Blog de Puree

I thought I was in good shape for the Coastweek’s Regatta this past Sunday in Mystic, Conn., but that was not the case. It turned out, I was unprepared for the race length, which was just over 2000 meters, and not 2.5 miles. A big oops. (The two races styles, head race and sprint race, are two different animals and need to be treated as such.)

I thought the race course seemed really short as I was rowing upriver to the start line, but it wasn’t until I was about a third of the way through the race when I felt for sure that the course was much shorter than I had originally thought. It was then that I had to turn it on for sprint race mode, but it was too late as the pack behind me was already starting to catch up.

The plus side of this weekend on the water was the rowing clinic I was in on Saturday. I received some great feedback on my technique from a club member’s son, who medaled in the Royal Canadian Henley regatta and coaches at the famed Craftsbury Sculling Center in Vermont. Two of the three problems I was having, I knew about, but wasn’t sure how to isolate and fix them.

From the clinic, I now know that I need to work on my blades going too deep in the water, which affect my finish. To fix this, I must concentrate on letting the oars drop into the water at the end of the recovery/slide, not force them in by jamming my hands up. The second thing I need to work on is where my hands are in relation to each other during the drive, or stroke. It seems that I’m holding my left hand higher than my right hand. I need to concentrate on keeping them level and as the hands come close in the middle of the drive, the top of my right hand rests just under, and touches the palm of my left hand. I need to maintain that level throughout the entire drive as it’s throwing off my balance, and again, ruining my ability to get the port oar out of the water at the finish. Finally, I am laying back too far at the finish–a residual habit of when I rowed sweeps and I was the shortest guy in the boat, thus having to compensate to lengthen my stroke. I need to concentrate on finishing my legs, back and arms at the same time to finish with my torso straighter than I am, and that will translate into faster hands away at the finish, as well as less time with no productive body motion when I’d be waiting for my arms and hands to finish the stroke after my legs. This translates into free speed and less expended energy–a somewhat obvious, but quasi-complicated, physics solution to row faster.

So, while my rowing was cleaner on Sunday, it wasn’t quite fast enough and I’m back on the water, training in the club’s Fluidesign single scull in preparation for this weekend’s Meredith Bay Regatta on Lake Winnepesaukee, in New Hampshsire.