This channel is pure gold for me!! Thanks for sharing these useful informations🙏

Hope everyone gets a chance to to watch this amazing video. See you all tomorrow at 7:00. Carlos 7:00

Mahe is simply too tall to row comfortably with shallow blades - unless you increase the boat span to infringe on the lane next door 🙂

Amazing video. Congratulations. Please keep making more of this. Thanks

The Mahe Drysdale paradox 😂

Will try this, thanks!

Great watch!

What a view! Amazing row

Really helpful video - thank you!

Great video 🙌

Great video 🙌

Great video 🙌

Great video! I've always wondered if it's possible to overdo things the other way? As in if there is too much backsplash would that have an effect on boat speed and how do we know we make sure we're not doing this to make sure we are in the sweet spot??

Gotta get the top edge of the blade above any disturbed water or waves before starting the feather. Not good if you fail to do that, especially on rough water.

Very nice video. Definetly helped, could you in the future please make a video for putting the blade in too deep or not pulling straight?

Thank you for your great technical material. It is really great what you do. I just wanted to comment your "boats not bicycles" argument. I agree that human is part of the system, but what if we think that rolling wheel is moving water and catching hand is our "system" (boat, human, oar)? Isn't it what we want to do to avoid stress on our oar handle? I can be wrong.

Thank you Sir

Really useful and amazing video. I love it. I will pass it to all of my rowing mates. Thank you very much.

Does "quick hands away" actually have any negative effect on the flow of the boat? I mean the mass moved during this movement is rather small and there is no relevant friction.

Well said! Your comment about breathing at 1:50 on the timeline is great. I suggest this to rowers and they think I'm crazy. One person said I was crazy but I was right. Keep up the good work.

It seems to me that with extended arms at the placement you make the connection by simply drawing the arms together as you would normally do anyway. Admittedly, the control over the inward pulling muscles is not as fine as over the biceps, but the advantage is that you don't have to deal with the consequences of bent arms. Certainly, control is more precise and quicker than with the legs.

As a junior we were coached by an ex lightweight Tom Moffat he said at the catch image you have a slot and place spoon in the same slot every time and be a smooth as Isaac Hays wtf we were 15/16

One thing you don’t mention is the partial vacuum behind the blade. That allows some latitude in the timing of the release and of the feather. Not a huge amount but enough to make a difference. I think it still matters that the downward movement of the handle precedes the start of the feather.

I'm in a coastal single, and think I normally feather on the extraction just as you say, this seems to work well in flat water, but I think it's what is causing me problems when the wind and waves pick up (particularly a tail wind), I find my blade sometimes gets stuck under the water whilst feathered - causing a lot of instability, and pretty hairy. I know it's coastal which I don't suppose is your speciality, but any thoughts on whether to modify the technique with following waves?

I think bending the arms is like a little shock absorber - it protects the lower back from the immediate power of the legs. For years i have been cursed with a reflex to bend my arms the moment the felt load (also the reason why I cannot waterski). Now I broke the curse and can catch and initially drive with straight arms. However, the lower back acts up. To me, the Dutch are not only the fastest, they are also the national team with the fewest injuries. Maybe the shock-absorbing arm bend is one of the reason.

Interesting ! The last thirty years has seen increasingly critical analysis of pros and cons of technical parts of the sculling stroke in particular. I believe many elements are of personal comfort and preference depending on body build, size,weight, flexibility etc. Crew make up and harmony of movement also of course, is paramount. I often refer to the negative aspects of the biceps and forearm pulling in slightly different directions (when arms bend precisely at the catch) as they would tend to interfere with the strong linkage to the shoulders and body rock-over power?? Thanks for your postings for discussion😅

It might be bending arms is a compensation slower engagement with the lower back.. Were there any analysis of correlation of those two?- the slower/later engagement with the lower back, the more/sooner arms are bend to connect in the catch..

Just watched the final of M1x at Coastal World Champs (on World Rowing youtube channel). The winning New Zealander rowed with bent arms the whole way. Looked like it was helping him to control the oars in the rough water.

I’ve been experimenting a bit with this. I agree that a slight arm bend helps to engage the lats and better modulates blade depth. It started with the front end tapping exercise where the aim is to keep really loose and not worry about a slight bend in the elbow. My objective was to minimise shoulder and body movement as I place the blade and connect. When I get it right it completely changes my connection. By bending the arms only very slightly I recruit the lats more and draw horizontally.

Paul O'Donovan also uses a bent arm catch. Clearly it must have some advantage.

I love that you covered this topic, as I had the exact same observations during the Olympics this year and wondered what that was about! I chalked it up similarly to you; mainly that it's like tangible feedback on blade connection that improves timing but that is probably technically very difficult to execute without compromising other areas of technique. It makes sense to me for the best of the best in the world to be able to do it well and thus gain any benefits that may exist, but I think for the vast majority of rowers it would add an unnecessary degree of complexity and confusion; in other words, I think there are usually other things for folks to work on that are a much bigger bang for their buck, so to speak, and it's okay to leave this one in the bucket of elite optimization tools. This is all said as a novice rower, however - I came to this sport as a master a few years ago and I still have so much to improve. This topic is fascinating, but not something I'll be personally working on anytime soon. I would love to see a follow-up video in a few months to hear anecdotal experiences of beginners and competitive athletes alike who braved this strategy for a while, though!

