10/8

First and foremost, we're seeing the "accordion" effect with the oars. Timing is mostly a focus issue, so remember during drills you're also training your mental acuity.

Oar heights and handle heights are (quite literally) two ends of the same stick. Viewing from the stern, we should see essentially a straight, flat line from port blade-tip across to starboard blade-tip (though in reality oar shafts are not quite parallel to the water). Check in this video how some blade-tips are almost skimming the water, while others are at the correct height. Aim to standardize blade height off the water. Cox'ns, oar heights will reveal correct or incorrect handle paths on the recovery.



Again, accordion. Stern 4 actually doing OK job with handle heights. Check body swing. Stern pair is swinging from the hips, keeping core from collapsing. Toomey not swinging enough from hips. Kyle getting body angle and not slouching too badly, but at pause point, the core is scrunched and swing is mostly coming from upper back and stomach. Kyle needs to sit up so his abs aren't rolled, and swing more from the hips with good posture.

Also, a note on set. The boat is set when the gunwales are even, not just when all 8 oars are off the water. If the boat is leaning towards your rigger, you need to lift your hands to counterbalance the set, even if your oar is dragging water. Lowering your hands to keep your oar from dragging will make the lean worse.



Pretty good at the low rate. You can see v-splash at the catch. Not much hesitation and getting locked in pretty quickly (seeing bend in oars no later than 1/2 slide, much better than beginning of year). Bodies are set before the catch, squaring preparation is good, and rowers able to rotate out comfortably and just pick it off at the catch.



At the "higher" ratings, slide control on the recovery is a bit "inversed", and we are swinging the bodies over all the way to the catch. Bodies still need to be at half-slide. Swinging forward and extending the arms in the last half of the catch causes slow catches (you've got to spend time and energy stopping the body and going the other direction). Note much more hesitation in these two videos.



Figuring out the finish, arms and body away is a process. While we are finishing relaxed, and not snapping the hands out right after blade extraction, we are still accelerating the handle on the way out and starting to bring the bodies over a bit late. What happens as a result is the seat accelerating and then decelerating on the recovery rather than staying at a constant speed. This also makes our reach an uncomfortable stretch with the shoulders and arms rather than a relaxed rotation of a poised torso with loose shoulders and arms.