Since, when on the water, we are almost exclusively going out in pairs before everyone comes back for the beginning of the season I thought I would ask around for some tips for the coming season! Enjoy!
Yeah, definitely all of those things. When rowing the pair I would always try and rally around one specific part of stroke (hard second half drive, pause at the finish, hard kick, something like that) and then the bow matching whatever the stroke does to really crazy degree. Also I don't remember where this comes from but I remember at some point learning that generally the stroke should hit the front end of the stroke harder and the bow should be softer off the front and then max the press of the stroke in the second half and that will propel the boat better and make it go more straight. Obviously that's something that needs to be felt out pair to pair though.
Tips for rowing in the pair: Change sides with your pair partner (repeat this 3 or 4 times, your understanding for each other will grow) Change stroke and steering shoe Do one workout with a lot "only overbody" ....
Have you ever tried taking off the rudder? Can be very helpful if you are trying to get the boat together and shows you if it's not going in a straight line, so you can fix that. Moreover, there's a quote I saw attributed to George Pocock that if you take the rudder off it is worth two lengths over 2000m in a pair. The boat feels more slippery and if there's no crosswind in a race you can get a few seconds advantage for free. You could practice rowing minus the rudder and try that in the time-trial part of final trials. Nobody will care if you leave your lane as you crank it in the last 500m. We raced a coxless four without the rudder at Gent one year, and although we wandered out of the lane in the last 250m, we were two lengths up on the field and disappearing over the horizon, so nobody minded :-)
I would love to try something like that! 2 lengths though!?! That's a big claim from Mr. Pocock! Even as a training tool it could be quite interesting!
I was in the 2v that won when I was there for the year! Any tips? Enjoy it as much as you can! Take advantage of the training the coach asks you to do!