Length

Rise and shine this morning to darkness.  No sunrise, just dark clouds and rain, but flat, beautiful water.  Too flat because Mission Bay in San Diego at 1:40 in the afternoon is not going to look like this. 

We had the SDCC eight, 1 men’s single, and 1 mixed double on the water this morning.  We had a short warm-up and quickly jumped into the workout of the day, (2’ on, 1’ off), around the lake.  The first time around the lake, all the 2 minute pieces were at a rate of 24spm, focusing on length through the finish.  As Chris mentioned and as you can see for yourself from Saturday’s practice video footage, the boat can sometimes row real short at the finish, pulling in too low, essentially cutting off the finish.  This is a problem because one, you lose length in your stroke and you lose the “swing” part of your stroke, which is not as powerful as the leg drive, but if you have a smooth transition between your legs, backs, and arms, you can continue the acceleration from the drive into the swing.  Two, cutting off the finish can make the boat difficult to set because when you pull in too low, your blade will pop out early, which tilts the boat down to the other side.  Third, when you pull in too low, you often have a misconception of where your handle height is and you lose the swing in and out of bow that helps set that handle height and handle control. 

The 2 minute pieces in the second lake loop varied from a low rate, 18-20spm, to a high rate, 28-30spm.  It is interesting to feel how a boat and how a stroke builds the stroke rate.  For the low rates, we did not have any problems building, considering we were already paddling at the assigned rate.  While building the 28-30spm, however, I felt some disconnect with the rest of the boat.  Our coxswain gave us five strokes to build the rate, but I know and believe that at this point in the season and at this point in practice, it should not take five strokes to hit the rate, plus or minus one beat.  Some strokes like to build the rate gradually, but I like to, after the coxswain says, “Build in two…one…two,” hit the first build stroke strong, sitting up tall, looking forward, and applying full pressure.  I try to hit the rate or as high of a rate as possible on the first two strokes, get a read on the rate, and adjust accordingly.  It might take a tad of rush to hit a high rate, but once there, I try to smooth it out, swing, and lengthen.  I have no idea where I got this style from, but you had better be ready.  It is like the start and settle in a race.  The strong build is the start and the lengthen is the settle.  How great or shitty a high rate feels can depend on multiple factors, but a key factor is your perspective, not only mental perspective, but also rate perspective.  Are you hitting a 34spm from an 18spm or are you lengthening a 34spm from a 38spm?  Big difference in feeling.