"Carbon oars - I don't care how soft you thing they are - they are hard, hard as nails." Ganz genau! Material science has changed boats, but especially oars. And in the last ten years they have become even harder. They don't flex like they used to or like timber oars did. I think this is behind the epidemic of back pain, especially in masters rowers. The great thing about the new materials is that it allows us to change how we row (or scull at least as boat speeds are lower) so that we can row with much more feel, especially feeling the balls of the feet on the stretcher early in the stroke, and in the fingertips. This stiffness on oars and riggers allows us to enjoy rowing more, because we can get the satisfaction from the tactile feedback as well as the sensation of the boat moving. A brilliant video. Thank you.

Extremely informative, especially when explaining why we were coached in the 80s to have a hard leg drive - the wooden boats and hickory oars were “soft” relative to today’s carbon-fiber materials.

This is the best one I have seen to date One of my mantra to my winning Wyfold four in 2013 was "Floppy legs" on the blade entry Chapeau for being a lone voice in the Wilderness

The other big thing I think this impacts is that it doesn't teach rowers to get the blade buried and connected before pushing, in my opinion it actively teaches the opposite. I was always taught to "slam the legs down" at the catch in early years rowing and had to relearn how to get connected at the catch and accelerate the stroke for the most speed later on. I haven't heard it described as "same power on the hands as the feet" but I like that conceptually, the way I think about it that works for me is that once I have the blade buried and filled, I try to accelerate the speed of the legs rather than just turn them on or off. Basically rather than trying to hit my max leg press as soon as my blade is in the water, I try to start at 0 watts and (very quickly) hit every wattage number for a micro second while I build to the wattage I'm trying to sustain. So rather than: "blade goes in wattage goes to 100", I try to go "blade goes in wattage starts at 0 then 1 then 2-3-4-5-6-....-98-99-100". Usually it feels like I can make that happen in the first 6 - 12 inches of the drive. I think this helps not make the movement sudden or jerky which helps feel out injuries and other things, but also lets you be gentle and aware at the catch with how the blade is moving through the water and lets you take the power through the trunk at the power you know it can, and then is easier to continue that acceleration when you swing over. Happy to hear what others think about it! Love the series.

Excellent and timely! I wish every coach can watch this and stop yelling at us : leg leg leg! So many things come with sudden quick and hard violent leg driving. apart from what Aram just said, it also causes the boat to lunge and sink, disrupting the water and its dynamic relationship with the boat, and causing the blades to wash out. The fluidity of water wants us to move fluidly with it, smooth transfer of energy through our body , blades and boat, from the beginning to the end of the drive, and the water will love us back with smooth speed and efficiency. But it takes lots of training to achieve that. Thanks again Aram. Looking forward to your next video

Aram, I love you. You’re amazing!! I’ve watched all of your videos and you literally cover everything. You have a future student. 😄

Good video on overpowering leg drive. What does the breathing look like?

tks ... gives me a good direction in my training. Tks. :-) P.S.: Would you recommend wooden oars to get that snapping dynamic back and taking out the stiffness ? I use rowing mainly for cardio, on a higher level. So not really focussing on regata ambitions for now. So the weight benefit is not so relevant for me, so far I know carbon fiber oars weigh about 3.5 lbs each while fiberglass and hollow shaft wood are about 4-5 lbs.

I use dynamic erg. Can u guide me what should be the pace, as then I would understand how much leg power to use in the start of the stroke.

I get how I should not push from the catch but still not clear how to actually do it the proper way

too dark the video, i cant see. great info ! love!

first view :)