Tech Tip: Trust the Process, Improve Your Drive

by Sculling Camp coach Helen Tilghman

We have all heard the old adage “trust the process”, usually when it’s being applied to developing fitness or an overall training scheme. This trust requires that we be present in the work of the moment so that we can execute that piece in service of successfully completing the larger goal. We can apply this same idea to how we approach working on our stroke, both as athletes and as coaches. 

Some of the most helpful coaching I received as an athlete was a quiet afternoon on Hosmer with Larry Gluckman. I was in the midst of a frustrating session trying to clean up the ends of my stroke and wasn’t making any encouraging progress. The advice Larry gave me not only helped my rowing that afternoon but has become one of my favorite coaching tools. 

After watching for a few minutes, Larry asked me which end of the stroke I was most interested in improving at the moment. I said that the release was my priority. 

“Okay then, let’s work on your catch,” Larry responded. “And don’t worry about the release.” 

After a moment of bewilderment, I resumed rowing as Larry prompted small changes in my square timing, seat speed, and handle movement. After a few dozen strokes of holding my concentration on these points, Larry asked how my releases were feeling. 

Again, a moment of bewilderment. I realized it was the smoothest my releases had felt all day, and I hadn’t even been focusing on them. 

“The ends of the stroke mirror each other,” explained Larry. “We often try to take on fixing the whole stroke all at once. That’s too much; when you’re stuck on one part try working on something that comes before it and just let things improve naturally.” 

I have reflected on that afternoon many times in the years since. The more time I spend teaching the rowing stroke, the more I come back to the idea of working one piece and letting other pieces improve organically as a result. I have learned to trust the process within the stroke: if we can commit ourselves to improving one piece at a time we set ourselves up for greater levels of success in the larger pursuit. This approach also helps build a deeper understanding of how each part of the stroke fits together and encourages experimentation to test our understanding. 

I put this into practice most often when working on suspension at the beginning of the drive. The efficacy of an athlete’s suspension will be largely determined by the strength of their body position and timing of their blades entering the water. The latter should be a simple minimally disruptive motion but we all know this is often more easily said than done. So how can we use our trust of the process to improve this skill in one of the more challenging parts of the stroke?

1. Use a double pause at body-over and half slide to set your posture and position: Take the moment that the pause gives you to make sure your torso is supported and your weight is appropriately positioned in line with the keel and towards the front edge of the seat. Make sure your movements from the body-over pause to the half-slide pause are minimally disruptive to the balance and run of the boat. Feel the weight balanced in the handles throughout this motion. Do this every other stroke for two or three minutes at a smooth and comfortably solid cadence. 

2. Row continuously with half-feathered blades: Keep feeling the easy weight on the handles as you move with good posture and position through half slide. Allow the half-feathered strokes to create a simple early square. Again, your goal is to be minimally disruptive to the boat through this motion. Play with this for another two to three minutes. 

3. Row continuously with regular blades: Find a solidly steady rhythm in which you are keeping 80% of your focus on your set-up through half slide and let the other 20% of your focus be an observer of your suspension. The more you are able to establish your posture and position through the middle of the recovery, the more accessible you will find suspension at the catch. If you stay patient and keep simple movements coming into the stern, you can start to feel suspension happen naturally as the blades enter the water.