Wednesday, September 7, 2011
It's about Drop , not Chop
Last night's practice focused on dropping the blade into the water, then creating a "force" with your legs to propel the boat forward. Often, we work against our natural momentum, by "muscling" the stroke. We mistake the application of power as the element needed to move the boat smoothly, creating a "run" instead of a jerking, stop and start motion. Chopping, instead of dropping the blade smoothly fights the ability to catch the water at full reach and power. We need to fight the urge to make rowing harder than it really is and "go with the flow".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm happy to read this! This is absolutely one of the many secrets in rowing that goes undiscovered for quite some time. It's amazing how it feels when you just drop the blade in, and just create that force with the legs without muscling it! We don't want to overwhelm our catch, we want to be secretive in dropping the blade, and slowly accelerate with maximum power at the perpendicular point of the stroke! GENIUS! :)
ReplyDelete