Stroke (position)

In rowing, the stroke is the rower seated closest to the stern of the boat.

A good stroke will lead a team by bringing the best out of every rower in the boat.

The rower at the opposite end of the boat is referred to as bow.

Dudley Storey, double Olympic medallist for New Zealand and later the country's national coach, describes the required qualities of a stroke as follows:[1] You'd like them to be a person who is half mad, who love to go, love to fight and love to be amongst it all the time and can instil some of their qualities into the people behind.Stroke side refers to the port side of the boat, which is on the left-hand side of a cox facing forwards, but on the right-hand side of a rower facing backwards.

The usage derives from the tradition of having the stroke rower's oar be on the port side of the boat.

In this picture of a coxless pair in the drive part of a "stroke", the rower on the right of the photo and closest to the stern of the boat is the "stroke" rower and is rowing "strokeside" or "port"