Short and Tall rowers, 8 concepts, 5 strategies
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In this video, Ken Davey highlights 8 concepts and 5 strategies that are essential when rigging a boat for short or tall rowers.
Short and tall athletes require different approaches when it comes to setting up the boat. Without these changes, individual athletes and the crew can't reach their full potential. |
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Video Transcript
a question I often get asked about is
about how do you fit different people in
a boat if you've got tall people and
short people and putting them in the
same boat now let's be quite clear the
fact that you're tall with long levers
does give you some advantage in rowing a
boat but in most cases particularly in
the junior ranks and the school it
doesn't mean as much as you might think
what's most important is being able to
row a boat well right with good rhythm not
upset the boat and you find you get good
speed out of that if you think about why
this is so in a single why there's not
much difference if you have a 60 kilo
person rowing a boat and the boat weighs
14 kilos then the difference
is so great between the way to the boat
in the weight of the person that the
influence of the body weight is is more
important than than size essentially
than height if they use their body in
the incorrect way then they're going to
find they get a poor outcome and indeed
a big person in a boat has more capacity
to slow a boat down in a crew boat than
a small person does if you picture a
very big heavy weight crew if they come
into the front and appropriately and
have a much bigger checking effect on
that boat than a light weight crew for
example so size weight they're not that
super important for beginners one of the
problems though is how do you fit them
in a boat together and particularly
with school children is
you'll find that often you'll get some
that are really quite tall
in the same year group in some that are
quite small and that may in fact only be
a transient thing that give them two or
three years and they've caught up to
each other or changed so so it's you
often find you get large height
differences in athletes in a boat so the
critical step really is to make sure
that all of them are comfortable in the
boat so if you've got a tall athlete in
the boat they're likely to need to have
a greater feet to see height and indeed
if they're less flexible they are likely to
have a greater seat two feet height
whereas a smaller athlete a shorter
athlete may find it should be that it's
a lot less distance in the feet to seat
so what are suggest you do is make sure
they're all comfortable they can all get
to the catch position at the same time
at the
correct posture with their shins
vertical and they fit well on the boat
and it's comfortable for them to row
because if it's not comfortable for them
to row then you're going to get poor
outcomes in any case second thing to do
is if you've got large differences in
height then what I suggest to do if
you're using if you've got a number of
crews using a number of boats
I'd suggest set one seat in the boat or
two depending on how many athletes
you've got of different sizes so that
it'll little cater for the larger or the
smaller athlete the things you're likely
to have to change is seat two feet
height often shoe size and quite often
the gate height because a tall person is
going to have to have the gates higher
in order to have the handle of the
oar that sternum level and the blade
in the water at the correct depth so
I'd adjust those not to choose a seat
maybe the two seat three seat and I'd
set that so that it suits the taller
person so when your swapping and crews
around you can say well a tall person
always goes in seat number three because
then it's a lot easier than having to
rerig boats or worse have the crews and
the athletes have uncomfortable row
because they don't fit the boat so I'd
suggest get that that fixed first then
if you're in a boat where you're likely
to have the same people in the boat all
the time or indeed in the previous
example where you've always got a tall person
in the three seat and you can change the
rig so that it fits one of the problems
with tall people versus short people in
a boat is that the angles in the water
are quite different you'll find that
with a shorter person the arc is going
to be less than someone who's tall the
arc is going to be longer and you want
to try and match them up a little bit
the simplest way to do it is to just
move the gates so you move the gate to
out if you've got a tall person and move
them in if you've got a shorter person
so you may find in a sculling
environment for example you may have one
athlete rowing with a span of 162 and
you might have another athlete growing
on 158 the shorter athlete 158 tall the
athlete 162 you'll find their arcs are
the same a really good way to match a
crew up so that you get everyone with a
similar arc and similar power profile
the problem tho and you need to be very
mindful of this is that by changing that
you're changing the gearing quite
significantly
so you need to change the oars as well
and so I suggest get our gearing app new
boat we chose and and available on the
App Store for Apple and use that or use
the formula itself just to calculate
what the oar should be so if you're
going to move the pins out and get a
wider span then you're going to need to
have a longer oar a longer oar by itself
if you don't get the
inboard/outboard adjustment correct is
going to generally mean a heavier
workload and you probably don't want to
do that you want to have the workload to
be very similar through the boat in most
cases and so you need to adjust the oar
in order to get the same workload so
have a longer or and I'll have more inboard but the gearing will be about the
same same with the shorter person if
you're going to move the pins in a
little bit tighter 158cm in a sculling
environment then you might want to
change the oar length you will need to change the
oar length in so they end up with a shorter oar
but they've got a shorter inboard as
well so the the the gearing should be
okay in a sweep boat it's exactly the
same just it's only one oar of course and
