Bow Seat

Saturday morning:  This morning, we had 1 eight, 1 quad, 1 double, 1 single, and 1 men's single out on the water.  Chris was gone because of a juniors' regatta, and our team captain and coxswain got to come up with the line-ups in the various boats.  After yesterday's rusty single row, I was looking forward to being in a big boat.

Not only did I row in the eight, but also I asked to be a starboard.  I am a port rower, but some of my best races have been rowing starboard in a pair.  Yesterday was my rusty single row, and today was my rusty starboard row.  I wanted to row starboard today because sometimes, it is good for your body to switch it up.  For awhile now, my left shoulder has been giving me some dull pain.  Whenever I am stressed, which has been the last two months, I carry a lot of the tension in my shoulders and neck.  Rowing port also puts more pressure on my left shoulder since the left shoulder is my outside shoulder, which is key for efficiently transferring power from the leg drive to the oar.  At the catch, your outside shoulder should be up and relaxed.  Any diving at the catch where you lunge your upper body forward ends up costing you time and energy on the drive, trying to bring your shoulders back up.

I also got to row in bow seat, a seat that is the exact opposite of stroke seat.  In bow, you are the farthest away from the coxswain and since you sit behind everyone else, no one can see how good or bad you row except for the coxswain.  There is often a perception among rowers that bow pair and especially bow seat are responsible for the set of the boat.  While it is true that bow pair has greater leverage over set of the boat and that bow seat can help compensate by adjusting her handle height, every seat in the boat is responsible
for the set.  Unfortunately for bow seat, her technical flaws are magnified.

The workout today was:
Odds 9'/7'/5'/3'/1'/3'/5'/7' at the following rates 24-26-28-30-32-34-32-30-28spm with 3-4 minutes of rest between pieces.

The eight was alright, but we struggled to find run in the boat as well as the set.  Sitting in bow seat, I was constantly looking ahead at two seat to try to match her finish timing.  Matching blade exit timing and hands swinging out of bow is the first step to a set boat.  Sometimes the changes I made in bow would help the boat, and sometimes it did not even make the slightest of differences.  By the end of practice, I was pretty sure my body would be permanently tilted towards port from trying to get the boat off of starboard.

It was fun being in bow, but I have the impression that I would probably not make a very good bow seat.