Heels on the erg

[pete.spivey]

So to get the erg or boat up to speed a quick change of direction is required using the ball of the foot as the initial pressure point. As the rest of the foot comes into play the major muscles in the back and leg allow for continuation of the power but with a slight bump in the force curve. Try a hard catch on the erg and look at the force curve, there will be a drop in acceleration as the power shifts from toe to heel but only if you give it all at the catch. Good for a stroke man to get rhythm...?

[Fishbust]

I adjusted my boat so my heels do not rise at all after developing swelling on the ball and pad of one foot. Feels much better this way. But now I notice my C2 is a super sharp angle, do not want the swelling to increase again from pushing too hard on the ball of my foot. Wish the erg was adjustable. Anyone come up with a good way to wedge the feet to a better angle?

[JT and Ben]

I adjusted my boat so my heels do not rise at all after developing swelling on the ball and pad of one foot. Feels much better this way. But now I notice my C2 is a super sharp angle, do not want the swelling to increase again from pushing too hard on the ball of my foot. Wish the erg was adjustable. Anyone come up with a good way to wedge the feet to a better angle?

I've heard a lot of people talking about these guys: http://batlogic.net/ I guess it's not quite the same as decreasing the angle of the footboard on the erg, but by putting a wedge under the heel it sounds like you might get something like the same effect. I think they had a booth inside the main tent at the Charles. Other people might know more about them than I do. (apologies if someone already mentioned this earlier in the thread I've only read the last few posts).

[FriarsRowing]

Minus the foot stretcher angle changes and feet adjustments I think one can train a rower to keep his or her heels down by a simple technique I have used. This is nothing new and I would be surprised if you haven't hear of it already! but here it goes.

Take a piece of paper and fold it in half. Then stick it under the heels of the rower on the erg. Tell the rower to keep the paper underneath his/her heels and the footplate. Try to do this with SNEAKERS ON to give a more realistic situation in the boat. Also, pretty touch with sneakers off! The rowers should be able to develop enough pressure (very very slightly) on the heels to keep the paper from moving. Again, the heels WILL COME UP but there should be enough sole of the foot to keep the piece of paper from falling down.

Just my two cents, more qualified people on this board with better drills I bet, but it may work for you!

[singlesculler]

Most running shoes, i.e. "trainers", have a 12+mm differential from heel to forefoot thickness of the sole. So if you use trainers to erg with, you will be basically putting a wedge under your heel. If you prefer to erg with minimal shoes, or barefoot, then the angle will be steeper. I think the C2 foot stretcher angle was set that steep since most people erg in their running shoes, thus basically putting heel wedges in, reducing the angle.

[bloomp]

Most running shoes, i.e. "trainers", have a 12+mm differential from heel to forefoot thickness of the sole. So if you use trainers to erg with, you will be basically putting a wedge under your heel. If you prefer to erg with minimal shoes, or barefoot, then the angle will be steeper. I think the C2 foot stretcher angle was set that steep since most people erg in their running shoes, thus basically putting heel wedges in, reducing the angle.

Except running shoes give you the exact opposite effect of the wedge. They absorb the force instead of directly transmitting it into the footstretcher. Go look at the C2 instructional video that comes with every erg (at least for model D's) - the Aussies demoing the C2 are in socks, no shoes.

I, for one, am in awe as to how many coaches do not teach the "heels down" technique. It works, it's better for your athlete's back (activation of the gluteals and hamstrings) and it increases power endurance. What do I mean by that? That by generating force from the posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings) you reduce the load on your quadriceps at any given intensity, thereby allowing greater maintenance of power production. The same thing can be seen in elite cyclists who have learned how to activate more of the same muscle groups, instead of only relying on the quadriceps to push.

Heels down through the finish also helps with setting a boat, and leaves your toes free to help balance the shell on the recovery. That most coaches ignore this just baffles me.

[Coach P]

I, for one, am in awe as to how many coaches do not teach the "heels down" technique. It works, it's better for your athlete's back (activation of the gluteals and hamstrings) and it increases power endurance. What do I mean by that? That by generating force from the posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings) you reduce the load on your quadriceps at any given intensity, thereby allowing greater maintenance of power production. The same thing can be seen in elite cyclists who have learned how to activate more of the same muscle groups, instead of only relying on the quadriceps to push.

Heels down through the finish also helps with setting a boat, and leaves your toes free to help balance the shell on the recovery. That most coaches ignore this just baffles me.

