Rigging for Race Pace
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This video shows how rowing an eight at a race pace is completely different from rowing at a steady state.
It is essential to know how the boat changes to adjust your rigging, technique or both. |
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Video Transcript
The bow of a racing 8 is a lot further out of the water at the catch than when the same boat is at paddling speed this varies with from boat to boat and to something that you need to be aware of in particular the bow, two and maybe the three person need to understand that it's going to be harder for them to get their catch in when the boat's at speed than it is when it's paddling you can alternatively investigate rigging the change out so for example if you're heading out to a race then it may be worthwhile considering dropping the bow, two and three gates by a centimeter or so in order to make it easier for the athletes to be able to get the catch in you may find it makes a significant difference to the overall speed of the boat a few items that you need to be aware of though is that whilst the bow does rise a significant amount in an 8 it is dependent on a number of particular factors the boat size is important a smaller boat will not rise in the bow anywhere near as much a slower boat will not rise as much the weight of the crew will influence how it works and the placement of the particular crew within the boat depending on their weight will also have an impact the speed of the boat is the most important part it's less significant with less powerful crews and arguably with smaller boats so the amount of movement in the bow is is significant and can make it quite difficult for the bow person in a boat to get their blade in the effect on the stern of the boat is not as significant however there is a small impact but nothing that we would consider is worth trying to change the boat balances in approximately the center of the boat somewhere about the seat four five or six depending on the design of the boat and the weight distribution of the crew so here we're going to have a close look at an eight rowing at just a paddling pace without any real power on and you can see what happens to the bow on the stern and then we have the same eight in the same session at a race pace so essentially rowing as fast as they could and you'll see a marked difference in the way that the bow lifts out of the water at the catch and so let's look at it more closely and i suggest take this information and use it with your own crews to try and improve their performance during a race i suggest that whilst it doesn't apply to a single it will apply to pairs to a small extent and doubles and moving through to an eight where it has a significant impact so certainly worth being aware of so here we have the name of the boat in close up and as you can see the blue part of the n on the name is about six centimeters tall if we look at the stern you can see the top two stripes from the bottom of the second stripe to the deck is about three centimeters so now if we analyze the footage that we've got you'll be able to see clearly how much the boat moves when under speed so here we have the boat paddling light and here we have the boat at the catch when the power's on in a race position so if we zoom in on that you can see that paddling light the bottom of the end is approximately the same level as the water the finish you can see that the water level is about a centimeter below the top of the end
so we've got a movement there of about five centimeters
from finish through to the catch now if you look at the stern of the boat you can see that the difference is not quite so dramatic but there is still movement there if we look at the catch position here you can see that the deck of the boat at the catch is approximately six centimeters above the water line if we go through to the finish paddling light you can see that it's about 10 centimeters so i've got a difference of about four centimeters so reasonably even from bow to stern when paddling light however when we look at it at race pace you can see significant differences so here we have the same crew now rowing at race pace you can see the boat pivoting around the people sitting in about the five or six seat so now let's look at the bow again so now we see that the bow at the catch is about further six centimeters higher so the bottom of the of the N is about six centimeters above the water level and if we look at the finish position you can see that at the finish position that's about one centimeter above the water level so it's dropped about a centimeter down from what it was before
the difference there between those two measurements is about 13 centimeters very significant amount of height at that point if we look at the stern you can see whilst the vision's a bit hazy if you look at it carefully you can see that at the catch the stern of the boat is about six centimeters above the water line very similar to paddling light and at the finish the same exercise it's about 10 centimeters above the water line again very similar to what it was when you're paddling light so if you think about it from the bow person's perspective about two maybe three a little bit whilst the bow seat is not sitting over the name so the bow seat is not seven centimeters higher than it was when paddling light but if you look at where the blade is the blade is not that far from it which means that there's a significant amount of extra technique changes that need to be undertaken by the bow and the two person to make sure that they can get that blade into the water and execute a clean catch because the amount of travel that is required by the handle in order to get the blade into the water is significantly more than it is when you're paddling light so it's important to make sure that the athletes understand and can deal with this change in dynamic an alternative solution to assist in this may well be to drop the rigger on race day so bow two and maybe three would be to drop their rigger a centimeter or so be a little careful because as you would have observed the difference in the finish position between paddling and racing is not as significant as the difference between the catch position when racing and paddling therefore you'll find that if you drop the riggers too much you may find that the bow person ends up with some difficulty in extracting the oar at the finish so depends on the speed of the boat depends on the athletes depends on the type of boat depends on a number of things so please observe your own boat and see how you can best improve the catch for the bow and see if you can get faster times as a result
so we've got a movement there of about five centimeters
from finish through to the catch now if you look at the stern of the boat you can see that the difference is not quite so dramatic but there is still movement there if we look at the catch position here you can see that the deck of the boat at the catch is approximately six centimeters above the water line if we go through to the finish paddling light you can see that it's about 10 centimeters so i've got a difference of about four centimeters so reasonably even from bow to stern when paddling light however when we look at it at race pace you can see significant differences so here we have the same crew now rowing at race pace you can see the boat pivoting around the people sitting in about the five or six seat so now let's look at the bow again so now we see that the bow at the catch is about further six centimeters higher so the bottom of the of the N is about six centimeters above the water level and if we look at the finish position you can see that at the finish position that's about one centimeter above the water level so it's dropped about a centimeter down from what it was before
the difference there between those two measurements is about 13 centimeters very significant amount of height at that point if we look at the stern you can see whilst the vision's a bit hazy if you look at it carefully you can see that at the catch the stern of the boat is about six centimeters above the water line very similar to paddling light and at the finish the same exercise it's about 10 centimeters above the water line again very similar to what it was when you're paddling light so if you think about it from the bow person's perspective about two maybe three a little bit whilst the bow seat is not sitting over the name so the bow seat is not seven centimeters higher than it was when paddling light but if you look at where the blade is the blade is not that far from it which means that there's a significant amount of extra technique changes that need to be undertaken by the bow and the two person to make sure that they can get that blade into the water and execute a clean catch because the amount of travel that is required by the handle in order to get the blade into the water is significantly more than it is when you're paddling light so it's important to make sure that the athletes understand and can deal with this change in dynamic an alternative solution to assist in this may well be to drop the rigger on race day so bow two and maybe three would be to drop their rigger a centimeter or so be a little careful because as you would have observed the difference in the finish position between paddling and racing is not as significant as the difference between the catch position when racing and paddling therefore you'll find that if you drop the riggers too much you may find that the bow person ends up with some difficulty in extracting the oar at the finish so depends on the speed of the boat depends on the athletes depends on the type of boat depends on a number of things so please observe your own boat and see how you can best improve the catch for the bow and see if you can get faster times as a result