The Top Rowing Terms for Beginners

The top rowing terms for beginners are the four parts of the stroke (catch, drive, finish and recovery), plus bow, stern, port, starboard, blade and erg. Learn those ten and you can follow most of what a coach says in your first week. The rest of the list can wait until you hear it.

Meanings vary a little between clubs and countries. British and American rowers don’t always use the same words, so ask if a term doesn’t seem to fit.

The ten words to learn first

Term	Meaning
Catch	The blade enters the water and the drive begins
Drive	Push with the legs, then swing the body and draw the arms
Finish	The end of the drive, when the blade comes out
Recovery	The return up the slide to the next catch
Bow	The front of the boat, which is behind you as you row
Stern	The back of the boat, which you face
Port	The left of the boat when you face the bow
Starboard	The right of the boat when you face the bow
Blade	The oar, or its flat end that goes in the water
Erg	The rowing machine

Rowers face the stern, so the boat’s port side is on your right as you sit. Our page on why rowing machines are called ergs explains that odd name.

The stroke

• Stroke. One full cycle of catch, drive, finish and recovery. Also the name of the rower nearest the stern.
• Release. Taking the blade out of the water at the finish.
• Rating or stroke rate. Strokes per minute. A rate of 20 means 20 strokes a minute.
• Ratio. Time on the drive compared with time on the recovery. Concept2’s target is 1:2.
• Layback. How far you lean back at the finish.
• Swing. The feeling of a crew moving as one.
• Run. How far the boat travels between strokes.
• Backstops. In the UK, the seat position at the bow end of the slide, where the finish happens.
• Frontstops. In the UK, the seat position at the stern end of the slide, where the catch happens.

Boat codes

A code tells you the crew size and type at a glance.

Code	Boat	Rowers	Oars each	Cox
1x	Single scull	1	2	No
2x	Double scull	2	2	No
4x	Quad	4	2	No
2-	Pair	2	1	No
4-	Coxless four	4	1	No
4+	Coxed four	4	1	Yes
8+	Eight	8	1	Yes

An x means sculling, a plus means coxed and a minus means coxless. A 4x+ is a coxed quad. Using two oars each is sculling, and using one oar each is sweep. British Rowing’s glossary explains the same system, and sculling vs sweep rowing compares the two styles.

Blades and the boat

• Square. The blade is vertical, ready for the catch.
• Feather. Turning the blade flat to the water on the recovery.
• Button. A wide collar on the oar that stops it slipping through the gate.
• Gate. The bar across the top of the oarlock, which stops the oar popping out.
• Rigger. The frame that holds the oarlock out from the boat, so the hull can stay narrow.
• Scull. A short oar, or a boat rowed with them. Sculls are roughly 2.8 to 2.9 m long, against around 3.6 to 3.8 m for sweep oars.
• Shell. The narrow racing boat. An eight is about 18 m long and a single about 8 m. See the anatomy of a rowing shell.
• Stretcher or footstretcher. The adjustable footplate with shoes attached.
• Slide. The rails the seat runs along.
• Gunwale. The top edge of the boat’s side.

People and seats

• Cox or coxswain. Steers and gives instructions, and doesn’t row.
• Bow seat. The rower nearest the bow.
• Engine room. The middle of the boat, usually seats 3 to 6 in an eight.
• Stern pair and bow pair. The two rowers at each end of the boat.
• Stroke side. Usually the port side in UK usage.
• Bow side. Usually the starboard side in UK usage.
• Sculler. A rower using two oars.

Commands

Commands differ between clubs, and a cox will call whichever yours uses. These are the common ones.

Command	What to do
Easy oar, or easy there	Stop rowing and let the boat run
Hold water	Emergency stop: square your blades in the water
Tap it	Light strokes with arms and back only, for warming up or turning

If you hear an emergency stop call, act at once and don’t wait to see why.

Mistakes and slang

• Catching a crab. Your blade can’t get out of the water in time and acts as a brake. See catching a crab and how to recover.
• Skying. Holding the blade too high above the water on the recovery, usually because your hands are too low.
• Washing out. The blade leaves the water during the drive, which costs power and unsettles the boat.
• Check. A slowing of the boat, usually from an out-of-time recovery.
• Puddle. The swirl a blade leaves in the water.
• Head race. A long race against the clock, often around 3 miles, with boats starting at staggered intervals.

On the erg

• Split. Your pace per 500 m. At a 2:00 split, 2,000 m takes 8:00. Our guide on how to develop speed for rowing covers the training that brings it down.
• 2k. A 2,000 m test, the standard indoor distance. Our guide to how to do a 2k erg test shows how to pace it.
• Damper. The lever on a Concept2 that changes how much air reaches the flywheel, numbered 1 to 10.
• Drag factor. The real measure of air resistance. Concept2 lists about 90 or less at damper 1 and 200 or more at damper 10 on a new machine at sea level.
• PB. Personal best.

For a wider introduction once the words start to make sense, read rowing for beginners.