News

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Dear Rowperfect community

Welcome to another year of Rowing (and training) perfectly.  We were reminded at the ARA conference that only perfect practice makes perfect!  Nice words to support our mission to sell products that lead to improved technical excellence in rowing, sculling and coaching for clubs, athletes and coaches in the UK.

The Rowperfect Seminar will be on the night before the Eights Head in London (Friday 30th March) and we are delighted that Jim Flood will lead an interactive workshop on “The Skill of Coaching”.  More details are below and on the website.  Please can you help us to publicise it by circulating this notice around your club’s email list?

We have launched a blog on the website news page.  Here you can comment on articles and start ‘conversations’ with other coaches and athletes about the topics we write about.  We are keen to become a useful learning resource and so all articles are categorized for easy reference.  Categories include coaching, equipment and testing.

Please let us know what you think of the new design and any improvements you’d like.

Rebecca Caroe and Grant Craies, Rowperfect UK
 

Coaching – Achieving the best results possible: Rowperfect Seminar 2007

Rowperfect UK is keen to support improved technical excellence in rowing, sculling and coaching for clubs, athletes and coaches in the UK.  Each year we host a seminar for the purpose of coach education.  Past speakers have included Harry Mahon, Martin McElroy, Paul Thompson, Rosie Mayglothling, and in 2006, Duncan Holland.  The seminar slides are published after each event. 
This workshop is about two things; the knowledge and communications skills of the coach and how to ‘balance the boat’ so that the best possible results can be achieved.

In order to achieve this, a skilled coach has to be able to educate crews and individuals (shape their knowledge to each individual rather than the individual to the coaches knowledge) rather than the coach retaining power and control which limits the achievements of the athletes and may prevent them achieving their potential.  Effective communication skills in the coach enables this process to begin.
Then a coach must know the techniques required plus the process of implementing them.  A coach must also know how to develop the best teams/crews possible with the skills available.

Broad aims:
This will be an interactive workshop to explore the ways in which communication between coach and crews can be improved. It will introduce techniques for analysing lack of progress and in particular, suggest ideas for achieving rapid results with beginners and improvers.

Learning outcomes:
At the end of the session, participants should be able to:

• Analyse how they communicate with crews and have new techniques to try out with the aim of improving this aspect of their coaching
• Understand the way in which feelings can be created by using words and how to use this technique when coaching
• Try out some practical communication methods to enable beginners and improvers to make quicker progress
• Understand the possibilities and limitations of athletes and crews participating in the coaching process
• Handling troublesome individuals

Venue is:

Kings College School Boathouse,
Putney Embankment. 

Starting:

7 pm and running until 9 pm;
Friday 30th March, 2007. 

To book a place email us.  The entry fee is payable on the door of £5 to cover costs.  Last year we ‘sold out’ and so please do reserve your place.

Rowperfect News Blog

You have probably all heard about “Blogs” or Web-logs as online journals or newspapers.  Here at Rowperfect we have made our news page on the website into a blog.  This means that instead of just reading our news – you have the opportunity to talk back and start a conversation with us and other readers.

When you read a news item on the blog, below it are the word “Comment” or “No Comment” in blue type.  Click this and a new page opens with a form which you can use to write your comment and send it to us.  This will be published on the blog so that others can see what you think and whether you agree or disagree.   

You can subscribe to receive the blog news as it is written by hitting the RSS Feed button which will add it to your bookmarks.
The button is bottom right of this page under the Categories list.  Or if you have a Bloglines, Google or Yahoo account you can click the relevant button and have it delivered to your account direct.  We hope that this will make the news section a place you will want to come back to more regularly and will use as a resource and information source for your own coaching and rowing.  

There are quite a lot of people writing about rowing, sculling, coaching and race results online in the form of blogs.  If you are interested in finding the addresses of more of them – drop us a line and we’ll write about it in the blog so that everyone can see where to find interesting people writing interesting stuff about our sport online.

New Rowperfect Design

There has been a lot of correspondence about the new Rowperfect design.  Photos are on the news page and we hope that the first models will be delivered to the UK after Easter. 
A line drawing of the new Rowperfect Indoor Sculler model.

