#forrowers

This is just one thing that coach never really explained to us coxswains, probably because if you're a rower this comes naturally to you. So here's the breakdown:

When the blade is squared up, it is perpendicular to the water.

If you're rowing on the square, the blade remains perpendicular to the water the entire time. The oar just goes up and and across and back in the water, without rotating at all. This is not common on the water and is generally only used for drills. 

It's just not very efficient. If you think about it, we're using the blades as leverage against the water. We push water backwards (towards the stern) so that we go forwards (to the bow). Now, if something is gliding across the water, what's the fastest way (bar crashing) to check its momentum? Sticking something in the water, right? Because if you just stick your blade in the water, perpendicular, and hold it there, the water's going to catch your blade and drag you to a stop. That's why we check it down/hold water to stop the boat quickly. 

On the other hand, the blade has to be perpendicular to the water in order to move the most water, and thereby the boat. That's why quick, clean catches are so vital. More on that later. So the idea is to keep the blade perpendicular to the water when it goes in at the catch but have it parallel to the water for a smooth exit on its way out at the finish. 

That's where feathering comes in. It's literally just the opposite of squaring: instead of turning the blade perpendicular to the water, you turn it parallel. This is done at the finish, right when the blade is coming out of the water.

If you feather your blade too soon, you're cutting your drive (and thus your power) short; if you feather your blade too late, you're causing drag on the boat. Ideally, you should start feathering your blade when it's about three-quarters out of the water. That way when it emerges, it will be fully parallel to the water.

So during the recovery, as you're getting back in position for the catch, your blade is parallel over the water. But you want your blade to be squared before it enters the water for maximum power, remember? (Also, try sticking your blade in the water while it's parallel to the water. You can't.) So the blade is squared before the catch.

There's some leeway on when to square the blade. A mistake that many novice rowers make is to forget to square the blade until they reach the catch. Then they just kinda hang out there with their arms reaching out behind them while they square the blade and then enter the water. Two things can happen then: either they're late to the catch because while they were busy squaring their blade, the other rowers were already entering the water; or, to give themselves extra time to do this, they've rushed the recovery.

Either way, it slows the boat down. A good rule of thumb is to square the blade as your hands pass your knees on the recovery.

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Tl;dr: when rowing on the square, you keep your blade squared at all times. This is relatively inefficient and usually done only during drills on during tank sessions.

When rowing on the feather, you feather your blade at the finish and square it on the recovery before the catch. This is how you row during races and most of the time you're on the water.

It's hard to get exact data for individual rowers on the water. Unless a pair is so badly mismatched that the boat is being clearly pulled around to one side or another, the only way to really tell who's more efficient at moving water is seat racing, which is itself rather questionable (more on that later). Even with seat racing, all you and your coach learn is who is faster. 

With ergs, though, you can get individual data on power, time, splits, etc. That's why erg tests (though not as important as seat races) are such a big deal. A rower's 2k time is what he sends out to college coaches to get recruited. During winter training, your coach is going to want as much individual data on each rower as he can get--and your rowers will probably be very interested to see how they're doing, too.

The things you'll want to write down:

Time:

Pretty self-evident. Keep in mind that times on ergs are almost always going to be slower than times on the boat because it's only one guy against an unforgiving machine as opposed to eight guys pulling together, especially if you have a nice little tailwind or current helping you along.

Also what the erg doesn't take into account is, to some extent, technique, but mostly weight. Heavier guys have an advantage here because they're generally going to have more power. If that power isn't enough to justify their extra weight in the boat, though, they're going to slow the boat down. I've provided a nice little calculator here to show the weight adjustment ratio, but every coach does something different. Mine goes off the 165 lightweight limit. 

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Split:

How much time a rower takes to cover however much distance the erg is set up for. The normal distance is /500m and is what most standards are based off of. For instance, an average split of 1:45 for a 2k will be a 7 minute time flat. 

This is very important. You will always write down the average split. Sometimes, if your coach is as detail-oriented as mine, he or she's going to want you to write down the average split per certain distances. For a 2k, for instance, if you have the machine set up to take the split every 400m, you're going to have 5 average splits, one for each fifth of the 2k.

 It can be useful to know to see how your rower does--does he pull with fairly consistent pressure all the way through? (ideally, yes.) Does he start out strong and then peter out? (NO DON'T DO THAT) Or does he speed up at the end? (a little bit here is good because it mimics the sprint you'll do during the last 400m of an actual race. If he speeds up more than 4 splits though, it could mean that he's not pulling hard enough in the beginning.)

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Rate:

Just the same as on your cox box, how many strokes the rower's taking per minute. On a 2k test, the novice rower's rate should be somewhere around 28-30. Any slower and he's not getting maximum power; any faster and he's probably--though not definitely--rushing his slide. 

