Glossary

Catch a crab: Slang; getting an unexpected tug or jerk on your blade, sometimes boat-stoppingly violent. The blade gets “caught” in the water and may be quickly sucked in from rushing water, making the oar handle fly up or towards you or even behind you. Crabs happen because of poor technique, often getting the blade in the water at the wrong time, but sometimes one rower’s skying/ruining the set can cause another rower to crab, and crabs are more easily caught in choppy water (including motor boat wakes). Do the best you can to maintain proper control of your blade, especially in race situations, and improve your technique to avoid catching crabs.

Check: The interruption or braking of the boat’s forward momentum. Things that cause check during a race include poor bladework, rushing the slide, and hitting the front stops.

Digging: The blade is too deep in the water during the drive. This really affects the set, and it’s hard to get a crisp finish. Sometimes seen with skying. The blade should not be entirely buried in the water during the drive, but rather remain at the same depth as when the squared blade is just floating (no hands on the handle).

Hanging at the catch: A pause in a rower’s rhythm as s/he is about to drop the blade into the water. This happens when you rush the slide and get to the top before the other rowers, and then your blade just hangs in the air while you wait for everyone else. Hanging at the catch means you’re rushing the slide more than you need to and thus slowing the boat, it’s inefficient because you’re wasting energy hurrying, it throws off the “swing” or unified movement of the other rowers, and also makes it very hard to catch with the other rowers.

Missing water: This happens when you don’t raise your hands as you come up to the catch, but jam the oar in the water when you’re already at the top (front) of the slide. When you do it right, you see water splashing behind your blade. When you do it wrong, the first part of your stroke is actually out of the water, and you lose a lot of power -that’s your strong leg drive you miss out on, which is why this is important. Don’t worry about slowing the boat with your little backsplash – worry more about not missing water.

Rushing the slide: Coming up the slide too quickly and/or accelerating up the slide. The recovery should be a slow deceleration, and rushing the slide creates momentum in the direction opposite to the where the boat is going. Whether or not you bounce on your legs or hit the front stops at the top (front) of the slide, rushing the slide slows the boat. Use your legs to brake the recovery. Rushing also wastes energy; it’s better to pull hard twice (and relax/breathe during the recovery) than to pull hard three times in the same time (and spend even more energy hurrying up the slide, and slowing the boat by rushing on top of that) – you wouldn’t last very long aerobically, and you’re not being efficient. If the stroke rating is fast, bring up the rating in the water by pulling harder, and concentrate on keeping the recovery smooth and decelerating. It’s ideal to have the recovery take twice as long as the drive (this is having a good ratio).

Skying: The blade is too high off the water. This strongly affects the set of the boat, and may lead to digging besides. Usually seen at the end of the recovery, when the rower lowers the hands as s/he comes up to the catch, sometimes in too bent-over a position (when tired). The rowers should instead sit up more, and raise their hands into the catch.

Shooting the slide: Starting the drive with your rear end first (not the center of your back), leaving your shoulders in back behind initially. This ends up being a quick jerk of the seat backwards, a result of a too-explosive leg drive and not moving the blade through the water as your legs push. This is very wasteful of your powerful leg drive, puts your back in a very inefficient position for transferring leg drive to driving the blade, may strain your lower back, and even causes the boat to “check” or jerkily slow down. [The checking the action/reaction of the boat to go in the wrong direction resulting from the jerky movement of your butt (and nothing else) in the right direction.] The drive should have a firm start, but be controlled and smoothly accelerating all the way through. Think of the oar handle and the seat being joined by a bar that maintains a constant distance between them during the first part of the drive.

Tea-bagging: Pejorative slang; Just dipping the blade in the water during the drive, applying little or no effort to move the boat forward. This is basically going through the motions of rowing without doing any work. The cox and others can tell if you’re tea-bagging because there won’t be a puddle left on the water after your blade leaves it. Rowers who pull hard will leave a large puddle behind their finish; tea-baggers are basically dead weight and better replaced with rowers who make an effort.