While watching a regatta it is not unusual to see one crew almost effortlessly pass another. Then in an almost futile attempt to prolong the inevitable, the now losing crew will lift their stroke rate to only to see their losing margin widen. It’s obvious the stroke rate alone has little to do with boat speed.
“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”
- H. James Harrington
Don’t Count Every Stroke!
To date, the only measurement easily obtained by coaches, coxswains and rowing crews has been Stroke Rate. If you take the time to consider everything that contribute to boat speed, you will quickly realise that stroke rate is only one of many factors that contribute to boat speed. In fact, focusing on increasing stroke rate in the absence of stroke length and force can have the unfortunate and often dramatic effect of decreasing boat speed.
Make every stroke count
Boat speed is determined by a combination of, efficiency, stroke length, strength or force, crew timing, technique and stroke rate.
Finding extra boat speed and creating a winning margin comes from making small changes in every stroke. As an example, increasing the length of the stroke, improving the catch, applying the pressure evenly and drawing each stroke right through to the finish can each contribute significantly towards building the wining margin. Bad technique done quickly simply makes defeat harder to accept.
Introducing Intelligate®
After many years of research and development, Oar Inspired is poised to offer the ultimate in real-time rowing telemetry, providing easy to understand statistics on every crew member in the boat. Our advanced Intelligate® technology measures blade angle, force and depth and provide real time easy to understand measurements that ensures that whilst either training or racing you don’t count every stroke, but make every stroke count.