MINERVA BATH ROWING COURSE

Notes for Participants

Basic Concept

Rowing is a way of turning food into warm water while moving backwards - a most productive form of activity.

Safety

All rowers, scullers and coxes must be able to swim a minimum of 50 metres in rowing kit. All boats have built in buoyancy and the general rule is to stay with the boat in the event of an accident or capsize. However, knowing you can swim well prevents panic and there are circumstances when you will leave the boat to its fate and make your own way to the bank.

Learn the rules of the river. In most places, boats pass each other port to port, and so keep to cox's right hand side of the river. There are often local rules however to suit the particular circumstances.

It is important to make sure your equipment is serviceable and that the bow ball is firmly in place. Being hit by a boat without a bow ball is potentially lethal.

Clothing

The basic kit is shorts and singlet. Shorts should not be too baggy as they may catch in the slide but must be stretchy enough to allow you to bend right over with ease. A warm top and leggings or tracksuit trousers or equivalent are essential in winter and recommended at all times of the year to wear until fully warmed up. A showerproof and windproof top is an advantage. Put on extra layers in winter, especially if coxing. Never get cold if it can be avoided. Rowing in gloves is not a good idea as it leads to gripping the oar/scull.

Boats

Racing boats are divided into two broad categories 
· Sweep oar where each member of the crew has one oar
· Sculling where each person has two sculls. 

Sweep oar boats are pairs (coxless or coxed), fours (again coxless or coxed) and eights (always coxed). Sculling boats are singles, doubles or quads and are all coxless at the international level, though some racing is done in coxed quads. Eights are the Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race boats while Redgrave and Pinsent won their first Gold medals in the pair and now row in a coxless four.

Boats used to be built of wood and wood is still an excellent material. Most modern boats are of carbon fibre construction. Our Janousek boats have a double skin of carbon fibre/glass fibre separated by honeycomb. Each skin is just 0.012" or 0.3 mm thick so keep feet off the bottom of the boat! 

As you will gather, boats are very light and consequently delicate. A single scull weighs just 14 ½ kg. They are easily damaged and must be handled with care. They are also expensive. Singles cost between £3000 and £4500 while eights cost around £10,000. Oars and sculls are also now generally carbon fibre and are equally costly at £300 for an oar and £360 for a pair of sculls.

Parts of the Boat

The main parts of the boat which concern the crew are:
Bow, stern and saxboards (the sides of the boat), rudder and fin
Outriggers (or riggers), gates (where the blade sits)
Sliding seats (or slides) Stretcher (which you put your feet against)

Basic Commands

For ease of reference when rowing along, each member of a crew is given a number. The bow man is No 1 or 'Bow', then 2, 3 4 etc down the boat, working from bow. The oarsman nearest the stern who sets the pace for the crew is known as 'Stroke'. 

Port and starboard sides are the left and right hand sides respectively of the boat, looking forward, that is, as the cox sees it. Port blades are marked in red; starboard ones are marked in green. Remember 'Port wine is red'. It was normal for the stroke of a sweep oar boat always to be on port side and bow on starboard side so it is very common to hear port and starboard sides referred to as strokeside and bowside. 

The cox, or the steersman in a coxless boat, takes charge of the crew once they start handling the boat. Some of the basic commands are:

The Rowing Stroke

In rowing, the boat is levered past the water, although it seems to the oarsman that the blade is moving through the water. With a good oarsman, the neck of the oar - where the spoon meets the shaft - is stationary relative to the water and the oar rotates about that point. 

Contrary to popular belief, the legs not the arms are the main propellers of the boat. The arms and back for most of the power stroke merely link the leg drive to the handle of the oar or scull and then provide the follow through to bring the blade in to the finish. The nearest equivalent - and one of the best strength exercises - is the Power Clean in weightlifting. A great deal of coaching technique in rowing is aimed at maximising the effective use of the legs.

From the point of view of the rower, the handle of the oar or scull traces out a path like a bicycle chain. At the finish of the power stroke, the hands move down and round a large circle to raise the spoon from the water; then there is a long straight section where the hands gradually rise to bring the spoon to just above the water at the beginning of the next stroke; the hands rise around a small circle to get the spoon back into the water; and finally there is the long horizontal drive phase to bring the handle through to the finish again.

Most of rowing is entirely natural and indeed the easier, the better. There are two aspects of the stroke which most novices find difficult, and most seniors need to be taught again at the beginning of each new season! The first is the use of the legs at the beginning of the stroke. The boat is moving so the blade has to be accelerated at the beginning - or catch - to match the speed of the water as it enters. The smaller the muscle, the faster it moves. So, there is a strong temptation to use the smaller, arm muscles to take the catch rather than the legs, leading to a bent-arm catch. The aim though is to take the catch using legs alone. Think of the Power Clean. With a heavy weight, no-one would consider using the arms to get the weight moving and the same applies to rowing. 

The second unnatural action comes in the recovery from the finish. The arms should straighten first, followed by the body rocking over (hip pivot) and only then by the knees bending to come forward on the slide. The temptation is to let the knees up early which means the body weight is well back on the seat, there is no control over the sliding and there is a strong likelihood of completing the body swing just before the catch, with the slide stationary. This Hands-Body-Slide sequence is probably the most difficult action to groove in and is always lost to an extent in the summer racing season, which is why experienced oarsmen relearn it every autumn!

The sequence of body movements is illustrated in the attached Appendix. The diagrams show a sculler but the same actions apply for rowing. 


THE ORGANISATION OF ROWING

For those who decide to carry on after the course, it may be helpful to set out how rowing is organised in the UK. 

The governing body is the Amateur Rowing Association (ARA) which defines the rules of racing; keeps records of all members and records race wins; employs professional Regional Coaching and Development Officers for most of the country (but not us so far); provides a coaching structure and coaching advice etc; and generally administers the sport.

While the ARA administers the sport and runs the international squads, most rowing is organised by the clubs, whether school, University or open clubs. Most people will learn to row with a club and will certainly have to belong to a club - and the ARA - to be allowed to compete in open races.

Rowing covers a range of participants from international, fully dedicated people to recreational rowers, although it must be said that there has been a strong emphasis on the racing side of rowing in this country. It also covers the age range from 10 or younger to veterans of 80+.

Racing takes place throughout the year with regattas in the summer and 'Head of the River' races in the winter. Regattas have side by side races, normally two abreast in this country as rivers are narrow but there are some purpose built 4, 6 or 8 lane courses. The winter heads are long distance events normally 2 miles or more and are processional with crews going off at about 10 second intervals and timed individually over the distance. An analogy might be the middle distance running situation of track events in summer and cross country in winter. 

Nearly all regattas and heads are open events, that is anyone from anywhere in the country can enter them. There is very little organised on a regional basis. Of course, small regattas will tend only to attract crews from the local area (say within 70 miles) but major regattas such as Reading attracts crews from as far away as Durham. The major Henley regattas - Henley Royal, Henley Womens and Henley Veterans - attract a strong entry from abroad as well. 

Winning a senior event at a regatta gives each member of that crew one point. As the members of a crew gain points, so the crew has to compete at higher levels, rising from Senior 4 through 3, 2 and 1 to Senior Elite. 

Besides the open regattas and Heads, there are some events closed to a particular institution or organisation. The Boat Race is a prime example and the bumping races at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. These events do not qualify for points as they are outside the ARA system.

<Home>