Watercraft

With regard to watercraft, rowing is propulsion, usually of a small boat, by forcing one or more oars mounted on the craft via rowlocks to push adjacent to the water. The purpose can be transport, leisure or sport.

The most familiar instances, called sculling, are those where one rower pulls on two oars, each a single straight piece mounted to an oarlock on the gunwhale of the boat, thereby moving the boat in the direction opposite that which the rower faces. A single oar per rower, called sweeping, multiple rowers (usually coordinated by a coxswain), articulated oars that make possible capable rowing in the direction the rower faces, maneuvers aimed at turning or at rowing in the opposite direction, and some combinations of these, are also well well-known aspects of rowing.

For the main case described above, keeping equal forces on the two oars, efficiently coordinating the application of vertical and horizontal force according to the point in the cycle of rowing, and muscular strength and stamina, are major aspects of effective rowing.