drills for improvement

Question
One of the 2nd-year rowers i'm coaching can't for the life of him keep his hands up at the catch--which of course causes him to miss water, then wash out, pull into his lap, and all that other lovely stuff.  I don't have enough rowers to have the option of tossing him into a single for a few weeks to let him sort it out on his own--what kinds of drills could I do in fours/eights could I do to try and fix his problems?  He pulls a decently fast erg, so I definitely want to take advantage of his potential power.

Answer
Hi Coach Paul: Am I safe to assume he is skying his blade.  Here's a few drills I recall my coaches at Temple U. and Crescent Boat club did (these are going back 25-30 years ago, so I hope I got them right).  In an eight, try them with four men rowing and four men setting up the boat, then you can move to six, then all eight:

1.  Square Blades: That one is pretty basic.  During the drill, let your skying sophomore look at his blade during the drill so HE can see how his blade is so much farther off the water than the others.  You can do a variation where you alternate feathering and square blades with each stroke.  This really forces a rower to be aware of where his hands are.  Again, allow him to look at his blade during the drill.

2.  Dragging the blades: This is a classic novice drill, but might help the rower by forcing his hands up to keep the feathered blade skimming the water.  A more advanced variant is the slap drill, where at the 3/4 slide point of the recovery, all rowers slap the blade on the water and then immediately go into the catch.  This forces everyone to have their hands at the same height upon entering the catch.

3.  Outside Hand Only: Have all rowers put their feathering hand behind their back or on their lap.  Row with square blades. This drill helps emphasize the importance of the outer arm in controlling blade height.

4.  Row with Eyes Closed: This is a pretty advanced drill, but it may help someone skying as he will be late at the catch.  

5.  Circular Rowing: This is the one where all the rowers are made to press their hands all the way down through the release and recovery and then a pronounced rise of the hands into catch-finish. This may be counterproductive, as it forces all the rowers to do what you don't what the skyer to do.  But it may emphasize that the hands should be moving around an imaginary post -- slightly below the post at the recovery and just above the post through the catch.  This is what my coach always emphasized.

The only other things I can think of is that your man may have trouble feathering and is compensating by squaring the blade up a bit early.  There might be a set issue in the boat, where he is skying because he feels he can't come up to the catch cleanly.  Maybe you can have him switch sides to see if the problem is still there.  Finally, maybe not put him in a single, but put him in a pair or four, which will exaccerbate the negative effects to the boat that skying the blade will cause.

Hope This Helps/AP