- What's up guys, and welcome back to Dark Horse Rowing.
Today we are talking about how to practice the hinge
with a little bit of a unique twist on the machine
that you probably haven't seen before,
may not have a broad usage for,
this is a very specific usage,
and may get some funny looks.
But it is gonna be extremely effective
in helping you understand how do you close your hips
so that you can open them when the time comes
to actually initiate the good drive.
Remember if you need to open your hips,
you have to close them, and that's what this is all about.
That's what this drill is for.
And we have an extremely special guest today.
A coach, a good friend, a man abroad here,
John Healy, who actually introduced me to this,
is going to join and he's going to help us understand
the purpose behind, and how to execute this drill.
So let's get inside and check it out.
(techno music)
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(clapping and laughing)
- It's what you do with these, it's the.
- All right guys, welcome, this is my friend, John Healy.
I'm gonna let you introduce yourself.
- Perfect, yeah.
- So, brief bio.
Who are you, where do you live, what do you do?
- Okay, so, UK based,
as you can obviously tell from the accent.
I certainly don't have your glamorous accent my friend.
- We do have the same stunning good looks, though.
- It's very good, isn't it?
I like the fact that the camera's
gonna really have its trouble to tell us apart.
So I am UK based, I am the GB Master Trainer for Go Row.
To be honest with you, one of the best things about this
was the fact that I actually gained this job
having been one of Shane's proteges, shall we say.
Yeah, absolutely, so Dark Horse all the way guys.
And I work across the UK with Great British Rowing.
I am here to kind of impart information and
to knowledge onto guys, it's really encouraging guys
to think about rowing, not just as something you do
to kill yourselves in the gym,
but something you can really gain and develop from.
Yeah, again, I owe all of this to Shane, (laughs) sorry.
- So, and that's kinda why this is super exciting,
is because you brought the thrill to me.
- Yep, yep.
- And we were just playin' around with it, and we kind of,
we already improvised on it, I think, even further.
All right, let's talk about, what's the purpose
of this, why would we do this drill?
- Perfect, so the main thing we see
especially when we see guys that are starting to fatigue
on a rower, is they lose that hip movement,
okay, we start to emphasize that.
We pull with the arms, and we start to lose
and leak power across the spectrum, okay?
So as we know, the rowing is predominantly
60% in your legs, 30% in your torso,
and then 10% comes from those arms, okay?
- Very little from here.
- 100%.
It is not a bicep builder, guys.
- No.
- I hope you know this by now.
- And what we want to really encourage you guys to learn
is that this hip movement is absolutely crucial
in not only the drive, okay, but also the recovery
on this row, and in order to be able
to do this efficiently we've gotta look
at falling in to that recovery process for ourselves.
So this drill you're gonna see in a minute
is all aimed at encouraging that.
Again, super specific, as Shane's already mentioned,
it's not gonna be something that each one of your athletes
is gonna work with, but you're gonna find that those guys
who really strove to think about the process,
about the legs torso arms, arms torso legs,
will benefit from this greatly.
- Yeah, I would put this in category of,
like buying a very specific drill bit,
- 100%.
- Right, for like one specific project.
- You've got one job to do, and you need one tool.
This is your tool. - Yeah, you need that tool,
so you go out and buy it, and that's the only time
you use it. - Yeah, definitely.
- This is not gonna be like buying a hammer,
or like buying a drill, this is like buying the drill bit
that fits that exact size that you need
to get it done. - Definitely.
Yeah, and the thing you'll find,
guys especially this is that it is something
that your athletes will see benefit from, but it's gotta
be something that's done as a reminder process, okay?
It's learning the skill in order to be able to then
bring this into part of the big picture for ourselves.
- And also as far as setup goes,
you're not gonna wanna be, you'll see it in a second,
there's a healthy amount of equipment involved.
You're not gonna wanna have to set up 20,
well most people don't have 20 machines,
even five machines is gonna be a lot of equipment movement.
- It's a lot, yeah.
- It's best to probably just set this up with one machine,
move some people on it, and give kind of a touch drill,
if you will. - Yeah, if we're coaching
in a bigger group guys, then we've gotta think,
maybe use it as a teaching drill,
let guys observe this, use video analysis, okay?