Interesting video, thanks. My understanding is that as the blade spears into the water end-on, lift through foiling (like a wing or sail) is possible early in the stroke but only when the blade is loaded. It will always take time to build this load after blade entry; if you use your lats and arms (only just bending, really only just more than tensing), then the load can start to be applied to the blade without pressure on the footplate (which can slow the hull at this point). Then leg drive can be applied to an already loaded blade (I tend to do this in a single, and when stroking a quad if I can feel timing is a little late behind me - back protection measures...). However, I think Valery Kleshnev showed that it can be better to accept a larger dip in hull speed (more check) when recovering quicker into frontstops & before taking the catch using the legs, as the hull slows more and connection can be quicker, but that the timing of this is critical (and enough strength to do it well, I suspect). Races are won by the crew with the highest average speed over the stroke cycle, which may not be the crew which can reach the highest system speed in the drive... Is it slightly easier to coach the arm-loaded catch rather than good leg-driven catch timing? Are leg-driven catches more likely to lead to back problems in less well-developed athletes as pressures increase? I have just as many answers as you do, but I think being able to row in different styles in different boats & crews is a useful skill.

Nice Spence, to me it makes sense to have the whole system firm but not rigid to efficiently transmit force from the footplate to the spoon. At higher speed the blades going into the water will naturally check the boat (evident in the back splash) unless the body can somehow compensate for the braking force the blade handles place on the system. The arms acting as shock absorbers makes sense to limit this braking effect rather than opening up the torso or shooting the slide which is the worst possible result. Agreed though that the arms then need to be strong enough to maintain this angle through the stroke to prevent a loss in transmission from the legs and torso through to the spoon in the water. At speed the pick up is a lot lighter so the arms shouldn't be as stressed. At lower rates and boat speeds this would not be as noticeable as the legs can compensate adequately by accelerating fast enough off the catch not to lag the boat. Another interesting topic though.

Very detailed and interesting analysis!

Interesting question! Thanks for raising it. It seems to happen among elite scullers but not elite sweep rowers. I suspect the main reason for t-rexing is that it helps to get connection without moving body weight toward the bow. Moving the seat at this stage slows the hull, at a time when the blades are moving outward so providing very little if any forward propulsion, mainly sideways push. There might be a secondary biomechanical advantage in engaging the biceps early. Finally, it might allow the sculler to react to slight changes in balance at the catch (less relevant at speed, but might be a learned behaviour from low-rate work). Watching an Olympic final in slo-mo shows there is more than one way to go fast!

I think one thing to consider is how keeping the elbows down engages the lats much more, when I do this I feel my legs are more capable connected to the handle. If you consider a opposite movement pattern pushing which can generate more acceleration of heavy weight elbows out or in? I find elbows in much more powerful. I think at is core this comes down not to how the boat might move but best pattern of body movement 1

I also also teach the idea of suspension and hanging with lose relaxed arms until the end of the stroke, but in high school in the 90s I was taught a start that relies on "quick strokes" where you catch with arms slightly bent and take 10 strokes bringing the arms in as the legs are going down. When I teach it, now one of the questions I ask rowers now is "Why don't we row like this all the time?" and usually they get to the answer that we're just not able to keep our arms up with our legs very long. It's a great start, especially for younger guys who seem fixated on doing as much as they can with their arms and makes them feel like they have a secret weapon to use sparingly rather than constantly.

Great visuals!

Nice video - a quick question... I was taught not to 'feather under the water' as this is 'pulling' on the handle whilst trying to turn at the same time (which forces the handle down rather than letting it pop out of the water). How does this fit in with your method?

love these videos - thank you. Recovery phase : are you suggesting the rower actively "pulling the boat towards" the body by hamstring contraction / pulling the feet , rather than "letting the boat slide underneath"'. Massive disagreements in our club about the this active versus passive phase of the recovery.

59 years old. Just started sculling 3 years ago. Totally addicted. The perfect exercise is hidden beneath the fun of rowing. Getting in shape while having FUN doesn't seem fair. I haven't been in this good of shape since high school.

Great video , excellent explanation, simple without making too scientific like some gurus on KZbin. However it does exists a little different power application with the emphasis on front end where all three group of the muscles work almost simultaneously.❤

I like the overall idea of keeping the boat speed constant (to minimise drag) by accelerating the recovery (a little), but I think you are slightly mistaken about the check. Ignoring drag, any change in momentum of the rower must be matched by an equal change in momentum of the boat. This is why accelerating the recovery will accelerate the boat, as you say. But when you inevitably decelerate as you come up to the catch, the boat will also decelarate, for the same reason. By the time you come to place and drive, you have already changed your velocity, and therefore so too has the boat. If you would measure the boat speed in your "no check" sequence, you would find the boat decelerate before the drive, not at the drive. It doesn't change your conclusion to keep the boat speed constant though :)

When you are developing still- it's a placement, when you get to the level of "dance/swing" with the boat- it is a catch. Being slow in a placement makes a back splash, being agile and fast enough- makes no backsplash. If being fast breaks your overall technique- stick to placement, when ready- finesse the catch- drop the oars and before it's starts to bounce stabilise it with instant push with the legs. I would love to have a time to make a non biased video of it..

Thanks for this fantastic video.

Very well explained and I feel for Jordan as a kid on that swing. Quick question which I don't see addressed very often is the role the flex in the shaft plays through the stroke. My thought being similar to the flex of a shaft in a golf club, it provides for significant acceleration through the release once you have loaded the blade in the initial drive phase. Is there any significance to this flex and release in the rowing stroke or should I stick to golf?

Great explanation.

Could you clarify what secondary front splash is and how that checks the boat?

Rolling the extraction out of the vortex is what i've learned intuitively at the beginning. In the meanwhile i've been teched both methods. But i realized that i have trouble with rolling out the blades when the water surface is wavy. In this cases i have very often problems with stucking in the water and catching crabs. When squaring the blade out i got a lot more stability in wavy conditions. That's why I'm currently undecided what is the best way to go. What is your experience in wavy conditions?