Rowing Technique: Stop Wasting Energy on the Erg
Updated: 1 day ago
Pull up a video of yourself rowing and press pause. Not at the end of the piece, but in the middle of a single stroke. Most athletes are surprised by what they see: arms bent before the legs have done anything, a seat racing away from the handle, knees popping up in the way of the hands on the return.
The rower shows up in CrossFit workouts all the time, and it is one of the easiest places to waste energy. Many athletes pull hard with their arms, rush up the slide, crank the damper to 10, and wonder why a 500-meter row leaves their legs burning and their split slow. Rowing well is not about pulling harder. It is about applying force in the right order and recovering in a way that sets up the next stroke. So let's do what good coaches do with film. We will slow one stroke down, frame by frame, then step back and look at the settings and numbers that shape every stroke after it.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Frame one: the catch
Freeze the frame at the front of the slide. This is the catch, the start of the drive, which is the part of the stroke where you apply force. Your shins are roughly vertical, arms straight, torso leaning slightly forward from the hips, back long, shoulders relaxed. Your fingers are hooked around the handle rather than squeezing it, and your wrists are flat. A death grip does nothing for the flywheel. It just tires out your forearms.
The fault to look for in this frame is over-reaching: shins pushed past vertical and a rounded back as the athlete tries to find extra length. Stop when your shins are roughly vertical and keep your back long.
Frame two: the drive
Press play for a fraction of a second. The legs push through the feet, and here is the detail that matters most: the arms stay straight and the torso angle stays about the same, so the handle moves with the seat. Your legs are your biggest source of power, and most of the drive should come from them, not your arms.
Two faults show up in this frame more than any others. The first is early arm bend, pulling with the arms at the very start of the drive. Keep your arms long like ropes until your legs are nearly straight. The second is shooting the slide: the seat moves back faster than the handle, so your leg drive is lost before it ever reaches the handle. The fix is to brace your trunk, keep your arms long and your torso angle fixed, and feel the seat and handle move together.
Coach's cue: Legs first, and let the handle travel with the seat.
Frame three: the finish
As the legs near full extension, the body joins in, swinging back from the hips to a slight lean back. Then, and only then, the arms finish the stroke by pulling the handle to your lower ribs, elbows moving past your body, wrists flat. Legs, then body, then arms.
The fault here is leaning back too far. A big lay-back at the finish adds little and makes the return slower. Aim for a slight lean, about "11 o'clock."
The best drill for owning this sequence starts from exactly this frame and builds forward. It is called the pick drill, and I use it in warm-ups at an easy effort for 1–2 rounds, with 10–15 strokes at each stage:
Arms only (legs straight, torso slightly leaned back).
Arms and body (legs still straight).
Half slide (arms, body and half the leg movement).
Full stroke.
Frame four: the recovery
Now the film runs in reverse order. The recovery is how you return to the start, and it has its own sequence: arms extend away from your body, the body pivots forward from the hips until your shoulders are slightly ahead of your hips, and the legs bend last, letting the seat slide forward to the catch once the handle is past your knees.
Pause the tape on a common mistake: knees coming up before the hands are past them. When that happens, you have to lift the handle over your knees, which breaks your rhythm and wastes energy. Pause drills fix it by making you finish each part of the recovery before starting the next. Row with a short pause at "arms away," or at "arms away and body over," for 3–4 sets of 1 minute, with 1 minute of normal rowing between sets.
This frame also holds the second big fault: rushing the recovery, flying up the slide into the catch. That brings us to rhythm. A good guideline is a ratio of about 1:2 between drive and recovery time at moderate efforts, moving closer to 1:1 as the stroke rate climbs during sprints. The cue I use is "one count out, two counts back." The drive is quick and powerful; the recovery is controlled and relaxed, with the handle leading you back to the catch. Rushing up the slide does not add power. It raises your stroke rate and heart rate without making the boat, or the flywheel, go faster.
Off the film: the damper is not a difficulty setting
The damper lever (1–10) on the side of the flywheel controls how much air gets into the flywheel housing. A higher setting lets in more air, so the flywheel slows down faster between strokes. That makes each stroke feel heavier, a bit like rowing a slower, heavier boat.
A higher damper does not automatically make you faster or give you a better workout. Very high settings tend to tire out your legs and back sooner, especially in longer pieces or in workouts where rowing is mixed with other movements. Rower manufacturers and most coaches suggest a moderate setting, commonly around 3–5, as a starting point for most people.
The number on the lever is not the full story, either. Two rowers on the same damper setting can feel different, because things like dust in the flywheel housing affect airflow. The drag factor shown on the monitor measures the actual resistance. For consistent training, check your drag factor on the monitor's menu and use a similar value each time, instead of relying on the damper number alone.
Rhythm and pacing by split
Once the stroke is clean, the monitor becomes your coach. It gives you two key numbers: strokes per minute (s/m) and your split, the time it would take to row 500 meters at your current pace. Match the rate to the effort:
Effort | Typical stroke rate | Feel |
|---|---|---|
Easy / aerobic | 18–22 s/m | Conversational, long relaxed strokes |
Moderate to threshold | 24–30 s/m | Hard but steady, short phrases only |
Sprint | 30–36+ s/m | Short maximum efforts |
These are guidelines, not rules. Many strong rowers produce fast splits at relatively low stroke rates because each stroke is powerful and well sequenced.
To pace by split, choose a target split before you start, based on previous results, and hold it within 1–2 seconds for most of the piece. Big swings in split waste energy. Remember the cost of speed, too: the power needed rises steeply as your split gets faster, so going a few seconds per 500 meters faster costs much more effort than it looks. In CrossFit workouts, hold a pace that lets you get off the rower and move straight to the next station. A slightly slower split with a fast transition often beats a hard row followed by a long rest.
Two sessions will sharpen all of this. First, low-rate pieces: row at a capped stroke rate, such as 20 s/m, for 3–5 minutes. With the rate capped, the only way to move faster is to push harder and recover better, which makes it great practice for powerful drives and a relaxed rhythm. Second, hold the same split at different stroke rates, for example 500 meters at a set split at 22 s/m, then at 26 s/m. Holding it at the lower rate shows that you are getting more out of each stroke.
Roll the tape forward
Film one stroke from the side every few weeks and compare frames. When the catch is tall, the handle travels with the seat, the finish sits at 11 o'clock and the knees wait for the hands, your split will tell you before you feel it. One caution as volume builds: if rowing causes low back pain, that is a sign to check your technique and reduce volume. If the pain stays around, see a physio or doctor.
Good technique makes every meter cheaper. Structured engine work makes you able to hold a faster pace. Sphere Programming gives you weekly pre-engine and conditioning sessions that fit alongside your regular CrossFit classes, with your rows and benchmarks logged in the app so you can track your splits over time.
Your turn. Tried this? Tell me how it went in the comments below. I read every one, and your questions help shape what I write next. If it helped, tap the heart so it reaches more athletes.
Keep reading
Further reading: Concept2 training resources for rowing and SkiErg
Coach Fritz Bautista · Head Coach, ATHLETESPHERE
CrossFit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2) ✓ · CrossFit Programming Certificate · MBA · Digital Marketing Certified · Coaching athletes from all walks of life online
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