Nuances…
I have a question: who makes more of invisible, not to say trivial or inconsequential, nuances: golfers analyzing every angle and aspect of their drive or rowers doing the same for every aspect of theirs?
The catch, the drive, the finish, the release, the recovery. Bend at the hips, not the waist. Raise the sculls by lowering the arms from the elbows, do not use the wrist. Hold the sculls in your fingers, not your palms; tightly, but not with a death grip. “Do not dive into the catch.” Shoulders come into play only in the finish, just before pressing down — with the forearms, from the elbows — to release the sculls from the water. The arms contribute only incrementally and almost accidentally to the drive; they extract the blades; only briefly toward the end of the drive do the arms’ muscles contribute. It’s the wrists that feather and square the sculls. What do the shoulders do? The back and the legs pull the sculls, not the arms and shoulders. “If you see a rower with massive arms and shoulders, you can be sure he’s doing it all wrong.” The blades are to be feathered just as they exit the water, not a millisecond sooner or later. “The recovery should take twice as long as the drive.” Breathe at the catch. The shins should be vertical at the catch; the body extended but not too extended at the instant of release. During the drive, bring the hands straight back, parallel to the surface of the water; do not let the blades dive. The left hand passes just above the right (if the oarlocks are rigged properly).
And that’s just a duffer’s recitation.
Watch any of hundreds of coaching videos for nuance upon nuance. Even for the unambitious — is it even permissable to admit being unambitious in this sport? — at least some surely matter. But matter to what? I have no plans to race, but I do aspire to efficiency and endurance, preferably without tendonitis or back spasms and with as few blisters per mile as possible.
This is all getting well ahead of things already. These are the voyages of the SS Dunning-Kruger, its continuing mission: don’t tip over, don’t drown. Figure it all out in good time.