Effective Length - Rowing Training vs Racing
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Many rowers and coaches accept that rowing technique often changes between training and racing. Generally speaking, we learn that athletes tend to row shorter when racing than in training.
In this video, Lachlan explores this concept and compares the effective length of his rowers' strokes during both training and race pieces. |
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Video Transcript
Okay so today we're going to be having a look at a bit of footage and what i really want to look at is the difference between effective arc at steady state rowing and effective arc at race pace rowing so i've got my crew here to do 20 strokes at steady state rowing then 20 strokes at race pace rowing and i really just want to measure when the blade gets connected to when it stops being effective in the water and compare that between steady state and race pace for both athletes typically we're told that people tend to shorten up during racing and row a bit longer during training but uh but yeah i think it really depends on the athlete and so we'll have a look at this video and and see what it turns out like
so they're probably about midway through their uh their first piece here so let's have a look and see what the the arc is what the effective arc is so looking for the point of connection so basically when this blade gets buried under the water you can sort of see it disappearing there so yeah if you have a little bit of a look it's for the bow person it's about there that it actually gets into the water so how far someone gets forward so the maximum catch angle is nowhere near as effective as nowhere near as useful as knowing when they get connected so it's really important that you look at the effective stroke length instead of the uh the total stroke length for example so basically setting the zero degree mark so we measure off the perpendicular for catch angle and so the catch angle here where we got 24 20 23 degrees so about person catch angle of 23 degrees so ideally you want a catch angle effective catch angle of much greater than that something around 65 to 70 degrees for maximum catch angle then minus about 6 to 10 for the effective catch angle so ideally being buried by 60 to 55 degrees something like that so 23 degrees is quite a fair way off uh what our goal would be so let's just have a look at the uh the finish angle now so again measure our 90 degrees so that'll set our zero point and then we measure the angle of the ore just as it starts to become ineffective so just before that feathering motion it's really stopping driving the boat so we've got 30 degrees there so that's a total effective arc of 53 degrees for the bow person at steady state rowing
and so typically you want to have your uh your finish angle around 40 45 degrees even and you probably want to try and keep the slip to a minimum there too probably around a bit more than the catch around 15 degrees for what they call the wash angle if you if you're doing um using an empower oarlock things like that all right so let's have a look at the catch angle of the the stroke person so we've got 23 degrees there exactly the same as the bow i wasn't expecting that but um yeah so exactly the same catch angle and coming through the finish having a look at where that blade starts to feather
and
find our zero point again
and measure off there and we've got 32 30
yeah it's over 30 degrees so uh so yeah that's exactly the same as the bow person so both have catch angles of 23 degrees when the blade gets connected and when it becomes not connected anymore is about 30 degrees so 53 degrees total arc effective for both rowers so let's let them finish off their little steady state piece that they're doing and we'll move to the racing piece and and have a look and see what changes we can see in our length
so both of them are rowing relatively short really around the catch especially
so i'd be very surprised if they rowed shorter than that
all right you can sort of see them moving into their race pace here the um the rating hasn't increased a lot but you can see that especially with the blade work it's become a little bit more messy there's a little bit more water being thrown around and there's definitely a lot more intent moving the boat so let's have a look at the catch angle of the bow person
interestingly enough you can see that the stroke person is getting a large catch angle but not getting the blade in the water quickly enough and therefore the effective catch angle is very similar to the bow persons here as you can see
so measured zero degrees and we've got 30 degrees of the catch for the bow person so that's actually seven degrees more than what they had at steady state at the catch so i got a bit more length of the catch there maybe um coming into the front a little bit quicker and it's just sort of increased the stretch and yeah maximized that catch position the effective catch connection point um so looking here to the finish so setting our zero degree marker
and then measuring what the finish angle is so we're looking at 26 26 degrees so the 26 degrees that's uh that's 4 less than what they had at steady state rowing so they've got a total arc though of effective arc of 56 degrees so that's three degrees more than what they had at steady state so they actually increased their effective effective angle arc in the water what they're doing the water to move the boat at a high at a higher rate and a more intent through the water so the boat's going to be much much faster just because of those those two things combined so let's have a look at the stroke person all right you can see that the bow side blade went in quite a lot earlier there i reckon that they they went over to one side over the bow side so let's have a look at this stroke here instead it looks a bit better probably a bit more representative so have a look at the uh the effective catch angle here
so we're looking at about 38 39 so 39 degrees so yeah before it was 23 degrees so it's quite a large improvement in the catch angle for the stroke person so they're getting a lot further out of the catch and getting that blade placed in the water a lot more effectively than they were at a low rate
so tend to lengthen out a bit um yeah quite a lot more angle and let's have a look at the finish so typically the finish position is are very similar between uh between high rating and low rating and so it's often the catch that that has the biggest change in effective angle sometimes it's um not putting the blade in quickly enough and so you get a decrease in the effective arc and you know in this case you can see that they've actually increased their stroke by by coming out to the catch and placing the blade a bit quicker so yeah it's a bit of a bit different to what we're used to hearing about and so the finish angle there 32 degrees before they had 30 degrees so very similar effective tap out point uh that they've got there but that's a that's a total of uh 71 degrees so um 18 degrees difference between uh racing so 18 degrees longer during race pace than it is during the uh than the steady state rowing so it's it's kind of the opposite of what we've been taught to expect but i have a theory that it's probably the elite people that can row say 120 one 130 degrees when they're rowing at steady state and when they race they come back to 110 105 degrees something like that and then for the more novice and you know beginner athletes uh the ones who struggle to place their blade in the water and get good length the timing that sort of thing i feel like it's they're more likely to actually increase their uh increase their effective length at race pace than they do at rowing city state and that's certainly the case for my crew here so it's important to remember that athletes are individuals and just because uh the elites will row shorter at racing than they do it in training doesn't mean that that's necessarily the case for for all levels of of athletes so another example of where you have to be a little bit careful when trying to apply principles for elite athletes to to beginner crews
