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Beautiful Rowing
Feb. 10th, 2007 06:52 pmDevoting an entire day to rowing makes for a long, exhausting day.
But on the other hand, my rowing stroke has improved dramatically and now feels more beautiful, more open and fluid and long and powerful.
Both Jim and Mark devote a lot of time to undoing the effects of what they refer to as "reactive coaching"--that's coaching designed to teach rowers to row defensively ("Don't do this...don't do that...stop doing...Slow the slide..."). I learned about this concept a couple of years ago in the context of coxing--I can't remember where I first read about it. Basically, using negative terms causes us to focus on negatives instead of focusing on how to develop a vision for positive change and then make that change. It's a powerful concept for rowing, but also for learning how to do pretty much anything else. Learning to NOT do something isn't nearly as enjoyable as learning how to do something well.
I love watching Jim Dietz describe what he's looking for in our rowing--his face lights up and he makes graceful, delicate gestures with his long arms and lanky rower's body. We should think of rowing as being like dancing, he tells us, and we should think of our coaches as choreographers. First, we go through all of the steps slowly; we break things down to see how the parts fit together; we learn new movements and change old ones. After that, we can begin to build things up again into a slow, elegant stroke. Teaching our bodies these motions in slow-motion gives us a standard to work from. (again, so many coaches end up obsessing about racing and forget to build a solid technical foundation to work from).
I've been sculling for some time now, but there aren't sculling coaches on our lake, so I've had no way of knowing how to progress and take longer, smoother, faster strokes. I had some vague, fuzzy notion of my potential to row faster, based on watching other rowers and based on sensations I've experienced with sweep rowing (which is soooo much easier to do, by the way). The best rowers are like most elite athletes; they make the movements look smooth and fluid and easy. Today some of those possibilities manifested in my own rowing as well. I've been learning better posture and poise, how to balance my boat more effectively, and how to feel the relationship between my body and my boat and the water. Two of the biggest revelations probably seem mundane; I've been doing a better job of keeping my chin up and of reaching outward with my hands at the catch to take a big, full, balanced stroke. Contrary to appearances, it takes a lot of very hard work to reach grace.
It's now so satisfying to take long, powerful strokes and feel the boat glide through the water. I can only hope to hold on to this feeling for as long as possible.
Ahh, yes. This is rowing.
But on the other hand, my rowing stroke has improved dramatically and now feels more beautiful, more open and fluid and long and powerful.
Both Jim and Mark devote a lot of time to undoing the effects of what they refer to as "reactive coaching"--that's coaching designed to teach rowers to row defensively ("Don't do this...don't do that...stop doing...Slow the slide..."). I learned about this concept a couple of years ago in the context of coxing--I can't remember where I first read about it. Basically, using negative terms causes us to focus on negatives instead of focusing on how to develop a vision for positive change and then make that change. It's a powerful concept for rowing, but also for learning how to do pretty much anything else. Learning to NOT do something isn't nearly as enjoyable as learning how to do something well.
I love watching Jim Dietz describe what he's looking for in our rowing--his face lights up and he makes graceful, delicate gestures with his long arms and lanky rower's body. We should think of rowing as being like dancing, he tells us, and we should think of our coaches as choreographers. First, we go through all of the steps slowly; we break things down to see how the parts fit together; we learn new movements and change old ones. After that, we can begin to build things up again into a slow, elegant stroke. Teaching our bodies these motions in slow-motion gives us a standard to work from. (again, so many coaches end up obsessing about racing and forget to build a solid technical foundation to work from).
I've been sculling for some time now, but there aren't sculling coaches on our lake, so I've had no way of knowing how to progress and take longer, smoother, faster strokes. I had some vague, fuzzy notion of my potential to row faster, based on watching other rowers and based on sensations I've experienced with sweep rowing (which is soooo much easier to do, by the way). The best rowers are like most elite athletes; they make the movements look smooth and fluid and easy. Today some of those possibilities manifested in my own rowing as well. I've been learning better posture and poise, how to balance my boat more effectively, and how to feel the relationship between my body and my boat and the water. Two of the biggest revelations probably seem mundane; I've been doing a better job of keeping my chin up and of reaching outward with my hands at the catch to take a big, full, balanced stroke. Contrary to appearances, it takes a lot of very hard work to reach grace.
It's now so satisfying to take long, powerful strokes and feel the boat glide through the water. I can only hope to hold on to this feeling for as long as possible.
Ahh, yes. This is rowing.
