Where Should I Place My Footstretchers In My Rowing Shell?
October 29, 2008 by
Filed under Leverage, Rigging Numbers, Work through
I received this question the other day from Casandra.
Hi Mike: I am 2 seat in a lightweight women’s eight…but we have to row in a men’s boats. This is a really basic question; How do we determine where our foot stretchers should be positioned?
Thanks for the question Casandra. Let’s try a detailed view first, then a quick possible solution.
For Really Novice Rowers (Really novice)
For those rowers just starting out, placement of the footstretcher can be a great teaching tool. Often coaches will put the stretchers at a point where the rowers can use the track’s sternmost stops as a teaching device, so that they don’t over- or under-compress. The feet are placed so that the rowers will almost hit the stops just at the catch. If they go too far, wham, and they stop. For good or for bad, it does help teach.
For Rowers Looking For Comfort
In the past many rower’s calves really suffered greatly from the effect of either the seat track or boat deck digging into them at the end of each stroke. One method of relief was for the rower to move the footstretcher greatly stern-ward, to give the legs more room at the end of the stroke. More room, less digging into the calves. Newer shells with adjustable tracks usually don’t present this problem.
Rowers Looking For Speed
More experienced rowers, which it sounds like that might be you, are looking for something different. They are looking for speed. They want to place the stretchers in the correct position to maximize the energy that is put into the oar.
And it is important where they are placed. The reason being is that placement is about the distance the hip of the rower is located, at the catch, in reference to the pin. And the faster the boat, then the further through the pin (greater the distance that the hips are stern-ward).
Rowers looking for speed will tend to place their footstretchers according to either
- shin angle to water’s surface
- work through
- catch length
- catch angle
Each of those methods become more involved in terms of the mechanics of determining the correct placement of the stretchers.
Down and Dirty
So, with all that written, what should you do?
If you are sharing the boat with a men’s team, or any other group, then I would suggest that you place the footstretchers in a position where your shins are just shy of perpendicular to the water, at the catch. That might be about the best you can expect when sharing a boat, unless it is rigged specifically for you.
If you are not sharing the boat, it is just your team in it, then I suggest that the boat be rigged off of leverage numbers picked for your group. (You can find suggestions here.) From there use work through. Probably for lightweight women you may be looking at a range of 6 to 10 cms, as measured by the method on my numbers page.
Once you have set the feet, do some testing. Have a SpeedCoach? Great, test away. If not, then use a stop watch.
Adjust, test, readjust until satisfied.
(If you are interested in catch length and catch angle I cover those in my book, and the details are probably too lengthy for a blog post.)
I find that the easiest method is to put a mark in the boat at 62cm behind the work (ie the pin) and get everyone to adjust the footstretcher so their rear wheel just touches this mark at the finish. That way everyone is at the same finish angle.
The problem for these girls using a mens boat is that they are likely to have the feet set much lower in the boat.
The other solution is for the girls to put the feet where they want and then let the blokes cope with the problem next time they get in the boat!
@ Peter: interested point about the heel height. It could certainly have an impact. On 62 cm, so you adjust using finish length, which certainly is a solid method to use. How did you decide on 62 cm? Experiment or numbers charts??
I decided on 62cm because it is suggested in the Rowing Australia rigging manual. I’ve used it now for a few years as I coach junior rowers in a school program and, like the girls above, we jump into boats used by others. It’s the quickest and easiest way to get on the water with limited training time. I simply haven’t got time to make a heap of adjustments every time we get on the water. The kids I coach know exactly what to do to adjust their foot stretcher when they get in the boat. Most important I find it works well. I’ve had kids ranging from 5′3″ to over 6′ in the one boat and they can all row quite comfortably together if they can all finish at the same angle.
Where I am lucky enough to have a boat for our own use, I would still use this finishing point, but I would have appropriate foot and seat height for each individual. I have also found using straws placed on the gunwale at the catch angle I want the kids to achieve (sweep) a very useful tool. When they get to this angle I can observe their shin position, which gives me an idea if I need to adjust the height of the feet.
Mind you I heard recently that the Olympic crews in the quad final moved their stretchers closer to the bow and finished with hands further away from their body than most coaching manuals would recommend. This helped with getting more leg power when the oars were at the perpendicular position. So it seems some basic rules are meant to be broken if you want to go fast!
Some of the new foot stretchers such as those built by Rowfit, allow very easy adjustment of the height and angle of the stretcher – the rower can do it while in the boat. The older stretchers, where you have to take the whole footplate out and take three screws out etc etc are a real pain. I have seen some foot stretchers that have a sliding tube arrangement, but these have a tendency to adjust angle while you adjust position so you always have to be careful.