We've all got tools now, pull that phone out,
start looking at how our athletes are actually moving.
Let's not just throw a bit on the machine
and expect them automatically to be able to do it
straight off the bat for themselves.
- And then, I'm gonna let you in on this,
because we can't use the music for YouTube purposes,
but where this stemmed from is using
the song Sally Up Sally Down by Moby,
and every time you say Sally up
you're going to open your hips,
every time you say Sally down,
you're going to close your hips.
That gives you, we found, a 330?
- 330.
- Three minutes and 30 second drill.
So, portion that out for time,
but a three minute and 30 second drill,
and that just adds some fun to it.
Otherwise we would play the song for you,
but I don't think YouTube's gonna let us.
So, use that song when you do the drill,
and it will give you good guidance,
and just make it far more enjoyable.
All right, let's get into the drill
and show 'em what it looks like.
So, this is our setup.
Multiple bands, plates under the back end,
probably looks like we're gonna break the machine.
- Shh, can we just, let's keep this one quiet, discreetness.
- I don't know if we meant to,
but this is, be very, remember it's like
buying the drill bit that you need for one specific purpose.
- Definitely.
- But hey, at the same, to that note,
don't ever be afraid to mess around with this.
There's no reason that you can't do these things,
and remember that it has a purpose behind it.
It's not gonna be good for everything,
it's gonna be good for one thing, you know.
- So if we get one athlete that walks around this
and thinks, okay now I understand what this is all about,
and why he's put me in this position,
then to me that's a win, yeah?
- Okay, so John, talk us through our ridiculous setup here.
Let's start at the front,
and walk back. - Start at the front,
step through the back.
- What have we got here?
- Okay, so as you can see then guys,
we've taken this handle, okay,
and we've attached through it,
obviously our bands for resistance, okay?
This isn't gonna be super heavy resistance, okay?
We're not lookin' at havin' your guys rippin'
with those backs, and really try
and emphasize the muscular movement.
As we know you wanna stack the joints,
wanna make sure that everything stays
in alignment at all points in time.
So hit the band, that's obviously gonna suit the athlete,
the bigger the person the thicker the band, okay?
Let's not go super crazy with this one, okay?
- Think of this as like, what'd you say,
this is just like a kinesthetic awareness tool, 100%.
This is not, the workout doesn't happen
because of this band.
- No, definitely not.
Yeah, slide this, setup as normal, okay?
So we're not onto this, feet position, 100% normal as it is.
Okay? - Perfect.
The next band.
- Seat position however (laughs) has been slightly altered.
Okay, so as you can see, again gluter band through,
underneath the seat, okay, all this is doing
is holdin' this in that fully extended position, okay?
Again, gonna leave a little bit of room for those hips.
Okay, so you wanna make sure that seat can move slightly.
Okay, but we don't want that seat sliding
all the way backwards and all the way forwards.
- So, if somebody were to adjust that to,
they put their foot in the foot stretcher,
they straighten their leg, and then they set the band
to where their seat position is.
- Yeah, and again guys, it's a simple loop through, okay?
So very straightforward. - Nothing fancy happenin'.
- Nothin' at all. No sailor's knots being used.
- No (laughs) don't feel the thread for no flat ones.
- No, yeah, not a sailor, just a rower, we don't use knots.
All right, so now, I think this is where
the crux of the drill happens, the back end,
so, talk us through this.
- Okay, so, as you can see, we've elevated the rear end
of this rower, okay, we wanna make sure that we're getting
the sensation of falling as we're closing those hips, okay?
We talk a lot about opening up the hip,
making sure we go for that extension,
that 1:00 to 11:00 movement, okay?
Well, the focus on this is that return back through, okay?
So I need this gravity to help achieve that, okay?
We've got four 20-kilo plates underneath there.
And again we could use.
- These 20-kilo plates come out
to about four inches apiece I think, so 16 inches of rise?
- Somewhere around that-ish, absolutely, yeah.