Indoor Rowing Tanks

Several clubs have approached us to ask about the Durham Boat designed indoor rowing and sculling tanks.  We wrote an article showing photos of a tank being installed and got these very prescient questions from a prospective customer.I was wondering how the tank is designed.

I for instance noted the V shape on the bottom of the tank. I assume this is to assist the two opposite waterflows to be separated from each other?

I was wondering how the problem of sculling vs sweep rowing is solved in this tank. Since sculls of course are much shorter than sweeps, the place of the blade in the tank is different.

I read on the Durham BC site that special tank-oars and sculls are used. I was also wondering whether the proportions of the tank are the same as rowing in a boat (thus about 30 cm of 'overlap' of the oar for sweep rowing) and the same angles of catch and finish as in the boat.

And whether it is possible to also use big blade-shaped oars, since these have a very different catch (next to their overall behaviour in the water).

Durham Boat have written some answers… but you’ll have to go to the News article  for the full detail. 

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The new Coxmate SCT has been out and about being tested by clubs around the UK.

Alex Henshilwood at Eton College wrote with some great questions and we got answers from the manufacturer which are reproduced below.

I've used the Coxmate (very Aussie name, mate) and have the following comments:

• excellent functionality, "cover" readings are especially useful
• computer down-load fast and easy to operate, great graphs and the split facility is very good
• it looks rather "Heath Robinson" in construction - is it a prototype?

A few issues:

• I have not used the supplied impeller, preferring to use an NK one.
• Calibration very easy, and the impeller from NK is considerably better than the Coxmate version
• The mic lead look rather flimsy and thin, so am not sure about durability when submitted to the "boy test"
• Does the SC T have a built in radio, and how might this work (channel etc) if so?

Finally, really like it and would like to know how much two would cost without speakers.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to test drive it, and I hope that we can find some money!

Alex Henshilwood, Coach, Eton College Boat Club

Coxmate's reply

Some answers to your questions from Peter Hodson the manufacturer. 

1. 'Heath Robinson'!: It is not a 'production' one - I built this one, and production ones are 'cleaner', but not sure if this would change his impression. We tend to put function ahead of appearance, and in some areas this doesn't help aesthetics. The production ones will have moulded lug for wrist strap with same wrist strap used on SRT. This looks better.
2. Quite happy for him to use NK impeller, as long as he uses SCT. We are doing a fair bit of work on impeller as you know - making a very tiny one.  But, Alex, if you are using the impeller positioned under the cox / stroke seat you won't get much data on the software about the stroke profile per stroke.  To get that (more accurate) data, you need to position the impeller up in the bows - this is because of the boundary layer and the data distortions you get further to the stern.
3. Mic Lead: This cable has a steel inner and is much stronger in tension than regular coax. The only mic cable problems we have ever seen was where the mic cable went into cable gland - the compression of gland causing the braid to fail. However we don't have gland any more - and no compression failure point. The connector is filled with epoxy, and would take a lot to pull it off.
4. Radio: We have radio option for Australia, but unfortunately Europe has different frequencies, so we can't sell it in Europe. We did consider modifying this option for Europe, but the advent of cheap radios has made it unlikely.

Alex has gleaned a lot about the SCT from one outing - pretty good. Already he has seen some of 'the light' of the SC/SCT, and he could get some real benefit from it.  He likes the 'cover' display, wait until he appreciates the speed 'ratio', this has more to offer. It would be fantastic to have him using it regularly. I'd be interested in more feedback from him.

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Since we published the news item with the photographs of an indoor rowing tank being installed, we have had quite a lot of interest.

Here are some questions from a prospective tank customer which may be of interest to more people.  And the answers we received from Durham Boat are below.

I was wondering how the tank is designed.

I noted the V shape on the bottom of the tank. I assume this is to assist the two opposite waterflows to be separated from each other?

I was wondering how the problem of sculling vs sweep rowing is solved in this tank. Since sculls of course are much shorter than sweeps, the place of the blade in the tank is different. I read on the Durham Boat website that special tank-oars and sculls are used. 

I was also wondering whether the proportions of the tank are the same as rowing in a boat (thus about 30 cm of 'overlap' of the oar for sweep rowing) and the same angles of catch and finish as in the boat. 

And whether it is possible to also use bigblade-shaped oars, since these have a very different catch (next to their overall behaviour in the water). 

