Form check & improvements! Video attached

[ajhk]

Hi,

I've been rowing on and off for about a year. In recent months I've been averaging around 10K a week. I'm 33 years old, 178 cm tall and weigh around 74 kg.

I've been trying to be mindful of my technique, but I haven't had anyone who really knows what they're talking about look so I'm afraid I've been picked up some bad habits and I suspect I should be able to pull of better times than I currently do.

Here's a full video of the 10K I did today as well as the logbook entry for the workout. I sprint towards the end which might be useful to compare against my slow, more controlled speed in the first 2/3rds. The workout ended up being 40 seconds slower than my PB, but I could've probably gone quite a bit faster as I held back a lot during the middle section and I also didn't warm up properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkFk2t_UmC4

https://log.concept2.com/profile/1831234/log/86334129

Any feedback, advice or other comments are highly appreciated.

Something I've always thought about myself, and I also noticed in the video is that I seem to pull the bar low towards my body (close to my stomach than to my chest), pulling higher always felt very unnatural for me so I struggle to change it (should I even?).

[p_b82]

Hi and Welcome

I'm no expert on form so can't comment too much.

As I understand it though
You shouldn't really pause at the end of the stroke, just start your return up the slide, but go more slowly.

At the end of your vid when you up the rate, you appear to have your sequence off - you have to "speed bump" the handle over your knees as they're coming up before you arms have passed them.

And final observation is that you appear to be really hanging off your foot straps at the end of the drive - the balls of your feet completely leaving the foot stretcher. this final one can be fairly easily corrected doing some strapless rowing to learn to decelerate yourself rather than rely on the straps.

[Sakly]

Hi, the main reason why your stroke is not producing so much power is missing pivoting of your upper body, nearly no hip movement at all.
Sit upright, go to ~30° angle forward at the catch with straight arms (you have already straighten arms - good starting point!) and let the hips stay behind your body with legs in a bit more open position (shins vertical). Getting your feet a bit lower on the foot stretcher will help.
Now, if you start the drive and push with the legs, the hip should rotate to the opposite of ~-30° (or even further, if you can handle that layback) to the back to create more length for your stroke and faster acceleration of the flywheel.
You have a slight hip hinge, but it could be much better. If your finish position gets more layback, your end position with the handle will also get slightly higher to the sternum. You should probably pull a bit wider with your elbows to the outside (only slightly, no 'T-position' with your arms), as this will allow you to pull straight. Currently you start a good pull at the catch, but change direction downwards on the finish, this reduces efficiency.

Another thing I observed is your rhythm. Many times you had randomly some faster strokes to get back to slower spm. Why is that? Any reason?

[ajhk]

Thanks for the replies! Really useful information, especially when I can back look at the video and compare with what you're saying.

Hi and Welcome

I'm no expert on form so can't comment too much.

As I understand it though
You shouldn't really pause at the end of the stroke, just start your return up the slide, but go more slowly.

At the end of your vid when you up the rate, you appear to have your sequence off - you have to "speed bump" the handle over your knees as they're coming up before you arms have passed them.

And final observation is that you appear to be really hanging off your foot straps at the end of the drive - the balls of your feet completely leaving the foot stretcher. this final one can be fairly easily corrected doing some strapless rowing to learn to decelerate yourself rather than rely on the straps.

Looking back at the video I see the same things, my 'pause' is something I started doing early on to slow down my stroke rate from my initial beginner 30+ spm and I kinda stuck with it, but it does look unnatural so will try to transfer at least some of the rest into the recovery instead. Funny how I didn't think about the feet before recording, never thought about how much my feet are wiggling around.

