How to Row a Pair
Joachim Sutton on Trust, Aggression and Making the Boat Work
Why the Pair Is Different
The pair may be the most exposing boat in rowing.
There is no coxswain. No spare rower. No middle of the boat to hide in. Each athlete is responsible for half the speed, half the balance, half the rhythm and half the problems.
Joachim Sutton knows the boat class at the highest level. He won Olympic bronze for Denmark in the men’s pair at Tokyo. In Episode 31 of the Complete Rowing Podcast, he explains why the pair is so difficult, and why it can be so rewarding.
His first point is that the pair changes every day.
“Every day is really different in the pair.”
That is one of the truths of the boat. A crew can feel brilliant one day and ordinary the next. The pair magnifies everything: timing, pressure, steering, wind, confidence, mood and partnership.
Joachim recalls speaking with the Sinković brothers after Tokyo:
“They were like, we’re so tired of the pair.”
That is striking. Even one of the greatest pairs in rowing history found the boat mentally draining.
The pair is not hard because the movements are mysterious. It is hard because the standard must be repeated under constantly changing conditions.
The Pair Is About Raising the Bottom Level
Many rowers think performance is about reaching a peak.
Joachim thinks the pair is about something slightly different:
“The pair is… all about getting that bottom level up.”
That is a brilliant way to understand the boat.
Most crews do not perform at their absolute best every day. They operate somewhere between their best and their worst. In a pair, the worst version of the crew can be very bad: unstable, emotional, short, rushed and frustrating.
So the goal is not simply to create one perfect outing.
The goal is to make the bad days better.
A good pair has a high floor. Even when it does not feel magical, it is still stable, honest and moving.
For club rowers, this is important. Do not judge the pair only by the best strokes. Ask:
How bad are the bad strokes?
Can we recover quickly?
Do we stay calm when the boat feels wrong?
Can we keep moving on an average day?
That is the real work.
The Emotional Side of the Pair
The pair is technical, but it is also emotional.
Joachim says:
“There’s a lot of emotions in that.”
He jokes:
“I never make mistakes, it’s my partner that makes mistakes.”
Every pair rower recognises this. In a double or pair, it is very easy to feel the other person. Their timing, pressure and balance are obvious. It is much harder to feel your own contribution with the same clarity.
That is why the pair requires patience.
“It definitely requires patience and a lot of communication.”
A pair that blames does not last. A pair that communicates can improve.
The lesson is simple: if the boat is not working, both athletes must assume they are part of the answer.
Decide Who Sets the Frame
Joachim rowed stroke seat with Frederik Vystavel in bow.
Their approach was not completely symmetrical. They built much of the rhythm around Joachim.
“We tried to frame as much as possible just off of me.”
That does not mean the bowman was passive. It means the crew made a deliberate decision about who would provide the main reference.
Joachim describes himself as:
“super stubborn”
“very aggressive”
Rather than trying to remove those qualities, the pair used them.
Fred’s strength was his ability to match:
“Fred is really good at matching that.”
This is an important point. In a pair, equality does not always mean both people contribute in exactly the same way. One athlete may set the rhythm. One may steer. One may talk more. One may stabilise the boat. The partnership works when both understand the arrangement.
Joachim gives the key principle:
“Everything can be fast, as long as it’s done together.”
That may be the best single sentence in the episode.
A technically “correct” stroke done differently by two people is slow.
A slightly imperfect stroke done together can be fast.
Aggression and Technique Are Not Opposites
Many rowers treat aggression and technique as opposing ideas.
Either you row aggressively, or you row technically.
Joachim rejects that.
“There’s a lot of technical things that require aggression.”
His rowing background included eights at Berkeley and the Danish national team. He brought that aggressive sweep style into the pair, but had to learn how to make it work in a more sensitive boat.
He says:
“Coming from an eight down in a pair, I think it took me a while to understand that it was a pair.”
That is valuable for anyone moving from an eight into a small boat.
You cannot simply row the pair like an eight. But you also do not need to become timid.
Joachim admired the New Zealand pair because of how aggressively they rowed off the front end. His view is that if you want to row that way, aggression is part of the technical system.
“You can’t row like that if you’re not aggressive.”
The key is controlled aggression. Not panic. Not rushing. Not muscling the boat. But a strong, committed way of taking the catch and moving the boat.
Start Intense, Then Find Calm
Joachim and Fred had an interesting philosophy:
“We’d rather go from a place of intensity to a place of more calm.”
That is the opposite of how many crews train.
Many crews start carefully, then try to add aggression later. Joachim’s view is that it is easier to begin with intensity and then refine it.
“It’s usually easier to go down… than to go up.”
That does not mean beginners should thrash around in a pair. But for experienced rowers, it is a useful idea.
If the race requires intensity, train the boat to handle intensity. Then learn how to make that intensity calmer, more efficient and more repeatable.
The Recovery: Patient, Then Quick
One of the most interesting technical sections of the conversation is Joachim’s description of the recovery.
