Introducing a new blog article series – we help you get your questions answered.
It can be a lonely place being a rowing coach – there’s just you on your bike cycling down the tow path. Sometimes you would like to ask an opinion of your peers – coaches like you who are facing the same situations at their club.
Rowperfect is here to help.
Post your questions to us by email or in the comments and we’ll share them with the community and let the Rowperfect News readership help you out.
Today’s question comes from John who coaches juniors in Dunedin, New Zealand.
I’ve teamed one of my best J18 scullers with a new boy who’s just joined the club. Both are excellent scullers but the new boy comes from a strong eights sweep background whereas my athlete has principally sculled.
I have 6 weeks before the Maadi Cup schoolboy national championships – what’s the best way to get them combining well and going fast in a double scull?
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I think if both are excellent scullers then their background probably isn’t an issue, if anything it’s probably a benefit since they both have a lot of experience in different ways of rowing/racing. One things it might be worth doing is having them talk about how they like to race and why (guy from the 8’s may prefer a “fly and die” profile where as the sculler may prefer a steadier more even race) and get to agree on the best race plan that they both can commit too and will help them combine as. A crew
As to specific drills and the like, I always think that as long as a crew can sort the front end of a stroke out then the rest will sort itself out, so a focus on making sure they are both properly connecting the blades in at the catch with a good hang off the handle is a great way to start, if they can synchronise that part of the stroke then they should pick up a lot of speed, and you can then tweak the rest of the stroke if required