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Handle Drag Factor |
Handle Drag Factor HDF was introduced as a measure of rowing “heaviness”- a “burden factor” of sorts. Bigger rowers produce higher power and also have higher drag, so higher HDF. Every 1 deg longer catch angle and 1 cm longer outboard increased HDF by about 1.5 units. Front-loaded drive feels faster and lighter; subsequently more power towards the finish makes the drive heavier. Many coaches are still looking for some “magic” rigging numbers and believe that tiny changes in oar length make a significant difference. However, results of this study show that catch angles and power application make similar or even more significant effects on stroke mechanics, rower’s feelings, drive time and stroke rate. |
11/02/2020 |
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Review on blade propulsive efficiency |
Blade efficiency is very popular topic in rowing community discussions, and opinions are still quite controversial. Some factors have an opposite effect on the blade and rower’s efficiencies, and attempts to increase the former may decrease the latter and therefore decrease overall rowing efficiency. the blade propulsive efficiency and drag factor could be used for evaluation of the equipment quality and rower’s oar handling skills, but for the best rowing performance, other components of the system must be taken into account to find an optimal balance. |
24/12/2019 |
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Experimental evaluation of four types of 2x hulls |
In November, a biomechanical comparison was conducted to determine the hull efficiency of several different boats. The method came in the form of two-boat side-by-side trials, which eliminated the effect of weather conditions, based on the assumption that the wind speed and direction were the same for both boats. It was found that the new WinTech hull gives about 1% (3.7s over 2k) advantage over the old WinTech hull, 0.11% (0.4s) advantage over Empacher, and about 2,5% (9.3s) advantage over Filippi hull. |
09/12/2019 |
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Trends and prognostic rowing speeds |
Random nature of the weather and lack of information about wind during World regattas make trends of rowing speed quite difficult to analyse. It is possible to say that within a small degree of probability, average rowing speed grows about 0.06% per year, which means the average race is about 2s faster every 10 years. The fastest growth was found in W8+ 0.43s per year and the slowest - in W4x 0.02s per year. |
18/11/2019 |
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Stretcher force and seat movement |
The seat movement can be used as an adequate indication of the stretcher force during the recovery. It indicates synchronisation of rowers’ interactions through the stretcher before and at the catch, which is important for effective crew dynamics. Better synchronisation of the seat movement before and at the catch is related to the optimal pattern of boat acceleration and more effective dynamics of the crew during the drive. |
15/10/2019 |
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Analysis of results of Worlds-2019 in Linz |
The weather in Linz made the general growth of the speed lower (0.29% per year) than after the previous year’s fast Worlds in Plovdiv. It looks like the rapid increase of racing stroke rates from 2017-18 has gone down. More than half of the winners in Olympic events (8 out of 14) won with a lower stroke rate than their competitors, which means they got an advantage because of higher effective Work per Stroke. |
17/09/2019 |
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Longitudinal study of rowing technique |
So far this year, Danish single sculler Sverri Nielsen has been the most successful in the M1x: he has won two regattas out of three and took overall first place in the World Cup series. I’ve been working with Sverri since 2014, and it was very interesting to see how his progress in ranking at World regattas and increasing boat speed are related to changes in his rowing technique. |
19/08/2019 |
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“Catch through the stretcher” technique |
Since the publication of my book, “Biomechanics of Rowing”, several readers have posed questions where the common query was my “catch through the stretcher” concept. Our experience proved that learning this technique early on could be very effective. |
04/07/2019 |
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Further analysis of kinetic energy |
Some crews maintain nearly constant ratio of kinetic energy to measured work per stroke at all stroke rates, but others decrease it at higher rates down to zero and even to negative values. The new method should be perfected to work with all types of rowing techniques, or abandoned. |
16/06/2019 |
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New method of kinetic energy evaluation |
A new method of kinetic energy evaluation was recently developed, which is quite simple and requires only the boat velocity, oar angle and seat position data. It was found that about two thirds of the drag energy is spent during the recovery, and only one third during the drive. the new method produces quite reasonable values for kinetic energy, even without force measurements. |
05/05/2019 |
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