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table of contents clickable introduction 2 drill 1 square blade rowing 4 drill 2 pause rowing 6 drill 3 roll ups 8 drill 4 ¼ and ½ slide rowing 9 drill 5 outside hand only 10 drill 6 feet out 11 drill 7 eyes closed 12 drill 8 double entry 13 drill 9 tap downs 14 drill 10 cut the cake 15 drill 11 surprise drills 16 row-craft coaching programming solutions

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introduction this e book has been written collaboratively with a number of rowers that i asked for their favourite or most helpful rowing drills and why the submissions have been really helpful and insightful and in many cases just downright hilarious the drills have been written in the order of popularity and i have put some of the responses in for your enjoyment and to know that you are not alone with your dislike or like of particular drills i have written an explanation why we do each of the drills taken from many sources including the collective thoughts of the rowcraft coaches and then added the comments from the rowers below the explanation i hope you enjoy reading this book as much as i had putting it together and i hope that it will useful to you to use in your rowing training kathy phillips row-craft coaching programming solutions ph 0403163395 email rowcraft@optusnet.com.au 2

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drills drills and more drills drills rowers do drills bugger definitely no 1 rowing drill is practicing waving to the crowd whilst in a sculling race helen so why do we do them over and over and you start to question your coach s sanity the truth is that drills are a fantastic way to liven up the monotony of the thousands of strokes that you take each month and not to mention the coach s perverse delight in confusing you with brain overload at 5 am on a serious note drills serve several major purposes i ii iii to give you time so you can focus on an issue to develop muscle memory to exaggerate a point or define a concept an important point to remember is that a drill won t teach you anything unless you have a clear understanding of what is correct or incorrect in the execution and your coach needs to assist with the right way to perform a drill doing a drill repeatedly and incorrectly just reinforces incorrect rowing technique and does more harm than good you may ask so where to from here to fix my rowing stroke 3

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drill no 1 square blade rowing square blade rowing is the king of the drills square blade rowing involves continuous rowing without feathering the blade the emphasis of this drill in on the clean placement of the blade and release without the hand and wrist movements being involved with the manipulation of the handle throughout the stroke it forces the development of skills throughout the stroke with the focus on balance acceleration blade depth blade height off the water placement of the blade into the water and extraction of the blade ­ tap down without the manipulation of the oar handle the focus then becomes on the handle heights the blade is used as a reference point for hand heights of where the crew is going to carry the hands throughout the stroke e.g if the hands are too high the blade will make water contact which then impacts on the run of the boat this drill forces the crew to move together for timing and smoothness on the recovery and the drive i find that fast hands and synchronized body rock are the key points to help maintain balance through this drill there should be even pressure on the handles against the gates to assist with the stabilizing of the boat this drill can be used for partial crew rowing then moving onto full crew rowing as experience develops the lower body remains relaxed and the knees kept still on the recovery example drills 10 strokes feathered 20 strokes ½ slide square blade alternate strokes ­ one square one feathered rowers rave a our crew seems to like everything so maybe the question should be which drill don t you like which actually leads into which one is my favourite because i initially hated it square blade rowing because it really really makes it clear how important fast hands are because as much as you need balance without fast hands away your blade will be stuck in the water and pulling your arms out of their sockets while ensuring your row-craft coaching programming solutions 4

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b c d e f local physio doesn t go out of business but when you get it right as a crew the difference is so noticeable that it s exciting as well as educational and much much less painful kim square blade this is a love to hate exercise helps with so much but really sucks if you can t get it right this really just really knocks into my head where my hands need to be as can think they are ok when they are oh so clearly wrong anna however more seriously i like roll ups and square bladeing but depends on what one is trying to fix helen for me square bladeing is good for my problems jo so yes square bladeing i find useful kerry i have really enjoyed all of the comments on the rowing drills my favourites include square blade at quarter slide jacque row-craft coaching programming solutions 5

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drill no 2 pause rowing the most basic drill is the pause drill with pauses inserted into the stroke most commonly at the hands away and body over and finish positions this brings the focus onto a specific part of the stroke being the hands and body the finish pause is used to look at the elbow and shoulder positioning either sweep or scull the hands away pause focuses on the smooth squared release of the blade from the water and particularly the crossover of the hands when in a sculling boat the body over pause highlights the body pivot or rock over through the pelvis before the seat moves off the back chocks and the stability of the body over through to the catch any further movement of the body in the prepared catch position is easily seen pause time can vary depending on the coach s mood anywhere from 1-3 secs and this pause time allows for evaluation of the issue being highlighted example drills pausing at hands away good for crews that don t sit back at the finish and allow the knees to come up at a very fast pace 1/2 slide pause ­ reinforces the notion that the catch position is set by ½ slide rowers rave a i particularly like the pause drill it helps to discipline us to relax up the slide thea b single and double pause rowing to get body into correct position john c the pause work as it corrects our body sequence by forcing us to keep our knees down until after the rock over margaret d pause rowing it consolidates balance and sequencing in a nutshell jeff e striking -pause work is also good joanne f strikes -pause for further timing which of course helps the balance paul g strikes at various stages again promotes the same skills pause work al h whatever those ones are called where you pause in a certain position e.g body over pause work i find useful kerry i we couldn t do pause work when we started could not balance the boat nearly fell out of the pair but we persevered and learnt to balance and with timing a bloody miracle christine row-craft coaching programming solutions 6

