Basic Physics of Rowing (2007)

I have heard pulling your weight can also mean your butt lifting slightly off the seat on the drive. I'm not sure which is the case.

I imagine the etymology is similar to "way enough" or is it "weigh enough"? Which could have roots in "make way" or "drop the anchor". At this point no one seems to know.

21kmh for a marathon is absolutely insane. Somehow I've never put two and two together on that before.

Wouldn't this be better if we just picked the hour record for running?[1]

Coincidentally it's right at 21km/hr! :)

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_hour_run

Your coach was right, it was good advice, Olimpic rowers master this to perfection and make it look easy.

The move slowly thing is likely to account for jerkiness as a thing people do is rush up the slide and wait at the catch position. You want to get to the catch without the inertia of being forced forward so you can raise your hands get ours in and then push. From a physics perspective there’s also the possibility that rushing up the slide forces the stern down faster breaking the about however that Varys massively and I don’t know about it being proven.

Regarding the order of operations after the catch that’s because a stroke is similar to power clean sitting down. You are effectively maximising the lever arc.

> slide forward slowly

It's an efficiency thing, the linked page partially covers this in section 5. Going forwards slowly impacts the same momentum, but as it is done gradually it results in a greater overall boat speed because you avoid sudden speed jolts. And remember that going forwards quickly also means you must decelerate your body quite a bit at the catch! When a coach is telling you to slide forward slowly they are trying you to move forward at a constant speed, not so much a slow speed.

That being said, it is better to do slower and longer strokes. You're trying to move the boat, so all the moving of your body is wasted energy. Moving your body really quickly is very tiring, whereas you can sustain slower and longer strokes a lot longer. At an elite level you simply can't make the stroke any longer, and you can't get more power out of a stroke either because there are limitations to oar length. The only way for an elite rower to put more energy in the boat is to do more strokes, which means they have to speed up.

> pushing with your legs first

Your legs are a lot stronger than your torso and arms. If you do arms first, the power being put into the boat by the legs is limited by your arm strength. When you leave the arms extended, you are simply hanging on them without the muscles engaged, allowing you to go full leg strength. This is 100% still the case at an elite level, but it is harder to see due to the higher stroke rate, and the fact that they engage the arms/torso before the legs are completely flat.

> Watching rowing in the Olympics it doesn’t seem like they’re worried about this at all.

Rushing the slide is less of a problem if you have good catch placement. Olympic rowers tend to have near perfect catch placement.

>> pushing with your legs first, then torso, then arms

I think that makes sense, i’ve got a rowing machine so i don’t know if it translates perfectly to real rowing but that’s the motion i do. Use the big leg muscles to move as much “oar” distance as possible first, then use your hips and core, then arms for whatever space is left between oar and chest.

I never feel my hips or core are tired but if i screw up this sequence my arms will get tired.

>There were other dubious bits of advice too, like pushing with your legs first, then torso, then arms, but if you try to actually do that in reality it feels extremely awkward. And watching the pros do it on TV it doesn’t seem like they’re doing anything like this.

This is the proper way to row. Iirc its about extending the length of your stroke while having consistent pulling

There's an efficient ratio between the drive and recovery. At 20spm a 1 second drive means 2 seconds on the recovery (so a full stroke is 3 seconds). Try rowing that rating at a ratio closer to 1:1 and you'll really notice the inefficiency. You couldn't do that for an hour and maintain a decent split. As power and rating increase, you want to maintain a ratio. I don't know if it's always 1:2, but there's still an efficient ratio. A similar idea might be being in the wrong gear on a bike. On flat ground with no wind, if you're in the wrong gear you might be able to pedal at a very high rpm, but you'll probably notice that you are not moving efficiently. So avoiding rushing the slide isn't as much about free speed or checking the boat, but being in the right gear. Definitely not a physicist - so maybe not the best analogy, and maybe I'm misremembering how my coaches had explained it to me.

Coaches don’t necessarily tell you what you have to do, but what makes you do what you have to do.

Yes, Olympic rowers move forwards fast in their slides (how else do you do 40+ strokes a minute?), and no semi-experienced rower fully separates the arms/back/legs motions (they tend to blend into each other a bit), but common beginner errors are:

- to race the slide, then stop at the catch, causing the boat to pitch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_motions#Pitch) more strongly, losing speed. Pros move fast, but all their other movements are faster, too, so they don’t race forwards on their slides (at least not in training. Sprints in racing can be different, but even then, they try not to do that, as it costs speed)

- to bend the arms first, then stretch the legs. That won’t work if you’re using your leg muscles to the fullest, as your arms won’t be able to stay bent. They will straighten out again, and the force of the blade on the water will be lower than when they didn’t do that.

So, the “legs/back/arms on the stroke, arms/back/legs on the recover” and “don’t rush the slide” mantras exaggerate what you ideally should do, but for beginners, erring in that direction isn’t that bad compared to those errors.

Indeed -- and that graffiti is still there, I think. (He's also a fantastic atmospheric physicist -- and the rowing results are always beautifully LaTeX'd!)

I’m a rower but with only a very loose understanding of the physics.

My understanding of why you actually want the ‘peaks’ is because there’s a point at which you have to drop the blade back into the water to begin the new stroke. I’d guess you need to do that at the trough of the cycle in order cause the least disruption to the free speed generated.

From experience it’s also definitely true that for a boat to be balanced it’s absolutely essential the rowers move in sync.

I listened to an interview with Kat Jungnickel recently about women's development of cloths for cycling and recreating some of the clever designs from 1890s patents. You might be interested in the skirts with pulleys and draw cords for riding a bike. http://bikesandbloomers.com/ http://katjungnickel.com/portfolio/cycle-wear-sewing-pattern...

Aren't you going to get rowing grease on that laundry?

Concept 2 Rowerg Model D is one of the best. https://www.wodarmour.in/collections/concept2/products/conce...

Concept2 is pretty well the standard: https://shop.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/298-model-d-with-pm5...

Second this. Nearly all rowing clubs here in Germany buy concept2 for a reason. The monitor is a bit old fashioned but does the trick. Machines are sturdy and last for a long time.

Concept2 is the gold standard, and it's not even the most expensive. It's the only machine competitive rowers use, from high school to the olympics. C2 supports their machines to an insane level, going so far as to provide replacement parts all the way back to their first machine from 1981.

Yes concept 2 is the standard. But you would have more fun joining a club and going on the water. For the most part people hate the erg. And this is coming from someone that owns two concept2's and rows on the water or the erg about 6 times a week.

Determined by your goals:

I am casually interested in indoor rowing as a fitness goal: get a cheap (<$500) water rower.

I have decided that I like indoor rowing as a fitness activity and have a history of sticking to exercise goals: an expensive water rower ($1500)

I have decided that I like indoor rowing and would even engage in indoor competition: Concept2 ($1000) because that is what the competitions use.

I want to learn to row, and do it for real on the water: do not buy a rowing machine and start pulling. You will learn terrible form and the first time you lift your oar over your knees you'll end up in the water. Learn to row first, then get a rowing machine. Join a club. They'll start you on a concept2 but someone will be teaching your good form.

I prefer water rowers to Concept2s, but opinions differ. I've owned two concept2s and one cheap water rower, and I prefer the water rower now.

I have owned a Concept 2 Model D for quite a while. It has been one of my best investments. It just works. There has never been anything that has come close in dollars per work, no gym, no other equipment, not even running shoes.