Focused on the Finish — being in the correct posture at the finish and on recruiting and developing the muscles that support this posture.

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So what is the strong point? How do you find it? What does it mean to row past it?

Could it be that point in the stroke when I start to lose neutral alignment of the pelvis — which means, when I lose the use of my buttocks to push off the stretcher? Because that is what happens when I lose the neutral alignment of the pelvis.

During warm-up on the Dynamic Indoor Rower the strong point usually comes about the first third of the slide, around or just before the crossover when my heels are close to the seat and I am leaning slightly bowards of perpendicular. But as I continue erging my strong point comes later further towards the stern and I find myself able to lean sternwards of perpendicular. This afternoon, after 20 minutes or so of erging when I was completely warmed up and flexible, I could lean forward into the stern and bring my knees closer to my chest and still start the drive with my buttocks. So my strong point, as I have just defined it, is that point in the recovery when I can still hold my pelvis in a neutral position. And rowing past the strong point — that is, as Fairbairn puts it, biting off more than I can chew — is reaching for a catch angle so extreme that I cannot preserve the neutral alignment of my pelvis nor use the buttocks to start the drive off the stretcher.