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j totally shit in the eight when we started doing pause work just seemed like punishment but when we got it i could see the benefit good in hindsight rob k for sculling double and single pause rowing-to focus on the body pivot and hands away the coach had us do this for an excruciating length of time in our double and it fundamentally changed my sculling technique for the better and it had a knock on effect on my sweep technique great for focusing on getting the body back and over and for getting the hands away the subtle point i missed in this exercise was that the hands get over the shins before my body comes over from the back to the front ingrid drill no 3 roll-ups catch and release drill good for practicing the correct placement of the blade which is a critical part of the stroke this drill reinforces the notion of placing the blade effectively without disturbing the boat the placement is actually the final movement of the recovery and the blade placed before the leg drive begins for a crew drill the aim is to get the timing rhythm and positioning of the hand heights at the release and catch listen for the one sound ­ plop as the blades enter the water row-craft coaching programming solutions 7

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sit at the finish tap down together hands and body rock are synchronized and roll down the slide to the placement it is easy to see the differences in tap down height and speed handle heights on recovery and the timing of the catch if the timing of any of the above are out stopand start again example drill repeat 10 times after warm up and again during a rest pause this is a good drill to do if you are delayed at the start line of a race beats boredom rowers rave i still like doing the tap down drill and roll ups for timing of the finish and catch paul roll ups of course they consolidate balance and sequencing in a nutshell jeff however more seriously i like roll ups helen rollups for the timing and concentration required we were pretty crap when we first started we all did the catch at different time arrgh jules e rollups in the single heart attack material the coach wanted me to fall in but they fixed my catch and balance rosemary f our tap downs and timing improved doing roll ups in the pair very nerve racking though christine a b c d row-craft coaching programming solutions 8

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drill no 4 quarter and half slide rowingquarter slide and half slide drills are used for timing in the boat from hands bodies leg drive and slide speed good for correcting bent wrists the right time to release the blade must be met they are also useful for practicing the framework that makes up the start sequence for racing they require great concentration and are almost always used as part of a standard warm up in one variation or another half slide work is used for training a crew to increase the rating by using hand speed example drill 20 strokes full slide 10 strokes ½ slides you could change the rating for the ½ slide work e.g up by 4 strokes per minute ¼ slide work can be incorporated into pause work and square blades at ¼ slides rowers rave a my preferred drill is square blade 1/4 slide all 8 i was surprised that we were able to do it at all and i felt that this drill is most likely to achieve the most improvement in hand heights julie b half slide combination with full slide strokes helps me feel the speed of body rock and hand speed required in half slide that should transfer to full slide work anna c half slide work to speed up hands john a d i learnt that all rowers half slide is not the same timing is crucial matthew e half slide work was good for the leg drive timing you can feel when the legs drive at different times the boat feels different ­ smooth when it is all together lisa f we had a cox who made us do half slide work in a composite boat on the way to a start it really helped our timing and as a crew to row together for the first time helen g and 1/2 and slide work for hand speed uniformity paul row-craft coaching programming solutions 9

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drill no 5 outside hand rowing sweep outside hand rowing is when the rower takes their inside hand off the oar handle and places them either on their hips or the rigger backstay this drill is traditionally done square bladed to reinforce the outside hands pulling role when sweep oar rowing e.g hanging off the oar at the beginning of the drive emphasis is also placed on rowing around the rigger and is good for stretching out the lower back and glutes during a warm-up blade control is paramount and blade depth becomes noticeable example drill use during warm-up or half boat square blades 10 strokes outside hand only both hands on for 20 strokes full boat ­ 10 strokes half boat ­both hands on for 20 strokes rowers rave a outside hand only showed me how i wasn t rowing around my rigger and just staying in the centre of the boat jim b i found my blade depth improved when doing outside hand rowing i could feel it better susan c other favourites are rowing one handed if sweeping helen d single arm rowing john a e rowing with the outside hand only promotes control balance and feel paul f you can feel what hanging off the handle feels like john g outside hand rowing holding the backstay with the inside hand ­great for getting the movement of rowing around the rigger and the appropriate blade height because it is all square blade ingrid h a variation of outside hand rowing wide grip holding the shaft of the blade not handle and moving up and down the slide imprinting the memory of the handle heights in our heads best drill ever and fixes the dramas with so many boats i have been in i think the power of the imagination is a lot stronger than we realize jess row-craft coaching programming solutions 10