Durham Boat's answers

In answer to your questions about the tank design:  The tank has a peak that directs the water flow, but allows spill over from one side to the other to keep the depth equalized.  The design is based upon minimizing the volume of water to be pushed around the tank and having as little friction as possible with the smooth surface and rounded corners. 

One of the keys to keeping the water volume down was done by scaling the sweep oars down in size.  Many historical tanks use a full-sized sweep oar and have a much deeper tank.  As a consequence, it takes so much energy and the load is too heavy.  What happens is that blades are cut down or made with a wire outline.  As the blade area is reduced the resistance is less, but less energy is imparted into the tank to move the water.

Because we are attempting to move as much water as we can, Durham Boat tanks have a sweep oar that is made with a scull shaft and full sized scull blade with a special sweep handle that will fit into a scull shaft. 

In tank rigging to get the lightest load, you have to get the blade tip as close the outside wall to get into the fastest water. This is counter-intuitive to most of our coaches.  They are used to shortening the oar length to lighten the load.  Another way some of our customers adjust load is with water height and by rowing all 8-sweeps on one side from time to time.  The tank has great versatility.

Most of our customers find it too much trouble to change the spread (span) when going from sweep to sculling and will optimize their rig on one or the other.  To get the most out of the tank, the proper method is to move the pins wider for sculling.  When customers are interested in doing this we have provided a plate with two holes to allow spread/span adjustment.

Our customers are supplied with Macon shaped blades for both sweep and sculling (the sculling blades are cut-down).  I think that a narrower blade works best with our design constraint to keep water depth and total water volume at a minimum.  We could do a hatchet blade and would have to cut down the inner part of blade and use our narrowest hatchet (Little Big Blade).  Also we would have to increase the shaft length. 

There are differences in tank rowing, just as there are differences in erg rowing.  However our customers find that it is the best off season teaching tool for improving blade skills and blade work, which is the limiting factor in getting one up to speed on the water. 

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Stuart Ward, the ARA Honorary Safety Advisor, met Rowperfect at the ARA conference last month. 

He agreed to accept a pair of MK1 sculling oarlocks as a demonstration pair to try out in the Yorkshire Region where he coaches.

We await his verdict eagerly. 

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Xeno Muller is visiting rowing clubs around the USA in this wonderful looking bus. 

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Two Rowperfects were bought by Burton Leander RC.  We had an enthusiastic phone call with the Captain after they took delivery.

Here's what he said… 

"I've only been rowing for 22 years and I think the Rowperfect is fantastic.  It's better than the C2 sliders - we have eight of them.  Once you got on; straight away it felt better.  But once we linked it to the computer it blew me away!

We are getting people fitter than they've ever been. They weren't getting the return from the river work and now we can get them on a machine to show them how to put the work down to move a boat.  Once they can see it on the computer (you can explain it until you're blue in the face) they are grasping what we've been coaching for the past two years."

Austin Roe, Captain, Burton Leander Rowing Club

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Rpw : Rowperfect for Windows Update (January 2007)

• How do I … ?
• Recording, and then what?
• Release Notes

Hi everyone,

again some small fixes this time. As usual, the full release notes can be found below.

You can download the software from the following URL

http://www.row-ware.com/rpw/1-0-4-0/

You can also obtain the latest version at any time, by sending an e-mail to get-rpw@row-ware.com  (subject and message body are not relevant). This will result in an autoreply mail being sent back within 10 minutes, with the installer of the latest version of Rowperfect for Windows attached as a ZIP file.

Rpw will only record data when connected to a MkIV monitor, or a re-programmed PC interface. This implies that upgrading from CARE/DOS to Rpw means getting your current PC interface re-programmed. Please contact your local Rowperfect agent for details, or contact Rowperfect Pty Ltd in Australia (info@rowperfect.com.au).

To try Rpw with older (non-re-programmed) interfaces, please obtain the Rowperfect for Windows TRIAL version by sending an e-mail to get-rpwt@row-ware.com  (note the extra "t").