you might find that you have some of the
athletes rowing on 83 from the center line
to the to the pin and you might have
some athletes that are on 87 again
matches the angles up and it's important
the problem of course if you're in a
club school environment where everyone's
using the same boats is it's difficult
to make those adjustments without
upsetting the other crews and to make
those sort of adjustments where you
adjust both the span and the oars every
time your row is going to be frustrating
for everybody so I'd suggest don't do it
for that environment just put up with
the differences but if you do have the
opportunity and you've got a relatively
consistent that there's one tall person
every time in a boat and then I'd
suggest rig a seat so that it's set for
a tall person which may even include
different oars for them and a wider span
and if you've got a crew that you have a
number of shorter people in it then you
may do the same opposite have a narrow
span and a shorter oar to suit so I think
it's worth we're thinking about that in
order for everyone to have a comfortable
row and to get the best outcomes
so to fit tall people and shorter
people in a boat that's the way to do it
from a technical rigging perspective
there are other things you can do and
I'd be careful with some of these tho
if you've got a short person if they
tend to lean back further then that's
going to give them some extra length and
that's useful and indeed I'd suggest
that you do that whereas a tall person
because they're already got their blade
a long way around towards the stern of
the boat they don't really need to lean
back much further so unless you've
changed the arc a lot then I'd suggest
have the shorter person tend to lean
back more and I'll have the the taller
person sit a little bit more vertical
because you're going to get a good
outcome that way second thing to be very
mindful of if you have an athlete that's
got really long arms at all
athlete with long arms then make sure
that they don't sacrifice their length
in order to try and fit in you're much
better to rig it out than to get them to
sacrifice thier length because if they're
sacrificing their length then you're
actually wasting part of the power of
the stroke so you want to make sure that
they don't sacrifice their length and
shorten up in fact what it tends to do
if you leave them rowing long is it'll
tend to make the shorter people have to
try to row a little bit longer so I'd
suggest short people have them lean back
a little further and have the taller
people sit a bit taller and make sure
that the longer people the taller and
longer arm people that they use their
full length all the time when they're
rowing and put them in positions in the
boat seating in the boat so that they're
tending to lead and so then what that'll
mean is that the unless they're not good
at that role of course but then you'll
find that the shorter people will tend
to make sure they get their full length
which won't match them of course but
they'll try to get their full length and
then if you rig out the difference that's
a result of that you'll find you're
likely to get a faster boat so shorter
people and taller people don't think it
necessarily makes a boat fast but if
you put them together carefully like
we've just discussed then you're likely
to get a more harmonious boat it'll feel
better and it'll go better
about how do you fit different people in
a boat if you've got tall people and
short people and putting them in the
same boat now let's be quite clear the
fact that you're tall with long levers
does give you some advantage in rowing a
boat but in most cases particularly in
the junior ranks and the school it
doesn't mean as much as you might think
what's most important is being able to
row a boat well right with good rhythm not
upset the boat and you find you get good
speed out of that if you think about why
this is so in a single why there's not
much difference if you have a 60 kilo
person rowing a boat and the boat weighs
14 kilos then the difference
is so great between the way to the boat
in the weight of the person that the
influence of the body weight is is more
important than than size essentially
than height if they use their body in
the incorrect way then they're going to
find they get a poor outcome and indeed
a big person in a boat has more capacity
to slow a boat down in a crew boat than
a small person does if you picture a
very big heavy weight crew if they come
into the front and appropriately and
have a much bigger checking effect on
that boat than a light weight crew for
example so size weight they're not that
super important for beginners one of the
problems though is how do you fit them
in a boat together and particularly
with school children is
you'll find that often you'll get some
that are really quite tall
in the same year group in some that are
quite small and that may in fact only be
a transient thing that give them two or
three years and they've caught up to
each other or changed so so it's you
often find you get large height
differences in athletes in a boat so the
critical step really is to make sure
that all of them are comfortable in the
boat so if you've got a tall athlete in
the boat they're likely to need to have
a greater feet to see height and indeed
if they're less flexible they are likely to
have a greater seat two feet height
whereas a smaller athlete a shorter
athlete may find it should be that it's
a lot less distance in the feet to seat
so what are suggest you do is make sure
they're all comfortable they can all get
to the catch position at the same time
at the
correct posture with their shins
vertical and they fit well on the boat
and it's comfortable for them to row
because if it's not comfortable for them
to row then you're going to get poor
outcomes in any case second thing to do
is if you've got large differences in
height then what I suggest to do if
you're using if you've got a number of
crews using a number of boats
I'd suggest set one seat in the boat or
two depending on how many athletes
you've got of different sizes so that
it'll little cater for the larger or the
smaller athlete the things you're likely
to have to change is seat two feet
height often shoe size and quite often
