toes

helpplease · Post by **helpplease** » April 18th, 2006, 8:36 pm

why is there always such a big emphasize on pressing on the toes while rowing on the water and erging?

csabour · Post by **csabour** » April 19th, 2006, 7:58 am

who says that?

The important part is that the foot(like heel as well) keeps good contact with the footboard because otherwise you compromise the conection between the oar and the boat. which makes the boat move.

its the first part of a good catch, to really make the boat accelerate. drive the legs down with full contact on the footstop from the first split second your legs go drive. That pushes the boat in the direction you want to go and displaces the water that your oar waits in.

Ben Rea · Post by **Ben Rea** » April 19th, 2006, 11:21 am

there is not a big emphasize on it, you shouldnt be pushing off too hard with your toes, dont be like me and hurt your back!

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » April 19th, 2006, 11:39 am

By pushing off your toes, you get better leverage and use of your energy.

apdermond · Post by **apdermond** » April 19th, 2006, 3:00 pm

All I have ever heard about toes it too make sure you have good balance and that is why jumpies help with rowing on the water. If you have good balance in your toes, it allows you to set the boat with you feet. That's what I was told at the Charles River Rowing Camp.

csabour · Post by **csabour** » April 19th, 2006, 3:52 pm

John Rupp wrote:By pushing off your toes, you get better leverage and use of your energy.

I challenge that john.

set a model D to graph your stroke and test out heels flat, and then test heels lifted up.

I did that and the power curve is not at all optimum. it takes time for the power to come in when on the toes, however with the heels the catch is strong and the power is right there.

on the toes, the length is greater but i think that its just wasted energy because of the time and speed lost at the catch.

KB12 · Post by **KB12** » April 21st, 2006, 3:32 pm

I have been coached to point my toes at the finish, not necessarily push with them as to lift your heel off the stretchers though.

I have noticed that when you point your toes at the finish it does seem to flex your quad a lot more, the question is does this flexing actually accomplish anything or not?

I think the concept that was mentioned above, about balancing by putting pressure on the toes / footboard, seems to be the best explanation as of why you are supposed to do this.

My example is when I used to do feet out of the footstretchers they would always want our toes on the board and not to curl back. A drill I did a lot on the erg was to put pieces of paper under the toes sticking out to the sides. This way, if your toes came off the footstretchers the piece of paper would fall and you'd know you did bad. One of my old coaches would sometimes challenge us and place dollar bills under our toes and say we could keep it if it didn't fall; I think one kid walked away with the money.

So do we think its just for balance or does it somehow produce power or bad habbits?

I'll also note that if your shoes are too big for you and you curl your toes up you can sometimes undo the Velcro and have your feet come out of the footstretchers, this is how I got ejected once...

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » April 21st, 2006, 4:07 pm

csabour wrote:on the toes, the length is greater but i think that its just wasted energy because of the time and speed lost at the catch.

How would you lose any speed at the catch.

If you're concerned about time and speed lost then you could always raise up your stroke rate.

csabour · Post by **csabour** » April 21st, 2006, 4:51 pm

John Rupp wrote:
csabour wrote:on the toes, the length is greater but i think that its just wasted energy because of the time and speed lost at the catch.
How would you lose any speed at the catch.

If you're concerned about time and speed lost then you could always raise up your stroke rate.

John. I don't know if you're familiar with OTW rowing but any pause in the boat(e.g. the catch) will slow down the boat because your weight it still. This is OTW rowing we're talking about anyways.

If there is a movement which is redundant in terms of moving the boat and you do that everystroke of your row then it's wasted energy and lost speed which you could have used in instances where the power is getting through the shell.

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » April 21st, 2006, 5:06 pm

You still haven't explained why you would lose any speed at the catch by using your toes.

How much speed do you lose by using your legs?

csabour · Post by **csabour** » April 21st, 2006, 9:19 pm

I did.

When you stop, the boat stops.

When you climb up to your toes on the footstop it takes too long to get out of the catch. You cannot with the necessary power like that. You will spend way too long sitting at the catch. The weight drops and the boat settles and it rapes your boat run.

Clear enough?

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » April 21st, 2006, 9:29 pm

Are you saying that Olympic Champions and World Record holders Eskild Ebbesen, Elia Luini and Rob Waddell are not doing it the right way then.

csabour · Post by **csabour** » April 22nd, 2006, 4:12 pm

ok i get it.
you dont agree and no one gives a shit.

Mel Harbour · Post by **Mel Harbour** » April 23rd, 2006, 3:09 pm

csabour wrote:I did.

When you stop, the boat stops.

When you climb up to your toes on the footstop it takes too long to get out of the catch. You cannot with the necessary power like that. You will spend way too long sitting at the catch. The weight drops and the boat settles and it rapes your boat run.

Clear enough?

I'd totally disagree. You need to take the catch on your toes. You only need to move quickly on the toes up until the point where the blade connects with the water. At that point you won't necessarily actually be able to move particularly quickly backwards. If you can move extremely quickly it usually means that there is either a lack of connection between the blade and the water, or within your body.

At a simple level, you could describe the rowing stroke as being a 'nudge' of the toes to connect the blade with the water, followed by opening out the body angles. In many cases, you will get more boatspeed and connection by thinking of pushing downwards with your toes for as long as possible and actually try and imagine holding yourself in frontstops, without moving backwards until you absolutely have to.

ranger · Post by **ranger** » April 26th, 2006, 2:14 pm

John Rupp wrote:By pushing off your toes, you get better leverage and use of your energy.

Yes! Toes are essential. I get an extra 2-3 seconds per 500m when I dig in hard with my toes at the catch.

Drive off the balls of your feet, not your heels.

Only rock back onto your heels in the last 1/4 of the drive, when you explode with the back and snap with your arms.

Toes! Yes. Toes are essential.

ranger

P.S., To strengthen your toes, jump rope--in your bare feet, on your toes, for an hour or so a day.