# How do I … ? —————————————————–
This months question:

Q. My old laptop seems to hang when doing long sessions with Rpw. Can
    anything be done about it?

A. Long sessions means accumulating lots of data. As Rpw stores all
    parameters of all strokes in a session, after 20 minutes (or even
    less, depending on computer hardware) the PC runs out of memory and
    processor power. There are 2 ways to prevent this to happen, aside
    from the obvious "don't do long sessions"
    1. Switch of the Strokedata chart in the Row window, by right-
       clicking it.
    2. Add a line to the INI file limiting the number of strokes
       visible in this chart (see release notes). All data will still
       be stored, but only the last x strokes will be visible during
       the session.

# Recording, and then what? ——————————————
Simple question: why should I record all this data for every stroke in the first place?
Simple answer: to analyse your work, real time (during the training
session) or off-line (when done), and thus monitoring performance, progress and athletes compatibility. With Rpw, you can analyse 2 files at the same time. To do a thorough analysis of larger amounts of data, try SEAN : Session Analysis.  See http://www.row-ware.com/ for details on SEAN.

# Release Notes ——————————————————

Version 1.0.4.0 - January 9, 2007
* Support for reading MkIV files has been added. Now, MKS (Session),
   MKR (Strokes) and MKI (User settings) files can be read. These files
   are generated by MkIV monitors with software version 0.32 and later.

Version 1.0.3.1 - November 5, 2006
* Right-clicking on the charts in the Row window was not possible when
   they had been set to "Empty" and the programme was re-started. This
   has been fixed.
* Running the programme on older hardware, with limited processor
   and/or memory capacity, could result in badly updated charts in the
   Row window, especially with long sessions (20 minutes and more). To
   address this, users can switch off the data chart on the right by
   right-clicking it, and selecting "Empty". Alternatively, one can
   setup the programme to just show the last x strokes, in stead of the
   whole training session. To do so, add a line "DataRange=x" in the
   INI file in the [Row] section, where X denotes the number of strokes
   to plot. The minimum is 5, meaning "always show at most the last 5
   strokes".

Version 1.0.3.0 - July 30, 2006
* Some small fixes in the Manual have been made.
* Right-clicking on the training sessions list in any of the analysis
   windows will show a pop-up menu to (de-)activate the selected
   session and to set the chart properties. The same parameters can be
   set by either (un-)ticking the check box, or double clicking the
   line.
* When connected to an old-style PC interface, an obscure error
   message was displayed (the so called "protocol error"). This has
   been improved.
* The date limitation on Rpw, which used to be approximately two months,
   has been removed. From now on, the software does not expire any
   more.
   Please note: Rpw Trial still DOES expire after a couple of months
   trial period.

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This is a message from the Womens Eights Head of the River Race Charity Partner, Breast Cancer Haven  

Dear All Crews,

As you may know the Women's Eights Head of the River Race
will again be supporting Breast Cancer Haven by asking all teams taking part to
raise funds for the charity.

Last year teams raised over £10,000, and this year we are
hoping to smash that target. Many of the crews set up Just Giving websites at www.justgiving.com
and got sponsorship from friends and families. Some of you held pink parties,
raffles and competitions to raise your funds. There were many other fantastic
ideas, and this year we are hoping you will feel even more inspired in creating
ways to raise money.

You can download a fundraising pack by visiting www.breastcancerhaven.org.uk/events
 and selecting the Women's Eights heading.
Alternatively email me your address and I will send a pack out, or even call me
on 020 7384 0024 to discuss your idea. The best way to collect your funds is
through Just Giving, which sends all donations directly to the charity, so set
up your crews fundraising website now at www.justgiving.com . Every team that raises
over £30 will be entered into a prize draw with the chance of winning the star
prize of the new design Rowperfect Rowing Simulator and a runner up prize of 8
Magik Oarlocks for your boat.

With 1 in 9 women being affected by breast cancer it is a
cause close to so many people's hearts, and every penny you raise will make a
difference to the lives of those affected. For more information on the charity
please visit www.breastcancerhaven.org.uk

Kind Regards,

Maggie Hitchins

Events

Breast Cancer Haven, Effie Road, London, SW6 1TB

020 7384 0024

To find out more about the work of Breast Cancer Haven,
and our upcoming events, please visit www.breastcancerhaven.org.uk/events  Breast
Cancer Haven is a national charity supporting anyone affected by breast cancer.

Registered Charity No. 1061726

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