- What's up dark horses, I'm Shane Farmer,
this is Dark Horse, and today,
we're giving you five minutes of material
for you, the coach, how to teach your members or clients
how to use the rowing movement more efficiently
to make them happier and make you the hero of your gym.
(upbeat electronic music)
Odds are, you have a group workout program tomorrow
(chuckles) that has rowing in it,
and you're frantically searching the night before
for how to teach a group class how to row,
we're gonna fix that.
I'm gonna save you from the nightmare
of having to search through the tons of videos
that are out there, trying to find one single drill
that's gonna make your life easier tomorrow.
Instead, we're gonna give you five minutes
of the best material that we've got
to make sure that the five minutes
that you get to warm them up on the machine,
is as impactful and useful as it possibly can be.
This is going to be the most impactful five minutes
that you could possibly give to your class.
First and foremost,
your job is not to teach them how to row,
let's just get that out of the way.
What's that you say, that's not,
that's literally not at all what I came here for.
Let me clarify, what you're gonna teach them
is not real rowing,
nor should you be teaching them real rowing,
because if we were teaching real rowing,
then there would be oars involved, and boats,
and it would get expensive,
and we'd have to show up at 5:00 a.m. in the morning,
and, frankly, you'd lose a lot of people doing that.
All we're teaching is the movement of rowing,
and that is a different game
than teaching the rowing itself.
So if we can simply think of it
as a we're-teaching-people-good-movement,
as opposed to, "Ugh, I have to teach somebody how to row,"
or even telling people, "I'm gonna teach you how to row,"
if instead, you say, "hey, today we're simply gonna focus
"on good movement principles on the rower,"
you're gonna have a lot greater adoption of the movement,
as opposed to if you try to teach somebody to row
in which they will instantly resist
because with that comes the whole stigma of boats,
oars, the legacy of rowing, and all of that.
So we have to know the audience that we're speaking to,
and if you know that you're talking
to a group fitness class, and you go from the route
of we're teaching good movement,
people are gonna be much, much happier.
Now, with that in mind, what can we quickly do
to implement some really critical pieces of the movement
that are gonna be the most impactful
in a short period of time?
Number one, if we can get them thinking differently
about the movement in a very short period,
you can get some changes without even having
to physically have them do anything.
So with that being said,
we're going to use the cue of push, don't pull.
We're gonna teach our mantra,
well, the Dark Horse mantra is, push don't pull,
that applies to life outside of the movement of rowing,
but for these purposes, we're talking about the movement.
Imagine teaching them
how to push the machine away from them,
versus trying to pull the handle to them.
When we think push, we get the legs moving,
we understand how to push something away from us.
We teach people how to push the ground,
or the earth away from us when we're dead lifting,
instead of trying to pull the bar to us,
the same concept is going to apply here,
teach them to push the machine away with their legs,
instead of trying to pull the handle to them,
you will get greater muscle recruitment out of the legs,
and you will get less pulling of the arms,
and for a few people, you may just flip the switch
that completely changes the way they move on this machine,
and they will (snaps fingers) instantly get faster,
just by you teaching them the cue, push don't pull.
The nice part is this is an easy win,
it can take 30 seconds to a minute of explanation,
next to nothing, that's going to potentially give you
huge value on the backend
for very little time on the front end.
So that's our first 30 seconds to one minute down,
that gives us four to 4 1/2 minutes left.
What can we do with that time?
Number two, we're going to get them set
on the machine in good position.
It's amazing, this is just a foundational point
that a lot of people don't think about
because it seems so simple
that we assume everybody would know it,
but many people don't.
So We're going to give you three main connection points,
I want you to think about these three things,
number one, feet, number two, seat, number three, handle.
If you can help them organize these three positions,
it's going to give them a much better feel on the machine.
So with the feet, I'm going to have you organize it
so that the strap is running across the widest part
of their foot, or their lowest shoelace.
Number two, the seat, have them sit
generally to the front of the seat, as opposed to the back,
and then have them grab their butt and anterior pelvic tilt
onto the seat so that that puts them
into a better extension position of the back.
