Concept2 Forum

I am a new rower, and am currently struggling with my form, particularly with regards to leg drive and foot connection.

My particular problem centers around the straps. When I drive, I find that at the top of the drive (not the catch), my feet will fly off the machine. This seems rather logical to me. If my body has momentum and I am accelerating myself by applying a force in the opposite direction, my body will continue in the direction opposite of the force unless stopped by something. This is where the straps come in. Else how would I stop myself?

I have done a decent amount of searching for a solution, and there seems to be no explanation aside from "don't do it" and "stay connected during the driver", which seems illogical considering I think my connection is find. Essentially, I am jumping off of the foot board position (erg foot board). I struggle with it even when I slow down.

I have a few possible ideas about this error in my form:

1) Is my focus wrong? Am I supposed to be pushing my knees down more instead of pushing off when straightening my legs (at least in terms of mindset)?

2) Do you simply not put your full force into driving with your legs while rowing? I come from a background in sports such as American football, as well as fitness activities such as lifting, where there is no desire to limit your leg drive. Is rowing simply different and you have to moderate your drive to not fly off?

3) Could my lean back be part of the problem? I have noticed I lean back farther than is ideal, and I imagine this extra moment at the top of my driver does not help the situation.

4) Does this problem even matter? From what I can gather, it puts extra stress on the muscles in your feet and shins, but otherwise does not hinder you on the erg. Is this true? I also am not sure whether I will ever row on water, but if I were too, would the switch be that difficult?

Thanks for any advice! I was not able to find any super useful materials on this, but if you have any, I would even appreciate a redirection to other resources, be it forum posts or videos.

I had a similar problem, and I fixed it by lowering the strokes per minute and not attaching the straps at all. First strokes are a bit scary, but once you get the hang of it, it worked for me. Now I row 99% strapless, as it forces me to keep a decent technique and a powerfull stroke.

rowx3yourboat wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 6:50 pm

I am a new rower, and am currently struggling with my form, particularly with regards to leg drive and foot connection.

I am struggling to understand what the problem is, am I not reading this correctly? Are you actually wearing your straps? If you are and are feeling backwards momentum still then I would say they are either too loose or you are not engaging your core to control your self whilst you are laying back to far.

Sounds like you're doing a horizontal jump backwards which is good. Extra lean back - bad. Where does the handle finish? Up by you neck? Such tactics will get you an extended stroke and can lower splits but its not efficient. With proper form, normal lean back, and finishing with the arms pulling into the sternum - that last bit using the handle stops you falling off the back. Try it at low rate and not full force until you get how it works.

JaapvanE wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 6:58 pm

I had a similar problem, and I fixed it by lowering the strokes per minute and not attaching the straps at all. First strokes are a bit scary, but once you get the hang of it, it worked for me. Now I row 99% strapless, as it forces me to keep a decent technique and a powerfull stroke.

Did you ever get back to be able to drive with the same strength as straps? And thank you for your help!

I am struggling to understand what the problem is, am I not reading this correctly? Are you actually wearing your straps? If you are and are feeling backwards momentum still then I would say they are either too loose or you are not engaging your core to control your self whilst you are laying back to far.

I am wearing the straps and feel my feet pulling intensely against the straps because of the leg drive if this contextualizes it all at. Thank you for your advice!

rowx3yourboat wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 7:10 pm

Did you ever get back to be able to drive with the same strength as straps? And thank you for your help!

You lose a bit of stroke rate, but I gained a lot in efficiency. So wear you normally lose out a lot of energy due to explosive jumps and pulling yourself in, I am now more efficient. So my overall times actually improved.

JaapvanE wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 7:49 pm

rowx3yourboat wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 7:10 pm

Did you ever get back to be able to drive with the same strength as straps? And thank you for your help!

You lose a bit of stroke rate, but I gained a lot in efficiency. So wear you normally lose out a lot of energy due to explosive jumps and pulling yourself in, I am now more efficient. So my overall times actually improved.

