Rowing-the complete guide

Rowing with and without a boat
 Rowing is a competitive sport in which athletes race against another boat on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boat is propelled forward by the oars blades as they are pushed against the water. Rowing is also sometimes referred to as crew by the U.S. and/or collages

Basic information
The rowers sit facing the stern of the boat and propel the boat by using ores which are held in place by ore locks. They pull back on the ores forcing the boat forward.

 Whilst the actions and materials used remain fairly consistent throughout the world there are many different forms of rowing. These include endurance races, time trials, stake racing, bumps racing, and the side-by-side format used in the Olympic games.

There are two forms of rowing called sweep and sculling.
In sweep or sweep-oar rowing, each rower has one oar, held with both hands. This can be done in pairs, fours and eights. Each rower in a sweep boat is referred to either as port or starboard, depending on which side of the boat the rower's oar extends to. Usually the port side is referred to as stroke side, and the starboard side as bow side; this applies even if the stroke oarsman is rowing on bow side and/or the bow oarsman on stroke side.
In sculling each rower has two oars (or sculls), one in each hand. Sculling is usually done without a coxswain, in quads, doubles or singles. The oar in the sculler's right hand extends to port (stroke side), and the oar in the left hand extends to starboard (bow side).

There are two very important reference points in a rowing stroke. The catch is when the rower places the blade in the water and applies pressure to it by simultaneously extending his or her legs moving the seat towards the bow of the boat. As the legs approach full extension the rower leans (rotates) towards  the bow of the boat then finally pulls the arms towards the chest.(The shoulders should not hunch up at any point during the drive). At the end of the stroke (or drive) with the blade still in the water the rower applies a downward pressure forcing the blade up out of the water so that spring energy stored in the bend of the oar gets transferred to the boat, which eases removing the oar from the water and minimizes energy wasted on lifting water above the surface (splashing).

The recovery phase follows the drive (or stroke). The recovery phase starts following the removal of the ore from the water. The rower quickly turns the ore(s) so that they are parallel with the water, this is referred to as "feathering the blade". At the same time the rower pushes the ore(s) away from his or her chest. After the rower rotates his or her body forward and once the hands are past the knees, the rower compresses the legs which moves the seat towards the stern of the boat. This occurs slower than the rest (hence recovery phase) of the stroke allowing the boat to glide through the water. Near the end of the recovery the rower rotates the blade so it is perpendicular to the water and starts again beginning with the catch.

Coxswain
 A very important but often less talked about member of the crew. Their primary job is steering, but also provides race feedback about location on the course and relative to the other crews and stroke rate per minute. They serve as an "in the boat coach" during races. They do call “power tens” and encourage, but don’t call out each individual stroke.

A coxswain's list of command are few but each has importance and each must be well know by both the coxswain himself and the crew.

"Ready, All Row"
Coxswain call to begin rowing.

"Way-Enough"
Coxswain call to have all rowers stop rowing. Call actually sounds like "way-nuff".

"Check It Down"
Coxswain call that makes all the rowers drag their oarblades through the water perpendicularly, effectively stopping the boat.

"Hold Water"
Coxswain call. Another way of saying "Check it Down".

"Let It Run"
Coxswain call for all rowers to stop rowing and to pause at the finish, letting the boat glide through the water and coast to a stop. Used as a drill to build balance.

"Power 10" (or 20 or 30 etc.)
Coxswain call to take a certain number of power strokes. A power stroke is a stroke that musters all the strength you can give.

"One Foot Up and Out”
Command for exiting a team boat.
Procedure: The outside hand (hand away from the dock) holds the oar(s) away from the body. The inside hand holds the gunwale (shell) to the dock. The inside foot is removed from the foot stretchers and placed on the step-in board, the body weight is shifted forward as the athlete stands supporting himself on their inside leg. The outside foot is placed on the dock and you get out of the shell.

Boat Types
There are two boat types use in rowing.

Sweep is rowing with one oar on one side of the boat. The length of the oar is about 12 feet long.
Sculling is the opposite of sweep. Sculling is rowing with two oars (an oar on each side of the boat). The length of each oar is about 9 feet long.

Shell sizes
There are four different shell sizes, distinguished by the number of rowers in the shell (8, 4, 2, or 1). The symbol following the shell size indicates whether with a coxswain (+) or without a coxswain (-), or whether it is a sculling boat (x).

