New rower - critique my form

[ktdohe]

Hey all,

Just starting out with rowing. Let me know if you have any notes on my form:

https://youtu.be/bWBx47WBcWs

Thanks!

[Cyclist2]

Welcome to the wonderful world of pai....er... rowing.

First of all your feet are way too high. That's preventing you from coming all the way forward at the catch, so your body angles are wrong. Your inside ankle bones should be level with the top of the rail, or your toes just even with the tops of the plate under the flex feet. These are rough guides, but starting with feet lower is better than too high.

It's hard to tell, exactly, what else might need comment since this one is overwhelming your stroke. Fix that, review the C2 technique videos trying to emulate that form, practice awhile and repost for more comments (at least from me - you'll get lots more shortly ).

Have fun!

[ktdohe]

Many thanks!

[Dangerscouse]

Welcome to the forum and I agree with Mark on the footplates.

The only other things I noticed were that you need to be careful that you get the arm pull in line with the leg push a bit more. There is a slight break between them rather than a smooth overlapping transition, but this is possibly due to you not hingeing forward enough due to the high footplates.

You also need to try rowing strapless when you get more confidence. This is a strange feeling to start with, and you will feel like you're going to fly off the back of the rower, but you are leaking power when you use the straps too much to control yourself.

[hjs]

Hey all,

Just starting out with rowing. Let me know if you have any notes on my form:

https://youtu.be/bWBx47WBcWs

Thanks!

You are missing the first 25% of your stroke. First lower your feet to ankles at railheight.
Now you can come forward and fold your body, come up on the balls of your feet, shins vertical, and close the gap between your chest and legs. You are now in the “11 oclock” position.

Sit strong, not slouched but up, arms and shoulders fully straight, back “strong” connected throught your body.

From here start the stroke by pushing your legs, when your hands reach your knees, start swinging your back to the 13.00 oclock position, and last pull your hands in to your upper abs/lower chest.

From here, its going back, first arms out, swing back to 11 oclock, fold into the starting position and repeat.

And do all this with a firm stroke, and keep the return relax.

[mitchel674]

Welcome!

Besides the obvious foot positioning, I see way too much lean back at the end of your drive. You may feel like this is advantageous to help lengthen your stroke, but it is not efficient. As Henry said, your body lean should be 11:00 at the catch and 1:00 at the end of the drive.

[Dangerscouse]

I thought about it this morning when I was rowing and my seat only stops moving backwards fractionally before the end of the stroke with my arms.

So there is always a connection between the 'power sources' of the legs, back and arms. Something to keep in mind when you're rowing as it's far more efficient to do it this way

[mict450]

Several things for you to work on...start with lowering the foot stretchers, as the others have counseled & work on your forward rockover to the 11 o'clock position. Right now, you're about at 12:15. This will put you in a stronger position for the catch & will add length to your stroke. Sit up erect. You're slouched - sitting on your back pockets. Lowering the stretchers should help with your posture. What's your drag factor?

Later, we can work on your sequencing....this is causing your feet to unweight from the stretchers & cause you to leak energy into the foot straps rather than putting it into spinning the flywheel.

Pretty good for a newbie. Looks like you're putting a lot of effort into the flywheel. Fix the energy leaks & there should be no stopping you.

Once you get the forward rockover dialed in, post another video & the forum can work on fixing something else. All the best to you.

[ampire]

I think you should try sitting forward 1 or 2 inches, closer to the front on that seat, you are sitting towards the rear of the seat and it interferes with your pivot into the catch and the lean back on the end of the drive.
Your feet are way too high as well. Changing your sitting position and foot position will fix most of the issues I believe. With my average sized number 10 US feet I use the #4 holes on the foot stretcher (with 2 holes exposed), just for a reference.
Looks like you are using the #2 holes.

[ktdohe]

Many thanks to everyone - very helpful!

[Dangerscouse]

Many thanks to everyone - very helpful!

Just to reiterate, your technique is generally good and with a few tweaks as mentioned above, you'll be there in no time. Far far better to learn now than try and amend an ingrained bad technique.

The best thing about changing your technique is that you get free speed as you produce more power with the same effort.

[dutchcantoo]

I'm a new rower and was kind of pleased with myself that I could see the same problems with your form as mentioned by the seasoned rowers on here. When I got my rower, I took a couple weeks to work on form. I can't recommend Dark Horse Rowing enough. He has an excellent video on pick drills (I think that's what it's called), where it breaks down the stroke.

On a sidenote, I had a back injury and have been working on that. All is good now, and today, as part of my warmup, I followed this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aErAm1kTfBQ

What I've found, since I worked hard on form, is I enjoy rowing so much more.