And again, health and safety, okay? (laughs)
We're not gonna be stacking objects on top of objects
for this one, but we're just looking for something
that again can elevate the rear end of that rower for us.
- So talk us through the objective now.
- Yep, so as we've said, the main thing is we wanna see
that as our athlete's performing this row motion,
we're getting the movement through that torso, okay?
Now again, a lot of people, as we've driven back,
we've pulled those arms,
those arms have touched the sternum,
they're gonna then shoot those arms
back forwards really, really quickly.
For us what we wanna see if you've got that control
as we're leaning back in and through to it, okay?
What this drill is obviously designed to do
is to encourage that lean back in, okay?
Without this, yeah we could still achieve
a similar sort of movement, but the reality is
is that to extenuate that movement
and to actually feel it more, this is obviously
what our athletes sometimes potentially require.
- And that's one of the hardest things
for people to break, or learn to begin,
is how do I move my hips, right?
How does this move independently of my legs and my arms,
and I think a lot of people struggle
with that feeling of how do my hips move?
Like I don't, right, my hips are moving, right?
Nope, that's your spine.
It's how do I get articulation of your hip,
and I think that that's what this is really good for.
So clear to me. - 100%, yeah.
- So hop, like hop on.
- Yep, we got it.
- Show us how this works.
- So again, feet go in the sliders guys, exactly as normal.
They're through, okay.
This is where you need your partner.
Your partner's gonna hand you that handle, okay.
The aim is as we've said, we're gonna extend those legs
back to our start position.
From here the focus is on that opening of those hips, okay?
As you can see, the reason that that band go
is to encourage that tension, okay?
So that movement is now coming through me moving my hips.
All right, to bring you back forward,
yes I've got the resistance on the band,
but what I'm really wanting to see now
is that close of the hips, okay?
- And this is the Sally down.
- 100% is, yep.
- So with Sally down you close your hips, 11 to one,
the swing pattern that we always talk about.
Hips swing 11 to one, band is giving you a little bit
of resistance but what you're really trying to feel
is the fall forward that you get
from elevating the back end, correct?
- Yeah, so extension through the back,
open up the hips, and a bad policy but we can control it,
and we're gonna close those hips.
- Okay, simple.
- Super specific as we've said, okay?
But try it with the guys, see if they feel it, okay?
Again we can play around with the band tension,
you can obviously play around
with the height on the back of there.
- Yeah, I think like where I love this
is that this took a lot of thought
to put this together, all right?
And I think where I get super excited about this stuff
is not many people are thinking
about this machine creatively,
it's like well, it was meant to row, so let's just row.
There's so much you can do here guys,
like band on band on stacked plates,
on like, there's no end to what can be done here,
and this is a perfect example of that, that John's created.
And so, anyways, the song Sally Up Sally Down,
- You got Sally up.
- Sally up.
- Sally down, and three and a half minutes of that
gives you a really great opportunity.
- Oh you'll feel it. (laughs)
- Yeah, to just swing back and forth through the hips.
And remember arms are staying straight,
legs are staying straight, and we're just articulating
through the hips to create movement.
- So long. - Right?
- Awesome.
(clapping)
- Yes.
Go give this drill a try.
I wanna know what you think, drop your thoughts
in the comments below, let's start the discussion.
Are we crazy, is this a great idea,
did we just invent something totally new
that everybody's gonna love?
- Yeah.
I will add to this guys, this was born on the back
of Shane introducing me to nitro-brewed coffee.
(laughing)
So, yeah.
- He's been flying high all afternoon
on nitro coffee. - 100%.
- Those of you that know me know that I love my coffee,
and nitro coffee, especially,
is very near and dear to my heart.
And we had lunch and they just happened to have it
and so I forced him to try it, and new things, I think
universes of creativity. - Cities in flames, yeah.
Absolutely.
- All right guys, so let us know what you think
in the comments below, but again,
this is a fantastic drill that I think you should play with
and give it a try, see what you think.
So guys, thanks for hangin' out as always.
This has been another awesome video
that we hope to bring to you guys,
bringing the knowledge, bringing all of the amazing stuff
that there is to know about rowing.
We really appreciate you guys hangin' out.
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