First time scull problems
Andrew Clark
build up for the World Masters Games this year. First venture in a "tub"
scull went quite well except that scull always steered towards the stroke
side.
Not being a workman who blames his tools, I assume there must be some
massive technique problems on my part.
I usually row on stroke side in our Eight or other sweep boats.
Any clues please or good sites that might help explain. I assume it will
have something to do with oar placement at catch or finish.
Thanks in anticipation,
Andrew Clark
Melbourne, Australia
edwarde...@linuxfreemail.net
> As a Veteran rower [50+] I've decided to try scullings as well as part of my
> build up for the World Masters Games this year. First venture in a "tub"
> scull went quite well except that scull always steered towards the stroke
> side.
> Not being a workman who blames his tools, I assume there must be some
> massive technique problems on my part.
<snip other stuff>
I'd be a bit dubious about giving advice to fix this over the net. It
could be any of a number of things, and could be something I haven't
thought of so your best bet to actually fix the problem, rather than just
compensating by doing something else wrong on the other side is to get
someone to actually watch you scull and see where the difference arises
from.
Sorry to be all dull and not offer any proper advice, but I'd hate to
suggest the wrong thing and make your sculling worse rather than better.
--
Edd
Walter Martindale
row a lot on stroke side (portside) your left (outside) arm/shoulder/leg etc are
probably stronger and probably pulling you around.
It could be the tools, too - if your bowside blade is underpitched and the
strokeside blade overpitched you'll go that way, too. Or the fin could be bent
if the "tub" has one, or the keel could be crooked, or your right leg could be
shorter, weaker (discussed above) or a whole lot of other things.
Stick with it for a while and see if pushing a bit harder with the R foot helps
at all.
Walter
Andrew Clark
It's summer holidays downunder and all our younger/elite athletes are away
on rowing camps and have taken all our club coaches with them. I'll wait a
fortnight till they return and get some advice then. Thanks,
Andrew Clark
"Walter Martindale" <wmar...@telusplanet.net> wrote in message
news:3C373DE7...@telusplanet.net...
sue t.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Going to port can result from sculling with a marked difference of hand
heights, but even then should be perfectly controllable except when
daydreaming or knackered. As I'll be tacking a tech page on this topic
onto our website in due course, I'll just give a quick & dirty outline here:
If hand heights differ by say 12cm (& I've seen a lot more than that)
then oarlock heights will differ during the stroke by about 7.5cm. If
there's 1cm inbuilt rigger height difference, then the boat is tilted
sideways during the stroke by about 6.5cm in 160cm - about 2.5 degrees.
The lateral pitch of the 2 pins then differs by almost 5 degrees! That
gives a blade pitch difference of around 3.5 degrees at the catch (low
hand side more pitched than high hand side) & say 2 degrees the other
way at the finish. Those are big differentials - just try changing the
oarlock bushes to give yourself a mere 2-degree differential, which
would at least be constant throughout the stroke, & then imagine having
3.5 degrees one way at the catch, changing to 2 degrees the other way at
the finish, every stroke.So what does this do?
Obviously you can safely pull harder on the oversquare blade (if you
also lean slightly onto it), & less hard on the under-pitched blade. So
the work load switches from one hand to the other between the 2 ends of
the stroke - a bit harder on the lower hand's catch, a bit harder on the
higher hand's finish. Although at the catch the lower right hand takes
the advantage, because its blade has the oversquare advantage, at the
finish the higher left hand tends to dominate - especially when the
right hand is held low & thus anticipates a less easy extraction. The
stroke is normally of shorter duration than the recovery, so any turn
imposed on the boat towards the finish has longer to influence the
boat's direction than a similar rate of rotation introduced at the
catch. Result: a tendency to drift to port.
This insight comes not only from close observation but also from
continuous through-stroke measurements of in-stroke forces during
sculling, with those force differences correlated with the boat's
changing direction. More some other time.Cheers -Carl
Carl Douglas Racing Shells -
Fine Small-Boats/AeRoWing low-drag Riggers/Advanced Accessories
Write: The Boathouse, Timsway, Chertsey Lane, Staines TW18 3JZ, UK
Email: ca...@carldouglas.co.uk Tel: +44(0)1784-456344 Fax: -466550
URLs: www.carldouglas.co.uk (boats) & www.aerowing.co.uk (riggers)
Joe Tynan
when I scull is because I am used to reaching further with my left
shoulder, and as such it gets aabout an inch more length than my right
side. Furthermore, since my right hand is more used to dealing with
the feathering/etc. of the blade, it's not used to having to turn AND
pull so quickly. So, it ends up rowing the blade on my port side into
the water a bit, and I end up digging deep on my port side.
Joe
"Andrew Clark" <afc...@optushome.com.au> wrote:
To get in contact with me via email, please remove the NOSPAM from the email address.
Paul Slade
Check your equipment very well first -- otherwise all dedicated sweep
oarsman will start noticing a bigger LAT on the one side when they look in
the mirror!
If you dont know much about it --
Just make sure that your blades are the same length, your spread is even,
and pitch is the same for each blade ...
For Macon blades a pitch of 5 or 6 is fine. For hatchets try a 3 or 4 degree
pitch.
Last thing - just give the fin a quick by eye. Youll definitely be able to
tell if its straight or not.
Hope it turns out right!
All the best.
Paul
"Walter Martindale" <wmar...@telusplanet.net> wrote in message
news:3C373DE7...@telusplanet.net...
June Kendrick
for Macons than for hatchets. Why do you suggest that? The
unsymmetrical design of the hatchet?
June
Iain Cheyne
> Check your equipment very well first -- otherwise all dedicated sweep
> oarsman will start noticing a bigger LAT on the one side when they look in
> the mirror!
>
> If you dont know much about it --
>
> Just make sure that your blades are the same length, your spread is even,
> and pitch is the same for each blade ...
>
> For Macon blades a pitch of 5 or 6 is fine. For hatchets try a 3 or 4 degree
> pitch.
>
> Last thing - just give the fin a quick by eye. Youll definitely be able to
> tell if its straight or not.
>
> Hope it turns out right!
>
> All the best.
> Paul
about physiological problems.
I had have had the same problem recently, my expert friend fixed it for
me and I had a lovely straight outing yesterday.
--
Iain Cheyne
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