Sweaty-Skulling Hands

[Wolkies]

Hi there!

I recently started sculling this summer in a competitive program. We row everyday in the morning for 2 hours, and sometimes in the afternoons. My coach tells me I need to work on my technique but I find this difficult because my hands--they sweat a lot, which makes it very hard to grip the oar handles (which are rubber). I’m still working on building up my port forearm muscle because I never rowed port-sweep. This weakness adds to the difficultly because I don’t even have the strength to hold onto the oar for dear life due to the slipping . Any tips or products that are known to help this? Thanks a lot!

[John Hendrie]

I had the same problem on the erg - palms would sweat so much the handle slipped. I bought a cheap pair of padded gloves in the bicycle department at Wal-Mart and that solved the problem. The gloves do wear out after in 6 - 8 months but I just buy another pair

john

[PaulS]

Buy some good fitting cotton gloves (Home Depot or Lowes gardening section, the thin ones), should be about $2/pair, get at least 2 pair to begin with so you have one when you finally wear through the first and have a idea how long each will last. Good gripping and no blisters either.

[Andy Nield]

you shouldn't be gripping...

[PaulS]

you shouldn't be gripping...

That's right, use the Force Andy, use the Force....

[coggs]

Gripping for dear life could be part of the problem and should be corrected even if it's not what's causing the issue. You should be hanging on the handles, not gripping them. Row relaxed and use the legs/back to pull hooked (not gripped) handles into the body. Hands only come into play the last 1/3rd of the drive and provide even less of the work. If you are getting blisters/callouses in the middle of your palms you need to work on much looser grip. Most people only callouse up at the very top of the palm just below the 3 fingers away from the thumb, and a little between each knuckle.

There are a number of different brands of grips. I tend to sweat way more than most. My hands are never dry. I slip around on the smooth grips and prefer the knurled surface on the Stampfli grips (orange). I actually wet down the grips with lake water several times during a session. Lake water is a little less slippery than what my body is generating! Now if I could just come up with a fool proof way to keep the toxic sweat out of my eyes!

[c2jonw]

Wrist bands might be all you need.....C2JonW

[Widgeon]

When I learned to loosen my grip (loose "C", as mentioned by a previous poster) I stopped having so much difficulty with sweaty hands. Still a problem on high heat/humidity days herein Oklahoma while doing sprint work, which probably means I am gripping too hard.

I would use unscented deodorant on my palms to help combat that sweaty slippery hand thing. Worked quite well. Learning to use a loose grip is still better.

Good luck

Pam

[Bob S.]

Wrist bands might be all you need.....C2JonW

But a head band for Coggs.

[coggs]

Wrist bands don't me much good for keeping my hands dry. Guess I just have sweaty palm syndrome and I've learned to live with it. I find to keep the sweat out of my eyes a good tight fitting (lycra) "do-wrap" like those from Sweat-Vac works wonders. Much better than a band, standard cap or visor- even if they have a sweat band.

[Nosmo]

This may not help and is not likely your only problem but it is worth a try:
Clean your handles with cleaner, not just water. Something like 409.
When handles get grungy they can be slippery.

[jamesg]

Any tips or products

The only product available when you're in the middle of your lake or river, is water. And it works, much less slippery than sweat.

Relax too, there's no point in working hard at anything that doesn't actually shift the boat.