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Watts:

Unit of measurement for power expended. Basically, how much pressure the rower's getting on the drive. It doesn't get as much attention as the split, but if anything it's a more accurate indicator of how well a rower does. Splits can lie--you can have terrible technique and still pull a high split if you're super athletic. It's much harder to produce high wattage without good technique because at least 70% of your power comes from your leg drive (or it should, anyway. I don't care how big your guns are, your legs are still bigger). If you open your back/break your arms too early, shoot your tail, etc., your watts will go down.

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So to actually get to the memory, first off, go to the home screen (if it's still alive, just hit back. If the screen's dead, hit buttons until it turns on.) It should look either like this:

in which case, obviously select memory--or it will look like this (this is the way mine looks):

in this case, hit More Options (not Information, which seems counterintuitive, I know). Memory should be on the next screen that appears. 

What will then appear is a list of all the workouts that have been completed on that erg. It's chronologically backwards--so the first workout is the most recent one done, then the second workout is the next to last workout done, and so forth. Use the 2nd and 3rd side buttons, next to the up and down triangles, to select the workout necessary and then hit the 1st side button to expand on it. You should then see a screen like this:

So there you have time, meter, split, and stroke rate. Notice how the first line is boxed in? That's either the total (for time and meters) or the average (for split, watt, and rate) for the entire workout. The lines underneath are the data for each part, however it was split up. So this workout was by distance, 6000m, and the erg was set up to take data every 1200 meters. 

To get watts, just hit the Change Units button in the far left bottom corner and instead of the splits you'll get watts.

So in this case, you'd want to arrange the data set by meters and have it set up something like this:

Rower A:_erg no.__1200m____2400m___3600m___4800m___6000m___total

____split:_______1:24.5_____1:25.0____1:24.2____1:22.6___1:21.7___1:23.6

____time:________3:22.9____3:24.1____3:22.3___3:18.4____3:16.3__16:44.0

____rate:_________41______40_________41______41_______46_____41

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And yet. It will bring you so much joy.

The thing about crew is that it's incredibly ruled by weather. I mean, we're on the water. And while we have a tendency to overlook little things like rain and freezing cold temperatures (getting rained out? say what, baseball players?) there's also a certain point when badassery becomes stupidity. It's highly inadvisable--read: life-endangering--to row in fog, thunderstorms, or tornadoes, for instance. And it also remains impossible to row on ice.

So during winter, we have this lovely thing called indoor training when THE ERG takes over your life. Wesleyan's coach once called it "a dumb fitness machine." It is, honestly. You can't do much to improve your technique on an erg (though you can destroy it), but this is how you get that innate power. Build muscle.

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Erg is short for ergometer, which literally means "an instrument used to measure the amount of work done by muscles or a group of muscles." Your typical erg looks something like this:

The most popular brand (and the only one that I've ever used) is the Concept2 (they also make oars). They have different models, obviously, (generally the grey ones are newer than the black ones and therefore a bit quicker) but the basic layout and monitor interface remain the same.

Here's a basic diagram:

Pretty basic: you sit on the seat, strap your feet in the footstretchers, grab the handle, and pull it so the seat slides down the slide away from the flywheel and then towards the flywheel.

The flywheel is what generates the air that blows out of an erg. When you pull the handle away from the flywheel, the chain that connects the handle to the flywheel extends, like so:

When you stop pushing with your legs away from the flywheel, the chain will naturally feed back into the flywheel and the handle will return with it. DO NOT DROP THE HANDLE AND ALLOW IT TO SHOOT BACK TO THE FLYWHEEL. You know with the old steel tape measures? You could click it twice and the tape would freeze, stiff, and then click it again and tape would shoot back inside. It was fun as a kid. Don't do it with the ergs. They're considerably more expensive than tape measures. More on proper erg care here.

On the front of the flywheel are ten notches with numbers and a dial that you can turn, like this:

This is called adjusting the damper settings. The damper controls how much resistance you get on the handle. Think of it like a ten-speed bike: the lower the speed, the easier it is to pedal, but the slower you'll go. In this case, one is the lowest and ten is the highest. The higher you set the damper, the harder each individual stroke will be, but your split will lower--up to a certain point, until it starts getting too hard for you to pull. The general consensus is that somewhere between four to six is the optimal setting. Figure it out on your own--when you first get started, you'll probably want to keep it closer to four, but as you get stronger and more accustomed to erging, try notching it up.

Footstretchers are where, surprise surprise, you strap your feet in. They look like this.

So your heels should be firmly against the curved inset at the bottom. The straps should be pulled tightly across the middle of your feet, more or less. If the footstretcher is too big or too small, use the holes at the top (there're five of them, numbered. 1=small; 5=big) to adjust--lift the footstretcher by the bottom part off of the nub that fits in the hole and wiggle it up or down. I'm a size 6 in girls' shoes and normally set it at a 3. 

