Tuesday, April 19, 2011
More Technical Musings
From another email with a rower:
Another perceptive question. My own philosophy, which may be soon challenged (more on that later), is that contact through the balls of the feet allows for greater feel at the front end, and a smoother transition to the recovery at the back end. I felt that this was a seminal change in my own technique as a high schooler, and have attempted to instill this in a few.
The standard explanation and justification I give when I explain this to someone is that holding the legs down, and the ankles up through the finish will make them more tired per stroke at first, but that it will pay dividends in maintaining boat speed when we hit the water. When you pull against the footstraps, there is a moment at the finish where your weight has to crash back onto the board, assuming you get your body out of bow before the legs rise. If you are swinging into the finish while on the slide, your crash to the footboard will happen at the catch, an unmitigated disaster for boat run. Thus, despite the effort expended by the continued push through the end of the drive and the beginning of the recovery, the dividends in boat run and total speed are extensive.
This being said, I was learning some about body mechanics at Hudson, and it is possible that this sort of push relegates the glutes. They were working with an Australian scientist who proposed that footboards should have both steeper upper (toe) sections for better pushing at the catch, and a raised lower (heel) section to allow the glutes to engage at the finish. This may change everything; I cannot be certain, because we cannot simulate an engaged butt with our current flat footboards without sacrificing the finesse of the raised ankle.
So there it is. Hold the legs down through the finish, until the hips have rotated over, the weight is on the feet, and the draw into the catch can be controlled. I will make this a focus on Wednesday.
Thanks,
Dan
April 19, 2011 at 8:27 AM
Post any comments here.
April 19, 2011 at 11:52 AM
I notice that when warming up with feet out on the erg--if you don't push from the ball of your feet and maintain that connection at the balls of your feet, you will fly back, losing connection--you don't have straps to hold you in. So, if you lose the connection, you lose power, right?
April 19, 2011 at 12:27 PM
I would say that losing connection leads to a loss of power but, if we were to take this to the extreme, we could then presume that it's faster to row feet out, right? But we know that this is not true. The footstraps do have a purpose: they allow you to lay back. As such, you add length, and can be smooth as you transition back up to the catch. So I'm not saying that layback is the enemy.
Instead, I'm arguing that we have to maintain connection around the back end for two reasons: 1, so that the weight does not come flying off the footboards, and consequently crashing back on. 2, so that we hold a strong finish, and don't let loose knees (and a mobile seat) ruin a good draw through with the shoulder blades. Similar to not shooting the slide at the catch, we have to keep pushing the legs around the finish so that we do not fool ourselves into thinking, "Just because my arms are pulling, I'm having an effect on boat velocity." Not necessarily true. Question yourself always.
Try instead to stay "tented" with the feet at the finish. The calves drive, the foot is flexed between the balls and the strap. The toes NEVER pull up. EVER. Instead, they push down, and you pull against the heel in the cup, and the strap to draw yourself forward.
April 19, 2011 at 4:04 PM
This a test. Wrote up a comment this morning about where the pressure is with the feet in the interim between the finish and the catch, but it never appeared. You addressed in in your last comment though.