coaching tips to correct skying

[chewy]

Hello fellow rowers and coaches, I'm coaching a 4+ and my 2-seat has consistently high blade height off the water. She's a smart rower, great athlete, takes coaching well. When I call her on it she raises her hands that extra half-inch and all is well, but when I don't she slips back to low hand heights. Any drills you know of (besides outside-arm-only) to correct this and make the proper hand-height a habit?

[johnlvs2run]

Have you tried chopping 1/2 an inch off the sides of the boat.

[Ray79]

Something I have seen in the past were straws taped to the inside of the saxboard with the amount of the straw above the edge of the boat equaling slightly more than correct hand height. Then when she is moving forward on the recovery, her knuckles should just brush the straw, and it means she does not have to have here eyes down in the boat to watch here hand heights are.

It worked for me when I was a novice (although I am still guilty of it from time to time)

[Andy Nield]

A few ideas:

1)

Get her to scull the blade on the water on the recovery (I'd get her pair or the whole crew to do it at the same time)

This will reinforce the 'handle moving forwards level'

Once you've done that for a bit alternate between sculling and normal height on the recoveries until she gets it right...

2)

Row full slide in pairs so the boat is sat, starting square blade, then with feather, get her to keep the spoon 2" off the water (she is allowed to look at the blade...), when feathered it's the same height, i.e. it would be 2" off the water if it was square...

3)

Square early, (in pairs to start with if it's difficult), but if you can square early and come forwards level then there is no need to drop the hands on the way forwards to be able to square... this then allows a forwards and up movoment of the handle instead of a scoop...

This might give her confidence that she has room to square without dropping the hands.

Hope that helps

[Neb154]

If it's sweep, the best way to think of it as a rower, which helps you remember is..

Drop out
Brush your thighs
Once you brush, have the blade always rising from there.
Pretend like you are jamming the blade into the upper back of the person in front of you.

Thinking of it like this helped me work on raising my hands at the catch. Maybe it will work for your rower

[Ben Rea]

maybe you could do catch drills to show her to go up and in to the catch and not to drop her hands at the catch. what you do is start at the finish, take 3 to build some speed, the pause at arms nd body away with the oar handle on the gunnel, coxswain says "row" you slowly move your hand up and drop the oar in the water, this makes rowers have no choice but to move their hands up and into the catch, thus no hands droping and skying blades, yay. This is commonly refered to as "circular rowing."

[chewy]

Good stuff. Thanks coaches. The last tip (circular rowing) sounds good but I'll have to make sure she doesn't take it too literally. We've done square-blade rowing and alternate square-then-feather rowing, but your replies make me realize I should just do more of it. I taped a straw to my stroke seat's gunnel last year ... looks like I'll do it to 2 seat this year. Good tips all. Any more out there, keep 'em coming!

[Ben Rea]

yea, just tell them its an exaguration. And by the way im not a coach, I just have too much free time.

[mumbles]

The straws on the saxboard is very effective, talking from experience and from what i've heard from others

[PaulS]

Hello fellow rowers and coaches, I'm coaching a 4+ and my 2-seat has consistently high blade height off the water. She's a smart rower, great athlete, takes coaching well. When I call her on it she raises her hands that extra half-inch and all is well, but when I don't she slips back to low hand heights. Any drills you know of (besides outside-arm-only) to correct this and make the proper hand-height a habit?

Is this causing any problem other than the way it looks? i.e. is the set disturbed, or her catch timing not quite right. I can think of a lot worse things than having the blade a bit high, especially when conditions are not calm.

[Andy Nield]

I know... just take some washers out from under the swivel (about 5-6mm) and then she'll be fine

[PaulS]

I know... just take some washers out from under the swivel (about 5-6mm) and then she'll be fine

Very nice! Or give her a 1/2" Seat lift.

[LJWagner]

That was a problem for me in some boats.

The cure for me was through better concentration on oar height relative to the boat during the entire recovery, slide and catch sequence, to keep the motion very flat, and actually focus on my hand lift, and make sure there was no drop of the handle prior to the catch. I felt like I was more mechanical in my technique, but it smoothed it out well. Worked best for me rowing stroke so I had nothing else to watch (I usually rowed starboard).

Also try front lat lifts with dumbbells for her, slow lift, with a pause at shoulder height, slow return. A little extra strength in that area so her hands are more likely to stay up. I think I added this to my routine and can recall less complaints about skying afterwards.

[chewy]

Thx LJ. They're teenage girls though so we don't want them doing weights just yet. Paul and Andy, I'll hold off from correcting technique through alternate means (seat lift, washers, etc.). I keep forgetting to bring a straw to practice but I do think that's about it, plus a few more square/feather drills.

The disruptive part of her higher blade height is how it impacts her catch. Needs a bit more time to get in the water and a bit more force than necessary.

Thx again crew.

[Mel Harbour]

I would have said a blade high off the water was something to be aimed for, not something to be corrected!

Compare the British Eight in Sydney. Particularly when paddling, they would basically keep their hands as low as possible in the boat. Didn't seem to slow them down!