so they're probably about midway through their uh their first piece here so let's have a look and see what the the arc is what the effective arc is so looking for the point of connection so basically when this blade gets buried under the water you can sort of see it disappearing there so yeah if you have a little bit of a look it's for the bow person it's about there that it actually gets into the water so how far someone gets forward so the maximum catch angle is nowhere near as effective as nowhere near as useful as knowing when they get connected so it's really important that you look at the effective stroke length instead of the uh the total stroke length for example so basically setting the zero degree mark so we measure off the perpendicular for catch angle and so the catch angle here where we got 24 20 23 degrees so about person catch angle of 23 degrees so ideally you want a catch angle effective catch angle of much greater than that something around 65 to 70 degrees for maximum catch angle then minus about 6 to 10 for the effective catch angle so ideally being buried by 60 to 55 degrees something like that so 23 degrees is quite a fair way off uh what our goal would be so let's just have a look at the uh the finish angle now so again measure our 90 degrees so that'll set our zero point and then we measure the angle of the ore just as it starts to become ineffective so just before that feathering motion it's really stopping driving the boat so we've got 30 degrees there so that's a total effective arc of 53 degrees for the bow person at steady state rowing
and so typically you want to have your uh your finish angle around 40 45 degrees even and you probably want to try and keep the slip to a minimum there too probably around a bit more than the catch around 15 degrees for what they call the wash angle if you if you're doing um using an empower oarlock things like that all right so let's have a look at the catch angle of the the stroke person so we've got 23 degrees there exactly the same as the bow i wasn't expecting that but um yeah so exactly the same catch angle and coming through the finish having a look at where that blade starts to feather
and
find our zero point again
and measure off there and we've got 32 30
yeah it's over 30 degrees so uh so yeah that's exactly the same as the bow person so both have catch angles of 23 degrees when the blade gets connected and when it becomes not connected anymore is about 30 degrees so 53 degrees total arc effective for both rowers so let's let them finish off their little steady state piece that they're doing and we'll move to the racing piece and and have a look and see what changes we can see in our length
so both of them are rowing relatively short really around the catch especially
so i'd be very surprised if they rowed shorter than that
all right you can sort of see them moving into their race pace here the um the rating hasn't increased a lot but you can see that especially with the blade work it's become a little bit more messy there's a little bit more water being thrown around and there's definitely a lot more intent moving the boat so let's have a look at the catch angle of the bow person
interestingly enough you can see that the stroke person is getting a large catch angle but not getting the blade in the water quickly enough and therefore the effective catch angle is very similar to the bow persons here as you can see
so measured zero degrees and we've got 30 degrees of the catch for the bow person so that's actually seven degrees more than what they had at steady state at the catch so i got a bit more length of the catch there maybe um coming into the front a little bit quicker and it's just sort of increased the stretch and yeah maximized that catch position the effective catch connection point um so looking here to the finish so setting our zero degree marker
and then measuring what the finish angle is so we're looking at 26 26 degrees so the 26 degrees that's uh that's 4 less than what they had at steady state rowing so they've got a total arc though of effective arc of 56 degrees so that's three degrees more than what they had at steady state so they actually increased their effective effective angle arc in the water what they're doing the water to move the boat at a high at a higher rate and a more intent through the water so the boat's going to be much much faster just because of those those two things combined so let's have a look at the stroke person all right you can see that the bow side blade went in quite a lot earlier there i reckon that they they went over to one side over the bow side so let's have a look at this stroke here instead it looks a bit better probably a bit more representative so have a look at the uh the effective catch angle here
so we're looking at about 38 39 so 39 degrees so yeah before it was 23 degrees so it's quite a large improvement in the catch angle for the stroke person so they're getting a lot further out of the catch and getting that blade placed in the water a lot more effectively than they were at a low rate
so tend to lengthen out a bit um yeah quite a lot more angle and let's have a look at the finish so typically the finish position is are very similar between uh between high rating and low rating and so it's often the catch that that has the biggest change in effective angle sometimes it's um not putting the blade in quickly enough and so you get a decrease in the effective arc and you know in this case you can see that they've actually increased their stroke by by coming out to the catch and placing the blade a bit quicker so yeah it's a bit of a bit different to what we're used to hearing about and so the finish angle there 32 degrees before they had 30 degrees so very similar effective tap out point uh that they've got there but that's a that's a total of uh 71 degrees so um 18 degrees difference between uh racing so 18 degrees longer during race pace than it is during the uh than the steady state rowing so it's it's kind of the opposite of what we've been taught to expect but i have a theory that it's probably the elite people that can row say 120 one 130 degrees when they're rowing at steady state and when they race they come back to 110 105 degrees something like that and then for the more novice and you know beginner athletes uh the ones who struggle to place their blade in the water and get good length the timing that sort of thing i feel like it's they're more likely to actually increase their uh increase their effective length at race pace than they do at rowing city state and that's certainly the case for my crew here so it's important to remember that athletes are individuals and just because uh the elites will row shorter at racing than they do it in training doesn't mean that that's necessarily the case for for all levels of of athletes so another example of where you have to be a little bit careful when trying to apply principles for elite athletes to to beginner crews