My opinion is that the problem with this as a coaching tool is overuse. It reminds me of the fashion ~10 years ago of 'backsplash' (at least over here in the UK). The bigger the backsplash that came off a spoon, the faster that oarsman was seen to be. The posterior chain (which includes the glutes and hamstrings but the group goes all the way up to the traps) is an absolutely vital part of power production and injury prevention, but an athlete who slams their heels into the footplate as hard as they can will not necessarily be any faster or safer. It is quite possible that an athlete who is told to push their heels down will in the process drag their hips back, curve their lumbar spine and/or put huge strain on their hip flexors to counter the hip movement.

The leg drive in a rowing boat is a quad dominated movement. The glutes and hamstrings are vital in supporting the hip and lower back but the power from the 'hip drive' comes from the lower back - this is (I have it on professional rowing biomechanist/S+C coach authority) a biomechanical fact. When teaching beginners (or often experienced rowers who are frustrated with 'not going as fast as they could') how to row, most of the time it is that moment when they discover their quads when they suddenly make huge strides in speed.

If an athlete already has a strong trunk, good general posture, good hamstring/glute flexibility, good knee drive, doesn't rely on their hip flexors too much to sit up in the boat BUT they have a bit of a bum shove (lose connection) around half slide then you could try telling them to push their heels down. 'Driving the heels down' won't do anything at the catch except put the brakes on - it will make the hamstrings work against the quads.

Could you please add more detail on the last points regarding the heels down movement helping to set a boat?

[GettingFaster]

I've been taught, with success, to set a boat by pushing more on one foot or another. Granted, that only works when you let it run, say during a 5 and glide, but it works. I'm not sure how else heels down helps to set the boat.

[caustic]

I, for one, am in awe as to how many coaches do not teach the "heels down" technique. It works, it's better for your athlete's back (activation of the gluteals and hamstrings) and it increases power endurance. What do I mean by that? That by generating force from the posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings) you reduce the load on your quadriceps at any given intensity, thereby allowing greater maintenance of power production. The same thing can be seen in elite cyclists who have learned how to activate more of the same muscle groups, instead of only relying on the quadriceps to push.

Heels down through the finish also helps with setting a boat, and leaves your toes free to help balance the shell on the recovery. That most coaches ignore this just baffles me.

My opinion is that the problem with this as a coaching tool is overuse. It reminds me of the fashion ~10 years ago of 'backsplash' (at least over here in the UK). The bigger the backsplash that came off a spoon, the faster that oarsman was seen to be. The posterior chain (which includes the glutes and hamstrings but the group goes all the way up to the traps) is an absolutely vital part of power production and injury prevention, but an athlete who slams their heels into the footplate as hard as they can will not necessarily be any faster or safer. It is quite possible that an athlete who is told to push their heels down will in the process drag their hips back, curve their lumbar spine and/or put huge strain on their hip flexors to counter the hip movement.

The leg drive in a rowing boat is a quad dominated movement. The glutes and hamstrings are vital in supporting the hip and lower back but the power from the 'hip drive' comes from the lower back - this is (I have it on professional rowing biomechanist/S+C coach authority) a biomechanical fact. When teaching beginners (or often experienced rowers who are frustrated with 'not going as fast as they could') how to row, most of the time it is that moment when they discover their quads when they suddenly make huge strides in speed.

If an athlete already has a strong trunk, good general posture, good hamstring/glute flexibility, good knee drive, doesn't rely on their hip flexors too much to sit up in the boat BUT they have a bit of a bum shove (lose connection) around half slide then you could try telling them to push their heels down. 'Driving the heels down' won't do anything at the catch except put the brakes on - it will make the hamstrings work against the quads.

Could you please add more detail on the last points regarding the heels down movement helping to set a boat?

I'm not sure about the set portion, but I'm going to need some clarification as to how the hamstrings can work against the quads. The hamstring is a complementary muscle, and a pretty darn big one at that, to the quads. If you look at the way a rower moves, it almost precisely mimics the way the legs and back unfold in a deadlift. While both a deadlift and a squat are full leg exercises, I would say that the deadlift works the hamstrings and glutes harder than a squat, which tends to emphasize the quads.

In both lifts, however, the primary focus is on setting the feet, and lifting with your heels, not with your toes. To bring it back to a rowing specific motion, there's another disadvantage to catching with the toes and driving with the balls of your feet - your achilles tendon. It acts like a big spring. When you catch on your toes with the heels off the footstretchers, the first thing that's going to happen is that the heels will be pushed down into the footstrechers, and this will force the tendon to stretch a little bit. This absorbs energy, and softens the catch. A soft catch is not a good catch.

Just my couple pennies.

[bloomp]

Thank you Caustic - that is exactly why the heels down is important. And why you see most major teams using products like batlogic, so you can achieve the drive through the heels at a shallower angle.

