The Independent Rowing News

Photo by Kevin Light

As a longtime reader of your magazine, I have enjoyed watching it grow from a twice-monthly newspaper to the monthly, full-color magazine it is today. As an owner and coach at Calm Waters Rowing, I come into daily contact with rowers whose main connection to the rowing world, outside of their clubs, is your magazine. Many of these rowers come to us because they have limited coaching at home. All rowers who are looking to improve seek technical information to work with and your magazine aims to supply this.

There are many details of style in sculling and sweep rowing and coaches will differ on how to apply them. However, watching the Olympic and world championship videos of the last few years, it’s clear there is a style that the vast majority of winning boats are using. Your excellent still photos have shown these technical points for many years. Unfortunately, I don’t think your writers are conveying these ideas adequately to your readers. There are three areas in particular that I want to bring up. The first, and perhaps most important, is how we sit in the boat. Your writers promote the idea of “good posture,” which includes rowing with a more upright style. Yet in your photos and you will find rowers adopting a more relaxed C-shaped back.

The second area is length of the stroke. Your writers promote catch angle over finish angle in the rowing stroke. I would suggest that, by increasing layback, we have the ability to significantly increase power in an individual stroke. The photo on the cover of the July 2009 issue shows the layback that led to the Canadian men’s eight’s Olympic gold medal in 2008. The U.S. women also row with similar layback, which has led them to considerable success and which you have shown in multiple photos over the last three years.

My final point of contention is the belief that square-blade rowing is going to improve your finish, thus making you row better and faster. Yet, in order to release the blade square, the finish must be cut off. There is simply not enough time to both keep the blade buried throughout the drive while also releasing it cleanly without feathering. When square blade rowing becomes a priority, finishes suffer. The idea of a pile of water ahead of the hatchet blade and a hole behind it has dramatically increased the efficiency of the release. Work equals force through distance and square-blade rowing hinders the length of the stroke at the release, thereby limiting potential speed.

I have enjoyed reading your magazine, often from cover to cover. Overall, I think you do a wonderful job showcasing our sport. But I would like to see better technical analysis of the common style that most Olympic finalists are rowing today. The 2008 Australian men’s double is a fascinating boat to watch, winning the Olympic final easily in a very competitive field. I would also like to learn why Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski won the women’s single so easily in Athens. Or what it is that Bryan Volpenhein brings to the stroke seat of the U.S. men’s eight that makes them so successful when he’s in that seat? If more club rowers had better access to current technical information regarding what these individuals are doing, it could greatly improve club rowing. Your magazine is in a position to provide this and your outstanding photos are already showing it.

John Dunn
                                                                                                                     Lancaster, Va.