Insider Rowing

I made a conscious effort to work on my release this morning in practice. As I said earlier, the release is a complicated, subtle movement, and I believe the release is as important, if not more so, than a proper catch. Both ends of the stroke require a high degree of skill, and I’ve seen rowers row with technique that borders on art. This level of mastery is something that separates mere rowers from true oarspeople. Anyway, I digress. My release is lousy, and my plan is to spend the rest of the summer fixing it. The funny thing is, I have a clear picture in my head of what the release should look like, and I feel fairly confident that I can coach this component of the stroke at a high level. My own technique just kind of sucks.

I had a couple of insights about this particular piece of rowing technique:

1. We spent about 10′ rowing single seats in the pair, ie rowing in circles. This is great for making adjustments and refining technique. I recommend it.

2. The release has to be perfectly in time to establish a good set in pair. It also helps you go straight, which of course is critical. If you and your partner can match this one part of the stroke up, you’ve gone a long way towards building boat speed.

3. I experimented with different release points, pressures, heights, and various handle movements to see what worked best. Basically, my goal was to release as smoothly as possible without throwing up water or jostling the boat. This wasn’t easy. Every little change seemed have a big effect on the set, as my partner had to adjust what he was doing to compensate for me messing around.

4. I made an adjustment that I think was a breakthrough, although I’m not sure. Well, I remembered reading Drew Ginn’s take on the speed of the release, and I slowed my hands down a bit around the turn, almost to the point of a pause. At a certain hand speed, I noticed that the air pocket was helping to push and turn the blade out of the water! It was almost like having a hand pop the blade out for me. Cool. Is this the right thing to do?? I sifted through my rowing books that discuss technique and also sniffed around the web and couldn’t find anything that talked about this effect. We rowed for about 20′ with me playing with the release, and it seemed to be the way to go but I haven’t developed the muscle memory to do it consistently. I’ll keep working on it and report back.

There’s plenty of books out there that discuss rowing technique in general terms, but NOTHING that breaks down the subtleties of technique. How exactly is a good release supposed to be executed? How fast should your hands be? How much downward pressure (ie tapping it down) do you use, and at what point do you press it down? Does the air pocket affect the turn? Pause or no pause? There’s a lot to it.

I found one decent document that outlines rowing technique, on the Australian Capital Territory Rowing Association website. I also want to quote Drew Ginn wholesale because I think he really comes the closest:

Carving the blade out is a great description I think, as you want to keep enough pressure on the blade face as the top edge starts to release with out tearing the water. The myth around drawing the handle up is a nice concept but in reality it doesn’t occur. The final stage of the arm draw involves a combination of things. Being able to hold the pressure on the blade face is critical. Allowing the blade to release and gradually carve and step out of the water while keeping it square is needed. Having an open pocket of air behind the blade is created by these things and this allows the blade to release with ease and flow. It sets up the boldness of the back turn which when performed with care does appear to pause.