To learn more about this series, see the areas we plan to cover, and to read Parts 1 through 6 on this topic, please visit the Youth Coaches Corner's index page. Youth coaches are more than welcome to contact row2k to get involved in future columns.

This week, we asked coaches to share what might be in their bag of teaching tricks.

Do you have any "rowing hacks" or tricks that you use to teach/reinforce technique?

REBECCA NEWMAN - WILLIAMSBURG BOAT CLUB - VARSITY COACH

I have a hack I use to stop feathering with the outside hand in sweep rowing. A simple fix is to put athletic tape on the top a rowers hand up their wrist. The tape reminds the rower if they bend their wrist. 

JULIAN CANHA - DC NATIONAL ROWING CLUB - HEAD COACH/DIRECTOR

Make it engaging, and then help the rowers get it right in a balanced boat first then gradually add difficulty until they can do it right in race conditions.

Manny Flick #2, 2023

RICH KESOR - MONTGOMERY BELL ACADEMY - MEN'S HEAD COACH
Develop as many “self-coached” drills as possible.  These are drills during which the rowers will figure out how to do it correctly or have a very miserable row.  One of my favorite for a single is alternating square/feather by side, in a 4 stroke sequence: 1) port square while starboard feathers, 2) starboard square while port feathers, 3) both square, 4) both feathered.  The aim is to keep them from dropping their elbows to their sides at the release.  It is extremely difficult to do while rowing on the square.  Keeping one of their oars square will exaggerate the feeling of the “feathered elbow” being by their side.  

JAMIE WHALEN - Y QUAD CITIES

Because of the left over right hand position at the crossover that is common in sculling, and because the starboard oarlocks are typically rigged only one centimeter higher than the port oarlocks, many sculling boats are consistently down to port or the starboard blades are rowed significantly deeper during the drive than the port blades.

Manny Flick #2, 2023

To help young athletes learn how to row their boats on an even keel and with their blades at the same depth, I sometimes install a small bubble level so they can see clearly when they are down to port. I also sometimes have them row right over left so they can feel when the hull is down to starboard.

JOHN THORNELL - STONINGTON CREW - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

I have made a bunch of training aids and guides for the team. We use a suspension strap on the erg to teach hanging on the oar and to develop sport-specific strength. We integrate a digital scale to measure the force rowers generate so they get feedback on an otherwise boring isometric exercise.

On the erg, we use custom-made rubber stops on the erg monorail to teach proper leg compression. The team uses a guide with a vertical nylon rod affixed to the erg frame to teach proper body compression. Our hand-height guide on the erg's chain guard has been upgraded to hanging bells that help with (1) level hand heights and (2) raising hands into the catch. [ed. note: this last trick recently featured in a row2k Rowing Hack column] The guides give tactile feedback, help develop muscle memory, and improve rowers' technique.

SRAA Nationals, 2019

ANONYMOUS COACH - MEN'S NOVICE COACH

Early on with Novices, when teaching the importance of timing, I use this trick, but it's a one-time trick each year: After a few weeks on the water and they have been trying to get better timing but it's still going abysmally, we stop the boat, and I say to them "OK....I'm going to clap and I want you all to clap with me." Then you clap in a steady, even rhythm they can join in on. Have them clap 8-10 times then stop and say, "Great! You can all clap in time which means you all have a sense of timing meaning you can all row in time!" This usually helps them understand the concept of rowing in time and that it isn't magic.

I've also learned to initially ask my kids to focus for very short time frames instead of the entire practice: 2-3 minutes or however long the next piece is. Then ask them to focus again. Then again. And again. Eventually they learn to stay focused for longer.

LESLEH WRIGHT - TEMPE JUNIOR ROWING - ASSISTANT COACH

When they are beginners I tend to stop them a fair bit, shake it out, start over.  Continuous bad rowing just reinforces the bad habit. So stop.  Make adjustments, start again.  Once they are in a fairly good body position and able to place the blade before pushing, they can row continuously for a good stretch uninterrupted.  

I also ask them when we are trying to make a change and are successful, can you feel the difference.  Communicating their understanding is helpful to my coaching and how I might approach them going forward.  I will also use video to show them the problem and the correction.

Head of the Charles, Friday Practice, 2022

MATT GRAU - THREE RIVERS ROWING - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

I like using zip ties to establish the catch angle for my crews, and sometimes add tape or spray paint to the zip tie at the appropriate height to establish a target for athletes.  Specifically, this approach has been really helpful in matching up the catch angles, setting up powerful drives, and encouraging quick and direct catches in our TRRA 8+s and 4+s. 

I think that well-educated coxswains who understand a coach’s technical goals and language are a hack themselves.  We actually just started our weekly “coxswains class” back up for winter training.  The youth coaching staff at Three Rivers has a wide range of previous racing and coaching experience, and brings a diverse set of skills to our team.  Sharing the overall technique goals with a group like that and then letting them brainstorm how to reach the overall technique goals has made it easier for our entire staff to teach and reinforce technique on the water, on the ergs, and in the tanks. 

ED FELDHEIM - FAIRFIELD PREP - MEN'S HEAD COACH

Occasionally we get guys that can't seem to avoid feathering with both hands.  If we have an athlete or two that consistently drop that outside wrist we will take a water bottle and cut the top off like you were making a cup.  Place that on the end of the oar and have the athlete row on the feather.  The handle should spin inside the cut bottle and the athlete can learn how to relax that hand and let the handle rotate inside.  If that doesn't work, we will have them put a quarter on top of the outside wrist and try to hold it there through the release. 

CHRIS RICKARD - JACKSON/REED HS - WOMEN'S HEAD COACH

I don’t know that I’d call them hacks but I think patience and focus are critical and not necessarily obvious. One of the best pieces of advice I got was that you have to focus on only one thing at a time, and you need to stay on that one thing until it’s become ingrained. That might take a full week, it might take two weeks, maybe longer. But if you jump from one thing to another each practice there isn’t enough time for habits to set in.

Youth Nationals, 2018

Along those lines, if there’s a habit you are trying to build, pick drills that force athletes to engage that habit, and then be consistent in using that drill. For example, I use outside arm only rowing relentlessly in the beginning of the year until athletes learn to relax their shoulder and elbow and hang off the handle. Once they can do it automatically, then we start adding the inside arm.

GEORGE KIRSCHBAUM - JUNIORS COACH - AUTHOR OF 'THE DOWN AND DIRTY GUIDE TO COXING'

I don’t believe I have anything that I’d describe as a hack or trick. As I’ve developed my coaching over time, I find that I just try to keep things as simple as possible and get as many quality miles as I can for the athletes. Quality is the key: you can do drills by the dozens but if they aren’t doing them right it's not going to benefit anyone. And 99% of the time it is the coach who is not seeing the forest for the trees. You have to be in tune with what the athletes are capable of on any given day, have standards and expectations, but be ready to pivot. No matter how hard we try sometimes things just aren’t going to happen the way we imagine.

Darrell Winslow Regatta, 2023