4: Parts of a Rowing Stroke Exercise on a Rowing Machine

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Anna-Marie and I’m a Canadian Olympic Rower. I’m here on behalf of expertvillage.com. Now that you know how to set yourself up on the machine with your feet in the footplates, the straps nice and tight, and the damper set between 3 and 5, we’re going to talk a little bit about the portions of the rowing stroke. There’s basically 4 main parts to the rowing stroke. The catch is where you can imagine yourself catching or taking the water. So you’re going to be sitting up nice and compressed with the legs, the heels are off the footplate, your core, your stomach muscles are nice and tight to help protect your back, your arms are straight out in front of you, shoulders are relaxed, and I’m ready to take the catch. The next portion of the stroke is the drive. As you can imagine, this where you push your legs down, and the power from your legs is distributed through the stroke. This part of the drive you take it with your legs. Your legs are larger than your arms, there’s going to be more power in them. You’re going to drive your legs down. About half way down, you’re going to start to get your back and your body into it. Right at the finish, as your legs and your back are finishing, your arms come on and they finish at the same time as your legs and your back. The next part is called the finish. It happens right here. Your feet are still connected to the footplates, the handle has just come to the body, the pressure is still on your feet, and the last part of the stroke is the recovery. It’s when your hands come forward, you form a window with your arms in the handle so your knees can come up and you float back up to the catch. Catch, drive, finish, recovery. Stay tuned for the next part; we’ll put it all together. "