The Stroke of Drew Ginn #
I encourage to take a look at the stroke of Drew Ginn in the video above and to understand what he is doing. Below are frames from the video - starting from the finish:
- At the finish, the outside elbow is about level with the hand. It's not obvious from the frame, but that requires the elbow to be away from the body such that the lower arm is almost an extension of the handle. The grip of the outside hand is loose. The handle was drawn close to the body.
- As the outside hands moves away, it flows along the body: first down then away. The body stays still at the same angle.
- As the arm extends further, it draws along the shoulders. Knees are still down and the slide has not yet started. None of this is rigid.
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As the knees soften, the arm is almost straight - it leads the recovery.
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The speed of the hand can be tought of in a different way: from the finish, the boat and the rower moves on towards the finish line, and the handle stays behind.
- Long before half slide the arm is fully extended. Now drawing the body and the seat.
- Notice how relaxed hands and wrists are.
- Drew is rigged with the feet towards the bow. He compresses beyond vertical shins for the catch (I would not coach that). We can see the black fitting for the rigger which also indicates the position of the pin on the other side. Typically the hip is the pin for that catch. So we can see that this is not yet reached in the frame above.
- The catch is reached. The hip is at the pin.
- Early in the drive the hip is moving away from the pin - but the back is stable.
- Hanging with relaxed arms. The lats are engaged and prevent the shoulder from rising to the ears.
- Legs and body finish together. As the knees come down, the back movement stops. The hand has not yet reached the body.
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The hand moves into a still body. We we are back where we started. Notice that the handle finishes around the rips and there is no big movement to feather the blade. The blade stays in the water as long there is pressure on the feet but slips out once this is point is reached. See also the Mahon crew below.
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It's not visible: the power has shifted to the inside arm and hand. This is how the outside hand can stay relaxed.
Nines #
Harry Mahon #
Watch this Harry Mahon crew (and his explanations) to have a simiar stroke. It is probably even more relaxed. Mahon's crews never looked like they did any work.
Australian Men #
A detailed look at this men's crew with comments from their coach. Again, many similarities but quite a bit less relaxed with a forced finish.