Letters to Dr. Rowing: Potent Pause

Doctor Rowing received the following letters from two coaches who are students of the sport, both coincidentally named Gregg.

In my column about the micropause, I didn’t mean to imply that the pause is a new thing; it was new to me. Both letters point out, rightly, that it has been around for decades.

I recommend looking at the YouTube videos of Drew Ginn and the Dutch. It’s a good thing to think about.

Dear Doc,

As regards the micropause, I believe it was a Harvard JV oarsman in the 1960s who forced the pause on his rocking and rolling crew to create some discipline. The crew got very fast, and by 1967 all Harvard crews were using what came to be known as the “Stop & Shop” finish.

When Kris Korzeniowski arrived from Poland by way of Canada, he thought Harry Parker was all wrong. Many years later, he apologized and adopted it as well.

Dave O’Neill’s Texas crews have a decided gather. Steve Gladstone’s crews don’t use it, but instead have a strongly defined drop of the hands at the finish, essentially serving the same purpose.

For a few years, I included a history of the pause in an annual lecture to the CRI coaching course. It is not a new British thing.

Gregg Stone
Cambridge Boat Club

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Full disclosure: I have detested the micropause since its beginning. I like your bicycle-chain analogy. I hold up the 1996 Dutch eight as how I want my guys to row, and they row like the bicycle chain, particularly in the YouTube clip: “Holland 8 training.”

I am curious whether you have drawn the same conclusions as I regarding micro (sometimes macro) pause. Basically, I can see it working for elite men who pull in the 5:40s and are quick through the drive and thus have time on the recovery to manage the inevitable rush that comes with it. But for weaker people, I think all it does is create rush, poor steady-state rowing, and holds them back at high rates. I find it can be used as a drill effectively for emphasizing a technical concept, but not something I want to incorporate as part of permanent technique.

The gather concept isn’t new. It dates back decades. In recent years, it was re-popularized by Drew Ginn, in a much-viewed social media post around 2011 titled “Will it make the boat go faster?” Drew explains how they are trying to maximize run. Clearly based on his success, he fully understands and applies the concept and makes the boat go faster. It works for him, most definitely.

Ginn was an elite rower, pulling in the low 5:40s. He could lever through the water pretty quickly with good drive mechanics, which of course he had. If he is rowing at 20 strokes per minute, and can get through the drive in 8/10ths of a second, that leaves him 2.2 seconds to parse out the entire recovery. 

A micropause could be incorporated with time left over still to execute a controlled, not-as-rushed recovery. Now, contrast that with a weaker oarsperson who lacks drive mechanics and is also assigned to row at 20, and is more like 7:20 for a 2K erg. They may spend more like 1.5 seconds on the drive, leaving them only 1.5 seconds for the rest of the recovery. Throw in a micropause and they need to rush the rest of the recovery to stay on rate. Throw in some indirect catches and you’re looking at a sloppy mess from the coaches’ launch. So this is a huge difference in ratio, rooted primarily in their physical capacity and ability to apply pressure.

I remember, too, when “fast hands, slow slide” was all the rage in the 1980s. It would minimize time around the back end so the slide could be controlled more.

Seeing the 1996 Dutch crew changed how I conceptualized the stroke, and I eventually landed on what you call the bicycle-chain analogy—smooth, fluid, with no big, sudden movements any place in the cycle.

When coaching this, I refer to moving the handle around the release as “continuous hands.” The handle(s) keep moving steadily, no gather, not super “fast hands,” just continuous. You get the best of both techniques this way, reducing check and promoting boat run through patience.

Gregg Hartsuff
Head coach of men’s rowing
University of Michigan

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