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drill no 6 feet out rowing this drill involves the crew/rower with your feet out of the shoes or clogs the reason for this is to stop the crew from developing and artificial rhythm by pulling themselves up the slide too quickly by using their feet this also corrects a rower who swings too far back at the finish/release and to practice the correct release point of the blade from the water by keeping the body weight behind the handles balance is maintained through the feet connection to the foot plate and the activation of the core muscles and the height and speed of the hands constant pressure needs to be kept on the foot plate oar gate and the blade so the proper release point of the stroke can be felt there is instant feedback on how well you are keeping the pressure on and developing smooth acceleration any continuation of the stroke by still using the body swing or drawing the arms in after the legs are down will result in you falling towards the bow or in the lap of the rower behind you and your feet disconnecting with the foot plate your feet will come off the plate slightly at the release/tap down because of the momentum but you should try to keep this to a minimum example drill 10 -15 mins 2-3 times a week as part of a warm up sequence rowers rave a feet out the boat felt smooth and it runs much better if only we could do that all of the time chris b core what core feet out made it apparent that i need to do some more work or end up in the seat behind me sue c the feet out drill to make us contact the foot plate as we go up the slide and as a consequence slow down our slide rate margaret d feet out-particularly with square blades it really helps with the hands away at the finish it never ceases to amaze me how much better you feel you are rowing after this exercise guy e i also like the feet out which reminds us how important it is to connect our feet with even pressure thea row-craft coaching programming solutions 11

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drill no 7 eyes closed rowing this drill is to teach the crew to hear and feel the rhythm of the boat jonathan wrote a short piece on `eyes closed rowing so that will be the crux of the explanation of the drill as rowers we are rowing backwards most of the time and in the dark there is no harm in taking the experience further by closing your eyes closing the eyes allows our other senses to get a bit of one on one time the rower gets to imagine the shape of the back turn the feel of the weight of the handle as it is carried lightly forward imagine the pivot forward at the hip with a strong straight back you can t see your own posture close your eyes and feel it have the perfect goal in your head and feel if your body fits into this form hear the square up sense the compression of the legs a quick light raising of the hand a sweet catch listen for the sound of a good catch punch the legs down pivot through the hips and then the pull of the handle tap release and the shape is complete listen and feel your finishes try and improve the sound and feel of the release open your eyes and there are too many distractions from the main event the sound and feel of the boat running over the water there is nothing more to be said example drill make sure you are in a safe environment cox is not to be included in this drill rowers rave a other favourites are rowing with eyes closed especially when tired helen b great for when the sun is in your eyes feel the boat move matthew c i can shut the world out and listen to the sounds of the boat robyn d you can see the stroke in your mind shame the coach sees something completely different margie e silence is golden everyone concentrates and the boat feels better paul row-craft coaching programming solutions 12

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drill no 8 double entry placement drill this drill is to teach the feel of the placement of the oar at the catch rower sits at the catch position in a stable boat and moves the oar handles up and down with slight pressure entering into the water and out eyes and chin are up and the focus is on the rising of the hands and arms with the upper back and shoulders held still the shoulders are only used for the lever action they should not rise up at all focus on how much you need to raise or lower the handle to get a good catch once you have got the hang of this in a stationary position use the legs through a full stroke and at each catch lift the handles and repeat the catch each stroke this is double entry on the move the rower feels the sensation of placing the oar whilst the boat is still moving i.e on the run this drill is a variation of the catch slap where the hands are lifted upwards to enter the water but the blade remains feathered slapped on the water then squared to take the catch the crew can hear if they have the timing together with these drills the catch becomes part of the recovery rather than the drive which gives the sensation of taking the catch on the move which is a very good thing to be able to do example drill 10 strokes full slide 3 strokes double entry and repeat 4 times rowers rave a double entry work tap tap push or place lock push whatever it is called i find this one really good to focus on the feeling of placement and locking on the water at the catch before pushing off also helps me lock in the feeling of the correct blade depth flat draw through etc anna b double entry helps feel where the catch is and how high to move my hands keep still jo c you can feel the boat move or slip underneath you when you place at the catch with the double entry drill bob d i find that double entry forces me to keep my eyes up or i sky my blades jess row-craft coaching programming solutions 13

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drill no 9 tap downs or release drill rowers sit at the release/finish position with buried squared blades make sure the boat is sitting level and stable with even weight on the seat pressure against the gates and level hands move hands up and down just enough for the oars to clear the water and place note how much high your hands need to move this drill helps with the balance of the boat as all crew members must adjust the hand height to maintain a level boat the drill below can be used for the more advanced crews a variation of the release/tap down drill is to complete the drive sequence and finish of the stroke but before sliding up the slide for the next stroke keep the finish position and repeat the tapdown/release again then row on example drill body hold or freeze frame sit at the finish/release position do 5 x tap downs then sit in the release position without moving stay there until your back and core muscles tire and stay there a little longer repeat x 5 rowers rave a i still like doing the tap down drill and roll ups for timing of the finish paul b we realised how different our tapdown heights were when we did the tapdown drill the boat rocked all over the place ann c we did lots of freeze frame work as our core stability was like jelly sue d tapdown drills are hard to get right but when you do they make a huge difference to the stability and rhythm of the boat mark e it makes you realise that the movements to do with hand heights are only small big movements destabilise the boat mary row-craft coaching programming solutions 14

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