The Sticky Catch Drill – with a twist!

The sticky catch drill is a great drill to feel the connection at the catch in your rowing stroke. And I have a different way of doing it that you may have never seen before.  

Most of the time, for the sticky catch drill, you can use a strap or something very sturdy to wrap around the front of your machine (you can al use a partner). Then from there, you want to drive your heels down and try to pick your butt up off the seat, but it’s not easy! Your seat can start to slide out from under you. It’s not ideal, especially if you don’t have a way to stop that seat from sliding. You need to have a lot of grip strength to feel the connection and understand the purpose of the drill.

In the sticky catch drill, you’re looking to feel connected from your lats to your back, through your butt, into your heels, so that you are putting all of your force into the machine to get a better split.

Grab a Sheet!

Now, there is another way that you can do this. If you’re going to try it out, you need to grab a bed sheet. What you’re going to do is tie a knot into one end of it. Next, you need to then find a place where you can put this sheet into a door frame. The important thing here is that you want to be on the side of the door so that you are closing it TOWARDS you.

Spoiler alert, you’re going to be leaning into your sheet. So, the force of you leaning back should be “closing” the door that you’re using. If you’re on the other side, you run the risk of opening the door as you’re leaning back. Let’s not do that!

 You’re going to take the side that has your knot, and you’re going to put it on the other side of the door at the top of the frame.  You might have to spread the sheet out a little bit because you want to close the door with the sheet sandwiched in at the top. This might take a couple of tries to get, depending on how much room you have at the top of your frame. Make sure that door latches, and that you give the sheet some light tugs to get it in place. Now you have something to hang onto!

The Lean Back

In each hand, you’re going to take a small bunch of the sheet. You will need some grip strength for this, fair warning. Also, make sure that you have shoes on or some way that your feet won’t slip on your floor. If you’re wearing socks, you’re going to go slip everywhere and this isn’t going to work.

Holding the sheet in your hand, you’re going to start close-ish to your door and lean back into it. You’re going to have to trust yourself.  Keep those arms straight. You might have to adjust your grip but sit back into it so that you’re trusting your weight into the sheet and your arms. Feel free to stand up and adjust how far away from the door you are. As your feet get closer, you might be able to sit back a little bit farther.

Now that you’re here, think about keeping your shoulders down and driving your heels into the floor. You don’t want to relax your shoulder blades but keep them engaged by trying to “put them in your back pocket”. You want to feel that you have to pull those shoulder blades down and at the same time you’re feeling that pressure through your heels. That’s essentially what we want to feel on the machine, right? This is getting closer to how the catch should feel in your rowing stroke.

You can sit back more and more, but again, you’re trying to keep those shoulder blades down instead of letting them roll forward. It’s easier to let them roll forward, but it’s not as powerful. You should be able to feel the power that you’re able to have while holding onto the sheet when you bring those shoulders down.  Using a bed sheet and a door frame is a different way that you can try out the sticky catch drill instead of trying to pick up your entire body weight using straps on your rowing machine.

Back on the Machine

As you come back to your machine, slip your feet in, and try to recreate that feeling at the catch of each stroke. Just like how you had to drive your heels through the ground when you were holding onto the sheet while pulling those shoulder blades down, you want to do that at the catch to get power into your stroke.

It may take a couple of tries doing this drill to get this feeling. It might be a little confusing when you’re trying it, because you’re not sure what you’re trying to feel.  Don’t be discouraged if it still feels strange at first. That’s totally okay! It’s a different alternative to using the straps.

I hope you liked the tips in this post with a different way to do the sticky catch drill. If this was helpful for you, sign up for my email list! You get weekly rowing tips and first access to promotions.