The most important sculling drills part2 - how to find and keep proper blade depth

Music in this video:
Ticket to Ride by Repina
Sweet by Skygaze
Everyday (instrumental version) by Bishki

[trevorshiels]

Finding the most direct and efficient path for the blade every time. Perfect.

[DentalExpertise]

our coach had us doing these drills. Very helpful, thank you Aram and Alex

[profiskipinternational]

just started rowing 2 weeks ago on Dutch channels ... As I don't have a rowing club around, I do it with an experienced skuller I can use her boat (Skiff C1), so mostly its learning by myself. My rowing buddy instructs me (she has 30 years rowing experience) and does videos for self analysing. Its lots of fun. As 5th rowing unit I did on weekend my first 6 kilometer nonstop. :-) As I come from rowing machine (up to 1, 500 km / year on concept2) I have to re-learn of course the right technics. One mistake was to pull straight and not in a circle around the oar mountings. So your vid is very helpful. And yes, my personal trainer also teaches from beginning, just to move the oars at their natural heights where the blades are floating. - Tks.

[InHarmsWay]

Very helpful and greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[psychiatrypsychotherapy]

Slightly different then what I learned from Steve Gladstone back in college, with just the use of the forearms (rather then rotating from the shoulders), but it makes sense!

[bensullivan]

Love this video series already - thanks! Very helpful.

[Greg-hgnt]

Very helpful to someone just taking up sweeping!!!!

[Nomads_Rowing]

Excellent demonstration and explanation 😎

[rad]

that was very helpful, but I still wouldn't say no to a YouTube live session!

[kenmackenthun]

This question builds on some previous comments and their replies.
Suppose the height differential is 1.5cm. Suppose the (Macon) blades
are floating square in the water. Suppose the boat is level in the
water. If I pull straight back, my hands collide. Do I increase
the height differential? Now suppose someone cannot increase the
height differential further. In order to pull straight back,
do they pull with the right hand in front of the left?

I love the enthusiasm in your videos, and especially the honesty.
Thank you.

[richardshelton]

Most important point at the end: “you adapt your body motion to the boat” not the other way round

[kenmackenthun]

I think I can answer my question. Under the above assumptions, the
hands will collide. A height differential of 1.5cm is simply not
enough to separate the hands by several inches so they don't collide.
(You can verify this by letting the blades float square in the water
and bringing the oar handles together so they touch; you will see
that the tips of the oar handles are almost the same height.)
What Alex does to prevent this is carry his right hand under his left.
This will lift the oar in his right hand slightly in the water.
However the oar is being accelerated and along with the pitch of the blade,
the oar will probably not move up very much. So it is a
combination of pulling *almost* straight back and the pitch of the
blade that keeps the oars level.

[philippesudry]

Hello. Interesting vid. A question : the oars are clearly not fully immerged while floating by themselves. And without any vertical move of the hands there is no reason it could change. is not that somewhat dicrease the efficiency of the drive ?
Thanks for your videos Aram !

[nickdenton]

Hi, an you please comment on whether it is better to scull with a level rig or have a height difference between port and starboard riggers?

[Andre-qqyx]

I can imagine blade/handle height is important, but too scared to flip with cold water :-)

[tdekoekkoek]

this is a common fallacy. The weight of the blade floats too shallow. The blade should be buried 2-3 inches below the surface which requires the blade to be dropped deeper than it will naturally float.