Newbie Question Start of the drive

powerplay · Post by **powerplay** » April 10th, 2008, 9:53 am

I have been rowing for a couple of months and have a question about the beginning of the drive. I am finding when starting the drive, I have little resistance for the first part. The handle gets to about where the top of the pedals are located before I feel good resistance. I have tried maintaining exactly the same motion each time and sometimes it has good resistance right from the start, but most of the time it isn't. Since this is the part of the drive where you use you legs, it seems like most of my workout is coming from the upper body. It seems to help if I lean forward as far as possible, where I almost return the handle to the resting position. If I get a good strong pull from the start it does improve my numbers.

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » April 10th, 2008, 11:30 am

What was your "question"?

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » April 10th, 2008, 11:30 am

Try rowing with your arms straight for awhile, which will help you to get a stronger and faster drive with your legs.

Then alternate rowing with straight arms for a bit, with full stroke for a bit, focusing on using the same catch and drive with each method.

Then go to your regular rowing, continuing with this same catch and drive.

powerplay · Post by **powerplay** » April 11th, 2008, 9:19 am

PaulS wrote:What was your "question"?

My question is why is there little resistance at the beginning of the drive? The large part of the "legs" portion is without resitance. I would like to be able to feel the resistance from the start. It does happen sometimes, but not very often.

Thanks for the input John. I will try that and see it it helps.

BTW, I am rowing 10Ks in the 44 minute range. I know that is not to good, but I am just starting out and what to make sure my form is right.

rowland · Post by **rowland** » April 11th, 2008, 9:54 am

hi
I went to video's hosted by google. check this video out full instruction
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9586281796
while you are there, check out other good video's on that page on technique.

what rpm are you rowing at, slowing down the recovery may help

powerplay · Post by **powerplay** » April 11th, 2008, 1:41 pm

rowland wrote:
what rpm are you rowing at, slowing down the recovery may help

I avg. 22 SPM at a 2:13.9 split. I have a long way to go, but my goal is to get to sub 40 elapse time and eventually, sub 2:00 minute splits. I watched the videos and it looks like I need to slow down the recovery a little as suggested. Thanks for all of the help.

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » April 11th, 2008, 1:48 pm

powerplay wrote:
PaulS wrote:What was your "question"?
My question is why is there little resistance at the beginning of the drive? The large part of the "legs" portion is without resitance. I would like to be able to feel the resistance from the start. It does happen sometimes, but not very often.

Thanks for the input John. I will try that and see it it helps.

BTW, I am rowing 10Ks in the 44 minute range. I know that is not to good, but I am just starting out and what to make sure my form is right.

Since you are a couple months into this it sounds like you are doing fine.

It's quite common to view rowing and not understand that the ones that do it well are trying to move very quickly away from the catch but meet the flywheel resistance so quickly that it simply appears to be slower than it is.

The "Rowing with Straight arms" is not a bad suggestion for a drill, however it often leads to some unusual looking practices, i.e. locking out the elbows, which is not needed since the arms will easily stay straight under the tension provided between the legs driving and the hands holding the handle.

I'd suggest doing a few bouts of High DF (Damper lever all the way to the top) rowing, alternated with Low DF (Damper all the way down). Perhaps 500m pieces, at medium-low intensity. Do the high DF first and then target the same avg pace for the Low DF piece. The change in RPM, and thus the quickness which is needed to catch the flywheel will change and give you a feel for what is needed.

Once you have done a bit of that, work with the DF a little and find out the lowest setting that you can catch the flywheel early in the drive. Proceed to work with that setting, with the goal of lowering it by small bits as you feel you can. 100 DF if about as low as you would ever need to go, but the pace is always the ultimate indication of the power being input.

To leave the catch quickly, approach it slowly, much like braking to a nice controlled stop in a car, but do not hesitate once you are in catch position, drive immediately. "If you are not busy doing the recovery, you should be busy with the Drive."

BrianStaff · Post by **BrianStaff** » April 11th, 2008, 1:59 pm

I have noticed the same thing - a slack period at the start of the catch. So the early part of the drive does not appear to be exerting any power to the stroke. My power curve typically is very shallow too, unless I get the flywheel going fast by upping my SPM - but I can't do that for long.

PaulS wrote:I'd suggest doing a few bouts of High DF (Damper lever all the way to the top) rowing, alternated with Low DF (Damper all the way down). Perhaps 500m pieces, at medium-low intensity. Do the high DF first and then target the same avg pace for the Low DF piece. The change in RPM, and thus the quickness which is needed to catch the flywheel will change and give you a feel for what is needed.

Thanks for this tip - I will try it. Right now, I am rowing on the 3 setting, but maybe it needs to be set a little higher.

I know I'm an old-fart (63) but my legs have always been the strong part of my body and I feel I should have a steeper power curve.

BTW - I have a brand new Model E bought in Feb 2008

Brian

powerplay · Post by **powerplay** » April 12th, 2008, 8:56 am

Paul,
I did as you suggested and worked my way in from 10 and zero damper settings. I was using 4 previously, but found 6 was a good match and the machine seems so much better. It feels much more "tailored" to me now. It is much, much better and fixed the problem I was having. And in additon, I had my PB for a 10K at 2:11.6 and 43.51.8. That is a significant improvement for me, just by finding a better damper setting. I slowed down my recovery and avg. an SPM of 20. Thank you to everyone for your help.

BTW, Brian, I am an old "fart" too, at 60 and bought my "D" in Feburary also.