Hi, the main reason why your stroke is not producing so much power is missing pivoting of your upper body, nearly no hip movement at all.
Sit upright, go to ~30° angle forward at the catch with straight arms (you have already straighten arms - good starting point!) and let the hips stay behind your body with legs in a bit more open position (shins vertical). Getting your feet a bit lower on the foot stretcher will help.
Now, if you start the drive and push with the legs, the hip should rotate to the opposite of ~-30° (or even further, if you can handle that layback) to the back to create more length for your stroke and faster acceleration of the flywheel.
You have a slight hip hinge, but it could be much better. If your finish position gets more layback, your end position with the handle will also get slightly higher to the sternum. You should probably pull a bit wider with your elbows to the outside (only slightly, no 'T-position' with your arms), as this will allow you to pull straight. Currently you start a good pull at the catch, but change direction downwards on the finish, this reduces efficiency.

Another thing I observed is your rhythm. Many times you had randomly some faster strokes to get back to slower spm. Why is that? Any reason?

Makes a lot of sense, will work on my hip movement, I think my issues might come from an initially pretty weak core (I think it has improved in the last year) which made me conservative with my upper body movements, I've always struggled with flexibility in this part of my body so would be really nice if I can get better at this. My lower back is the only part that I currently experience any pain in after / during some rowing sessions which might be related as well.

Also noticed the rythm changes haha, I think it's partly letting out a bit of frustration and energy when trying to erg at the ~20 SPM range, it's quite mentally taxing for me to keep the rythm (and the general strain from exercise) and it's easy for me to slip. Could also be because of the music in my headphones tbh. Not sure how much it actually affects my rowing, but like the other things I'll take it with me into my future sessions.

[iain]

NOt much to add and far less qualified to comment than the above, but I wasn't convinced that your arms always fully straightened, if you are keeping them a bit bent when tiring, you are wasting energy fighting your leg drive with your arms. As for the pause and lifting over your knees at speed,I found that trying to get the handle round quickly as in a boat (where if you don't push down the oar snags the water)then starts the recovery, then the slowing should be on the slide. At first it will feel really slow, but you should go up the slide significantly slower than you come back when not sprinting.

[ajhk]

Just wanted to update here with some positive results.

Did another 10k today and tried to incorporate the feedback I got here. Amazing results, lowered my PB down almost a minute to 40:55. I mainly focused on creating more layback which indeed made my finish naturally end up closer to my chest and also from what I could tell shaved off around 3-4 seconds on my 500 m splits without creating a lot more effort. I noticed that I felt weak in my lower back towards the final 1-2k which I feel could be that I’m not used to this extended motion so those muscles tire faster.

Also tried creating a more natural recovery, kind of hard and I noticed that my spm went up a bit to 20-21, didn’t feel like too fast tho so will work on this aspect in the future as well.

[Sakly]

Just wanted to update here with some positive results.

Did another 10k today and tried to incorporate the feedback I got here. Amazing results, lowered my PB down almost a minute to 40:55. I mainly focused on creating more layback which indeed made my finish naturally end up closer to my chest and also from what I could tell shaved off around 3-4 seconds on my 500 m splits without creating a lot more effort. I noticed that I felt weak in my lower back towards the final 1-2k which I feel could be that I’m not used to this extended motion so those muscles tire faster.

Also tried creating a more natural recovery, kind of hard and I noticed that my spm went up a bit to 20-21, didn’t feel like too fast tho so will work on this aspect in the future as well.

That sounds fantastic

[Dangerscouse]

I noticed that I felt weak in my lower back towards the final 1-2k which I feel could be that I’m not used to this extended motion so those muscles tire faster.

Also tried creating a more natural recovery, kind of hard and I noticed that my spm went up a bit to 20-21, didn’t feel like too fast tho so will work on this aspect in the future as well.

That's good progress. Your lower back will need to adapt to the effort, but you should also be mindful that you're using your core enough too. There will be at least a slight a transfer of some loading to your back if you're not careful.

[mict450]

Sounds like you have a weak core. Keep working on keeping your back in a neutral position and your core should get stronger.

Post another video on your form so the forum stroke mavens can give you the benefit of their experience.