To Big Blade, Or Not To Big Blade? That Is The Rowing Question.

It’s July, and if you’re in the northern hemisphere
you’re probably hot, sweating, and not thinking about
rowing in the Fall. But before you know it, you or
your team will be . . . rowing that is, and that means
changes.

A bunch of changes . . . such as length of racing (2K
to 5K); amount of practice time to prepare (sometimes
only 3 weeks of prep in the Fall compared to weeks
upon weeks in the Spring); and rigging . . . it needs to be changed (see January’s newsletter which is archieved
at <http://www.maxrigging.com/tips.html> for a
discussion on that).

At our boathouse we have plans to make a significant
change this Fall, in that we will be sculling almost
the entire time, with little or no sweep rowing.

Why?

Young rowers need to focus on basic boat moving
skills, and I believe that sculling is one of the best
ways to teach those skills.

In our boathouse we have a wealth of sculling oars
with Macon blades. And so I wanted to know, should I
retrofit those oars (all are CII oars) to Big Blades,
or should I keep them as Macons.

I had my opinion, but I wanted to search out others
for their opinions. I asked two friends who are
prominient coaches. Both voiced the exact same
opinion, “If the rowers are new,” they both said, “or
relatively new to the sport, stay with the Macon oars.
They will teach the rowers how to row better.”

That statement struck me as hard Bobby Pierce’s
snowball with the special “ice/rock center” did one
winter.

“The Macons teach the rowers how to row better.” Get
out!

It seems that often we run off to buy the latest,
greatest, just-off-the-mill-got-to-have-it-thing
without looking at what the “new” thing might be
missing or lacking.

You see, to row with a Macon oar the rower has to be
able to lock the oar into the water. If he doesn’t,
then he will wash out . . . wildly. The design of the blade demands that the rower learns that skill.

A Big Blade design doesn’t “demand” that of a rower.
Indeed a Big Blade has its benefits, but if a rower
doesn’t know how to lock the oar into the water, the
benefit of the blade is wasted.

And so I pulled out a video of my team, and watched
them row, with a focus on washing out. And, yup, it
was there. Not everywhere, but enough to probably make
a difference.

So . . . I am going to experiment this Fall, and  to
stay with the Macon oars. I’ll keep you updated on how
it goes.