strapless erging

[spaddy]

How do you row without the straps? My feet always fall off the foot placements. Any advice? As well, how will strapless rowing improve my technique?

[Alissa]

How do you row without the straps? My feet always fall off the foot placements. Any advice? As well, how will strapless rowing improve my technique?

I'm not sure what you mean about your feet falling off of the foot placements. I'm wondering if you've had your feet settled down with your heel against the rubber heel cups at the bottom of the foot board? If you've been holding your feet above the heel cups with the straps, I can see why you would have a problem trying to row strapless without your feet "falling down." If that's it, the heel cups can be adjusted up so that the heel cups will be high enough to cup your heels in your preferred location.

If that's not it, then I suppose it would be a matter of balance, you need to be settled onto the seat with good posture so that you can manage your center of balance around your hip's pivot point. Strapless rowing is good for managing that and making sure that you are not "wasting" the power you produce by using it to throw yourself off the back of the erg instead of channeling it into the handle.

Others will be able to give you more information...

Alissa

[hjs]

How do you row without the straps? My feet always fall off the foot placements. Any advice? As well, how will strapless rowing improve my technique?

This means you don,t finish your stroke. If you do you will pull the handle onto your chest and this will slow your body down.
If you fall of the placements your body is still moving backwarts. This energy can be used. This is what rowing strapless will teach you to do.

[spaddy]

What happens is that I have so much momentum that my body slides back and feet leave the foot board) So how do I solve this? Or does it fix itself on it's own y rowing strapless?

[hjs]

What happens is that I have so much momentum that my body slides back and feet leave the foot board) So how do I solve this? Or does it fix itself on it's own y rowing strapless?

You probely just don,t finish your stroke, pull hard enough at the end of the stroke. The momentum has to go in handle.

What rate/pace do you have? and how tall/heavy are you?

[Kinley]

You mention the "foot board." Are you using a Model A or Model B? These older machines have a wooden stretcher rather than the plastic flex foot/heel cup assembly that makes rowing strapless possible.

[michaelb]

Here is what I posted on the old forum in response to a question about rowing 10 meters per stroke strapless, since the ideas often go together and stem from PaulS's coaching recommendations on this forum. Lots of other good discussion on that old forum in that post and others:

Ok, since I am a adherent, I will take a stab at this. PaulS is the coach, and this is his theory. There have been many discussions in the past in case you want to search for more.

Strapless: this was counterintuitive to me, and took some time to understand and get used to. I would fall off the back of the seat when pulling strapless hard. If you don't use the straps, you don't get to use the straps to slow your momentum at the end of the stroke and don't get to use them to pull you back up the slide. Both of these effects are a good thing for training, and teach and reinforce good habits.

The C2 measures how fast you spin the flywheel, by pulling the handle. You pull the handle as hard as you can with your legs, back and arms. At the end of the stroke, if you use the straps to slow and stop yourself, some of the energy you produce during your stroke is "lost" and put into the straps instead. If you don't use the straps, all of your energy is transferred to the handle. Without the straps, you use the handle to slow and stop yourself. You also have to balance at the finish (or at least I do, PaulS says he can get any amount of layback). Putting all of your energy into the handle is more efficient.

In terms of recovery, rowing strapless teaches and trains you to recover the stroke properly. Instead of dragging yourself back up the slide with your feet in the straps, you have to use your balance to do so. I find that really helped get my hands out and my back forward before I started with the legs, and get into the catch position before I got to the catch. Just in the past few months I have I realized how important it is to row strapless at a higher SRs too, since that really challenges and trains the discipline of the recovery.

Rowing 10 meters per stroke. I struggle to understand if this is just a mathematical coincidence, but 10mps seems like a really nice pattern of SR and Pace for the paces between 1:40 or so and 2:20. Rowing 10mps keeps you in "ratio" so that in order to go faster you pull harder, and only increase your SR when you are actually going faster. I don't row on the water, and so can't really understand or even need to care about the subleties of 10mps, but it is a nice discipline for my rowing. It does mean that I don't do really slow rate rowing, like 18-20, but I find when I do that I have a hard time not making the stroke artificially slow. 10mps always feels natural in those broad ranges.

Strapless 10mps is for training. You can race at any pace and rate you want, and with the straps. I do row long pieces like 10k to the marathon distance either straps loose or not at all though.

http://concept2.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3755

[spaddy]

I am 5'7" and wiegh 185lbs. My rate was up to 33-35 s/m, I have been recently working to get that down to about 23 s/m over 30 minutes. I a using a new rower that I just purchased in November.

[Engine#4]

how are you rowing for 30 min at a 33-35 stroke rate... thats nuts!!!!!! it is way easier to row at a 20. i get the feeling that you are rowing a very short stroke and thats the way you are getting the rate so high, try rowing really long and at a 20 rate. the strapless thing will come after that.

[hjs]

how are you rowing for 30 min at a 33-35 stroke rate... thats nuts!!!!!! it is way easier to row at a 20. i get the feeling that you are rowing a very short stroke and thats the way you are getting the rate so high, try rowing really long and at a 20 rate. the strapless thing will come after that.

It's the other way around. if you can row at rate 20. strapless is not needed anymore.

[Engine#4]

Does any one here actually row on the water!!!!! non of this even makes sense in my head. why is anyone training at a 35 rate for 30 min, thats ok for a test....maybe, if you are a fitness machine but if you actually have a decently long stroke I would lke to see you row at a 35 rate for 30 min. just out of curiosity what is your mileage for a piece like this?
To get back to the original point, strapless rowing forces you to control your slide on the recovery, if you are rowing at a 35 with poor slide ratio there is no way you will ever keep your feet on the foot stretcher. you should aim for a slide ratio of 1 through the drive an 4 on the recovery to practice control.

[spaddy]

At 33-35 s/m I am doing about 6300-6500 meters. I am coming from a cycling background where a faster cadence is a good thing.

[spaddy]

I am fairly short at 5'7" ...does that have an impact on stroke length?

[Engine#4]

Judging by your stroke rate and mileage i would say that you are rowing very ineffeciently. Don't get me wrong a high stroke rate is a good thing but you have to make sure that your stroke is long and effective. don't worry about your time or distance right now the important thing is to row well first otherwise you will hurt yourself. I believe there is a part of the C2 website that has pics of a good stroke, I suggest taking a look at that the next time you get on the erg. If you have any specific questions give me a shout!

[michaelb]

Yes, being shorter would affect the stroke length, and for racing, you may find you are more comfortable rating higher than someone who is taller. But for training, the drive time is only a small fraction of the total time for the stroke, most of the time is spent on the recovery. Rowing without straps trains your muscles for the recovery, and enforces good technique on the finish.

You are rowing a 2:18 pace for 30 min if you are doing 6500. At 10mps, instead of having a rate of 33-35, you would row at a rate of 21 for pace 2:20, or 22 for pace 2:15 (this is not precise, but a good way to start). Rowing strapless will help you reduce your SR significantly, I would find it very difficult to row strapless at a rate over 29 or 30.

Rowing strapless and at a lower stroke rate will take months to adjust to if you are used to rowing at SR 35 strapped in. I believe you would benefit by making that adjustment.