The Gentle Rhythm Of Rowing

Tonight, we settle into the slow, measured strokes of rowing—a sport that blends grace, strength, and endurance. Host Benjamin Boster guides you through the gentle world of oars, waterways, and the quiet discipline of synchronized motion. Let the steady rhythm carry you away.

Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I help you drift off one fact at a time.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

This sponsored episode is for Lila,

With love from mom,

Wishing you the best on the water this fall and beyond.

Today's topic is about the sport of rowing.

Make sure to follow the show to never miss an episode.

Rowing,

Often called crew in the United States,

Is the sport of racing boats using oars.

It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars,

Called blades in the United Kingdom,

Are attached to the boat using row locks,

While paddles are not connected to the boat.

Rowing is divided into two disciplines,

Sculling and sweep rowing.

In sculling,

Each rower or oarsman holds two oars,

One in each hand,

While in sweep rowing each rower holds one oar with both hands.

There are several boat classes in which athletes may compete,

Ranging from single sculls,

Occupied by one person,

To shells with eight rowers,

And a coxswain called eights.

There are a wide variety of course types and formats of racing,

But most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses,

Two kilometers long,

With several lanes marked using buoys.

Modern rowing as a competitive sport can be traced to the early 17th century,

When professional watermen held races,

Called regattas,

On the River Thames in London,

England.

Often,

Prizes were offered by the lending guilds and livery companies.

Amateur competition began towards the end of the 18th century,

With the arrival of boat clubs at British public schools.

Similarly,

Clubs were formed at colleges within Oxford and Cambridge,

On the program for the 1896 Games,

But racing did not take place due to bad weather.

Male rowers have competed since the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Women's rowing was added to the Olympic program in 1976.

Today there are 14 boat classes which race at the Olympics.

In addition,

The sport's governing body,

The World Rowing Federation,

Holds the annual World Rowing Championships,

With 22 boat classes.

Across six continents,

150 countries now have rowing federations that participate in the sport.

Major domestic competitions take place in dominant rowing nations,

And include the boat race and Henley Royal Regatta in the United Kingdom,

The Australian Rowing Championships in Australia,

The Harvard-Yale Regatta and Head of the Charles Regatta in the United States,

And the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta in Canada.

Many other competitions often exist for racing between clubs,

Schools,

And universities in each nation.

An Egyptian funerary inscription of 1430 B.

C.

Records that the warrior Amenhotep,

Amenophis II,

Was also renowned for his feats of oarsmanship,

Though there is some disagreement among scholars over whether there were rowing contests in ancient Egypt.

In the Aeneid,

Virgil mentions rowing forming part of the funeral games,

Arranged by Aeneas in honor of his father.

In the 13th century,

Venetian festivals called regatta included boat races,

Among others.

The first known modern rowing races began from competition among the professional watermen in the United Kingdom that provided ferry and taxi service on the River Thames in London.

Prizes for wager races were often offered by the London guilds and livery companies or wealthy owners of riverside houses.

The oldest surviving such race,

Doggett's Coat and Badge,

Was first contested in 1715 and is still held annually from London Bridge to Chelsea.

During the 19th century,

These races were to become numerous and popular,

Attracting large crowds.

Prize matches amongst professionals similarly became popular on other rivers,

Through Great Britain in the 19th century,

Notably on the Tyne.

In America,

The earliest known race dates back to 1756 in New York,

When a petty augur defeated a Cape Cod whale boat in a race.

Amateur competition in England began towards the end of the 18th century,

The age before technology.

Documentary evidence from this period is sparse,

But it is known that the Monarch Boat Club of Eden College and the Isis Club of Westminster School were both in existence in the 1790s.

The Star Club and Arrow Club in London,

For gentlemen amateurs,

Were also in existence before 1800.

At the University of Oxford,

Bumping races were first organized in 1815,

When Brasenose College and Jesus College boat clubs had the first annual race,

While at Cambridge,

The first recorded races were in 1827.

Brasenose beat Jesus to win Oxford University's first Head of the River.

The two clubs claim to be the oldest established boat clubs in the world.

The boat race between Oxford University and Cambridge University first took place in 1829,

And was the second intercollegiate sporting event following the first varsity cricket match by two years.

The interest in the first boat race and subsequent matches led the town of Henley-on-Thames to begin hosting an annual regatta in 1839.

Founded in 1818,

Leander Club is the world's oldest public rowing club.

The second oldest club which still exists is the Der Hamburger und Hermannische Rütteklub,

Which was founded 1836 and marked the beginning of rowing as an organized sport in Germany.

