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Let me say first of all that in my view, the foot-straps on every ergometer are there for the athlete’s safety and any coach who feels that he or she would be compromising their athlete’s safety by doing without them on low-rate endurance ergs should feel free to ignore this blog. It is important, because if a rower is dependent on the straps to maintain balance while on the erg, they’ll be dependent on their shoes to maintain balance while rowing – and that will tend to disrupt the balance of the boat. The forces exerted on the straps or shoes at the end of the drive phase (the finish) are (1) in the direction of movement, to absorb the inertia of the rowers body weight moving to backstops and (2) upward, to stop the rower falling backward as they lean back. (i.e. feet outside the shoes) and even though this awareness helps, without the development of the hip flexor muscles on the erg (by doing low rate endurance sessions without the straps), they won’t have the muscle tone to correct it.

My personal experience is that it is possible to deliver conversion rates around 50% from adult beginner courses (ie 10 members from a 20-strong beginner group) and while these courses may yield only small numbers of top athletes, they do bring into the club a mix of skills, experience and enthusiasm which any modern sports club will find useful. For this reason, I would suggest that learn-to-row courses are best not treated as stand-alone events (although they can be a useful source of revenue) but as the first step on an ‘escalator’ which will move rowers in easy stages and in the company of the cohort they learned with, through novice regatta competitions and then on to whatever level of rowing suits them and their personal circumstances. This applies as much to junior rowers as to adults, with the added complication that junior rowers are classified into age groups for competitions and therefore need to be put into crews with rowers of their own age as well as a similar level of experience. New beginners at both junior and adult levels are an important part of the solution, but beginners must be provided with opportunity to row together with others at their own level for about 12 months if they are to establish themselves as long-term club members.