Those who are managing to do ergs, DEFINITELY make sure you are as fussy as possible about technique. It's very easy to go away over the holidays make a big commitment to getting the ergs done, take 5s off your 15k split time and then get back in a boat and discover you're rowing like an absolute turd as a result and actually you're probably not adding anything like the extra 5s in terms of real boat speed, most of it's come from 'cheating' on the erg.
Not to single him out, but as he wasn't singled out by Braithwaite it seems only fair. Watching Benson destroy his 15k PB yesterday (by 2s of split which is no mean effort!) was probably one of the best examples of this problem. He rowed pretty nicely for the first 4 or 5k then it gradually deteriorated. Into the last 5k he was massively yanking with his arms at the finish to keep the split down, then getting no separation through the recovery and then rushing the second half of the slide. The rating was varying from 17 to 21 (when he was supposed to be at 18) and the split from 1:56 to 2:06 and it was actually managing to really put me off my rhythm. If it was doing that on two unconnected ergs, imagine what would happen in the boat! Obviously it's pretty awesome that he got the PB and I have no problem with people doing it every now and then to see how hard they can push, but in general it's a really bad idea and will lead to you rowing like a monkey.
It's never going to be the case that you row as nicely at the end of an erg as you do at the start, once your mind and body get tired you'll always lose a bit of control, but it's important that you stay consistent throughout the erg. If by the end you can't keep the split and rate roughly constant and can't feel like you're managing to really think and work on your technique then you are trying too hard. I think I've been doing this and so I'm going to take the pressure down a bit and try and work on my technique more. For many people (ahem Richard) getting the technique right will almost certainly straight away lead to the split coming down anyway!
1 comment:
having just watched the video of me and benson erging earlier (which i've uploaded to the ftp if anyone wants to see what i'm trying to say/suggest some stuff for me and benson...), it's pretty obvious i'm cheating by leaning too far back. stuff i think i'm doing wrong:
- leaning too far back
- snapping the shoulders at the catch to get connected rather than getting the change in direction in the legs and just hanging with the upper body
- not separating enough (or at all at times)
- loosening my grip on the recovery
- getting my heels down properly
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