Coach Thrasher
Wake Analysis
There are some really neat pictures of the predicted wave action of a women's heavyweight 8+ traveling at various speeds at the Cyberiad website.
It's interesting that as speed increases, the rowers near the stern may be catching/releasing in a wave trough or crest. I think this would take more skill to adapt to the variation in waves if you sat in the stern 4. Does that mean we should put more skilled rowers in the stern?
I've always thought that bow pair and stern pair should be the most skilled in the boat since they can impart an axial flex in the boat with bad technique that propogates down the boat until it's dampened out. This isn't to say that the engine room has no skill (hey, I usually row at 6!), but a flop/crab/etc by them seems to affect the boat's set less. So should we put more skill at stern 4, and novice at bow pair to avoid wave action variations?
Posted at 01:33PM Apr 28, 2006 by jason in Rowing | Comments[1]
We've been emphasizing keeping bow pair rowers with excellent technique. Our novice coach gave that a try over spring break with great success. I've worked this concept into our Varsity/JV program. It also helps us maneuver in the case of rivers freighters and tugs. The boats are setting up a lot better this year than in previous years.
If only we had an indoor rowing venue to replicate the exact same conditions from race to race and conduct some real experiments...
Posted by Kevin Dahlhausen on May 02, 2006 at 05:58 AM PDT #