During the 19th century,

As in England,

Wager matches in North America between professionals became very popular,

Attracting vast crowds.

Narragansett Boat Club was founded in 1838 exclusively for rowing.

During an 1837 parade in Providence,

Rhode Island,

A group of boatmen were pulling a longboat on wheels,

Which carried the oldest living survivor of the 1772 Gaspy Raid.

They boasted to the crowd that they were the fastest rowing crew on the bay.

A group of Providence locals took issue with this and challenged them to race,

Which the Providence group summarily won.

The six-man corps of that group went on in 1838 to found NBC.

Detroit Boat Club was founded in 1839 and is the second oldest continuously operated rowing club in the U.

S.

In 1843,

The first American college rowing club was formed at Yale University.

The Harvard-Yale Regatta is the oldest intercollegiate sporting event in the United States,

Having been contested every year since 1852,

Accepting interruptions for wars and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Schoolkill Navy is an association of amateur rowing clubs of Philadelphia.

Founded in 1858,

It is the oldest amateur athletic governing body in the United States.

The member clubs are all on the Schoolkill River,

Where it flows through Fairmount Park in Philadelphia,

Mostly on the historic Boathouse Row.

The success of the Schoolkill Navy and similar organizations contributed heavily to the extinction of professional rowing and the sport's current status as an amateur sport.

At its founding,

It had nine clubs.

Today there are twelve.

At least twenty-three other clubs have belonged to the Navy at various times.

Many of the clubs have a rich history and have produced a large number of Olympians and world-class competitors.

The sports governing body,

Fédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Aveyron,

Was founded in 1892 and is the oldest international sports federation in the Olympic movement.

FISA first organized a European Rowing Championship in 1893.

An annual World Rowing Championship was introduced in 1962.

Rowing has also been conducted at the Olympic Games since 1900,

Canceled at the first modern games in 1896 due to bad weather.

Women row in all boat classes,

From single-skull to coxed eights,

Across the same age ranges and standards as men,

From junior amateur through university level to elite athlete.

Typically,

Men and women compete in separate crews,

Although mixed crews and mixed team events also take place.

Coaching for women is similar to that for men.

The world's first women's rowing team was formed in 1896 at the Furnival Schooling Club in London.

The club,

With signature colors of very distinct myrtle and gold,

Began as a women's club but eventually allowed the admittance of men in 1901.

The first international women's races were the 1954 European Rowing Championships.

The introduction of women's rowing at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal increased the growth of women's rowing because it created the incentive for national rowing federations to support women's events.

Rowing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London included six events for women compared with eight for men.

In the U.

S.

,

Rowing is an NCAA sport for women but not for men.

Though it is one of the country's oldest collegiate sports,

The difference is in large part due to the requirements of Title IX.

At the international level,

Women's rowing traditionally has been dominated by Eastern European countries such as Romania,

Russia,

And Bulgaria,

Although other countries such as Germany,

Canada,

The Netherlands,

Great Britain,

And New Zealand often field competitive teams.

The United States also has had very competitive crews,

And in recent years these crews have become even more competitive given the surge in women's collegiate rowing.

Now there is usually the same number of girls and boys in a group.

While rowing,

The athlete sits in the boat facing toward the stern and uses the oars,

Also interchangeably referred to as blades,

Which are held in place by oarlocks,

Also referred to as gates,

To propel the boat forward towards the bow.

Rowing is distinguished from paddling in that the oar is attached to the boat using an oarlock or a rowing gate,

Where in paddling there is no oarlock or attachment of the paddle to the boat.

The rowing stroke may be characterized by two fundamental reference points,

The catch,

Which is placement of the oar spoon in the water,

And the extraction,

Also known as the finish or release,

When the rower removes the oar spoon from the water.

After the oar is placed in the water at the catch,

The rower applies pressure to the oar,

Leveraging the boat forward,

Which is called the drive phase of the stroke.

Once the rower extracts the oar from the water,

The recovery phase begins,

Setting up the rower's body for the next stroke.

At the catch,

The rower places the oar in the water and applies pressure to the oar by pushing the seat toward the bow of the boat by extending the legs,

Thus pushing the boat through the water.

The point of placement of the spoon in the water is a relatively fixed point,

About which the oar serves as a lever to propel the boat.

As the rower's legs approach full extension,

The rower pivots the torso toward the bow of the boat,

And then finally pulls the arms towards his or her chest.

The hands meet the chest right above the diaphragm.

At the end of the stroke,

With the oar spoon still in the water,

The hands drop slightly to unload the oar,

So that the 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.

