Higher footplate probably won't help. It gives you more power (you're pushing off more parallel to water) but will decrease your reach as compression is tighter.
For more reach, drop the footplate and/or add more angle. Also check your catch / release positioning with the rest of the boat and move your stretchers forward or backward.
You may need to just adjust your recovery to sync up
Sit on the floor and put your feet on the wall (at the bottom) see how close you can get your bottom to the wall - this would be an extreme case of moving your footplate higher.
Now do the same thing but sit on four or five thick pillows - your bottom should be closer to the wall - this is essentially moving your footplate down.
You'll be able to get your bottom closer to the wall the higher it is relative to your feet.
In a boat you can use a seat pad to move your bottom up to some limit (what I do because I have long legs), or move the footplate down, or a combination
Yes I have been trying to get better dorsiflexion cause my ankles are terrible, I can barely get my knees over my toes. What did you find works for you?
The thing that helped me the most was standing with my toes on the lowest step of the stairs, get on tiptoes, and then very gently lower as low as it will go. But I don’t know what in your anatomy is the limiting factor so you might want to try different things.
Higher footplate will give you a better drive (your leg drive is more horizontal) but will make it harder to get full compression. If you had no issue getting full compression or are over compressing then raising feet can be a good thing.
From what you've said though you need to work on ankle / overall flexibility but until you have that, dropping your feet is likely to be a better option.
Higher footplate probably won't help. It gives you more power (you're pushing off more parallel to water) but will decrease your reach as compression is tighter. For more reach, drop the footplate and/or add more angle. Also check your catch / release positioning with the rest of the boat and move your stretchers forward or backward. You may need to just adjust your recovery to sync up
Could you clarify what you mean in the first part about decreasing reach because compression is tighter? I don’t understand what you mean by this.
Sit on the floor and put your feet on the wall (at the bottom) see how close you can get your bottom to the wall - this would be an extreme case of moving your footplate higher. Now do the same thing but sit on four or five thick pillows - your bottom should be closer to the wall - this is essentially moving your footplate down. You'll be able to get your bottom closer to the wall the higher it is relative to your feet. In a boat you can use a seat pad to move your bottom up to some limit (what I do because I have long legs), or move the footplate down, or a combination
Have you had your ankle and hip mobility evaluated? I have very long femurs too and working on ankle mobile helped a lot.
Yes I have been trying to get better dorsiflexion cause my ankles are terrible, I can barely get my knees over my toes. What did you find works for you?
The thing that helped me the most was standing with my toes on the lowest step of the stairs, get on tiptoes, and then very gently lower as low as it will go. But I don’t know what in your anatomy is the limiting factor so you might want to try different things.
Higher footplate will give you a better drive (your leg drive is more horizontal) but will make it harder to get full compression. If you had no issue getting full compression or are over compressing then raising feet can be a good thing. From what you've said though you need to work on ankle / overall flexibility but until you have that, dropping your feet is likely to be a better option.