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Archive for the 'Rowperfect' Category

Tensioning Elastic Bungee in a Rowperfect

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

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We had an enquiry from a customer about how to improve the recoil tension on the chain / elastic.

I have just moved and re-assembled my rowperfect.  The chain return is very slow.  How should I proceed in correcting this.
 
Regards
John Swift

Here is how to do it yourself.

  1. Take the main frame part of the RP off the bar.
  2. Turn it upside down and look at the bottom part between the foot stretcher rests where you can see inside.  There is a small horizontal bar around which the ends of the elastic bungee are wrapped.
  3. Using a curled wire (coat hanger) hook out the two ends of the elastic so they are outside the main frame. 
  4. Using a pair of pliers, take hold of the end of the elastic and pull it firmly towards you.  The looping is designed to grip back onto itself.  And so if the elastic tension is weak, you can pull a longer end out while still leaving the loop intact. 
  5. Pull out the other side so it is symmetrical and the tail ends are the same length.
  6. Cut off the surplus elastic and tuck the ends back inside the main frame.
  7. Replace main frame on bar.
  8. Row (perfect).
  9. Repeat until tension is as you desire.

Having said all that, it is good practice for a frequently-used RP to replace the elastic about once every 1-2 years.  When we service RP in the UK we nearly always replace the elastic.

Now, replacing the elastic is a tricky job and best left to the local agent. 

 

Secondhand Rowperfects for sale

Friday, October 5th, 2007

Are you interested in a second hand rowperfect rowing simulator?  Here are two possibilities:

This is a bit of a long-shot for most people based in the UK….. but given the strength of the £ versus US$ I thought I’d let you know about this one.


There's an Ebay auction on now for a Rowperfect indoor rower.  Located in Margate City, New Jersey, USA.
Opening bid is US$ 1,000.

Now if you were VERY KEEN, you could buy it, find a nice local to take it to the Head of the Charles in Boston next weekend and get one of the many British Crews to bring it home (hand luggage excess) for you….  
Auction ends  Oct-11-07 07:06:54 PDT

I also have a second hand Rowperfect with an interface for sale here in the UK.  £600 plus shipping £50 to UK addresses.
This has a bar that has been repaired with two welds (but it works fine) it has an interface and DOS software,
It has been serviced by us and has had new bearings throughout.

Please use the contact form to express interest.

North Staffordshire RC go detective!

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

Thanks to Terry Reid of North Staffordshire RC who has undertaken a load of detective work in order to get to try out a Rowperfect near his hom e!

We started at the Staffordshire University who had bought one for their sports science lab - but found it had been sold in an inter-club deal.  And Burton Leander RC came to the rescue!

Thanks to everyone for their generosity of time and inclination. We are very grateful for club., coaches and athletes who take the time to show off equipment they bougt from us to interested parties.

if you want to try something, ask us - we keep a good database of who has bought what over the years and can probably introduce you …. 

Applying British Rowing Technique

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007

Just had a call from Philip Mann of Thames Rowing Club.  He was keen to learn about the 'ideal' force curve on a Rowperfect indoor rower.

I referred him to the Articles page of the website where there are two useful documents.  They are at the bottom of the page under Articles About Rowperfect

"Applying British Rowing Technique" was a workshop Rowperfect UK ran for the ARA when they did a tour of the British regions during 2005 illustrating the new technique that they wanted club coaches to be teaching. 

This slide deck takes each part of the stroke cycle and suggests drills and exercises for teaching it.  There are also illustrative force curves showing good and less good technique.  

The second document is a detailed list of the drills and exercises and how to teach them - a useful check-list. 

More RSR discussion on Rowperfect

Monday, September 17th, 2007

Link to discussion thread here 

Rowperfect discussed on RSR and Row South Africa

Monday, September 10th, 2007

Thread from a couple of days ago….

And another interesting page from the Row South Africa site written by Mark Shuttleworth on Harry Mahon's use of the RP while coaching the Sydney Olympic Eight. 

Setting a target 2k time for RP

Sunday, September 2nd, 2007

Michael Hawkins has responded to the post about Juri Jaanson

Dear Rebecca,

Can you tell me how to do this calculation, please?

I've read the article and it was all superscripts, subscripts and Greek to me.

Regards,
Michael Hawkins.

 And so here is my reply.