The recovery starts with the extraction,

And involves coordinating the body movements with the goal to move the oar back to the catch position.

In extraction,

The rower pushes down on the oar handle to quickly lift the spoon out of the water,

And rapidly rotates the oar so that the spoon is parallel to the water.

This process is sometimes referred to as feathering the blade.

Simultaneously,

The rower pushes the oar handle away from the chest.

The spoon should emerge from the water perpendicular or square,

And be feathered immediately once clear of the water.

After feathering and extending the arms,

The rower pivots the body forward.

Once the hands are past the knees,

The rower compresses the legs,

Which moves the seat towards the stern of the boat.

The leg compression occurs relatively slowly compared to the rest of the stroke,

Which affords the rower a moment to recover,

And allows the boat to glide through the water.

The gliding of the boat through the water during recovery is often called run.

A controlled slide is necessary to maintain momentum and achieve optimal boat run.

However,

Various teaching methods disagree about the optimal relation in timing between drive and recovery.

Near the end of the recovery,

The rower squares the oar spoon into perpendicular orientation with respect to the water,

And begins another stroke.

Rowing technique drills are essential components of a rower's training routine,

Focusing on specific aspects of the rowing stroke to refine skills and enhance overall performance.

These structured exercises,

Whether performed individually on the erg,

In groups,

Or a whole boat,

Provide a targeted approach to improving coordination,

Body positioning,

And teamwork.

The forward pick drill,

Often used as a standard warm-up for rowing crews in groups of 4 or 6,

Focuses on isolating different components of the recovery and drive sequence.

Starting with arms-only strokes,

And gradually incorporating the back half-slide and full-slide,

Rowers gain a nuanced understanding of the interplay between these elements.

The drill aims to enhance body preparation,

Providing rowers with a tactile sense of how each phase should seamlessly flow into the next.

The reverse pick drill,

Executed in groups of 4 or 6,

Isolates different aspects of the drive sequence.

With the boat checked down,

The boat has no speed,

Rowers initiate the drill with leg-only strokes,

Gradually adding the back and arms.

The emphasis is on maintaining proper body position,

And sitting tall throughout the exercise.

This drill aids in isolating and understanding the distinct elements of the drive sequence and their interconnectedness.

The cut-the-cake drill typically involves the entire boat.

Rowers execute the drill collectively,

Starting with a normal stroke and transitioning into the subsequent recovery.

During this process,

The entire crew pivots forward with their bodies,

Swings back to the finish,

Without letting the oars drop in the water,

Then swings forward again to reach the catch position.

The swinging motion,

Referred to as cutting the cake,

Involves coordinated movements by all rowers,

Creating a unified and synchronized exercise aimed at improving boat balance,

Swing,

And recovery timing.

Quarter or half-slide rowing.

Designed for the entire crew or smaller groups,

This drill involves rowing using only a quarter or half of the slide at a high rating with a full press.

It sharpens quick catches and emphasizes coordination during the recovery phase.

The square wide six drill,

Conducted in groups of six or four,

Requires rowers to take a wide grip on the oar handle,

Emphasizing a specific body position during the recovery.

This encourages proper body positioning and enhances body flexibility.

Feet out rowing,

Performed either collectively by all rowers or in smaller groups,

Involves the removal of feet from the shoes and placement of feet on top of the shoes.

This drill helps rowers maintain continuous pressure on the footboard,

Especially during oar release.

Despite challenges like early leg finishing or excessive layback,

Feet out rowing reinforces improved leg connection and more reasonable layback,

Translating on the water skills to the erg for a more efficient rowing experience.

In the eyes closed rowing drill,

Performed by the whole boat,

Rowers execute the rowing motion with closed eyes and heightened auditory awareness.

Rowers row with eyes closed,

Relying solely on their senses of touch and careful listening to the boat motion and the coxswain.

This drill is designed to enhance rowers' ability to feel the subtle movements of the boat and synchronize seamlessly with their teammates.

By eliminating the visual element,

Rowers focus on developing a heightened sense of touch and teamwork,

Fostering a deeper understanding of the rowing experience.

This drill enhances the overall coordination and sensitivity to the dynamics of the boat,

Contributing to improved synchronization and a more nuanced rowing performance.

Broadly,

There are two ways to row,

Sometimes called disciplines.

In sweep rowing,

Each rower has one oar,

Held with both hands.

There are usually an even number of rowers,

2,

4 or 8.

Each rower's oar will extend to their port or starboard.

In the United Kingdom,

The port side is referred to as the stroke side,

And the starboard side as bow side.