Make sure the footstretchers are adjusted correctly for the rower. You would not believe what a difference I felt the first time one of my rowers told me, "You're setting the footstretchers too big for your feet." Literally dropped three splits.

The monitor will become your best friend. It's set so you can move it up and down, forward and backwards: make sure your rower can see it. The home screen when it first turns on will look something like this:

It varies a little per model (in our models, for instance, you have to click more options to find the memory button), but the basic layout should be the same. Either way, when you begin to erg, whether on Just Row (which is exactly what it sounds like) or on a programmed workout, the most normal layout of the screen will look like this:

This is the basic display. You can change it so that numbers become bigger or smaller with the change display option; you can also view a graph of your power output, etc. unimportant, really. DO NOT CHANGE UNITS. If you have it set to cal/h, you deserve to be thrown off the boat.

The time is obviously how long you've been erging. If you're doing a programmed workout, instead of the time you'll have a countdown of either how many meters or minutes you have left, depending on what you used as a baseline.

The rate is just the same as on a coxbox--how many strokes you're taking per minute. 28-30 is a pretty reasonable base pace. 

Your split is a pretty big deal. Everyone's going to be talking about it as an indicator of how strong someone is/how fast someone is going. Really all it is is how long it takes you to pull a certain distance. Generally, it's set up for 500m (that's what /500m means on the screen).

To get some perspective on what a split means, 1:45 is our 2k standard for the men's novice eight. That's 7 minutes exactly for 2000 meters.

The current split is just how hard you pulled on that stroke. It'll vary. The idea is to keep it as consistent as possible. Your split should not be jumping back and forth between 1:52 and 1:55. The average split is the average of all your splits and is the one that coxswains usually record at the end of a piece, along with the total time, rate, and watts.

Watts will show up in the memory and are a measurement of power output. More on watts, recording and translating data, and monitor tips here.

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Sliders are an attempt to simulate the rocking movement of the boat on land and look like this:

Basically, they're metal frames and heavier than they look. You place the erg on top of them, like so:

Make sure the bars of the erg are placed on the outside bar of the slider, not the inside. The sliders should be set up in a direct line so that the erg slides forwards and backwards along with the rower. Often, coaches will have a boat's line-up set up all their ergs on sliders in a straight line as they would in a boat to practice moving together, like in this video.

Sliders are also common with rowers for injuries, particularly back injuries because they lessen impact, since the erg is moving with the rower. They aren't great for splits or erg times, however.

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There are games on the erg. Enough said.

(If you're having a lot of trouble motivating yourself or novice rowers, this is a good way to get them excited. There's a fish game--the harder you pull, the higher your fish floats. You pull harder or slower in order to drop down or rise up to eat small fish and avoid big black fish. There's also a dart game, which I don't quite understand, and also the option to set up a race.)

Erging is an important, if mind-numbingly boring, part of crew. You know how important and valuable the boat is? Example:

Derp: Ow, your carbon-fiber 200 lb boat hit me in the head while you were unloading it!

Normal Person: Oh my god, I'm sooo sorry are you okay?!?!

Coach/Rower/Coxswain: BITCH PLEASE THIS SHELL COST MORE THAN YOUR HEAD YOU'D BEST HOPE THE SKEG'S OKAY

Now, ergs aren't quite as expensive as boats. They do, however, cost upwards of 900 dollars per erg. So they're still probably worth more than a novice, at least in your coach's eyes. And they make you stronger. So take care of them.

Don't. Drop. Them. Don't. Drop. Them. Don't. Drop. Them. Don't know how simple this is and yet. People are moving ergs and the next thing you know KABAM. Seriously people? There are wheels on this thing. The bar under the flywheel. Check it--yep, wheels. Lift up the other end and wheel it to where it needs to go. 

If you're carrying the erg downstairs or over a particularly rocky area, have another person help carry it. It helps if the person at the back end (away from the flywheel) puts the corner over their shoulder, so that the very back end is being held against their chest while facing front.

When you're done with recording data and whatnot, always put the monitor all the way down flat against the flywheel. Yes, it moves.

Don't yank the cords connecting the monitor to the erg. If the monitor isn't responding to the erg--say the rower is pulling hard but no splits are registering--the cord may be disconnected. Check to see where it goes. Make sure it hasn't become tangled in with the chain.

Always spray and wipe down the erg after using it. Really, this is just common sense and basic gym etiquette. Make sure you get the slide, the seat, the handle, and footstretchers. Avoid the monitor.

Sometimes, if you're an absolute beast, the erg will shift forward with your strokes. If this happens, have somebody else either lean their weight against it from the front or step on the back bar. Weights also work well for this. For this reason, ergs are generally placed against the wall.