the gate height because a tall person is
going to have to have the gates higher
in order to have the handle of the
oar that sternum level and the blade
in the water at the correct depth so
I'd adjust those not to choose a seat
maybe the two seat three seat and I'd
set that so that it suits the taller
person so when your swapping and crews
around you can say well a tall person
always goes in seat number three because
then it's a lot easier than having to
rerig boats or worse have the crews and
the athletes have uncomfortable row
because they don't fit the boat so I'd
suggest get that that fixed first then
if you're in a boat where you're likely
to have the same people in the boat all
the time or indeed in the previous
example where you've always got a tall person
in the three seat and you can change the
rig so that it fits one of the problems
with tall people versus short people in
a boat is that the angles in the water
are quite different you'll find that
with a shorter person the arc is going
to be less than someone who's tall the
arc is going to be longer and you want
to try and match them up a little bit
the simplest way to do it is to just
move the gates so you move the gate to
out if you've got a tall person and move
them in if you've got a shorter person
so you may find in a sculling
environment for example you may have one
athlete rowing with a span of 162 and
you might have another athlete growing
on 158 the shorter athlete 158 tall the
athlete 162 you'll find their arcs are
the same a really good way to match a
crew up so that you get everyone with a
similar arc and similar power profile
the problem tho and you need to be very
mindful of this is that by changing that
you're changing the gearing quite
significantly
so you need to change the oars as well
and so I suggest get our gearing app new
boat we chose and and available on the
App Store for Apple and use that or use
the formula itself just to calculate
what the oar should be so if you're
going to move the pins out and get a
wider span then you're going to need to
have a longer oar a longer oar by itself
if you don't get the
inboard/outboard adjustment correct is
going to generally mean a heavier
workload and you probably don't want to
do that you want to have the workload to
be very similar through the boat in most
cases and so you need to adjust the oar
in order to get the same workload so
have a longer or and I'll have more inboard but the gearing will be about the
same same with the shorter person if
you're going to move the pins in a
little bit tighter 158cm in a sculling
environment then you might want to
change the oar length you will need to change the
oar length in so they end up with a shorter oar
but they've got a shorter inboard as
well so the the the gearing should be
okay in a sweep boat it's exactly the
same just it's only one oar of course and
you might find that you have some of the
athletes rowing on 83 from the center line
to the to the pin and you might have
some athletes that are on 87 again
matches the angles up and it's important
the problem of course if you're in a
club school environment where everyone's
using the same boats is it's difficult
to make those adjustments without
upsetting the other crews and to make
those sort of adjustments where you
adjust both the span and the oars every
time your row is going to be frustrating
for everybody so I'd suggest don't do it
for that environment just put up with
the differences but if you do have the
opportunity and you've got a relatively
consistent that there's one tall person
every time in a boat and then I'd
suggest rig a seat so that it's set for
a tall person which may even include
different oars for them and a wider span
and if you've got a crew that you have a
number of shorter people in it then you
may do the same opposite have a narrow
span and a shorter oar to suit so I think
it's worth we're thinking about that in
order for everyone to have a comfortable
row and to get the best outcomes
so to fit tall people and shorter
people in a boat that's the way to do it
from a technical rigging perspective
there are other things you can do and
I'd be careful with some of these tho
if you've got a short person if they
tend to lean back further then that's
going to give them some extra length and
that's useful and indeed I'd suggest
that you do that whereas a tall person
because they're already got their blade
a long way around towards the stern of
the boat they don't really need to lean
back much further so unless you've
changed the arc a lot then I'd suggest
have the shorter person tend to lean
back more and I'll have the the taller
person sit a little bit more vertical
because you're going to get a good
outcome that way second thing to be very
mindful of if you have an athlete that's
got really long arms at all
athlete with long arms then make sure
that they don't sacrifice their length
in order to try and fit in you're much
better to rig it out than to get them to
sacrifice thier length because if they're
sacrificing their length then you're
actually wasting part of the power of
the stroke so you want to make sure that
they don't sacrifice their length and
shorten up in fact what it tends to do
if you leave them rowing long is it'll
tend to make the shorter people have to
try to row a little bit longer so I'd
suggest short people have them lean back
a little further and have the taller
people sit a bit taller and make sure
that the longer people the taller and
longer arm people that they use their
full length all the time when they're
rowing and put them in positions in the
boat seating in the boat so that they're
tending to lead and so then what that'll
mean is that the unless they're not good
at that role of course but then you'll
find that the shorter people will tend
to make sure they get their full length
which won't match them of course but
they'll try to get their full length and
then if you rig out the difference that's
a result of that you'll find you're
likely to get a faster boat so shorter
people and taller people don't think it
necessarily makes a boat fast but if
you put them together carefully like
we've just discussed then you're likely
to get a more harmonious boat it'll feel
better and it'll go better