Number three, you are then going to focus on the handle
and the hands, if you haven't watched our three videos
on foot, seat, and handle, I suggest you go do that,
if you want a little bit more information,
but for our purposes today, let's talk about the hands,
we want the hands nice and wide on the handle
so that the pink keys are right on the edge,
but still on the handle, thumbs underneath
and a relaxed grip, closing the circuit between the thumb
and the forefinger instead of overlapping them.
Because by doing that,
it allows us to create a relaxed but neutral grip,
as opposed to death gripping, or being so relaxed
that we're out in the fingertips.
So I like to close the circuit
between the thumb and the forefinger.
This should only take you about a minute to explain,
and then give you a minute to implement,
you're gonna put them on machines,
take them through it as a group
and it should be a very quick and easy setup.
That's now two minutes down, that gives us two minutes left.
I feel like we're running a little tight on time
but I think we can still do this.
So as I mentioned, the three points of connection,
feet, seat, and handle.
How do we set up the feet?
Adjust the foot stretcher
so that the strap runs across the widest part of the foot,
have them sit forward on the seat,
literally grabbing their butt cheeks
and tilting their pelvis forward
into an anterior pelvic tilt,
and finally teach them how to hold the handle,
hands nice and wide on the handle, thumbs underneath,
and then closing the circuit,
between the thumb and the forefinger,
so that it's sitting in their fingers,
not the palm of their hands.
Drill number three that you're going to use
is training the catch position.
This is going to be one of the most frustrating drills
that they ever run, but also one of the most valuable
because the catch is the single most
important part of the stroke.
If you miss the catch,
you've missed the stroke in its entirety
and you have to retry on the next catch.
It's your setup position.
If you're in poor position,
if you're loose and don't have tension,
if you don't even understand what the right catch is,
there's no way that you can take
a mechanically successful stroke.
So we need to teach people what the right catch position is
because there's a really great chance
they've never experienced it,
you are going to help them experience it for the first time.
Now, this is going to take our final two minutes.
Here's what you're going to do,
you're going to walk them through a checklist.
Now, you can take this checklist, and actually,
let's go ahead and just, (dings) a checklist up right here
for you to follow along with as we go.
The things that you're going to think about,
we're going to walk through the chain that is our body.
So we're gonna start with the hands,
then we're gonna talk elbows, shoulders, head and neck,
back, hips, knees, and finally the feet,
and then the entire body as a whole.
So what does this look like?
Number one, we talked about that hand position already,
so set that hand position.
Next, elbows are going to be extended,
crease of the elbow slightly up towards the ceiling,
shoulders reaching, not retracted, shoulders reaching,
head and neck relaxed, and on a swivel,
back, neutral and flat, so not overextended,
but also not rounded,
then we're going to have the hips behind the shoulders,
that's gonna put us in a forward body angle.
Next, we want knees tracking underneath the arms.
Finally, heels down,
yes, this goes for all of your beginners.
Once somebody is really great at the mechanics,
we can allow the heel to flash,
but for now we're gonna train them to keep that heel down
because it's going to go a long way
towards alleviating problems that they may have early on.
Finally, once that's set, we take the whole system
and slide them as close as possible to the catch
without breaking an energy leak,
meaning springing a leak anywhere,
so the knees splay out, or the back rounds,
or the hips slide too close to the heels,
these are all things that we're going to try to avoid.
Now, they're going to reap a ton of benefit from this,
you're gonna hold them in the cash position for two minutes.
It is a grueling two minutes, I promise.
Do it yourself before you ask them to do it,
you'd be amazed how hard it can be to hold,
but in two minutes, that takes up your entire five minutes.
This is going to be a great foundational piece for them
to then move into the workout
and feel like they at least know a good catch position,
they know how to set up properly,
and they're thinking about pushing, not pulling.
Now, if you have a few extra minutes,
let's go into a couple added drills
that are gonna add a ton of benefit to you and them.
Here's that catch checklist one more time
so that you can get comfortable with seeing it.
Number one, hands, we already talked
about that hand position.
Next, elbows extended,
crease of the elbow slightly up towards the ceiling,
shoulders reaching, head and neck relaxed, lats engaged,
back, neutral and flat, hips behind the shoulders,
knees tracking under the arms, not outside, not caving in,
heels down and planted, and the final thing we do,
is slide in, and from here, we hold for two minutes,
as tight as possible, without giving up any positions.
Run this for two minutes.