Yes, here is how I would do the calculation:

1.  Set up the RP to your weight to the nearest kg (accurate) and boat class
Set the displays to show joules, time, rating and 500m split
Set the resistance to as close as possible the same feel as your boat rig gearing

Do a 2k test on the RP.  Record your session and all the data is in there.

2.  Take your target gold medal 2k time
Work out the 500m splits you need to achieve the 2k time

3.  Then you have to do a bit of experimentation.
Say you normally rate 34 in a race.  Do a short piece at race pace output of say 500m at rate 34.  Save the session and afterwards review it stroke by stroke and watch what the joules reading was for each stroke.  Take a view on what the average joules per stroke was.  [Joules is a very accurate measure and can change a lot stroke by stroke].

Let's say you can do 600 joules per stroke average.  This is the amount of energy you put into a single stroke.  If at rate 34 your 600 joules gives you a 500m split reading that is on target for your 2k time then you know that as long as you can deliver this amount of energy, you will achieve your target.

If the 500m split you achieve is too slow to achieve your target time, you will need to make some changes.  Assuming 600 joules is the maximum energy per stroke output you can achieve right now (and with training you may be able to increase it), then your only option, if you want to achieve the gold target time, is to do more strokes.  When you rate higher, you put the same amount of energy into more strokes per minute.  And so if you can do more strokes, your total energy will be higher and will deliver a faster boat speed and you can reduce the 500m split.

If you can't maintain the 600 joules target, you may need to reduce your gearing making it easier or accept that you cannot put this amount of energy in per stroke and so assume that you need to do more strokes.

4.  So re-do the 500m training piece and this tie rate 36.  See what the readings change to and whether you are closer to achieving the 500m splits you desire.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have a view on the approximate rating and target joules per stroke you can achieve.

5.  Integrate the joules display into every RP session you do, whether it is steady state or pieces.  Learn about your ability to deliver energy into each stroke.  When on the water, try to make a similar assessment and make the boat feel like you are delivering 600 Joules per stroke as if you were on RP.

As your skill improves and you learn what 600 joules feels like in the boat, start seeing whether you can increase the energy delivery without disrupting the run of the boat and creating wobbles.  When you can deliver 600 joules 230 times at race pace (i.e. the likely total number of strokes in a 2k race) then try and increase your target speed / split / joules and train to that new target.
 

Rowperfect group now on Facebook

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

There is a group called "Rowperfect" on Facebook. 

Join it to receive news on the new Indoor Sculler…. fast as you like! 

If you are new to Facebook, you have to register on the site before you can see individual groups. 

Rowperfect Force Curves

Wednesday, August 15th, 2007

A group of international athletes has provided us with sample curves of their technique when training on the Rowperfect.

Here is a zipped file from which you can download them.  Most are from the DOS software and a couple are from Rowperfect for Windows software (RPW).

RP Stroke Files

the athletes include:

  • Mahe Drysdale (Hwt Man)
  • Sarah Winckless (Hwt Woman)
  • Tracey Langlands (Lwt Woman)
  • Vaclav Chalupa (Hwt Man)
  • Teresa Mas de Xaxars (Lwt Woman)
  • Greg Searle (Hwt Man)
  • Karin Scanlon (Lwt Woman)

THese can be uploadedinto the RPW software to form a template against which you can do your own training…. And if you find that you aren't (quite) as strong as Mahe, you can use the Stroker Programme in DOS to re-size the curve to fit your own capabilities.  e.g. reduce overall length by 15% and reduce overall height by 20%.

Juri Jaanson training on Rowperfect

Thursday, August 9th, 2007

You will have seen the recent success of the Estonian 2x at the World Cup Regattas.  Juri Jaanson the Olympic silver medallist at Athens in 1x is in this boat.

Juri is a long time Rowperfect user. and used it to calculate his gold medal time and target splits in his preparation for Athens.  They calculated the joules output required per stroke to achieve the target splits and so if you watch the Athens 1x final, you will see Juri rates about 36 down most of the course and produces near-flat splits throughout.  [Ask us if you want to know how to do this calculation for yourself].

Now he is training with his doubles partner on linked Rowperfects….. and it seems to be having the desired results.

His training has been studied by a goup of sports science researchers and they have published the findings in Sports Medicine Magazine.

The article is by: Jarek Maestu, Jaak Jurimae, Toivo Jurimae

Monitoring of Performance and Training in Rowing;

Sports Medicine 2005, vol 37 (7) page 587-617.