THE SPORT OF ROWING Allen Rosenberg, 1970s: “The slide movement out of the bow is not accelerated in my technique, but has a constant speed determined by the handle as it moves from the belly to over the knees to the toes, always at a constant rate.”8450 Thor Nilsen, 1980s: “I have also tried accelerating into the catch as advocated by Adam. “Now I see rowing as a continuous process and try to do it in one speed. Rhythm is complicated, and splitting it up into different speeds during one stroke could make it worse. One speed is simpler so they can learn it better. “I want one speed on the recovery, and I don’t want an explosion at the front. I want to catch in a natural, flowing way.”8451 Paul Thompson, 2000s: “Arm speed away from the finish should match handle acceleration of your arms as they come into your body during the drive phase. It is important that your arms are relaxed so that the handle acceleration developed through the drive is allowed to flow naturally through to the finish position.”8452 Steady handle speed shares with slow- fast rhythm the elimination of the need to consciously press against the foot-stretchers during the recovery. In addition, the challenge of avoiding or minimizing check at the entry tends to be potentially more manageable than with an accelerating slide. Interestingly, steady handle speed actual yields a slow-fast transfer of the center of mass of the rower within the boat, which is what actually influences the motion of the hull. This is easily demonstrated on a Concept2 ergometer placed on floor slides. The handle movement generated by 8450 Ferris, pp. 8-9 8451 Qtd. by Ferris, 1982, pp. 19-20 8452 Thompson, p. 35 Some anecdotal data: John Nunn:8453 “When I started at Cornell in 1960, we were doing the quick slide out of bow and then decelerating into the catch, and then in like 1963, we changed to still quick hands but even-speed slide, and then in our 1968 Olympic Double, Bill Maher and I used slow at the release and then accelerate. So I have rowed all three different ways. “Since that time, I have used a Speed Boss™, which you can’t get any more, but it’s got a function which shows max speed, min speed and average speed, so it shows your catch speed, your release speed and then your average speed every stroke. By 8453 1968 USA Olympic Doubles Bronze Medalist. See Chapter 88. straightening the arms yields comparatively little movement of mass. Just the arms are involved, and twenty inches of handle movement generates only about one-quarter inch of system movement for a ratio of just over one percent. The swing forward from the hips generates quite a bit more weight transfer as the entire upper body is pivoting. Seventeen inches of handle travel yields just under four inches of system displacement for a ratio of over twenty percent. However, it is the motion up the slide, which moves the rower’s entire body, which generates the greatest transfer of mass. Twenty inches of handle movement yields more than seven inches of system movement for a ratio of about thirty-five percent. If the three motions are accomplished more-or-less consecutively at steady handle speed, the result in system displacement is initially slow, then faster, FASTER. This suggests that the steady handle speed “golden mean” between the two extremes of fast-slow and slow-fast avoids the pitfalls of either extreme while providing the benefits of slow-fast. 2372
