Feet-Out Drill

In response to my last post, about what I’ve come to think of as the “Mosquito Drill”, where one person in a double sits out with her oars off the water while the other rows, reader Michael writes (in part):

“…I guess the goal is to maintain consistency from stroke to stroke.  I’ve been working on my finish the last couple of weeks on the water, giving special attention to how it can help me maintain the set of my boat.  I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on the “feet out” drill and if you have any advice on incorporating that into one’s drill repertoire.” 

As usual, when someone’s asked a question or brought up an interesting point in the comments, I got all obsessed with it and then had to go off and think about it and play with it.  So here’s what I came up with. 

First, Michael, I’d like to gently correct you on one point.  Yes, it’s good to maintain consistency from stroke to stroke – but remember, it’s a dynamic consistency.  Because you will be subject to all sorts of perturbations, and because you are a person, not an automaton, it will not be possible for you to be perfectly consistent from stroke to stroke.  I know you know that, but I mention it in the service of leading up to my next point. 

The goal – well, one goal – of developing good technique is to become able to have what you might call “dynamic self-correction”.  You’d like to be able to row in such a way that you maximize your output for a given level of effort, while at the same time not being beset by excessive irrelevant movements.  This is what you do when you learn to ride a bike, for example (or walk, or drive a car, or any number of other motor activities.)  As you ride your bike, you might lean this way or that to avoid the anticipated trajectory of that car door.  Or, as you walk, you’ll adjust the length of your steps so you won’t step in that puddle.  It’s like that in rowing, too:  You adjust how exactly you take the blades out of the water so as to damp down little wobbles as you feel them happening. 

To move to the feet-out drill:  this is not the easiest drill out there.  It’s not the hardest, either, but it has a special challenge:  Not flying out of the frickin’ boat, heels over head, as you do it. 

A main point of the drill is to practice a certain kind of posture at the release.  It is a release position during which you are balanced, trunk vs. lower body, on the back of your bum, so to speak.  In that sense, it’s like sculling situps, where your shoulders and feet are both off the floor the whole time, but you’re alternately extending and retracting your legs (and so your trunk has to rock back and forth to compensate and keep your balance).  It’s unlike them, though, because in actual sculling your feet are lower than your seat.  If you have a rock wall or sturdy bench available, try this:  Sit on the edge of said wall.  Lean back a little, extend your legs, and don’t use your hands to steady yourself on the wall.  Keep your back straight so you feel your abdominal muscles, all tensed up like cords running from your ribs to your hipbones.  That’s the feeling you want as you release the blades from the water. 

How does this help you have dynamic self-correction?  It helps because you are using the large muscles of your body to stabilize larger movements of the boat.  You aren’t changing where your center of mass is as you release the blades and make the turnaround, so you won’t be directing any force downward into your hull, bouncing or creating large bow waves.  And your hands and lower arms will be relaxed enough so that they can take care of the fine-control issues they are good at – like minutely adjusting the timing of the release to counteract wind, waves, or your double partner; and yet not letting the oars get stuck in the water or feather under water. 

If you’re new to feet-out, try it with just one foot out of the shoes.  You’ll still get a lot of the feeling of the drill, without the abject fear that comes from the certainty of going man-overboard.  Some things that will help you do this drill well:

1.  You won’t be able to do this drill unless you’re sitting up nice and tall.  If your back is all curved at the finish, you’re going to have to curve over even more to avoid shooting out of the boat.  In other words, you’ll end up absorbing the force of the handles into your gut. 

2.  So that you don't sit with your back all curved, create your body angle and compression by pressing your belly button to your thighs as you roll into the catch. 

3.  Open your chest wide at both the back end and the front end of the stroke.

4.  Assertively use your swing on the drive, but only lean back as far as the weight of your legs allows you to.  

5.  Now, so that you don’t absorb the handles, make sure your sternum comes to meet the handles subtly as you finish off the arms-only part of the drive. 

If you do these things, your nice firm midsection won’t absorb the force of the handles, sending your flying overboard.  Instead, it will reflect the force of the handles, giving the water a last little push just before the blades come out.  And, miracle of all miracles, you'll find that you can make an almost normal release even with your feet out. 

Here are a couple of hierarchies to try out.  With one foot out,

• row ¼ pressure, < 20 spm for several strokes,
• at same rating, go to a solid ½ pressure for 5 strokes,
• then to ¾ pressure for 5 strokes,
• and then to full pressure for 5 strokes. 

When you feel comfortable with that, try going both feet out. 

If you don’t feel comfortable with taking both feet out yet, try rowing one foot out, starting at a 20 and ½ pressure, and then increase the rating every 5 strokes to a 26 or 28. 

If you really want to push yourself, try one or two feet out, square blades.  Talk about developing a quick release – that’ll do it for you. 

Enjoy! 

Comments

[Michael]

Thanks for this, Karen! Especially for the concept of "dynamic self-correction." That's really helpful. I've been hesitant with the feet-out drill for awhile precisely because of the fear about falling out of the boat, but the land prep you advise, as well as the one-foot-out variation, will help me find the right feeling to reach for. I'll let you know how it goes! -Michael