arms are BELOW the knees and on either side of them. Do I need to force my arms higher?

.

1 You have to drive fast enough to feel resistance. At what oace do you row and at what drag? You should feel resistance from the beginning. Are your arms straight and the chain also at the start?

2 THis depend on relative build, long legs means knees high etc. it depends on the footplate hole which are showing and on your posture, do you sit up?

1. The pace is probably close to 3:00/500m and the drag factor I believe is about 120. I am keeping my arms straight and the chain is always straight (no slack). When I drive, as I said, it feels like there is not much resistance until I'm halftway extended. Then there is not much more I can do with me legs before the arms come into play. Problem is, I have nothing to compare against in terms of trying someone else's machine to see if it feels the same way. I don't know if this is relevant, but when I try to increase the pace as much as I can, I can only get to about 2:25, which from what I can tell, is not very fast as an all out short term effort. Leads me to wonder if I'm missing the ability to put my legs to proper use.

2. I have small feet, so the heel stop is higher up. I'll see if the footplate is adjustable -- I've only adjusted the heel stop thing up and down.

Thanks.

[Hapa]

I posted something earlier in the FAQ, but think I need to move to this section. I'm a newbie at this, but want to get the technique right. I have looked at the various demos of the right technique but have a few questions.

1. I've been told to use my legs to drive, but I find that I'm almost halfway or so in my leg extension before much resistance kicks in, so it feels like I have to use my arms to pull quite bit instead of using my legs as I'm told I'm supposed to. Is it possible that somehow my machine is not setup correctly?

2. In the pictures from C2's manual, it shows the person at the catch with arms fully extended. The picture shows a sizeable gap between the top of the knees at vertical and the position of the arms. Is this always what's supposed to happen, or does it depend on the person's height (I'm 5'4"). I find that my arms are BELOW the knees and on either side of them. Do I need to force my arms higher?

3. Related to #2, the pictures show that the angle of chain into the front end changes quite significantly at the catch and at the finish. Is this something I should try to emulate, or again does it depend on my height?

4. How far back should one lean at the finish -- the pictures show only a moderate lean. I know I can lean much further back than what the C2 manual shows. I just don't know whether I should or not.

5. Does the handle come in at the navel? At the chest? In between? I'm actually also hitting myself a lot with the handle, is this normal or do I neew to not pull the handle so far in?

THanks for all who help to make this forum so good.

1. You should also check that you're not "shooting your butt". This occurs when you first start the drive and instead of maintaining the same body angle through the first part of the drive, your butt shoots out from under your body, your body angle increases down, and you don't keep the resistance on the chain.

2. I believe it will depend on your height and torso/leg ratio. If you have a shorter torso and longer legs, then yes, your arms will be on either side of your knees. Just make sure you have good posture and aren't compressing your legs too much.

3. I don't think that the angle of the chain from horizontal should change all that much. At least when rowing on the water, you want to keep the hands as level as possible throughout the drive since you need to keep the blade at the same depth in the water.

4. Moderate lean at the finish. If you have back problems, I've heard that people reduce the lean even further to alleviate some pain until in better shape. But, you typically don't want to go too far back.

5. You should finish with the handle above your navel, just under your chest. If you're a woman, should be right under your boobs (when they're in a supported position... ) Keep your wrists straight and your elbows back (don't do the chicken wing thing).

Good luck!

[ranger]

The pace is probably close to 3:00/500m and the drag factor I believe is about 120

In that case, there isn't that much tension on the chain because there isn't that much tension on the chain. You aren't pushing quickly enough with your legs. Done correctly, the leg drive should be so quick that it lifts you right up off the seat. Some of the best rowers, when they aren't being careful, can lose the seat entirely and land on the rail. This can smart, and isn't smart, but it indicates that you indeed have quick and poweerful legs.

Try to row continuously at 10MPS, e.g., 2:00 @ 20 spm. That should be enough to give you an indication of how quickly you should push with your legs.

Good luck!

ranger

[GeorgeD]

The pace is probably close to 3:00/500m and the drag factor I believe is about 120

In that case, there isn't that much tension on the chain because there isn't that much tension on the chain. You aren't pushing quickly enough with your legs. Done correctly, the leg drive should be so quick that it lifts you right up off the seat. Some of the best rowers, when they aren't being careful, can lose the seat entirely and land on the rail. This can smart, and isn't smart, but it indicates that you indeed have quick and poweerful legs.

Try to row continuously at 10MPS, e.g., 2:00 @ 20 spm. That should be enough to give you an indication of how quickly you should push with your legs.

Good luck!

ranger

That should read 2:00 @ 25spm to be 10mps

[JimR]

I posted something earlier in the FAQ, but think I need to move to this section. I'm a newbie at this, but want to get the technique right. I have looked at the various demos of the right technique but have a few questions.

Much has been said in the forum about technique but I have found it very hard to turn the information into results. I'm not sure how much you are willing/able to invest in erging but two things ...
> having someone who knows good technique (a person who coaches rowing or ergs well) could get you on track much faster
> the DVDs put out by Xeno (search the forum for same) do a great job of describing and showing good technique.
> posting a video of you rowing in the forum will garner you a lot of feedback on your technique

I don't share this because I disagree with anything posted here, these things have worked for me ... well not the posting of video because I don't have tools or skills to do that.

JimR

[hjs]

[/quote]

1. The pace is probably close to 3:00/500m and the drag factor I believe is about 120. I am keeping my arms straight and the chain is always straight (no slack). When I drive, as I said, it feels like there is not much resistance until I'm halftway extended. Then there is not much more I can do with me legs before the arms come into play. Problem is, I have nothing to compare against in terms of trying someone else's machine to see if it feels the same way. I don't know if this is relevant, but when I try to increase the pace as much as I can, I can only get to about 2:25, which from what I can tell, is not very fast as an all out short term effort. Leads me to wonder if I'm missing the ability to put my legs to proper use.

2. I have small feet, so the heel stop is higher up. I'll see if the footplate is adjustable -- I've only adjusted the heel stop thing up and down.

Thanks.[/quote]

The pace is proberbly the reason your are not feeling resistance at the start. If you try to row a bit faster you would feel the differance. So for the sake of this feeling you could try that sometime.
The 2.00/500 rate 20 as mentioned by ranger seams to a bit to ambitious. I think it would be safer to speed up by 5 sec. Intervals untill you feel the differance.

[fender128]

excuse my skepticism, but a 3:00 split probably isnt giving you much of a workout, unless you are rowing for hours and hours.

1. for resistance you have to row significantly harder (1:30-2:00 split depending on the piece)
2. I don't think it really matters as long as you keep your back straight and have a body angle at the catch that you can feel in your hamstrings.
3. keep relatively the same handle height throughout the stroke; keep your hands high at the catch and finish into the chest.
4. 10 degrees. Most of your power comes from your legs and it is a waste to lean back too far - let your legs do the pulling.
5. come in at the diaphragm(is that how you spell it?) with your wrists flat, in the lower part of the chest