Weight on the feet is one of the three key concepts for rowing and sculling mastery. How it’s a key transition point in the stroke cycle and the giant advantages for crews who can all get there at the same time.
Timestamps
01:00 Weight on the feet
This can be hard to understand how to do weight on the feet. After learning how to do this you will learn slide control (stop rushing) and how to move your body in time with the hull of the boat. Learn how to slow down the boat speed less on the recovery – your speed is the net of power phase acceleration and recovery phase deceleration.
03:00 How to locate weight on the feet
Sit on a hard chair and take your two forefingers and put them under yourself and find the “sit bones” which is the ischial tuberosity. It will crush your fingers a bit. While your fingers are there, rock forwards and back with a straight spine. If you are using your pelvis to rock you’ll feel the sit bones moving over your fingers. Note if you curve your spine and don’t rock from the pelvis, the sit bones do not move over your fingers.
05:00 Find weight on the feet
Stand up from your chair (sit on the very front of the seat to to this). As you stand up you will rock your shoulders forwards and feel pressure through your socks and shoes onto the floor.
In order to push through your feet in rowing you have to get your body mass rocked forward and your hips pivoted. Get your hands and arms straight and your body rocked forward then bend your knees a little and you will feel pressure on the soles of your feet. This is “weight on the feet”.
The leaning forwards is an important part of the sequence because it’s hard to get weight on the feet when leaning backwards.
Get the feeling of weight on the feet by clenching your glute muscles. At the finish, tighten your glutes which helps you to locate your sit bones on the seat, then straighten your arms and when they cannot straighten any more – the shoulders naturally follow and your legs bend till you feel you can push on your feet. This may be at one quarter slide or half slide – it depends on your flexibility.
You HAVE to get your shoulders forward, if you do not do this you will find it harder to locate pressure on your feet.
The glute engagement connects your back and legs like a door hinge. Soggy glute muscles means you don’t get the connection or the transition of body weight forward successfully.
09:00 The key transition point
When you have your feet pressed into the foot stretcher, it’s an important transition point in the rowing and sculling stroke. Weight on the feet is the moment when you move from tension to deep relaxation in the stroke cycle. You stay relaxed until the oar goes into the water at the catch.
With deep relaxation you have very deep muscle relaxation in your legs and you can remove all tension from your body (while maintaining poise in your posture).
Elite rowers work hard because they give themselves extreme relaxation and “turn off” muscles when they are not needed – this means they don’t get tired so quickly.
At weight on the feet your oars should be off the water in a high balance position (shafts horizontal to the water surface), controlling the blades with your hands. The control of the oars and your body means you are able to relax your body and prepare early for the next catch.
Weight on the feet is one of the 4 key concepts we teach in our Sculling Intensive course.
The advantages for crews “From Frustration to Flow” using the four quarters method taught by Richard Parr – learn how to do this quarter in his masterclass webinar.
Once you can handle weight on the feet you can do three things
1- better prepare for the catch. blade entry
2 – further control the balance on the recovery
3 – manage wind/waves better