So if you've got a little extra time,
here are the two drills
that I'm going to suggest that you run,
they're both pause drills,
pause drills meaning we insert a pause into the stroke.
In the first drill, we're going to insert a pause
at both the catch and the release,
but at the release arms away,
that means arms away from the body, so, arms out.
Here's how this is going to work,
you'll set them up with the catch position,
they've just practiced it,
so they'll what it's gonna feel like.
You'll then take them through how to drive,
which is pushing through the legs, then swing the hips open,
then snap the arms into the body,
but that as soon as the handle gets to the body,
it immediately moves away again, but only with the arms,
not by breaking the knees or bringing the hips forward.
So with that being said,
when they take they're going to drive,
the hand will make its way into the body,
and then they'll release with the arms only.
Your job as a coach is to make sure
that their knees do not bend
and their hips don't start to close,
that they learn to isolate how to move the arms
away from the body, without the hips closing
or the knees bending.
You will then say, "Reset,"
they'll come back to the catch position,
give them time to organize, get in a good position.
You'll say, "Go!"
After you say go, they will drive, release,
release the handle,
then you say, "Reset," so on and so forth.
You're getting them to pause at two positions
so that you can give them an eye,
meaning you can look at the position
and figure out whether or not they're doing it correctly.
This is also teaching them how to release the handle
without the rest of the body starting to collapse in one,
you're going to start teaching them
how to sequence through the recovery.
Drill number five is that we're going to take away
the pause at the catch, what's this going to do?
It's going to leave us with one pause,
which is at the release arms away.
The reason being, we're going to now focus
on organizing the recovery movement.
So they've already got the arms away,
the next thing is to close their hips,
so we're organizing the sequence.
So now the hips close and not until the hips close,
do they then bend the knees
and slowly glide up to the catch.
As soon as they get there,
they (snaps fingers) catch, drive, release,
and let the arms away again,
pausing and waiting for your command,
your command only coach,
just you, don't let anybody start moving until you say, go,
that's the call every time.
And you just keep them doing that, as long as you need,
until you see everybody hitting
a better sequence with their movement.
Finally, you're gonna remove all pauses
and just let them start rowing.
Here's the time where you need to allow them to process,
stop cuing them and just let them start moving
and thinking through everything that you just taught them.
Let them warm up here, as much time as you have,
just allow them to row, and start building in strokes
to regain confidence in the way that they're moving
and trying to adapt new movement patterns.
So here's the deal, take as much,
or as little this as you need,
but use it with your class.
Trust me, I've gone through a million different ways
that you can start somebody from scratch
or start giving them pointers early,
and those first three especially are really concrete pieces
that are going to build a strong foundation for somebody.
And while they may not be sexy,
they may be the key to unlocking potential in your athletes
that they didn't know existed, and you didn't know existed,
and may just help them start moving faster.
And while it may not have been movement-based,
or high priority movement-based,
you got some really solid coaching in in five minutes' time.
And if you had extra time
and you could throw in those last two drills,
the more you can do those two drills with people,
the better you're gonna see your entire classes moving,
and again, you are going to be the expert,
and that's what we want,
start spreading the good information, right?
If you're here, it's because you're a dark horse,
and dark horses believe that it's all about the process,
not the outcome, it's your ability to adapt to, and work on,
the everyday things,
that are going to determine what happens at the end.
And if you, as a coach,
are helping them build their process,
you are going to create better human beings
who are happier, healthier,
and going on to live better lives
and building your own community of dark horses,
and that's what this is about.
So if you see yourself as part of the Dark Horse community,
you fancy yourself as somebody who believes in process
over outcome, and that that's what you can control
and that's what you're willing invest yourself into,
hit that subscribe button up here
because that's what we've got here, a community of people,
who believe in the dark horse mantra,
that you can be whatever you wanna be,
but it takes the hard work from in here,
and you figuring out where you wanna end up
and working on that process every single day.
So thank you for joining us, guys.
I appreciate all of you, I love you all.
Thank you so much for tuning in, and as always,
we'll see on the other side.
(upbeat electronic music)
Hey, thanks for watching the video.
If you enjoyed this and you're looking for more,
and you want workouts, continuous coaching from me,
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it's our monthly workout program, it's $39 a month,
just go over to darkhorserowing.com/athlete, to sign up now.
(upbeat electronic music)