He talks about being patient at the back end, letting the boat move, and then coming quickly into the front end at the right moment.
He describes the boat “jumping” twice after the release:
“The boat will jump twice.”
His point is that, if you are patient after the finish, you can feel the movement of the hull. Then, at the right moment, you bring the boat underneath you.
“On that second time… you rush the slide really quickly.”
This sounds contradictory if you have only ever been told “don’t rush.”
But Joachim is describing something more advanced.
The upper body must be set early. The posture must be organised. Then the slide can move decisively without the athlete throwing the body at the catch.
Ken describes it back to him as needing to be:
“statuesque in the upper body.”
That is a useful image.
The recovery is not lazy. It is not slow for its own sake. It is patient where the boat needs patience, then quick where the boat allows quickness.
Communication During the Race
In many pairs, the bow seat talks because the bow can see the race and often steers.
Joachim and Fred did it differently.
Fred did not talk much. Joachim did.
“It came more natural to me to talk.”
Because Joachim had a very clear idea of the technical rhythm, the calls came from stroke seat.
He had to be loud enough for Fred to hear him, but the communication was not complicated.
They did not rely on a long list of strategic calls.
“We never had strategic calls.”
Instead, their race plan was brutally simple: be aggressive from the start, hold boat speed, and push whenever the rhythm dropped below the level they wanted.
Joachim says:
“Anytime that I could feel that we were getting under the boat speed… I’ll just call for a push.”
Sometimes that meant three pushes. Sometimes seven.
The point was not a pre-planned move at 1,000 metres. The call existed to restore the rhythm and boat speed.
That is very useful for club pairs.
A good call does not need to be dramatic. It should solve the problem happening now.
Race Strategy: Red Line the Whole Way
Joachim’s description of their racing approach is clear:
“We’re just going to race that red line the whole way.”
They were aggressive off the start and tried to maintain speed rather than waiting for a traditional mid-race move.
He links this to erg pacing as well. For their 2k tests, they tried to keep the splits flat.
“If your last 500 metres… is two splits… faster than your second 500 metre, you were too soft.”
That is a strong opinion, but it reveals the mentality. They wanted to race honestly from the beginning, not save too much for a late sprint.
For many club rowers, this may need adapting. A developing crew may not be able to red-line a pair for 2,000 metres without falling apart. But the principle still matters:
Do not let the boat drift into comfort and then hope to rescue it later.
Steering the Pair
Joachim steered with his right foot.
He is not dramatic about it:
“It’s nothing crazy.”
His main practical point is that the boat turns more when it has less speed.
“You got to get the boat off the start.”
That matters especially in a pair. A pair has limited stability and limited spare speed. Bad steering costs heavily.
Joachim’s advice is blunt:
“Don’t hit buoys.”
There is a deeper point under the humour. Steering should be good enough that it does not become the story. The best steering is not heroic. It is quiet, early and minimally disruptive.
Gearing and Equipment
Joachim says their Olympic pair setup was fairly standard:
“376 length with like 116 inboard.”
He describes it as:
“on the heavier side, but nothing crazy.”
They both used the same gearing. He does not suggest there was a secret rigging trick.
“There was no sauce there.”
That is useful. At the top level, equipment matters, but the decisive issue was not a mysterious rig. It was the way they rowed the boat together.
For club rowers, the lesson is not to ignore rigging, but not to hide behind it either. Once the setup is sensible, the pair is mostly about rhythm, trust, communication and repeatability.
What Club Rowers Can Learn From Joachim
Most of us will never row a pair at Olympic level. But Joachim’s principles transfer directly.
1. Build the floor
Do not only chase perfect strokes. Make the average outing better.
2. Decide who sets the frame
Do not leave rhythm leadership vague.
3. Make togetherness the priority
“Everything can be fast, as long as it’s done together.”
4. Communicate without blame
The pair punishes ego.
5. Use calls to solve real problems
Do not call for a push because the plan says so. Call because the rhythm or speed needs it.
6. Be aggressive without being crude
The pair rewards commitment, not panic.
7. Respect the recovery
Patience and quickness can coexist.
Key Takeaways
The pair changes every day, which makes patience essential.
A good pair raises its “bottom level,” not just its peak performance.
Partnership requires communication and emotional control.
One athlete may set the frame while the other matches.
Togetherness matters more than individual technical preference.
Aggression and technique are not opposites.
Race calls should restore rhythm and boat speed.
Steering should be quiet, early and unremarkable.
Sensible equipment matters, but there is “no sauce” without the crew making it work.
Related Complete Rowing Podcast Episodes
This article is based primarily on:
Episode 31: How to Row a Pair — Joachim Sutton
Related listening:
Episode 14: An Introduction to Joachim Sutton, Olympian
Episode 88: The Best Seat in the Boat — Axel Beutelmann
Episode 67: The Coxswain — Whitney Powell
Episode 28: Race Preparation and Execution — Tom Bishop
Episode 53: Preparing for Race Courses and Conditions — Tom Bishop
Listen to the full conversations at CompleteRowing.com.
