Rowers of all abilities are prone to lower-back injury. With this in mind, Alicia Filey shows how attention to technique and training can mitigate some of the risk factors, enabling athletes to enjoy rowing throughout their lives.
Oxford University vs Cambridge University Boat Race - London, Britain - 2018
Rowing has been a competitive sport since the early 1800s, and was one of the first sports included in the modern Olympics. The sport of rowing falls into two basic categories, sculling and sweep rowing. When sculling, each person mans a set of oars; therefore, singles may row as well as doubles and quads. In sweep rowing, however, each person in the boat mans only one oar, so sweep boats by necessity require paired athletes to compete.
Regardless of the type of rowing, the oarsman sits in the boat facing the stern, while the bow of the boat is the first part to cross the finish line. Their feet are anchored in shoes attached to a fixed footboard or stretcher.
The stroke, performed repeatedly exactly the same way from start to finish, is divided into the drive and the recovery phases (see figure 1). The drive begins at the catch, the moment when the oar is placed into the water. The ankles, knees, and hips of the rower are flexed; the back is forward, preserving the natural arch in the low back (not rounding); the pelvis is tilted forward; the shoulders are flexed; and the elbows are straight.
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