Concept2 Forum

yes, pun INTENDED... whatcha going to do about it?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3696873424

im the 2nd from the right.

The clip is a little long. the further into the piece the higher the rate will be.
eventually we were at 34.

knock yourself out, make fun of all our techniques, but just make sure to get me first!

hmmmm, really dont have anything to say about the technique , sorry, your to good, haha. maybe some of the more experienced guys have something to say. nice video though, i enjoyed that.

Which "right", the rowers perspective or the cameramans?

camera man's right

On the erg there's no need to keep the blades covered at the finish.

Overall sequence looks good.
You are hesitating during your arm extension a bit and that causes the handle to be very low at the catch, making it a bit "grabby". (Large change in height as you go around the catch.)
Make sure the seat and handle go in and out of the catch exactly together.
You are finishing very high.
You are doing much more handle height change than you are going to need in a boat, so could well end up going deep. Not such a bad thing, as long as you can still release cleanly, but that will be a problem if you finish a similar height at you body as there is no room to get a tap-down and get the blade out. That could lead to "rowing out", just to be able to release.

A couple of things.

Stabilisation & sequencing. On the drive the sequencing is off in several areas. The change of direction at the front end needs to happen off the feet (as Paul said). The arms need to stay out of the stroke longer. Once they start to draw, the body needs to start stabilising so that the arms can draw the handle 'through the back'. Elbows should lead the handle back, and the body shouldn't move back towards the handle before the end of the drive.

Sequencing the other way is also not quite right. Your crew in general looks like you've been coached an idea of 'fast hands away'. I would suggest you stop thinking that and start thinking about the sequence things happen in. Arms should stretch fully forwards much earlier, and the body position should set earlier too. I think you might move your feet up a little bit, but you're going to need to work on your hamstring flexibility to do so.

You then need to practise maintaining the stabilisation of the torso through the recovery. The back shape shouldn't change.

Mel

I had a similar problem with my arms not being high enough at the catch. My coach explained that each drive I was losing push because before I could actually generate split, I had to use energy to raise my handle.

Just work on keeping the body angle throughout the recovery, and exploding out on the drive with a quick change of direction. On the recovery, make sure you extend arms first while keeping a little bit of layback, then move into the body angle while keeping the arms high.

hope this helped.

The guy in the red top at the left is very smooth and would be the one to emulate as to form.

So you are rowing, what, 24 spm or so most of the time?

At what pace?

ranger

I posted this in another topic, but as the video went on, you seemed to open up with your back more and more. Your legs are much stronger than your back, and the more you use your back instead of your legs, you lose power.

As for other things, you do pull in slightly high, as was previously mentioned. Try to pull just under your pecs and above your abs so you can see through the a gap in between.

All in all, it looks pretty good, though.

The guy in the red on the end that John mentions is smooth, but there are several key things that he needs to do:

1. Stretch his hamstrings, glutes and ITB area (they all appear tight - you can particularly see that his knees pull outwards slightly as he slides forwards).

2. Set his body earlier in the recovery - it is still moving by the time he reaches the catch.

3. Change direction from the feet, not the shoulders!

Mel

ranger wrote:So you are rowing, what, 24 spm or so most of the time?

At what pace?

ranger

I ask this because, in the video, it looks as though you guys are working very hard, but IMO, the essence of good technique is not how you "look" externally, but how efficiently you manage force/power/work/relaxation/etc. within the stroke cycle. For a powerful stroke, you need to learn to be fully ready to catch the wheel on the recovery; you need to learn to catch the wheel quickly; you need to learn to build up force instantaneously; and then you need to learn to maintain that force to the end of the drive.

For lightweights such as you, if you do this right and well, you should pull 14-15 wattts a stroke, I think, when you are concentrating on technique. At 24 spm, this would be 1:39-1:42 pace.

If I were you, I wouldn't regard a stroke as done well, i.e., with "good" technique, unless it were this effective at managing force/power/work/relaxation/etc. within the drive.

ranger

A nice way to practice good technique (the proper management of force, power, work, etc.) in the stroke cycle is to row with a PM3 set on the force contour display. Practice quick legs so that your force contour never starts at the baseline but somewhere between 20 and 40 lbs. of pressure and so that it rises on a straight line to 80-100 lbs. of pressure in no more than about 1/10 of your drive time. Then work on engaging and sequencing your other levers so that your catch pressure, whatever that may be, is held (or even slightly increased in a smooth arc) for at least 80% of the drive before it starts to significantly falls away.

Every time you don't produce a stroke of this sort, stop and adjust the speed and sequencing of your levers until you do.

Then repeat and repeat to the time limits of the session. This can be done at any rate, but I think 20 spm is just about ideal. Lower the rate if the aerobic stress is too high.

ranger

I'm new here, and I've obviously got a lot to learn.

However I do know some basic physics and I'm completely mystified by the quoted watts per stroke. The watt is a unit of power, i.e. rate of doing work, converting energy etc. Since it's a rate with respect to time, power can be measured instantaneously or averaged over a time interval (much like speed can be). So when you folk say "... you should pull 14-15 watts a stroke ..." does this mean that the average power is 14-15 watts over the entire stroke? If so, then if your strokes were even and consistent throughout the row, then that's also going to be an average power of 15 watts for the duration of the row.

In terms of work output, that's 15 Joules per second or about the same work rate as would be required to raise a 75kg (165lb) person up a flight of stairs at the phenomenal rate of ... wait for it ... 2cm (0.8 inch) vertically per second!

(Weight of a 75kg mass is approx. 750N and 2cm/s is 0.02m/s)
Work done against gravity per second = 750N x 0.02m = 15J

Given how hard I find it to pull a rate of 1:39 /500m, this sounds an unlikely comparison. I would have thought the average power involved in rowing would be in the 100s of watts.

Be grateful for a clarification.