Rowperfect weight adjustment question

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We recieved this question from Nick Panza, coach at Yale University.

We use the rowperfects a lot at my university and I had a few questions about them.

My primary question revolves around being able to enter different weights and how that affects your splits, watts, power on the screen, if it does at all.

For example, over a 2000m piece, if someone who actually weighs 75kilos and enters 75kilos averages a 1:25.0 split for the piece….if he did the same piece with the same settings but changed his weight to 70kilos, would his split be a lot faster? Does the weight adjust the split or anything else? Thanks very much for your reply.

Nick Panza

Our reply

The algorithm behind the RP software works like this.The power (joules / watts) you pull is an absolute measure. If you pull 500 joules and I pull the same it is the same number and totally unadjusted for our respective body weights.

BUT the athletes body weight and the boat class affect the 500m split score because this is a derived number

To answer your question about the 75 / 70kg athlete. Yes he would go faster at 70 kg as the computer assumes he is carrying the weight of his boat plus his body mass. If the body mass is lower the score improves for the same amount of power exerted.

I did a test of this once while training alongside a Lwt lady who was about 10kgs lighter than me (thanks Marjan!). I tried to pull the same watts score as her. When I did (approximately) my 500m split was about 8 seconds slower than hers. Which proves the point.

I attach a document detailing a re-verification of the algorithm done by Casper Rekers which I think youll find interesting reading! It still holds true from original 1991 data to today!

Rowperfect algorithm

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This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Mike

    Way to many broken links…..

  2. rebecca

    Mike

    Thanks for alerting me to the broken link. It is now fixed and you can download the algorithm article written by Cas Rekers.

    We are very grateful for people like you who take the time to tell us about things like this.

    Best
    Rebecca

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