Bladework - The Finish: Extracting the thingy

The secrets behind getting a good finish.

• Nothing except the shoulders and arms should be moving into the finish

• There should be a feeling of an acceleration happening through the middle to the finish of the stroke from work by the upper body.

• The shoulders should not be tense, but loose, allowing the lattimus (side of back) muscles to draw the handle back smoothly without ripping the water. If everyone pulls a hard, smooth, locked on stroke, ripping should never happen no matter who you are and how strong you are!

• There should be a hole in the water behind the spoon, and a lump of water built up in front of the spoon.

Bladework - The Finish: (cont)

• The feeling at the finish is to run out of pull, to open the hands, to feel the spoon lifted out, almost rolling the lump of water over with the front face of the still square spoon as it lifts out.

• THE FOREARMS SHOULD REMAIN HORIZONTAL THROUGHOUT (NO DROPPING SHOULDERS , BACKS, OR ELBOWS, NO COLLAPSED OR SLUMPED CHESTS), AND THE WRISTS SHOULD BEND THE MINIMUM AMOUNT REQUIRED IN FEATHERING.

• The bottom edge of the spoon should be pulled by the last contact with the water to do most of the work of initiating turning the spoon onto the feather, with a slight flick of the fingers being all that is necessary to allow full rolling onto the feather to occur, spoons finishing 5cm clear of the surface before hands move much away from extraction.