Should one’s hands come to the outer edges of one’s ribs, or just a fist apart, or some other distance, when at the finish in sculling?

Sculling finish position – handles 1.5 fist widths apart. [Image credit: Carlos Dinares][/caption]Common practice says “one-and-a-half fists” apart when sitting at the finish position, i.e. legs straight, handles touching your shirt and back leaning 5 degrees backwards beyond the vertical.If you scull to around the outer edges of your ribs you probably aren’t getting enough forward reach at the catch and so will go slower because that’s where you get the best boat speed (at the catch). But you also need to have enough space at the finish to be able to extract the sculls from the water square and so that’s why one and a half fists width apart is received wisdom about the correct distance.Read our detailed description of the finish in rowing and sculling Does this help?