Fitness benefits
Rowing is one of the few non-weight bearing activities that work almost all of the major muscle groups including quads, biceps, triceps, lats, glutes and abdominal muscles. Rowing improves cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength.

Rowing is a low impact activity with movement only in defined ranges, so twist, sprain, and muscle separation injuries are rare. However, the repetitive rowing action can put strain on knee joints, the spine and the tendons of the forearm, and inflammation of these are the most common rowing injuries. Rowing with bad posture (having a cured instead of straight back) can put pressure on the lower back leading to injury later on.

Rowing without a boat
Ergometer rowing machines (colloquially ergs or ergo) simulate the rowing action and provide a means of training on land when waterborne training is restricted, and of measuring rowing fitness. They do not however take into account  lateral balance challenges, the exact resistance of water, or the exact motions of true rowing including the sweep of the oar handles. Training is limited only to the basic movements of real life rowing. Aside from all that training is still comparable to real life rowing.


Terms:
Bow- The front of the boat

Stern- The back of the boat (holds the coxswain)

Port - Side of the boat to the coxswain's left and to the rowers' right. See diagram. Known in some countries as Stroke Side.

Starboard - Side of the boat to the coxswain's right and to the rowers' left. See diagram. Known in some countries as Bowside.

Blade (Hatcher/Clever, or Spoon/Macon) - The face of the oar that pushes against the water.

Missing Water - Bad technique where you aren't moving the blade through the water as much as you could. Usually caused by not getting the blade in the water soon enough at the catch. Therefore, missed water equals less movement of the boat.

Washing Out - Similar to missing water except it means taking the blade out of the water too soon at the finish.

Skying - Bad technique where the blade is too high off of the surface of the water at the catch.

Crab - A stroke that goes bad. The oar blade slices into the water at an angle and gets caught under the surface. A bad crab can catapult you out of the boat.

Terms and definitions courtesy of:
andovercrew.com/glossary.htm#check

Ideas? Post them, would love the input.

Bimthurn

Thanks and wow some goals you have there.

This is good stuff, Bimthurn! +rep

I think you have material here for an Excellent Posting, but some improvements are needed. So far, the most important one is videos. Descriptions such as


really require a video to convey what you mean. You don't have to make a video yourself, just find a good video on Youtube which presents good rowing form and post it here.

If there are no videos that present good rowing form, at least post some images with proper form.

Thanks again!

Thanks for the support.
Sad part is I've never actually rowed my uncle was on the rowing team for highschool and collage so thats where I got a lot of the info.

I do plan on buying a boat and getting 7 other people to row with me 2-3 times a week but as of right now I don't have the money. I'm only 14 so I have a lot to learn and I know that as of right now this should be call "rowing- the most general guide out there" or something like that. I just tried to get what I knew out so I could have people like yall help me.

I do with the help of you all plan to make it the most accurate guide out there but me not having basically any training doesn't help either.

I come from a "rowing family", so I trained rowing for 3 and a half years. Had to quit right before high school, but it was a great sport for that age.

Still, I found this post quite useful, seeing I always had trouble with English rowing terminology.

However, there is just one thing I don't agree with:

Rowing really lacks focus on triceps and pecs.

Back when I trained, I could do 10 pullups, but only about 15 pushups - which today I find very funny.

I did rowing once and I like it. One thing is so odd about rowing though, namely you don't follow your nose but your ass. So I like canoeing more, it just feels more natural to go the way you are looking.

Trying to get a rowing team started at school. Using the info here to try and persuade the principal to allow us to start one.

Fingers crossed,

Bimthurn

Did a major over haul of the guide. A lot of new terms added and I fixed a few issues I saw in the guide (didn't fix spelling tho).

This guide will be regularly updated depending on how much "new stuff" I find or learn so I hope you all like it, and this guide is not entirely my own work. It is ment to be a quick reference and something that covers the majority of the sport without you having to look in multiple places for your answers.

The team at school is more like an after school activity due to the fact that the school will not fund us in any way shape or forum. Neither will the county so we will have to raise all the money. Second I'm still looking for a coach and 6 more members and a coxswain to make up the minimal 8 men and a coxswain needed to do an 8 man crew. I guess I'll keep working on it...

Bimthurn