Regarding the set, think about balancing on your toes vs. balancing on your flat feet. If you're up on your toes from the finish, you are going to have a more difficult time releasing the blades cleanly, and you have less control of the set as you recover. Try it. Finish on flat feet (through the heels) and you have much better control from the finish. Look at when we have rowers go feet out, so many people fall off the back of the erg or can't row well in a boat - because they drive off the toes and have zero control from their feet at the release.

[caustic]

Yeah, one thing I still don't realize is how non-flexible a lot of people are. I was gifted with being a wet noodle, and can compress a lot without raising my heels. However, this "advantage" doesn't seem to translate into faster rowing!

[Coach P]

I'm not sure about the set portion, but I'm going to need some clarification as to how the hamstrings can work against the quads. The hamstring is a complementary muscle, and a pretty darn big one at that, to the quads. If you look at the way a rower moves, it almost precisely mimics the way the legs and back unfold in a deadlift. While both a deadlift and a squat are full leg exercises, I would say that the deadlift works the hamstrings and glutes harder than a squat, which tends to emphasize the quads.

In both lifts, however, the primary focus is on setting the feet, and lifting with your heels, not with your toes. To bring it back to a rowing specific motion, there's another disadvantage to catching with the toes and driving with the balls of your feet - your achilles tendon. It acts like a big spring. When you catch on your toes with the heels off the footstretchers, the first thing that's going to happen is that the heels will be pushed down into the footstrechers, and this will force the tendon to stretch a little bit. This absorbs energy, and softens the catch. A soft catch is not a good catch.

Just my couple pennies.

Talking specifically about the knee joint: The hamstrings connect below the knee, so contracting your hamstring closes up your knee joint (a simple hamstring curl exercise proves that pretty convincingly). Your quads open up your knee joint. If you are trying to open the knee to drive the boat forwards you need to do it by driving the quads hard. The hamstrings and glutes provide stability but not power here.

As the knee opens, the hamstrings needs to be loose enough to elongate slightly otherwise the hips get pulled back and the lumbar spine curls. Not too loose though - otherwise there will just be a massive bum shove (slide shoot). As always, balance is key and the coordination is surprisingly difficult. It is not a simple quick fix to say "heels down harder/faster/sooner".

The rowing stroke is a slightly different to any free weight lift because the hips/back are set about 45-90 degrees further round. Try lying down with your back and hips flat on the floor - then (keeping your hips flat on the floor) bring your knees up close to your chest. If you were trying to mimic a free weight lift you would straighten your legs horizontally back across the floor. To mimic the rowing stroke however you need to drive your feet vertically upwards. I personally think it is a mistake to try to teach the rowing stroke using free weights lifts as examples of optimum power production. It's great training but it's not rowing.

I take the point about the achilles acting a bit like a spring, and I do think that if you have the ankle flexibility then it makes sense to leave the feet flat on the foot board at all times. However if you are maintaining connection on the ball of the foot all the way through to the finish then you will get that stored energy back (or at least you will get to drive the boat forward with your calves in the same way as running or jumping). The worst option of all must be to start with the heels high and then rely on the heel drive for connection - there will be a gap in connection where the heels are being driven towards the footplate but haven't yet made contact. The catch requires speed and instant connection otherwise effective drive length is lost.

Regarding balance/feet out: Everybody will hook their heels into the heel of their shoe when doing feet out rowing. This stops them falling off the back of the slides which would otherwise happen every single stroke. People who try to row feet out on their toes (without hooking the heels in) will loose all balance at the finish because their feet will come completely away from the footplate and they are too busy trying not to fall out of the bow of the boat.

[KiwiCanuck]

It's been a while since I was in the lab but...
Lower Extremity Muscle Function During Ergometer Rowing. Y.D. Fortin and D. Gordon E. Robertson, 1994

This paper shows electromyographs with activation of the hamstrings (biceps femoris) AND gastrocnemius during the late parts of the leg drive in what they called "paradoxical" contractions. i.e., the shortening of both the gastroc and hamstrings may have contributed to the final part of knee extension in the drive. Both are "two joint" muscles, so activation of the hamstring muscle group CAN contribute to hip extension.. Not sure how it works with the gastroc, though.

Ergometers ain't boats, either - without getting into a discussion of the differences between static ergo rowing, moving ergo rowing, and the boat, consider that in a boat, during the recovery, virtually all the resistance to progression is associated with water-boat interactions (form, viscous, and wave drag), the progression during the recovery is dependent on the momentum the crew developed during the drive when the blades were in the water, and muscular action from the crew to pull the boat toward the next stroke against the resistance of the water (e.g., you do not go sternward during the recovery - you continue bow-ward, and pull the boat under you with the foot-stretcher). Hamstrings, lumbar spine stabilizers, and hip flexors have to be well trained in order to accomplish the recovery without injury.

