power curve

[nukdog]

I've been doing school rowing for around 8 months now, and I have been doing more erg training recently. I have noticed that my power curve is very high at the catch and dips quickly. When I am warming up and rowing light, I can get an even power curve, but when I am training my curve is always high at the catch. I have tried slowly accelerating, but it is not fixing my issue. What else can I do to improve it?

[ahooton]

Sounds like you are back swinging at the catch. Focus on driving with legs through straight arms, then starting backswing when about halfway through the leg phase to continue the momentum of the drive, then finishing with arms.

[Tsnor]

Borrowed from https://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/c ... rve-graph/

For OTW rowing you'll want to *not* do that instant bouncing leg drive that works well on the erg. Why -- (1) the timing is too tight to get 8 people doing a bouncing hard drive at the same time so you'll wreck other people's catches and (2) you can rip the blade through the water instead of planting it, when the blade slips all that force is wasted. This is why first few half strokes from standing start are *not* full pressure.

Practice being slow on the recovery and almost stopping at the catch on the erg rather than accelerating the last quarter of your recovery and using your momentum to spring load your legs (a technique that works well on the erg, not so good on water). Practice emphasized delayed back swing on the erg on drive and get full leaned forward before bending legs on recovery. Getting muscle memory for this on the erg (where it's not really needed) will help you a ton OTW.