Wait, There’s Cake?

I’m pretty sure I’ve said this at some point in my rowing career. 

Unfortunately, the response from my coach was “nope! Just cut the cake drill”. I’m not sure anyone knows why this drill is named that. I mean, it always makes me hungry!

Joking aside, the cut the cake drill is useful to work on correct body positioning and body awareness in the rowing stroke. 

It goes like this. 

Every other stroke will be with only your arms and body. Full stroke, arms and body, full stroke, arms and body, full stroke, arms and body….etc. 

This reiterates over and over again correct body positioning. When you have correct body positioning, you are able to transfer more power from your body to the machine. Thus resulting in better splits. 

You don’t necessarily have to do the arms and body stroke every other stroke. I’ve done it every 5th stroke. Typically in that case there has been a coxswain to help me remember when the 5th stroke was. It’s easy to forget to count!

If you row on the water, this is a great way for everyone to practice swinging together in a boat. Even in a single, this drill can help you feel any rockiness that you have with your recovery that could affect your ability to set the boat. 

For those of you reading this who are like “I don’t get it. What the heck does this look like?”, I made a video for you!