Coaching -Online and On the River

~~~Learn to Row~~~
~~Improve your Sculling Technique~~
~~~~Private Lessons~~~~

No age limit or previous experience is required.

Learn under the guidance of Crescent coaches. Crescent Boat Club teaches that fine technique, as well as strength and endurance, is needed to make a boat move quickly.

Below is an example of our coaching: a young double is preparing to race in Philadelphia's Independence Day Regatta. Our head coach teaches and encourages.

Jacob, Felix - Double, June 23, 2007

Use pause button to stop action at different points in the strokes. Examine body position at those points - are arms straight during leg drive, is the back opening too soon (before leg drive is complete), are arms flexing too early in the drive. View carefully the three or four frames before the boat goes off balance to see the small changes in hand levels, or shoulder level, or leg assymetry that precede and cause the loss of keel.

Check bladework - Coach is instructing scullers to make a "quick catch" - at the very moment that the sculler's bodys get to the catch position, the blade must go into the water, immersing blade but not the shaft. And at that very instant, not a thousandth of a second sooner, or later, the leg drive begins and must be linked to the face of the blade.

Scullers from Hungary call this moment of the catch, "the plant", the blade's face goes into and against the water, and the sculler "stands on it" - the rower will feel the exact same amount of pressure on the bottom of his feet as is on the face of the blade pushing against the river.

On the strokes that Felix and Jacob got a good catch, you'll note a very small backsplash coming off the back of the blade as it drops quickly into the water, and an immediate lift of the bow of the boat, as pressure is instantly applied to blade face. In a double, the catch (pressurizing)of all four blades must occur at exactly the same time. Notice in the video, the balance and velocity improvement when this happens - the boat seems to jump at the catch.

At some strokes at the end of this sequence, the bow's blade goes deep at the catch. The rowers will feel this as an imbalance in the beginning of the drive, that is adjusted for by diminishing pressure on that side of the boat (as well as loss of velocity), in order to have boat on keel and balanced for a clean finish.

 

Link to variety of workout sessions, suggested by competitive rowers and their coaches.