Rowing begins with stepping into the boat. Learn facts and skills for competitive rowing in this rowing video.
Adjust foot stretchers
Make sure oars are in position
Hold oars at all times
Put 1 foot in the boat
Ease into seat
Charles is the head coach/chief instructor at the Texas Rowing Center and has been a rowing coach for many years. He loves heading outside to row every morning and enjoys the view.
CHARLES BARKSDALE: My name is Charles Barksdale. I am here with the Texas Rowing Center. We are giving a brief introduction in the world of rowing. We have [PH] Catherine here to show us how to get in to a boat. First thing we do once we have our boat on the water is we want to adjust our foot stretchers and make sure that the oars are in the proper position. Every boat is adjustable so different sized people can row the same equipment. You have the ability to adjust your shoes and you also have the ability to adjust the height of the oarlocks. Now, she is going to show us getting in, and one of the most important safety aspects of this is we want to make sure that we have the oars properly extended. The oars are your sense of balance. By having them extended, it is going to keep you stable. This boat is 20 feet long and with the oars extended, it is now 20 feet wide. That is a very large boat, and if you hold on the oars at all times--Go ahead and hop on in--the boat should be very stable. Getting in the boat at first is a little bit unsettling but if you just go nice and slow, putting one foot in and then ease yourself down the seat, it works out just fine. One of the odd things about rowing is you are traveling backwards and if you are familiar with sailing terms this kind of has a tendency to confuse people at times. The actual left side of the boat is the port, the right side of the boat is the star, but since you're going backwards in the boat this ends up being reversed to you. We also have the bow and the stern. And most people think the way you're facing is towards the bow but you're actually going backwards in this boat. So that's actually the bow and this is actually the stern.
Member Comments