Category: Video of the Week

Ergs Technique Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Analyzing power curves on an RP3

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Hopefully you guys aren’t completely sick of me posting stuff about force curves yet because I came across another video that talks about what different curves mean relative to your individual technique. Even though these were captured on one of the RowPerfects, the same general idea still applies to the Concept2s so it’s worth watching if you find this stuff interesting like I do. The team now has eight of these RP3s so I’ve been trying to brush up on all this stuff so I can familiarize the coxswains with it as we start using them more regularly in the winter.

If you didn’t get a chance to check out the RP3s at HOCR, I posted a picture of the screens (which are actually Acer tablets about the size of a Kindle) on the team’s Instagram that you can see here.

Rowing Technique Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Physics of boat acceleration for rowing shells

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I know a 20 minute long video on physics probably doesn’t sound that interesting but it’s actually pretty informative and really well put together. (And, considering it was put together by a rower who also happens to be a physics professor, you know what’s in here is legit.) If you haven’t taken physics in school yet then some of the concepts might be a little over your head but once you hear her explain them in the context of rowing, they start to make a bit more sense.

If you’ve ever heard your coach mention force curves or you want to know how to read them, she explains that here, except instead of using an erg she uses actual video of her and her brother rowing in a double to point out where each of the major points of the stroke are and how they’re translated onto the force curve.  She also mentions how they could improve certain parts of their stroke based off of the data she got from the force curve. I think this section of the video is the most helpful because once you know and understand what each part of the graph means you can then use that knowledge to evaluate your own stroke if you’re in a single or your crew’s collective stroke if you’re in a bigger boat. Keep in mind though that this is one of those things that’s easy to “fall down the rabbit hole” with. It’s cool and can definitely give you a lot of good info but if you’re a novice high school crew, you’re not gonna get much from it. It could be a fun to mess around with though during your winter/spring training trip if you’re a top level junior or collegiate crew though.

The app she used is CrewNerd (iOS/Android), which essentially turns your phone into a SpeedCoach for the much-easier-to-justify price of $50. (I used to have the free version on my phone that I’d use on occasion if I wanted to get a rough idea of our splits but didn’t have my SpeedCoach with me. It works the same as the paid version but stops displaying data after 100 strokes or 5 minutes. If you want unlimited use of it for 30 days it costs $1.99.) Once you’ve completed a workout you can pull it up in the “history” tab and export the data from there.

Coxing Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: River tour of the Head of the Schuylkill course

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If you’re new to the Schuylkill, check out this video that goes through the course and points out all the relevant landmarks and points along the race.

Related: Navigating the Schuylkill River (Philadelphia, PA)

Also check out the post linked above that I did last year that gives some additional insight into the river, bridges, etc.

How To Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Adjusting your foot stretchers

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Adjusting your foot stretchers seems like it’d be a really simply thing to do – and it is – but without fail someone always manages to just completely screw it up and either rip out the entire footplate, lose a wing nut, or both (and 50% of the time one or both of those things happen when you’re on the water.) The most important thing to remember is to not remove the wing nuts when you loosen them – just keep them on the bolts and only loosen them as much as you need to in order to move the stretchers.

Related: Adjusting the seat tracks

Varsity rowers and coxswains, this would be something worth going over with the new novices on your team if it’s not something your coach hasn’t already mentioned or shown them.

High School Rowing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: “The most important thing about rowing to take away from this documentary is that it’s not kayaking.”

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We’ve all done the junior rowing thing (or are doing it now) so none of this is new to us but for someone who might be new to the sport I think this is would definitely be one of the better videos to show them if you’re trying to explain what rowing is (and isn’t).