Talk:Rowing (sport)

Scull blade area?
This


 * The combined blade area of a pair of sculls is however greater than that of a single sweep oar, so the oarsman when sculling is working against more water than when rowing sweep-oared. He is able to do this because the body action in sculling is more anatomically efficient (due to the symmetry).

seems dubious to me. When rowing (properly) you aren't moving water, you are moving the boat through the water while the blade is essentially fixed. So a bigger blade is no more work William M. Connolley (talk) 20:38, 20 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes - it also ignores the "gearing" of the blades - ratio of inboard to length to outboard length, which will be significantly different. --Ozhiker (talk) 06:01, 16 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, I agree with this, rowing is a movement of yourself and not the water around you. Imagine the water as a solid object that you are grabbing and pulling yourself forwards with over and over again, you are incrementally pulling yourself along. But what if you are rowing in a current that is just as strong as you, would you be moving forward just as fast as the water is pushing you back or in that case would you be pushing that water away. I believe that it would be the first case where you are moving just as fast as it is pushing back which causes you not to move at all. Imagine it as if it where you running on a tread mill — Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.187.76.252 (talk) 20:14, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Regaining Good article status
I've made an edit to start to bring the article back to good article status, based on the recommendations.
 * Shortened the anatomy of stroke section - I didn't this needed as much detail for general readers - it should be on the main article page.
 * Merged Oars and colours sections
 * Add a number of images - e.g. sculler, oarlock, side by side race
 * Distances should now all be in metric and imperial conversions
 * Added heavyweight header and put this and lightweight under the weight-classes header
 * Removed a lot of the see also's at the bottom, these are linked in the rowing navbox.

Still to do (that I can see):
 * Improve lead section (2 to 3 paragraph- summary of the whole page)
 * Inline citations/references (lacking in these sections - basic information, Rowing propulsion, Fitness and health, Equipment, Steering, Oars, Boat storage and boat houses, Competition, Head races, Boat positions, Weight classes, Women, Terminology)
 * Rewrote the section on Women and added cites. Moved the pre-existing content to the main article Women's rowing. Whizz40 (talk) 19:20, 19 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Images needed for some sections

If you can help out with any of these please do! Update the list as you go. Also, join WP:Rowing if you have an interest in rowing articles -Aloneinthewild (talk) 21:50, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

feathering
Why?? Does the aerodynamic drag really matter that much? Also: Certainly derived from this: Propeller (aeronautics) --BjKa (talk) 12:14, 27 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes it sure does - try it at race speed! But it's also to reduce the height the blade must be carried over the water, and to lessen the impact if the blade touches the water during the recovery. --Yeti Hunter (talk) 13:13, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

You also need to factor in the wind when feathered wind has less of an effect on the oat as the oars "cut" through the wind however a squared blade because it is shaped to "catch" water can also "catch" air which could effect the speed of a shell and is a large part of technique taught to rowers.--Mlaraba (talk) 21:16, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

Ancient Egyptian origins
The article makes references to the origins of the sport in ancient Egypt but seems to reference Greek and Roman mythology as a source. While I don't suggest that mythology should be dismissed out of hand, I feel the need to point out another source I've just found while investigating this topic. "Historically, race rowing was unknown in ancient Egypt (Touny and Wenig, 1969), or to the Vikings (Wahlqvist, 1978) despite the fact that they depended on boats which could be rowed for transport." [|The Physiology of Sports], edited by Thomas Reilly, N. Secher, P. Snell, C. Williams, Dr C Williams, p229. Is this something that deserves inclusion in the article? I think it does. --  Eamonnca1  TALK 00:44, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Absolutely.--Yeti Hunter (talk) 13:09, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Sculling vs. Sweep boats
This paragraph opens the section on boat types: "Although sculling and sweep boats are generally identical to each other (except having different riggers), they are referred to using different names: ... "

As someone who isn't involved in the sport I have no idea what Sculling and Sweep mean, and the article doesn't explain it. I think one is "each rower has a pair of oars, one for each side of the boat" vs. "each rower has only one oar, and the side it is on alternates down the length of the boat"  But, this isn't explained and should be.

A less important point is that I also don't know what "riggers" are.

So, the sport specific terms need to be explained or defined before being used to describe things for the article to be really useful.

ZeroXero (talk) 22:42, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

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terminology
Terminology on boat classifications was discussed but their are terms for different technical aspects as well such as "catching a crab" when the oar is caught in the water which is further broken down into three levels by usrowing in their safety video.--Mlaraba (talk) 21:15, 10 September 2016 (UTC)

There are two forms of rowing:
I'm a UK-based rower and I'm having difficulty understanding the below paragraph:


 * There are two forms of rowing
 * In sweep or sweep-oar rowing, each rower has a tower, held with both feet. This is generally done in pairs, fours, and eights. In same regions of the world, each riders in a sweep boat is referred to either as port or starboard, depending on which side of the boat the rower's oar extends to. In other regions, the port side is referred to as stroke side, and the starboard side as bow side; this applies even if the stroke oarsman is rowing on bow side and/or the bow oarsman on stroke side.
 * In sculling each rower has two oars (or sculls), one in each land. Sculling is usually done without a coxswain, in quads, doubles or singles. The tower in the sculler's right hand extends to port, and the oar in the left hand extends to starboard.

What is a tower? There's a reference to a tower being held with both feet but also a reference to a tower being in a sculler's right hand - both can't be correct?

What is meant by "riders"? "rowers" or "side" maybe?

"Stroke oarsman" and "coxswain" are referred to but haven't been defined at this point in the text.

The last sentence refers to a tower in the sculler's right hand and an oar in the sculler's left hand - surely the same thing will be in a sculler's left and right hands?

It is not explained that when sweep rowing, a rower will have a single oar. Zin92 (talk) 06:31, 15 March 2017 (UTC)


 * The problem arose from in January, which I have now reverted.  Thank you for pointing it out. --David Biddulph (talk) 08:23, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

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Trops?
Regarding this edit, I did find this thread on Reddit. I know, not a WP:RS, but it does at least hint that the term is real. But, yeah, without a WP:RS, it shouldn't be there. -- RoySmith (talk) 23:16, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Damage
I disagree with the statement that "the most commonly damaged piece of rowing equipment is the skeg". In my opinion it would be blades ... closely followed by riggers ... and what about seats?
 * Whether or not you agree with this, note that there is no mention at all of these and other types of damage.
 * Unless someone else beats me to it, I shall add some text to that effect.
 * Here is my proposal: feel free to add/adapt :
 * All parts of rowing equipement are fragile, especially as they are designed for light weight and relatively high speeds. The most commonly damaged parts are blades, riggers and boat hulls. -- jw (talk) 11:15, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

Section order
The order of these sections is not optimal. I propose the following re-ordering and re-numbering of sections:
 * 3 Equipment
 * 3.1 Steering
 * 3.2 Blades
 * 3.3 Indoor rowing
 * 3.3.1 Rowing tank
 * 3.3.2 Ergometer
 * 3.4 Boat storage, boat houses, and boat centers
 * 3.5 Damage
 * 3.6 Transportation
 * 4 Competition et seq.
 * What say you ? Please react ! -- jw (talk) 11:15, 15 March 2021 (UTC)