This applies even if the stroke oarsman is rowing on the bow side,

And or the bow oarsman on the stroke side.

In sculling,

Each rower has two oars,

Or sculls,

One in each hand.

Sculling is usually done with a coxswain in quads,

Doubles or singles.

The oar in the sculler's right hand extends to port,

And the oar in the left hand extends to starboard.

With each discipline,

There are several boat classes.

A single regatta,

A series of races,

Will often feature races for many boat classes.

They are classified using number of rowers.

In all forms of modern competition,

The number is 1,

2,

4 or 8.

Whether there is a coxswain,

Also referred to as cox,

Coxless sweep boats are sometimes called straight,

While sculling boats are assumed to be coxless unless stated otherwise.

Although sweep and sculling boats are generally identical to each other,

Except having different rigors,

They are referred to using different names.

Racing boats,

Often called shells,

Are long,

Narrow and broadly semi-circular in cross-section in order to reduce drag in the water.

There is some trade-off between boat speed and stability in choice of hull shape.

They usually have a fin towards the rear to help prevent roll and yaw,

And to increase the effectiveness of the rudder.

Originally made from wood,

Shells are now almost always made from a composite material,

Usually a double skin of carbon fiber reinforced plastic with a sandwich of honeycomb material,

For strength and weight advantages.

The world rowing rules specify minimum weights for each class of boat,

So that no individual team will gain a great advantage from the use of expensive materials or technology.

Smaller sculling boats are usually steered by the scullers pulling harder on one side or the other,

While larger boats often have a rudder,

Controlled by the coxswain if present,

Or by one of the crew using a cable attached to one of the shoes.

With the smaller boats,

Specialist versions of the shells for sculling can be made lighter.

The riggers in sculling apply the forces symmetrically to each side of the boat,

Whereas in sweep oared racing,

These forces are staggered alternately along the boat.

The sweep oared boat has to be stiffer to handle these unmatched forces,

So consequently requires more bracing and is usually heavier.

A pair is usually a more robust boat than a double scull,

For example,

And being heavier is also slower when used as a double scull.

In theory,

This could also apply to the quad and the octuple,

But most rowing clubs cannot afford to have a dedicated large hull,

Which might be rarely used,

And instead generally opt for versatility in their fleet,

By using stronger shells which can be rigged for either sweep rowing or sculling.

The symmetrical forces also make sculling more efficient than sweep rowing.

The double scull is faster than the coxless pair,

And the quadruple scull is faster than the coxless four.

Many adjustments can be made to the equipment to accommodate the physiques of the crew.

Collectively,

These adjustments are known as the boat's rigging.

Oars,

Sometimes referred to as blades,

Are used to propel the boat.

They are long,

Sculling 250-300 cm,

Sweep oar 340-360 cm poles,

With one flat end and about 50 cm long and 25 cm wide,

Called the spoon.

Classic blades were made out of wood,

But modern blades are made from more expensive and durable synthetic material.

The most common being carbon fiber.

An oar is often referred to as a blade in the case of sweep oar rowing,

And as a scull in the case of sculling.

A sculling oar is shorter,

And has a smaller spoon area than the equivalent sweep oar.

The combined spoon area of a pair of sculls is,

However,

Greater than that of a single sweep oar,

So the oarsman when sculling is working against more water than when rowing sweep oared.

They are able to do this because the body action in sculling is more anatomically efficient due to the symmetry.

The spoon of oars is normally painted with the colors of the club to which they belong.

This greatly simplifies identification of boats at a distance.

As many sports teams have logos printed on their jerseys,

Rowing clubs have specifically painted blades that each team is associated with.

Indoor rowing,

On indoor rower or rowing tank,

Is a way to train technique and strength by going through the same motions as rowing,

With resistance,

Usually a large tank of water.

Indoor rowing is helpful when there are no rowable bodies of water nearby,

Or weather conditions don't permit rowing.

Indoor rowing has also become a staple in many home and commercial gyms,

Thanks to its accessibility and efficiency as a cardio and strength workout.

A rowing tank is an indoor facility which attempts to mimic the conditions rowers face on open water.

Rowing tanks are used primarily for off-season rowing,

Muscle-specific conditioning,

And technique training,

Or simply when bad weather prevents open water training.

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.

Ergometers do not simulate the lateral balance challenges,

The exact resistance of water,

Or the exact motions of true rowing included in the sweep of the oar handles.

For that reason,

Ergometer scores are generally not used as the sole selection criterion for rowing crews.

Colloquially,

Ergs don't float,

And technique training is limited to the basic body position and movements.

