Foot height and back pain

Firstly, a disclaimer: I am not a trainer, and this is not intended as medical advice. I only have experience, and hearsay from others more knowledgeable than I, of which I can perceive only the faintest shadow of the results, but none of the process by which they are arrived at.

There was a great comment in the previous post about foot heights. It was noted that relative height can make a big change in wattage numbers on the erg, and whether this could translate to the boat. In a word, yes. The reason is twofold. First, simple force vectors (remember Grade 12 physics?) would indicate that the force required to drive the boat towards the finish line (I'm going to avoid the terms "forward" and "backward" for the moment) is horizontal. That is, the only boat movement that helps us is along a single axis. It's not three dimensional, it's not even two. All we want is horizontal movement. Bringing the feet higher puts them more in line with the desired force vector.

Second, higher feet allow us to engage more muscles, including the glutes. This is similar to why racing cyclists are bent over so far (even excluding aerodynamics; super-aero recumbent bicycles climb like slugs because it's so hard to make power when you are supine). Getting the feet high brings these butt muscles into play.

Why then don't we all have the feet slammed to the top? One factor is flexibility. Not everyone can get their bodies over and weight to the feet when their heels are level with they tailbones. Another is the variation in body type. If your knees clear your eyebrows at the catch, then high feet are not very efficient. There are diminishing returns, then, to this thesis.

Moving forward: While I was at Hudson, the footstretchers were a huge area of concern, with significant marginal gains possible. 2009 and newer Hudson footstretcher assemblies have two 7/16th bolts staring at the rower, that allow for the relatively quick alteration of foot angle and height. The Rowing Canada Aviron girls would set theirs everyday before practice to their personal settings. But that's their job. Further, Hudson was working with a company called BATLogic to develop a totally new carbon footstretcher, with steeper toe angles, a support under the heel to engage the glutes, and a bearing underneath it all to allow the foot to pivot around the tibia (roughly). It was wicked cool. Check out the website.

We, the TRRA MW's, will do our best. I'll lobby for the rig to be set a certain way, because I don't want to make big changes from practice to race day. We will, however, make sure the boats are rigged for us, customized, when we come down the course in anger.