Mike Crowe asked: Should one's feet lift off the plate during the rowing action? I'm strapped in and if I don't lift my heels off the plate, I won't go forward far enough for the catch.Terry O'Neill: You don't say what model machine you are on. The model B has a fixed wooden foot plate whereas a model C has a plastic flexifoot that allows the heels to rise but remain in the heel trap. But whatever, the heels do rise at the beginning of the stroke. In fact you use this to time the drive. As you feel the heels rise, the weight moves up to the balls of the feet and at this point the pressure on the feet is acting as a brake. When you reach the end of your forward travel you build the pressure on the footplate to change direction and drive the flywheel round.