Rush
A few years ago, when I was first-year varsity, I asked my coach what rush feels like. I’ve left his notes for y’all below:
The recovery needs to be controlled and relaxed. Rowers have pulled hard on the drive and need a chance to "recover" before they do it again. Rush is a feeling that you cannot relax on the recovery. The catch needs to be deliberate and accurate. Rowers need to feel like putting the oar in the water is easy and controlled. Rush makes it almost impossible to do that. The stroke seat needs to lead the boat. Everyone needs to follow their swing, their slide, their catch, their finish. Rush is most often felt by a good stroke seat who is trying to lead a controlled recovery but the rest of the boat (or at least some of the rowers) are not following that rhythm.
The most common form of rush comes from a lack of slide control. Some (or all) of the rowers are zipping into the stern and crash up to the catch position much faster then they want to. The ones who are causing it usually don't know they're causing it. Sometimes the stroke seat is causing it, doesn't know that, and complains of being rushed (this is rare). The people being rushed fell like everyone else is say "hurry up and get to the catch," so their mental response is "stop rushing me." Even when rush is not purely a slide control issue, getting the crew to focus on sliding together is often the best solution.
Assume all 8 rowers in the boat weigh 150lbs. Their total weight is 1200lbs. Now assume the combined weight of the boat, oars, and coxswain is 350lbs. The rowers (weight moving on the slide) are more than 3 times heavier than the rest of the system (weight not moving on the slide). When the rowers slide, they are barely moving into the stern. Because they weigh more, they are actually moving the shell forward underneath them. The boat is actually getting faster or holding a fairly constant speed. This is what you need to feel. And how that feels is how you recognize rush.
For the coxswain, rush feels like the boat is being yanked out from underneath you. You're the dishes on the table, the rowers are the magician, and the hull is the table cloth. If at any point before the oars go in the water you fell yanked forward, the crew is rushing. Of course this is all relative. Higher ratings have faster recoveries (faster slides), so the pull forward will be stronger than at lower rating. Lower ratings should be gradual enough that the boat speed feels more constant.
For the rowers being rushed, there are two different ways rush can feel:
First, consider if the entire bow 7 is starting the slide too early and pulling the boat forward before the stroke seat (or any other rower) is ready to start their slide (that rower is still setting the body over into the stern). That one rower is going to feel pushed over and into the start of the slide. And they will have to fight to control the speed of their slide. But then since the crew is ahead of them, they'll need to slide faster than the rest of the boat to catch up. It starts to hurt the front of your shins as you pull through the toes to get to full slide.
Second, consider if the entire crew is starting the slide together but the stroke seat wants to slide slower. The boat is being yanked forward, so the stroke feels like their feet are being jammed up underneath them and they have to fight to prevent slamming into the catch. The next thing that happens is the bow 7 either pauses at the catch or start to catch before the stroke seat wants to. The stroke seat (in both cases) again fights to pull all the way to full compression and the front of the shins start to burn. Plus, it's often hard to control body position because you're getting shoved around by the rest of the boat.
Remember that rush is relative. If everyone has agreed that we want to zip down the slide then no one is "being rushed". Some crews specifically accelerate into the stern, which would feel like rush to someone not expecting that. Our recovery is decelerating. It means the turn-around at the catch should be gentle, and the boat should be slowing down during the recovery. Watch the stroke seat's slide versus the timing of the catch, and the motion of the oars up to the catch. Judge theirs speed down the slide based on how their oars swing from perpendicular to the hull out to the catch angle. Oars moving perfectly parallel is a good sign of a crew swinging and sliding together. If you can see everyone reaching the catch too early for stroke seat, they are rushing.
While I'm talking about the feeling of rush, it's worth mentioning the feeling of boat check: it's basically the opposite. Boat check is any force to stop forward momentum of the hull. The most common form is not being locked on at the catch and kicking the boat backward as rowers drive the legs without their oars being able to lever the boat forward. Again, the rowers outweigh the shell/oars/coxswain by a lot. In really bad boat check, the hull can slow way down very quickly until the oars engage and get it going again.
The feel of this is opposite to rush. In the coxswain seat you feel like the boat hits a wall and your torso wants to fall forward so your face hits the knees of the stroke seat. Jerking back and forth at the catch is probably boat check. Our soft catches mean that our boats should not jerk much around the catch. Any jerking happens at the finish when we snap our drive off and quickly get the hands/body out of the bow. Rowers have trouble feeling boat check, but coxswains feel it no matter what. The question becomes how much is there, and can it be reduced any so the boat holds better speed?
Rush and boat check are most prominent at the catch (at the same time), and one often leads to the other. But that's not always the case. It's important to recognize which one is going on (or is worse), and then work to fix the problem. Think hard about what you feel. Look for other signs in the oars on in the motion of the stern pair. Fixing the real problem is rarely done by saying "stop rushing." A more precise solution like "control your slides so we can get rid of this rush," is probably better. Then spends some strokes saying "swing and sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide, swing and sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide," during the recovery is a good idea.
