Backsplash Catch

It’s a struggling start to the 2009 rowing season. Not quite like the riding a bicycle; You do forget what you’re doing. So it’s a practice gig. We’ve been on the water a couple times now? It’s been a wobbly start.

Blade depth. Hands together. Timing. Oars Sky High. It’s everything.

Tonight, Coach Jenn reminds us to take the row at an slow, steady pace; Keeping those hands together from the drive thru the recovery – all the time!  The most helpful advice was progressive rowing. . .giving time for us to work as a team and coordinate the catch and release cycles together. Hear those oar locks engage and disengage!

Progressive Row :

1. Arms & Back (20 Strokes)
2. 1/4 Slide (20)
3. 1/2 Slide (20)
4. Full Slide (20)

In pace, we then focused on rolling those oars to into a square position earlier into the recovery. As we take a few strokes, Jenn pushed us to raise our hands (lowering our oars to the water), contributing a stronger sense of balance. Our hands tend to dive in the recovery cycle as we square which diminishes our center-of-gravity and creating the unstable behavior.

A useful analogy I like to remember is to imagine you’re taking a tabasco bottle and rolling it on a table. Starting with the bottle in the palm of you’re hand, rolling it forward into your finger tips, and you’re thumb nested at the base of the bottle, then try to pick-up the bottle with your fingers and thumb. It helps you understand the roll technique, and the upward motion you have with your hands when you drop you’re oars into the water at the catch (the blades drop, the oar handles rise).

If you find yourself at a restaurant with tabasco bottles at the table, I encourage you to try.

A sense of progress this evening, but we still have a bit to work on. It’s only our second practice, but we have much more to contribute on the water in weeks to come. If Dave will just get his Captain’s key from the coaches, we can hit up the lake 3-4 times a week.

-J