[Coach P]

It's been a while since I was in the lab but...
Lower Extremity Muscle Function During Ergometer Rowing. Y.D. Fortin and D. Gordon E. Robertson, 1994

This paper shows electromyographs with activation of the hamstrings (biceps femoris) AND gastrocnemius during the late parts of the leg drive in what they called "paradoxical" contractions. i.e., the shortening of both the gastroc and hamstrings may have contributed to the final part of knee extension in the drive. Both are "two joint" muscles, so activation of the hamstring muscle group CAN contribute to hip extension.. Not sure how it works with the gastroc, though.

No doubt the hamstrings can provide some power when the knee joint is more open - one of the reasons I think a sequenced drive is more effective than the simultaneous leg/trunk style. Apparently the amount of propulsive force from the hamstrings (and glutes) is very low compared to that of the lower back though - which I found very interesting to hear. That gastrocnemius info looks like it could be interesting - it will take a bit of chewing over!

[caustic]

It's been a while since I was in the lab but...
Lower Extremity Muscle Function During Ergometer Rowing. Y.D. Fortin and D. Gordon E. Robertson, 1994

This paper shows electromyographs with activation of the hamstrings (biceps femoris) AND gastrocnemius during the late parts of the leg drive in what they called "paradoxical" contractions. i.e., the shortening of both the gastroc and hamstrings may have contributed to the final part of knee extension in the drive. Both are "two joint" muscles, so activation of the hamstring muscle group CAN contribute to hip extension.. Not sure how it works with the gastroc, though.

No doubt the hamstrings can provide some power when the knee joint is more open - one of the reasons I think a sequenced drive is more effective than the simultaneous leg/trunk style. Apparently the amount of propulsive force from the hamstrings (and glutes) is very low compared to that of the lower back though - which I found very interesting to hear. That gastrocnemius info looks like it could be interesting - it will take a bit of chewing over!

Hmmm. I think that what may be happening is that it's not the lower back *muscles* doing the work, per se, but the effect of opening the back because the hips are rotating. In which case, our friend the hamstring is then responsible, as it attaches to the posterior base of the pelvis. So, as it contracts, not only does it want to pull the leg closed, but it also wants to rotate the hips back.

I was thinking about this and Coach P's comments on the hamstrings vs. the quads as well, and there are a few things which I think may make a difference, those being the anchor points of the muscles between the knee and the pelvis and how those allow for leverage advantages at different stages of leg extension. Coach P, you're totally right in that the hamstring does anchor on the rear (and actually also the side) of the knee, and the quadriceps anchors on the patella and then on the deep inside base of the pelvis on the front.

In primary extension, the quadriceps have a leverage advantage, in that pulling on the patella makes it act like a fulcrum, leveraging the lower leg open - and this leverage advantage is what will allow it to overcome the strength of the hamstring (you're right, they both are contracting simultaneously, but the quad wins in the initial portion of the leg extension). However, further through the leg extension, as the patella is rotated in-line with the quad, and as the hamstring tendons are rotated in-line with the hamstrings, the effective pulling strength of both muscles is effectively equalized around the knee joint - i.e. both are pulling relatively equally and the knee is no longer rotating. However, at the same time, as the pelvis is rotating, the anchor point of the hamstring sits further out from the base of the pelvis than that of the quadriceps, giving the *hamstring* the leverage advantage now, and the hamstring will pull to rotate the pelvis back, overcoming the quadriceps. The lower back muscles aren't contributing to the propulsive effort directly, but instead are stabilizing the spine and trunk, making sure it rotates with the pelvis.

Because I like lifiting parallels, there's actually one that's well known - the stall. When deadlifting or when squatting, it's very common for athletes, when they are pushing a maximal load, to fail at about 2/3s full extension. They'll have a solid start, but at that stall point - where neither muscle has a clear advantage over the other - if they don't have *enough* momentum built up, they freeze, and end up dropping hte weight. It's at that point in their drive to lift the weight that there's sort of an unstable equilibrium - where the different leverage advantages are equalized between the quad and the hamstring, and so if there's no movement in the weight, you literally *can't* lift it any further.

there are ways to get around this through training, by either emphasizing quadriceps development over hamstring, or vice versa. "sumo" style deadlifts are an attempt to move this stall point to a lower height, the logic being that if you can lower your stall point all the way down to the ground, then you have a safer lift - if you can even get it off the ground, you'll have no worry about not being able to complete the lift.