It’s All about Swing

Have you ever raced in a boat that is really swinging together?

If so, you remember. That experience can transform athletes, and stay with them for life.

Swing comes only when a crew gets a lot of things right: The athletes have to be fit, strong, and determined. But they also need to be moving in unison, in a dozen different ways. This is so hard to achieve because of the number of variables involved, and because the rowers can’t see all of their teammates. This is the coach’s job, challenge, calling: to take the wide variety of bodies and minds and train them to each do what it takes to make something greater than the sum of its parts—a boat swinging together on the way to the medals stand.

Indoor rowing tanks are a great tool for building swing.

Rowing tanks allow athletes to train with their coaches right next to them, where coaches can assess technique and power application in controlled and measurable settings. A coach can put together combinations of athletes and work with them on the things that make good crews into great crews: timing at the catch and finish, water feel, and the elusive coordination of four or eight bodies that produces swing in the boat, and fast times on the race course.