Today was a beautiful day, so I was pleased to get another chance to get out onto the river before I return to work, and dark evening Erg sessions next week. 

Duck shooting season started this weekend, so apparently ‘ we no longer row upriver past the bridge, in case we get shot’. WHAT!!!??? Downriver it is then!?

Today’s focus

Today was a women’s quad, and I was thinking real hard about my wonky wrist that everyone keeps telling me about. I bend one arm too soon, which means my steering is always off to the right. Ooops. I have been working hard on rowing with a loose grip, on Friday I rowed the whole 90 minutes with a loose grip (gosh my fingers were tired from all that pulling!) and today I was focussing on trying to nail down the problem with this wrist.

The aim is for arm and wrist to all be straight, with just the fingers curled over the oar, and pull. My right wrist keeps bending up. I get lots of blisters on that hand too. I thought about it lots and lots, great having a quad because its way more secure than all that thinking involved with a single scull! I think I have nailed down the problem.

The crux of the problem

I seem to grip with the heel of my right hand, which causes me to bend my wrist out of alignment, and makes my wrist bone stick up. With my hand in a less than straight position, that arm bends sooner, less power, and a permanent right turn tendancy. Aha.

The next task is to try and correct my newly nailed down bad habit. It was quite useful to have blisters, because when I could feel them hurt, I knew I had moved my hand out of alignment!

Much thinking ahead to sort that I think.

The beauty of rowing a single scull is it shows up ALL your bad habits, so in the long run, will make me a better rower I hope.

PS: that’s a Waka in the picture, not a rowing boat. 🙂