I have noticed that my indoor competition technique is a far cry from classical rowing practice. Am I just rowing badly? Or am I instinctively adapting to the demands of the static ergometer?
At the finish on an Erg, you do not have an oar planted in the water on which to suspend your weight. Instead, the flywheel leaves a much lighter load for the hands which, instead of drawing through firmly have to flick upwards in order to impart maximum acceleration to an already very fast flywheel. Moreover, you do not have to draw horizontally as you do in the boat. An upward motion, provided your chain doesn’t brush the barriers, moves the sprocket just as well. I’m sure I’ve even noticed Eric Murray give a little wrist flick at the end on the indoor rower!
At the finish on an Erg, you do not have an oar planted in the water on which to suspend your weight. Instead, the flywheel leaves a much lighter load for the hands which, instead of drawing through firmly have to flick upwards in order to impart maximum acceleration to an already very fast flywheel. Moreover, you do not have to draw horizontally as you do in the boat. An upward motion, provided your chain doesn’t brush the barriers, moves the sprocket just as well. I’m sure I’ve even noticed Eric Murray give a little wrist flick at the end on the indoor rower!
New Zealander Eric Murray, twice Olympic Gold Medalist, and Indoor World Record holder over 10k.
And, because you are not pulling scull handles round in an arc, you do not need to lift your elbows but instead can draw them through closer to the body thus making more use of the stronger latissimus muscles.
Eric Murray, primarily a sweep rower, keeps his elbows down, but on the Erg he appears to rely on wrists and forearms for that last faster stage of the stroke.
However, something different happens with the Lightweight Men’s World Indoor 2k record holder Danish sculler Henrik Stephansen. Stephansen raises his elbows high using mainly the rear deltoids to complete the stroke.
Both athletes swing back to extend the length of the stroke considerably.
And, because you are not pulling scull handles round in an arc, you do not need to lift your elbows but instead can draw them through closer to the body thus making more use of the stronger latissimus muscles.
Eric Murray, primarily a sweep rower, keeps his elbows down, but on the Erg he appears to rely on wrists and forearms for that last faster stage of the stroke.
However, something different happens with the Lightweight Men’s World Indoor 2k record holder Danish sculler Henrik Stephansen. Stephansen raises his elbows high using mainly the rear deltoids to complete the stroke.
Both athletes swing back to extend the length of the stroke considerably.
Henrik Stephansen in 2013 setting men’s lightweight World Indoor Record for 2k, 5:56.7
What Eric and Henrik have in common is the use of smaller muscles right at the end of the stroke when the flywheel is fastest and the resistance is least. This is somewhat different from what happens at the end of a stroke on the water where you are still trying to suspend your weight off the end of the oar,
Additionally, in a rowing boat, the momentum of your body to the finish is transferred to the hull of the boat. In days past, single scullers would even insert ‘back chocks’ for the back wheels of the seat to touch at the end of the slide to make sure no momentum was lost. This is not the case with an erg. Your body momentum is absorbed, not by the flywheel measuring your progress, but by an inert structure firmly planted on the ground. So perhaps it is ok to have loose knees at the end of the stroke in order to commence the recovery sooner when lifting the rating for that final sprint.
Meanwhile, at the catch, you no longer have to worry about stopping the boat by hitting the stretcher. So instead of creeping up slowly, is it better to rebound from the front and use that elastic compression energy? Henrik Stephanson’s blistering 45 stroke per minute sprint home would not be possible without it.
This all suggests that the optimum indoor rowing technique has to be somewhat different from what we were taught in the boat, but also that there is more than one way to ‘skin a cat’.
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