Flipping a single had traumatized me in some way, ha ha. Help?

Question

Ok so I'm a junior B experienced in rowing, and I've been rowing for about three years so I think I'm pretty good at it. My only problem is I'm CONSTANTLY FLIPPING. In the past three years I've flipped 3 doubles, a quad, a four.. I've even fallen out of a rec single! Anyways, it's never been too big of a deal to me except for the fact that it's hurt my rowing self esteem, but a couple of weeks ago I flipped a racing single (into an ocean... in January... COLD!). Now I'm afraid of rowing doubles and singles.. it's horrible! I did time trials in a single on Friday and I actually STOPPED rowing because I was scared of flipping. Same as yesterday in a double.

Everytime I go a little bit of balance, I freak out and stop. So I've kinda got a double problem here.. my timing's fine, my handle heights are good, I've got a slow recovery, but I can't maintain balance. And on top of that I'm too scared to bring the rate higher then a 26 or 28.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

well ya know what they say, the longer yuv been off the horse the harder it is to get bak on

Answer 2

You're dangerous to row with.  Stick to training singles until you get this figured out.

I would say the problem is grip shift.  Your hand slips a little bit on the oar, and you pull hard with the oar on an angle.  The oar then dives, but you keep pulling.  You pull the boat right over.  You may need a grip with more feel to it so it can't shift in your hands, or the grip actually turns on your oars. They might need some glue, or a tighter size.

You need to be extremely aware of hand height on the pull.  If your hand(s) move up even a little on their own, STOP PULLING, push your hands down onto your thighs. Or at least be aware to rotate your hands away a little to put the oar perpendicular to the water again so it won't dive.

Do more balance drills. You may also be going a little too much all out, and your forearm muscles are getting tired causing the grip problems.

Another way a multi-person boat can go over is if someone pulls their oar in from the oarlock at the same time as going high.  Or one person crabs while the other takes an air stroke.

Try doing more long rows, and focus on hand height control, and oar control in general.

Answer 3

You'll just have to resort to doing more ergos :-) :-).

Seriously, you should be able to get a training boat that is more stable than a racing shell. Once you have your confidence back you can then transfer back to the less stable boats.