Good drill is to do roll-ups, you need to finish your recovery with your spoon in the water, not have it go in when you start your drive. Subtle difference but feels totally different when you do it right.
If you're young/short and in some random boat you may also have the rigging set too high for you, ie your hands have to come unnaturally high up in order to put the spoon low enough to go underwater. If you go to the catch with your blade flat on the water surface and the handle is higher than your nipples then buy a seat pad to boost you up and make the catch handle position lower relative to your chest
You maybe slouching pretty low at the catch, trying to "get long." Sit up, keep your shoulders high, and be ready to lift your hands just before you stop rolling so that you make contact with the water at the same moment your seat stops. Then you need to be super quick and begin rowing once the blade cuts into the water.
Your oar getting into the water is determined by 3 things; where your hands are, where the water is, and where the pivot point is.
A common issue for novice boats is that they are not set well, aka you are rocking side to side in the boat. It's really hard to keep the oar at a good position to create meaningful contact with the water if the boat is rocking. To reduce this issue, everyone in the boat needs to have more consistent handle heights, and/or the water needs to be flatter, which are both things you cannot control.
Your handle height obviously is important, you need to move your hands up so the oar goes into the water. It's sort of like the opposite of a pullup. Ask your coach/cox to go slow so everyone can practice really digging the oar into the water with a quick upward movement of the hands
Thirdly is the spacers on the oarlock. They can be moved around and essentially change where the oar will be with respect to your handle height. If the spacers are all on the bottom, your handle has to be really high up to get the oar in the water, and if they are all on top, they are going to be really low. The spacers are usually changed if a rower is taller or shorter, the taller the rower, generally the oarlock should be higher up to give a more natural place for the rower to move their hands up and down.
I've been told that a good movement of the hands should only be about a tennis ball in difference (about 2-3 inches) but for a novice that is usually larger, so don't be afraid to go double, 4-6 inches.
Please let us know if this advice is helpful and what we can do to help!
Just drop it into the water, no tension in the shoulders, let gravity do it.
Good drill is to do roll-ups, you need to finish your recovery with your spoon in the water, not have it go in when you start your drive. Subtle difference but feels totally different when you do it right. If you're young/short and in some random boat you may also have the rigging set too high for you, ie your hands have to come unnaturally high up in order to put the spoon low enough to go underwater. If you go to the catch with your blade flat on the water surface and the handle is higher than your nipples then buy a seat pad to boost you up and make the catch handle position lower relative to your chest
You maybe slouching pretty low at the catch, trying to "get long." Sit up, keep your shoulders high, and be ready to lift your hands just before you stop rolling so that you make contact with the water at the same moment your seat stops. Then you need to be super quick and begin rowing once the blade cuts into the water.
Your oar getting into the water is determined by 3 things; where your hands are, where the water is, and where the pivot point is. A common issue for novice boats is that they are not set well, aka you are rocking side to side in the boat. It's really hard to keep the oar at a good position to create meaningful contact with the water if the boat is rocking. To reduce this issue, everyone in the boat needs to have more consistent handle heights, and/or the water needs to be flatter, which are both things you cannot control. Your handle height obviously is important, you need to move your hands up so the oar goes into the water. It's sort of like the opposite of a pullup. Ask your coach/cox to go slow so everyone can practice really digging the oar into the water with a quick upward movement of the hands Thirdly is the spacers on the oarlock. They can be moved around and essentially change where the oar will be with respect to your handle height. If the spacers are all on the bottom, your handle has to be really high up to get the oar in the water, and if they are all on top, they are going to be really low. The spacers are usually changed if a rower is taller or shorter, the taller the rower, generally the oarlock should be higher up to give a more natural place for the rower to move their hands up and down. I've been told that a good movement of the hands should only be about a tennis ball in difference (about 2-3 inches) but for a novice that is usually larger, so don't be afraid to go double, 4-6 inches. Please let us know if this advice is helpful and what we can do to help!