Sport rowing

Anatomy of a stroke

• The stroke begins with the oar out of the water with the blade feathered, or in other words parallel to the water. The rower has legs straight and body upright, and arms straight in front of the body.
• The rower leans the body forward (e.g, toward the stern) while keeping the oar level and legs straight.
• The rower bends the legs, bringing the sliding seat forward (e.g., toward the stern) on its rollers, while the oar remains level. This is called the recovery or the slide.
• As the rower nears the end of the slide, the handle of each oar is turned 90 degrees so the blade becomes perpendicular to the water. This is called squaring the blade.
• When the rower reaches the sternmost point of the slide, each blade is quickly inserted into the water by a slight lifting of the hands. This is called the catch.
• The rower levers the boat past the blade by straightening the legs while the body remains leaned forward and the arms remain straight. This is called the leg drive.
• The rower continues pushing with the legs while the body leans back (e.g., towards the bow) and begins to draw the blade handle(s) towards the body.
• The rower completes the leg drive plus backwards lean and pulls the oar(s) to the chest by bending the arms. This is called the draw.
• The rower pushes the oar handle down so the blade comes out of the water. This is known as the release or the finish.
• The oar handle is turned 90 degrees such that the blade is again parallel to the water.
• The arms are pushed out in front of the body until they are straight.
• The body is returned to the upright position, and now the position is identical to the starting position.

Sweep rowers (one oar) and scullers (two oars) have similar stroke styles, with some differences to accommodate the number of oars held by the rowers.

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It is important to note that the rowing stroke differs slightly depending on location. For example, on the US East coast and in Canada, a gradual square is sometimes favored over the "flip catch" referred to above. A gradual square has the rower gradually changing the blade from parallel to the water to perpendicular over the entire recovery rather than a quick flip right before the catch. In Canada, the drive is not as separated. When Canadian-style rowers catch, they push the legs down and lean back at the same time. This allows for an extremely large amount of power at the beginning of the stroke but lacks the consistency of the separated drive favored by other crews.

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