The catch is one of the most critical parts of the rowing stroke cycle. Boat velocity is lowest at the catch, caused by a phase of deceleration when the rower needs to reverse his body’s direction of motion by pushing against the stretcher. This pushing on the stretcher creates a force direct against the boats
This article is partly inspired by an interesting discussion on the decentrowing blog. In the comments, someone brought up a link to a video by Drew Ginn where he advocates accelerating the sliding seat into the catch. This advice seems to be a bit unconvential considering most coaches advocate a constant sliding seat speed into
The Biorow newsletter by Dr. Valery Kleshnev shares great insights derived from scientific research of Rowing. In the November 2012 edition Dr. Kleshnev presents an analysis of the typical patterns of boat acceleration in rowing. What I find particularly interesting is his comparison of olympic and national level crews. Using data that I have recorded