In stroke

Danielle coxed this session and Kat coached.

I had been silly enough to suggest to Ashley that it would be interesting for me to try stroke. So he of course remembered this and said it was now or never. So I did. It meant that I was on strokeside again and that I could consolidate my right hand feathering.

I felt much more comfortable than I had done in 4 leading the bow four, though the timing was out for much of the session – I was taking my time on the recovery, but the bow side was catching before I was ready. Kat told me to hold my ground (and to swear at them) but the problem was that the balance heeled over to strokeside as soon as the bow side caught, which propelled my blade into the water before I was ready to catch. By the end, it was better, but it was very frustrating. Ashley was in my ear most of the time telling me to relax and to ‘follow the music’. He’s funny.

On the way back from the reach, Danielle was giving me a few muttered suggestions on my technique which were very helpful (ie hands away early). She also said that I was moving my left hand mid-recovery. I was baffled until I realised that the balance meant I was coming dangerously close to jamming my fingers between the blade and the gunwale.

Kat gave us some feedback at the end and she said that I had good technique and rhythm and that my back was fine now. She said that the main thing was for us to move together – catch together, finish together, slide together, and I saw the absolute wisdom in this.