Efficiency is the name of the game! Are there any drills you did specifically, or was it just slow form practice until you got it.

rowx3yourboat wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 6:50 pm

3) Could my lean back be part of the problem? I have noticed I lean back farther than is ideal, and I imagine this extra moment at the top of my driver does not help the situation.

Thanks for any advice! I was not able to find any super useful materials on this, but if you have any, I would even appreciate a redirection to other resources, be it forum posts or videos.

It sounds like 3)

Rowing strapless was very helpful for me when I was new. Here's a video that may be helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xaPT4zU07s

RayOfSunshine wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 9:58 pm

rowx3yourboat wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 6:50 pm

3) Could my lean back be part of the problem? I have noticed I lean back farther than is ideal, and I imagine this extra moment at the top of my driver does not help the situation.

Thanks for any advice! I was not able to find any super useful materials on this, but if you have any, I would even appreciate a redirection to other resources, be it forum posts or videos.

It sounds like 3)

Rowing strapless was very helpful for me when I was new. Here's a video that may be helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xaPT4zU07s

I appreciate the feedback and the video! I will certainly try to moderate my movements and see how it goes. Thank you for the advice!

Else how would I stop myself?

You stop at the finish by using legs and hips first in the pull, at the catch, and the arms last, at the finish. It's the arm pull that cancels our body mass inertia at the finish. Then go very slowly forward during the recovery.

Stop trying to row without knowing how it's done.

Learn how first. The more you row badly, the worse it gets.

See https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/ ... que-videos

All the stroke details are important.

Do the backstop drill.

Set both feet and drag as low as possible.
Low feet helps a good catch posture by letting us put our weight forward, on the stretcher.
Low drag lets us move fast during the pull: Power = Speed x Force: and both must be high during the pull.

This is the critical technique point in rowing: the water is moving past at high speed, but we must still produce a high force in a long stroke. The flywheel acts like a fast moving boat. Don't try to cheat by using high drag; it doesn't work.

rowx3yourboat wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 7:56 pm

Efficiency is the name of the game! Are there any drills you did specifically, or was it just slow form practice until you got it.

Practice is all I can suggest. I also row 99% of my sessions unstrapped, and I'm relatively comfortable with 1:45 pace and r27; anything faster and higher gets a bit too twitchy.

What you want to do is sort of plant your feet and keep your centre of gravity in the core, rather than letting it transfer backwards. It will feel strange to start with, but it does get easier, and I no longer think about it.

Dangerscouse wrote: ↑

December 22nd, 2022, 10:08 am

rowx3yourboat wrote: ↑

December 21st, 2022, 7:56 pm

Efficiency is the name of the game! Are there any drills you did specifically, or was it just slow form practice until you got it.

Practice is all I can suggest. I also row 99% of my sessions unstrapped, and I'm relatively comfortable with 1:45 pace and r27; anything faster and higher gets a bit too twitchy.

What you want to do is sort of plant your feet and keep your centre of gravity in the core, rather than letting it transfer backwards. It will feel strange to start with, but it does get easier, and I no longer think about it.

I will try to use my core and see how it goes. I have observed this is the one part I have not been using and it seems like an error and probably is. Thanks!

As others have said, if your feet are coming off the boards and youre 'hanging' on the traps then your technique is not developed well enough.

Row without straps for a few weeks routinely and its likley you will find your techniques develops such that you dont need to hang on the straps.

As for efficiency, you may think that going faster but hanging on the straps is efficient because in the short term you see faster paces, however, long term it wastes energy and it is best to develop the better technique you can so all the effort goes into the chain in the end better technique will always win given the same available power imho.

One last thing - I had this issue and I still do to a point. I don't find rowing strapless comfortable and my feet will "float" especially as I go faster. At first I thought I had excessive lean-back but my real issue is my posture as I don't sit very straight and hunch some. I have had not perfect posture while sitting my whole life and I know it's not really going to change. So, with the posture being off it make me end with what seems like more layback and hence floating feet. Anyway, I have pretty good technique otherwise and I have tried to adjust this some but I still get floating feet at times - it's not ideal but I have been able to do some pretty good scores with it.