However,

This action can still allow a workout comparable to those experienced on the water.

Indoor rowing has become popular as a sport in its own right,

With numerous indoor competitions and the annual World Championship Crash B Sprints in Boston during the winter off-season.

There are several formats for rowing races,

Often called regattas.

The two most common are side-by-side and head races.

Most races that are held in the spring and summer feature side-by-side or sprint racing.

All the boats start at the same time from a stationary position,

And the winner is the boat that crosses the finish line first.

The number of boats in a race typically varies between two,

Which is sometimes referred to as a dual race,

To eight,

But any number of boats can start together if the course is wide enough.

The standard length races for the Olympics and the World Rowing Championships is 2 km long.

In the United States,

Some scholastic high school races are 1.

5 km,

While many youth races are the standard 2 km.

Masters rowers,

Rowers older than 27,

Often race 1,

000 m.

However,

The race distance can and does vary from dashes or sprints,

Which may be 500 m long,

To longer dual races like the 6.

8 km boat race.

Two traditional non-standard distance shell races are the annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge,

And the Harvard-Yale boat race,

Which cover courses of approximately 4 miles.

The Henley Royal Regatta is also raced upon a non-standard distance at 2,

112 m.

In general,

Multi-boat competitions are organized in a series of rounds,

With the fastest boats in each heat qualifying for the next round.

The losing boats from each heat may be given a second chance to qualify through a repishaj.

The World Rowing Championships offers multi-lane racing in heats,

Finals,

And repishajs.

At Henley Royal Regatta,

Two crews compete side-by-side in each round,

In a straightforward knockout format,

With no repishajs.

Head races are time trial and processional races that take place from autumn to early spring,

Depending on local conditions.

Boats begin with a rolling start at intervals of 10-20 seconds,

And are timed over a set distance.

Head courses usually vary in length from 2,

000 m to 12,

000 m.

Though there are longer races,

Such as the Boston Rowing Marathon,

And shorter,

Such as Paris Head.

The oldest and arguably most famous head race is the Head of the River Race,

Founded by Steve Fairbairn in 1926,

Which takes place each March on the River Thames in London,

United Kingdom.

Head racing was exported to the United States in the 1950s,

And the Head of the Charles Regatta,

Held each October on the Charles River in Boston,

Massachusetts,

United States,

Is now the largest rowing event in the world.

These processional races are known as head races,

Because,

As with bumps racing,

The fastest crew is awarded the title Head of the River,

As in Head of the Class.

It was not deemed feasible to run bumps racing on the Tideway,

So a timed format was adopted and soon caught on.

Time trials are sometimes used to determine who competes in an event where there is a limited number of entries,

For example.

The qualifying races for Henley Royal Regatta and Rowing On and Getting On are the Oxford and Cambridge bumps races,

Respectively.

A bumps race is a multi-day race beginning with crews lined up along the river at set intervals.

They start simultaneously and all pursue the boat ahead,

While avoiding being bumped by a boat from behind.

If a crew overtakes or makes physical contact with the crew ahead,

A bump is awarded.

As a result,

Damage to boats and equipment is common during bumps racing.

To avoid damage,

The cocks of the crew being bumped may concede the bump before contact is actually made.

The next day,

The bumping crew will start ahead of any crews that have been bumped.

The positions at the end of the last race are used to set the positions on the first day of the races the next year.

Oxford and Cambridge universities hold bumps races for their respective colleges twice a year.

And there are also town bumps races in both cities,

Open to non-university crews.

Oxford's races are organized by City of Oxford Rowing Club,

And Cambridge's are organized by the Cambridgeshire Rowing Association.

The stake format was often used in early American races.

Competitors lined up at the start,

Raced to a stake,

Moored boat,

Or buoy some distance away,

And returned.

The 180 degree turn requires mastery of steering.

These races are popular with spectators because one may watch both the start and finish.

Usually only two boats would race at once to avoid collision.

The Green Mountain Head Regatta continues to use the stake format,

But it is run as a head race with an interval start.

A similar type of racing is found in UK and Irish coastal rowing,

Where a number of boats race out to give point from the coast,

And then return fighting rough water all the way.

In Irish coastal rowing,

The boats are in individual lanes,

With the races consisting of up to three turns to make the race distance 2.

3 km.

Reviews

I’m pretty sure that was super boring as I have zero memory of it. Excellent job! Thank you, Benjamin! 😻😻😻

I rowed in college, I was “stroke” in an eight girl, plus coxen boat. Only one year. And this one did the trick!! 😴💤😴💤
Thanks, Benjamin!