Monday 2 September 2013

Leaning Back

I was talking to a sliding seat rower the other day and they casually said that fixed seat rowing must be good for the biceps. Clearly, even sliding seat rowers think that fixed seat rowing is all arms, but this picture of a competitor at the Skiff Championships at Henley over the weekend shows how wrong they are.
Look at that lean back! She's practically horizontal. Sliding seat rowers hardly lean back at all, because all the available length of stroke is used on the slide. For developing the core muscles, fixed seat rowing is even better than sliding seat.
Malcolm Knight took the picture from the umpire's launch, and has posted lots more on his Facebook page. More on the Skiff Championships here.

4 comments:

momist said...

Thanks for that link - very interesting photos. I've never got that crossed hands thing you often comment on. I notice from those photos that there is a predominance of the left hand being over the right. Surely this means that the starboard oar blade is deeper than the port one? doesn't this tend to make you go round in circles?

Chris Partridge said...

In boats rigged for crossed handles, one gate is usually rigged slightly higher than the other so one hand can pass over the other. In Britain the starboard gate is conventionally rigged higher so a sculler can get in any boat and expect to row left hand over right, but somebody told me once that the Germans do it ithe opposite way round.

Clint Chase said...

This is great stuff. When are these races?

I often tell people that properly done fixed-seat rowing is very good exercise and these photos help demonstrate that assertion!

Chris Partridge said...

The Skiff Champs are on the last weekend in August at Henley, I believe - see skiffing.org.uk.